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Risto Miikkulainen

A More Efficient Future For Neural Network Systems

layers of wood representing layers of data

04/21/2023 - UT Computer Science Ph.D. Garrett Bingham’s research under Professor Risto Miikkulainen in smart automated machine learning has made significant steps toward more efficient neural network systems.

AAAI Selects UT Professor of Computer Science as a Fellow

UT Computer Science Professor Risto Miikkulainen

02/16/2023 - The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) has selected Risto Miikkulainen as one of 11 fellows for 2023. Founded in 1990, AAAI's Fellows Program seeks to highlight the individuals who contribute greatly to the field of AI. Miikkulainen was honored for "significant contributions to neuroevolution techniques and applications."

Using Neural Networks to Personalize Treatment for Bilingual Aphasia Patients

10/11/2021 - Bilingual aphasia is a language impairment to multilingual people acquired through some sort of injury, usually a stroke. Patterns of language impairment in multilingual stroke patients are very diverse. Sometimes language impairment affects all languages the person speaks equally, while other times it affects one language more than the other. The way in which a stroke affects a multilingual patient depends on many different variables such as when each language was learned, how frequently each one is used etc.

Artificial Intelligence Revs Up Evolution’s Clock (Audio)

Hyenas mobbing a lion

10/14/2020 - Evolutionary biologists never have enough time. Some of the most mysterious behaviors in the animal kingdom—like parenting—evolved over thousands of years, if not longer. Human lifespans are just too short to sit and observe such complex behaviors evolve. But computer scientists are beginning to offer clues by using artificial intelligence to simulate the life and death of thousands of generations of animals in a matter of hours or days. It's called computational evolution.

TXCS Researchers Design Evolutionary Algorithms for Neural Networks

Plot of the activation functions the researchers discovered

05/28/2020 - Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving field, with advancements occurring every day. While the idea of an artificial intelligence system may conjure images of an autonomous machine that rattles out facts like a hi-tech encyclopedia, complex AI exists only because a countless number of talented individuals dedicate their time toward refining these systems.

Using Machine Learning to Revolutionize the Future of Food Production

Basil plant in hydroponic growing lab.

04/19/2019 - Water, sunlight, nutrients—these ingredients are essential for plant growth. However, these basic ingredients don’t always yield the ideal plant. In fact, optimizing these variables is complicated, causing some plants to fall flat on flavor. Machine learning can help.

Risto Miikulainen Wins Gabor Award

Professor Risto Miikkulainen

12/15/2016 - Professor Risto Miikkulainen has won the 2017 Gabor Award from the International Neural Network Society (INNS), which recognizes the achievements of highly accomplished researchers in engineering applications of neural networks. Risto is on the forefront of neuroevolution—the evolution of neural networks using genetic algorithms.

A.I. Expert Weighs in on Historic Computer vs. Human Contest

03/09/2016 - AlphaGo, a program that plays what many consider the most difficult of board games, Go, has just won the first of five matches against the world's top human player. The series is scheduled to continue through March 12. Developed by Google's DeepMind subsidiary, AlphaGo has already beaten the European Go champion. A few days before the latest competition, we asked Risto Miikkulainen, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, for his thoughts on this historic contest.