University of Southern Maine

Department of Computer Science (COS) Students Presenting and Competing at Research Conferences

International Competitions

• Ryan Small, advised by professor Clare Bates Congdon, won the 2009 Unreal Tournament competition at the Congress on Evolutionary Computation in Trondheim Norway in May 2009.
  • Read the story about Ryan and his work in the Lewiston Sun Journal, June 7, 2009.
• Alan Fitzgerald and Clare Bates Congdon came in third in the Ms. PacMan competition at the Congress on Evolutionary Computation in Trondheim Norway in May 2009.

We Won! USM Team Wins International Artificial Intelligence Competition, June 2008

• The team of Alan Fitzgerald, Peter Kemeraitis, and professor Clare Bates Congdon entered the Ms. Pac-Man competition at the World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Hong Kong, June 1-6 2008, and won, beating eleven other teams from around the world. (Official results online here; USM press release online here; Maine Public Radio interview by Keith Shortall online here.)
• Our agent scored 15900 points in the competition (25,520 is our high score overall). How well can you do? Give it a try on this online version (Java required).

Student Presentations at International Conferences

• "Agent Smith: An Evolutionary Agent for Interactive Dynamic Games", R. Small and C. B. Congdon. Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC-2009), Trondheim, Norway, May 2009 (paper and talk).
• "RAMP: A Rule-Based Agent for Ms. Pac-Man", A. Fitzgerald and C. B. Congdon. Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC-2009), Trondheim, Norway, May 2009 (paper and talk).

• "Agent Smith: a Real-Time Game-Playing Agent for Interactive Dynamic Games", Ryan Small, Undergraduate Workshop, Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Atlanta, GA, July 2008 (workshop paper, talk, and poster).
• "GAMI: Genetic Algorithms for Motif Inference", Rachel Teo and Junes Thete, Undergraduate Workshop, Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Atlanta, GA, July 2008 (talk and poster).
• "RAMP: A Rule-Based Agent for Ms. Pac-Man" A. Fitzgerald, P. Kemeraitis and C. B. Congdon. Ms. PacMan Competition, World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Hong Kong, May 2008 (workshop paper and competition).

Regional Conferences

• Talks: Friday, April 17th, 11:15-12:30, 403 Luther Bonney
  • Junes Thete, Rachel Teo, H. Rex Gaskins, Gerardo M. Nava, Carolyn Mattingly and Clare Bates Congdon
    The Search for Functional Elements in Noncoding DNA
    
  • Ryan Small and Clare Bates Congdon
    Agent Smith: a Real-Time Game-Playing Agent for Interactive Dynamic Games
    
  • Alan Fitzgerald and Clare Bates Congdon
    A Real -Time Agent That Learns How to Play Ms. PacMan
    
• Posters: Friday, April 17th, 9-11am, Sullivan Gym
  
  • Matthew Blanchette, Nevins Bartolomeo, Bruce MacLeod, Glenn Wilson and David Briggs
    Developing an Integrated, Open-Source, Online Spatial Data Catalog
    
  • Patrick Conant and John Zaner
    Test Generator Web Application
    
  • Joseph Hodsdon and Bruce MacLeod
    Calculating and Representing Population Distrution in Online Maps
    
  • Ingrid Olson, Frank Brooks, Nick Downs, Shafaat Qazi, and Bruce MacLeod
    Integrating the Mobile Geoserver Framework into a J2ME Ticketing Client

• Talks: Friday, April 18th (time and place TBA; probably 11-12:15, 533 Science)
  • Richard Franks, David Briggs, Lew Incze, and Nicholas Wolff: Dynamic Approach to Integrating Oceanographic and Biogeographical Data in the Gulf of Maine
  • Alan Fitzgerald, Peter Kemeraitis, and Clare Bates Congdon A Real -Time Agent That Plays Ms. PacMan
  • Ian Robbins, John Hessler, Clare Bates Congdon, Mary Kate Worden Lobster CyberCatch: An online game for elementary school students
• Posters: 2-4pm, Friday April 18th, Sullivan Gym
  • Matthew Blanchette, Richard Franks, Joe Hodsdon, Bruce MacLeod, Glenn Wilson, and David Briggs: An Open Source, Standards Based Software System for an Internet Accessible Geospatial Data Warehouse
  • Francis Brooks and Bruce MacLeod: Mobile Interface for Ticketing System
  • Ryan Small and Clare Bates Congdon Agent Smith: A Real-Time Game Playing Agent for Interactive Dynamic Games