Dr Jonathan Schaeffer
High Performance Artificial Intelligence Systems

Dr Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor in computing science at the University of Alberta, has been named Chair of the new iCORE High Performance Artificial Intelligence Systems Laboratory at the U of A. iCORE has committed $500,000 per year for five years for a total of $2.5 million dollars to develop this research group. This represents roughly 50 percent of the total budget for the lab, which also includes funds from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Electronic Arts and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Biographical Information
Dr Schaeffer is recognized as a world authority in artificial intelligence applied to computer games. He developed Chinook, the first program to win a human world championship in any game, an accomplish-ment that is noted in the Guinness Book of World Records. He also received an NSERC E.W.R. Steacie fellowship in 1997 for his influential games-related research. He is one of seven Canadians ever named a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and in Canada contributes substantially to the development of information technology both in Alberta and nationally. He is a member of Alberta’s ICT Advisory Board and Celcorp’s Scientific Advisory Board, and sits on the board of directors of the company BioTools, as well as the national organization for high performance computing in Canada, C3. He has designed numerous algorithms that have achieved widespread use, and has published widely, including almost 100 refereed publications, a book, and two edited volumes.


Research Program
The iCORE High Performance Artificial Intelligence Systems Laboratory will use six classes of games as experimental test beds for AI research, with the intent to better understand the requirements of building high-performance systems that operate in real time. The program will focus on accelerating research and development on world-class game-playing programs, in order to build an AI system that exhibits human-level intelligence, including the ability to search, acquire and use knowledge, and work with imperfect information and randomness. The ideas developed through this game-related research have application in areas such as computational biology, in commercial products for research (for example, those developed by BioTools), as well as in the burgeoning interactive entertainment industry. The program is expected to result in increased interaction with the commercial games and other industries.


Research Team
Led by Dr Schaeffer, the research team will include Dr Martin Mueller and one other full time faculty member, research associate Yngvi Bjornsson, several programmer/analysts and 10 graduate students. Several companies are also involved with the research team including: Electronic Arts, the world’s largest producer of computer games; Bioware, an Edmonton games company; and Celcorp.


Related Links:
Dr Schaeffer's Homepage