Events Calendar

CS Distinguished Lecture: Jean-Baptiste Mouret (Inria) - Quality Diversity Optimization, from robotics to automated design

Speaker: Jean-Baptiste Mouret, Inria

Talk Title: Quality Diversity Optimization, from robotics to automated design

Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series

Abstract: Diversity algorithms are a new class of optimization algorithms that aim finding a set of high-performing solutions that all behave differently. They are more and more useful in many fields, from automated design, so that designers can use their own expertise to choose the final design, to robotics, so that a robot can quickly and autonomously adapt to unexpected situations. In this talk, I will first introduce MAP-Elites, which is one of the firsts and most popular Quality Diversity algorithms, then I will show a few recent developments, and highlight some of the most promising applications.

Register in advance for this webinar at:

https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gtk43EXaRc6Q_-8qCfsx5A

After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


Biography: Jean-Baptiste Mouret is a senior researcher ("directeur de recherche") at Inria, a French research institute dedicated to computer science and mathematics, in which he conducts researches that intertwine evolutionary algorithms, robotics, and machine learning to make robots more adaptive. Before joining Inria, he was an assistant professor ("maître de conférences) at ISIR (Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics), which is part of Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC, now Sorbonne Université). He obtained a M.S. in computer science from EPITA in 2004, a M.S. in artificial intelligence from the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris, France) in 2005, and a Ph.D. in computer science from the same university in 2008. He was the principal investigator of an ERC grant (ResiBots - Robots with animal-like resilience, 2015-2020), which is the most prestigious grant in Europe, and the recipient of a French "ANR young researcher grant (Creadapt - Creative adaptation by Evolution, 2012-2015). His work was featured on the cover of Nature (Cully et al., 2015) and it received the "2017 ISAL Award for Distinguished Young Investigator in the field of Artificial Life, the "Outstanding Paper of 2015 award from the Society for Artificial Life (2016), the French "La Recherche" award (2016), 3 GECCO best paper awards (2011, GDS track; 2017 & 2018, CS track), and the IEEE CEC "best student paper" award (2009).


Host: Stefanos Nikolaidis

Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gtk43EXaRc6Q_-8qCfsx5A

Location: Online - Zoom Webinar

WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gtk43EXaRc6Q_-8qCfsx5A

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Computer Science Department