Artificial life subject of public lecture Wednesday

One agent can drive, another can ride in a car seat. Some agents hunt in a group, others choose to work on a farm. Not all of them are the same. Watch out: they can learn new things!

These agents don't live in your world, but in your computer, Ziad Kobti, director of the UWindsor School of Computer Science will explain in his free public lecture “One agent, two agents, farmer agent, hunter agent: an exploration of artificial life using agent-based modeling,” Wednesday, January 16, at Canada South Science City.

Human imagination creates these agents and expert knowledge of their domain gives them their purpose. They model a complex system that is heterogeneous and dynamic. What emerges from their collective action is often surprising and exciting.

“We learn from their world as they interact with each other and with their environment,” Dr. Kobti says. “They are a tool for decision-makers looking for answers about crowd behaviour in the real world.”

Would you like to raise some in your machine?

His talk is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the science centre, located at 930 Marion Avenue. It is part of the Science Café lecture series sponsored by the Faculty of Science, which offers discussion of important science research for the general public.

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