Started as Full Professor AI at VU
November 1
I've started as Full Professor Artificial Intelligence at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Looking forward to work together with my new colleagues!
My research is about making robots more social and able to interact with us more naturally. I use cognitive agent technology, and Dual Process Theory and the Systems 1 and 2 interpretation of Daniel Kahneman on human intuition and reasoning as a guideline for developing (engineering) socially-aware and socially interactive machines. The challenge is to design a Social Interaction Architecture (SIA) for a generic Personal Interactive Assistant (PIA)
The Hypothesis is that abstract 2-layered interaction architectures which symbolically represent interaction elements that humans have cognitive access to provides for increased re-usability and flexible interaction.
November 1
I've started as Full Professor Artificial Intelligence at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Looking forward to work together with my new colleagues!
September 28
Robot Sophia visited the Netherlands and NOS Journal did an item on her and an interview with me. You can read and view the item here.
July 25
Onze projecten met het Prinses Maxima Centrum en het Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei in het Jeugdjournaal. Je kunt het item hier terugkijken.
June 29
Mike, Mark and me received the best paper award for our paper Child-Robot Interaction: The Importance of Getting Acquainted at the New Friends Conference in Panama.
Primary Literature
I actively maintain an overview of My Publications on My ResearchGate profile. For impact (e.g., H-index, citations) of my research, check out My Google Scholar profile. I obtained My PhD Degree February 5, 2001, at 16:15 for My PhD Thesis Agent Programming Languages: Programming with Mental Models, which you can find here, from my supervisors John-Jules Ch. Meyer, Frank S. de Boer, and Wiebe van der Hoek.
I also keep track of My Academic Talks and Presentations (select the Presentation item to see an overview) on My ResearchGate profile.
I strongly believe that scientific research in computer science should also result in prototypes and software systems that can be reused in academy as well as in industry. You can find an overview of My Open Source Software projects on GitHub and Bitbucket. Check out My Cognitive Agent Programming Language GOAL for programming strategic decision making agents which we have used for controlling social robots and for creating bots for StarCraft. GOAL enables the programming of cognitive agents that derive their choice of action (decisions) from their beliefs and goals, similar to how we make practical decisions.
Storytelling, discussing, teaching, training
You can find the courses I teach and have taught on My ResearchGate profile. Looking for a MSc Thesis subject on cognitive agents, social robots, or social interaction with machines, in games, healthcare, or somewhere else, contact me here.
Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam
Department of Artificial Intelligence
Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
phone: +31 20 59 87763
Room T335