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Who I Am

I am a researcher in Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Behavior. I study how human and human-like cognition emerges from the dynamics of complex systems in real and computational environments. I obtained my PhD and my Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science under the supervision of Dr. Brett Fajen, and I currently work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the United States Army Research Labs. I am deeply interested in how cognitive behavior can emerge from simple computational and informational mechanisms that depend on the rich information available in the environment. I am also passionate about statistics and data analysis, and I believe in making data and research openly available and understandable. We live in an age where the most relevant issues facing us are complex and nuanced. I believe that researchers and scientists have an obligation not only to understand these issues, but also to present findings in a way that is meaningful and understandable to everyone.

Current Work

My current research is aimed at understanding how cooperative and collaborative behavior can emerge from learning principles instantiated in computational systems. It is difficult to a prior design a system that will interact with humans in a human-like manner from basic principles, as many of those necessary principles are extremely difficult to define or isolate explicitly or functionally. Nonetheless, humans are capable of learning how to interact with other humans from a very young age, and teamwork and cooperation is central to our social existence. I am investigating how principles of learning can be used to develop adaptive computational agents that develop cooperative behavior by interacting with human partners and recieving feedback, building cooperative and teamwork behavior from the bottom up, rather than the top down.

Previous Work

My doctoral research was focused on understanding how visual information in natural environments is used to guide and control walking. We often take for granted the complex interplay between our eyes and our legs when we walk down the street, but as the terrain becomes increasingly difficult (such as when hiking), this dynamic relationship is critical for success. I use motion capture and virtual reality to study how people walk over natural terrains that require precise foot placement, like those you would find on a hiking trail.

Research Interests

More broadly, I am interested in statistics, data visualization, and human cognition and behavior. It’s my belief that in order to understand why people make certain decision and take certain actions, we need to understand how human behavior is influenced by the structure of the information available in our world. These information/action relationships can be quantified as dynamic systems and understood through statistics. While this has important implications academically, I think that the world we currently live in can benefit from a scientific understanding of human behavior. My goal is to leverage my training as a cognitive scientist to address issues that are broadly applicable to society.