Gita Sukthankar

Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Charles N. Millican Faculty Fellow, College of Engineering & Computer Science Highlighted Faculty

Assistant Professor and Charles N. Millican Faculty Fellow
Computer Science (EECS)
At UCF since Aug 2007 (5 years)

Degrees:
Ph.D. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007
M.S. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2000
A.B. Psychology, Princeton University 1997

My research is in the design and creation of intelligent systems, specifically software agents, virtual characters in gaming/simulations, and robots. Although there are many desiderata for an intelligent system—the ability to plan deliberatively, learn from experience, and act autonomously—my research focuses on developing intelligent systems that anticipate and adapt to the actions of humans. This synergistic area of artificial intelligence research combines techniques from human-computer interaction, autonomous and multi-agent systems, and machine learning, which are covered in my graduate course, CAP 6671 Intelligent Systems. My undergraduate course, EGN 3060C Introduction to Robotics, focuses on the application of these ideas toward programming mobile robots.

I also research machine learning approaches for social computing and behavior modeling. Social computing harnesses the power of computational methods to analyze and model social behaviors in groups of humans. My research lab, the Intelligent Agents Lab (http://ial.eecs.ucf.edu), develops algorithms for link prediction and community structure detection within human social networks. Human networks often possess the property of homophily, an increased propensity for like-minded individuals to be connected, colloquially described with the phrase “birds of a feather flock together”.

Since arriving at UCF in 2007, I have received two prominent young investigator awards: NSF CAREER and Air Force Young Investigator. In 2009, I was selected as one of 12 recipients nationwide for the DARPA Computer Science Study Group based on my expertise in multi-agent systems. In 2011, I was named the program chair of AIIDE, the AAAI conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment (http://www.aiide.org/).

Contact Us

Linda Walters, Director of the UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty
Linda.Walters@ucf.edu

Phone: 407-823-1113

Mailing Address
Center for Success of Women Faculty
University of Central Florida
P.O. Box 160955
Orlando, FL 32816-0955

Physical Address
4365 Andromeda Loop N
Millican Hall, Suite 351
Orlando, FL 32816-1997

Internal Mail (UCF)
Center for Success of Women Faculty
MH 351
32816-0065