[AI Seminar] Talk: Computational Sensorimotor Learning

[Chris Atkeson]

In addition to the talk on Monday morning,
> Learning deep representations for perception, reasoning, and decision-making
> Honglak Lee
> Monday, Feb 26, 10:00am, NSH 3305

we have an exciting talk on Tuesday morning:

SCS Faculty Candidate:�Pulkit Agrawal
Tuesday, February 27th 10:00am NSH3305

Host: Ryan Tibshirani

RI/CSD/ML

Computational Sensorimotor Learning

Abstract: An open question in artificial intelligence is how to endow
agents with common sense knowledge that humans naturally seem to
possess. A prominent theory in child development posits that human
infants gradually acquire such knowledge by the process of
experimentation. According to this theory, even the seemingly
frivolous play of infants is a manifestation of experiments conducted
by them to learn about their environment.�Inspired by this view of
biological sensorimotor learning, I will present my work on building
artificial agents that use the paradigm of experimentation to explore
and condense their experience into models that enable them to solve
new problems. I will discuss the effectiveness of my approach and
open issues using case studies of a robot learning to push objects,
manipulate ropes, finding its way in office environments and an agent
learning to play video games merely based on the incentive of
conducting experiments.

Bio:�Pulkit�is a Ph.D. Student in the department of computer science
at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder of SafelyYou Inc. He is advised by Dr.
Jitendra Malik and his research spans robotics, deep learning,
computer vision and computational neuroscience.�Pulkit�completed his
bachelors in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and was awarded
the Director's�Gold�Medal.�His work has appeared multiple times in
MIT�Tech�Review, Quanta, New Scientist, NYPost etc.�He is a 
recipient of Signatures Fellow Award, Fulbright Science and Technology 
Award, Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Award, OPJEMS, Sridhar Memorial 
Prize and IIT Kanpur's Academic Excellence Awards among
others.�Pulkit�holds a "Sangeet Prabhakar" (equivalent to bachelors
in Indian classical�music) and occasionally performs in
music�concerts.�