MAPLE
            Multi-Agent Planning and LEarning

Conference links: a web page with upcoming and potential conference deadlines and locations

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Research Interests and Projects

• VisARD: Visualizing dynamic relational models in complex domains (sponsored by ARDA)
• Developing methods for dynamic organization (combinatorial strategy selection and task allocation) in multi-agent systems
• Studying the effect of social graph structures on large-scale multi-agent systems
• Developing constraint satisfaction methods for planning and scheduling that take into account the cost of checking constraints
• Online and active learning methods for text classification
• Incorporating background knowledge into machine learning techniques
• Interactive methods for planning, scheduling, and machine learning
• Applying AI planning techniques to perform service composition for the Semantic Web
• Applying genetic algorithms to learning game playing strategies

Papers

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Students

Current students:

• Blazej Bulka (Ph.D. in progress). Research topic: Tools for bioinformatics.
Laurie Botto (B.A. expected December 2003). Research topic: Genetic algorithms for learning to play Hi-Q.
• Brandon Corfman (M.S. expected May 2004). Project topic: Dynamic constraints for travel planning.
• David Dalrymple (B.A. expected May 2005). Research topic: Constraint-based academic advising systems.
• Eric Eaton (B.A. May 2003, Ph.D. in progress). Research topic: Machine learning (online learning, active learning).
• Matt Gaston (M.S. May 2002, Ph.D. in progress). M.S. thesis title: Agent-based modeling and the effects of network structure on the dynamics of multi-agent social systems.
• Yan Hao (Ph.D. in progress). Research area: Multi-agent systems.
• Neeraj Kashyap (B.A. expected May 2004). Research topic: The effects of constraint graph structure on problem difficulty.
• Sowmya Ponuguti (M.S. expected December 2003). Project topic: Grouping of nominal values in decision tree learning.
• Priyang Rathod (M.S. expected May 2004). Thesis topic: Dynamic team formation in multi-agent systems.
• Mithun Sheshagiri (M.S. expected May 2004). Research topic: Abstractions and temporal persistence in hybrid planning systems.
• Mike Smith (Ph.D. in progress). Research topic: Modeling trust in multi-agent systems.
• Qianjun Xu (M.S. May 2003, Ph.D. in progress). M.S. thesis title: "Many features, little data: Feature selection for small data sets using probabilistic background knowledge." Research topics: Adaptive information retrieval techniques; incorporating qualitative knowledge into inductive learning; knowledge-based feature selection.
• Jim Weekley (Ph.D. in progress). Research area: Multi-agent systems.

Alumni:

• Joshua Barczak (B.A. May 2003). Currently a graduate student at UMBC working with Prof. Marc Olano.
• Mike Furr (B.A. May 2003). Currently a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park.
• Sohel Merchant (M.S. August 2003). Project topic: Bioinformatics data management. Currently working at Northwestern University.
• Csaba Rozgonyi (M.S. August 2003). Project topic: Genetic learning of control rules in reactive systems.
• Suryakant Sansare (M.S. August 2002). Thesis title: Incorporating constraint checking costs in constraint satisfaction problems
• Chad Sessions (former Ph.D. student). Moved to Florida, where he will hopefully resume his studies!
• Joshua Solomon (B.A. May 2003). Research topic: Temporal reasoning with non-controllable constraints.
• Xuanxuan Su (M.S. December 2002). Project title: Multi-resolution image processing for physical data. Current position (as of Spring 2003): Research specialist,Department of Neurology,University of Maryland School of Medicine.
• Tom Walsh (B.A. May 2003). Undergraduate research topic: The effects of graph density on team formation in multi-agent systems. Currently in the Ph.D. program at Rutgers University.
• Mitch White (B.A. expected May 2004). Research topic: Network structures and multi-agent systems.

Other students:

• Harry Chen (Ph.D. in progress; advisor Dr. Tim Finin). Thesis title: A broker-centric agent architecture for building distributed context-aware systems.
• Eleanor Chlan (Ph.D. in progress; advisor Dr. Penny Rheingans). Thesis topic: Tree metaphors for visualizing clustered data.
• Shailesh Doshi (Ph.D. in progress; M.S. December 2003; advisor Dr. Tim Oates). Thesis topic: Probabilistic graph grammars.
• Shari Holstege (M.S. expected May 2004). Thesis topic: Interactive exploration of the space of possible visualizations.
• Fang Huang (Ph.D. in progress; advisor Dr. Tim Oates).
• Gang Wu (Ph.D. in progress; advisor Dr. Steve Freeland (biology)). Thesis topic: bioinformatics/evolutionary biology.
• Youyoung Zou (Ph.D. in progress; advisor Dr. Tim Finin). Thesis title: Reasoning agents for the Semantic Web.
• Devina Desai (M.S. December 2002; advisor Dr. Tim Oates). Thesis title: Predicting patterns in multivariant time series using unsupervised learning.
• Kiri Wagstaff (Ph.D. Cornell University August 2002; advisor Dr. Claire Cardie). Thesis title: Intelligent clustering with instance-level constraints. Current position (as of Fall 2003): Research scientist, Space Systems, Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory.
• Russell Osborn (Mt. Hebron High School, June 2002). Research topic: Communication in multi-agent systems. Currently (as of Fall 2002) an undergraduate at Harvey Mudd College.
• Pratik Phadke (M.S. August 2001; advisor Dr. Penny Rheingans)

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Events

10:00 - 10:30	Marie desJardins, MAPLE research overview
10:30-12:00	STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: - Brandon Corfman - Matt Gaston - Sohel Merchant - Sowmya Ponuguti - Priyang Rathod - Mithun Sheshagiri - Joshua Solomon - Qianjun Xu

The MAPLE group also recently (June 2002) had a party: here are some pictures (one and two).