Current Research Group Members

In reverse chronological order of joining our group:

• Henry Du, MSc student, undergrad Summer 2022-23, started MSc Fall 2023. MSc Topic: solving NoGo.
• Owen Randall, PhD student, undergrad Summer 2021, MSc 2021-2023, fast-tracked into PhD program Jan 2023.
• Timo Bertram, PhD student at FAW, JKU Linz, joined Juffi Fürnkranz' group in Fall 2020. I am co-supervising Timo.
• Hongming Zhang, PhD student, Statistical Machine Learning, joined group in Fall 2020.

Alumni

In reverse chronological order:

• Asmaul Husna, MSc 2022-2024.
  Thesis: Analyzing KataGo: A comparative evaluation against perfect play in the game of Go.
• Ehsan Futuhi, MSc 2022-2024.
  Thesis: Improving Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for sparse reward and goal-conditioned continuous control.
• Jiuqi Wang, MSc 2021-2023, co-supervised with Jonathan Schaeffer.
  Thesis: Deep Dive on Checkers Endgame Data.
• Mark Usmanov, undergrad student, Summer 2023. Topic: Efficient solver for combinatorial games.
• Ting-Han Wei, postdoc 2019-2023
• Zeyi Wang, MSc 2020-2022.
  Thesis: MooZi: A High-Performance Game-playing System that Plans with a Learned Model.
• Dat Tran, undergrad student, Summer 2022. Topic: opening book for small board Go solver.
• Bedir Tapkan, MSc 2020-2022, co-supervised with Ryan Hayward.
  Thesis: Dark Hex: A Large Scale Imperfect Information Game.
• Chenjun Xiao, MSc 2014-2016, PhD 2016-2023, Dale Schuurmans co-supervised from 2018.
  Thesis: Advances in Simulation-Based Search and Batch Reinforcement Learning.
• Farnaz Kohankhaki, MSc 2020-2022.
  Thesis: Monte Carlo Tree Search and Model Uncertainty, 2022. Now at Huawei Canada Research Center, Edmonton.
• Kiarash Aghakasiri, MSc 2020-2022.
  Thesis: Monte Carlo Tree Search in the Presence of Model Uncertainty, 2022. Now at Huawei Canada Research Center, Edmonton.
• Md Solimul Chowdhury, PhD 2016-2021, co-supervised with Jia You, joined group in Fall 2016.
  PhD thesis: Empirical Insights Driven CDCL SAT Algorithms, 2021. Now NSERC Postdoc at CMU with Marijn Heule.
• Rejwana Haque, MSc 2020-2021.
  Thesis: On the Road to Perfection? Evaluating LeelaChess Zero Against Endgame Tablebases, 2021.
• Prateek Garg, undergrad student from IIT Delhi, online internship in Summer 2020. Topic: MMCTS.
• Christian Jans, undergrad student, NSERC USRA in Summer 2020. Topic: Machine Learning for the game of Clobber.
• Chao Gao, PhD 2015-2020, co-supervised with Ryan Hayward. Chao's PhD thesis: Search and Learning Algorithms for Two-Player Games with Application to the Game of Hex. Now Senior Researcher at Huawei Canada Research Center, Edmonton.
• Amir Shukayev, undergrad student 2020, Go endgame solver. Now intern at Jane Street Capital.
• Yunpeng Tang, MSc 2017-2019, undergraduate summer student 2015 and 2016. See the page about Yunpeng Tang's MSc work on algorithms for random sampling from time-changing discrete distributions, including a link to his thesis.
• Gaojian Fan, PhD 2014-19, co-supervised with Rob Holte. I joined as co-supervisor in 2016. Now at Google Waterloo.
  Gaojian's PhD thesis: Understanding and Improving Merge-and-Shrink Abstraction for Cost Optimal Planning. 2014 GPA Award for graduate students, 2014 PhD Early Achievement Award, 2019 PhD Outstanding Thesis Award, all in Computing Science, University of Alberta. 2019 nominated for Governor General's Gold Medal.
• Will Fenton, undergraduate student, NSERC USRA summer 2019
• Mohammad Ajallooeian, co-supervised with Csaba Szepesvari, PhD student 2014-2018. Now at Amii in Edmonton.
• Farhad Haqiqat, MSc 2018.
  Now Lead Data Scientist at Nanoprecise Sci Corp.
  Farhad's MSc thesis: Analyzing the impact of knowledge and search in Monte Carlo Tree Search in Go.
• Andrew Jacobsen, undergraduate student, NSERC USRA 2015 and 2016, NSERC Engage 2017. Now a PhD student in our department.
• Fan Xie, MSc started 2010, transfered to PhD program 2012, PhD 2015 co-supervised with Rob Holte. Now at Google Waterloo.
  Fan's PhD thesis: Exploration in Greedy Best-First Search for Satisficing Planning.
  2016 Faculty of Science Dissertation Award.
• Weifeng Chen, MSc 2015. Now at Amazon Web Services.
  Weifeng's MSc thesis: Motion planning with Monte Carlo random walks.
• Jacob Ridgway, HIP student, summer 2015. Now at University of Toronto.
• Yeqin Zhang, MSc 2015. Now at LinkedIn.
  Yeqin's MSc thesis: TDS+: Improving Temperature Discovery Search
• Hootan Nakhost, PhD 2013. Now Senior Software Engineer at Google Waterloo.
  Hootan's PhD thesis: Random Walk Planning: Theory, Practice, and Application.
  2013 PhD Outstanding Thesis Award in Computing Science, University of Alberta.
  CAIAC Dissertation Award for best PhD thesis from the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association.
• Kazuki Yoshizoe, visiting professor 2011, 2013, 2014. Now leader of the Search and Parallel Computing Unit, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Tokyo, Japan
• Sumudu Fernando, programmer/analyst 2012/13. Now at Google.
• Jiaxing Song, MSc 2012.
  Jiaxing's MSc thesis: An Enhanced Solver For The Game Of Amazons. Now at SoundHound, Toronto.
• Gabe Van Eyck, MSc 2012.
  Gabe's MSc thesis: Move Groups as a General Enhancement for Monte Carlo Tree Search. Now at Riot Games, California.
• Colin Hunt, NSERC USRA summer student, 2012. Now Software Developer at Pason, Calgary.
• Aja Huang, postdoc (co-supervised with R. Hayward), 2011-12. Now Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in London, England.
  AlphaGo lead programmer.
• Abdallah Saffidine, visiting PhD student from Université Paris Dauphine, 2011-2012. Now Research Associate at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
• Saradha Sankaran, programmer/analyst 2011-12. Now lead consultant for British Telecom in Bengaluru, India.
• Kunihito Hoki, Assistant Professor at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, visiting professor for 1.5 months, 2012.
• Hilmar Finnsson, PhD student visiting from University of Reykjavik, 3 months, 2011. Now a postdoc there.
• Henry Brausen, NSERC USRA student (joint with R. Hayward), summer 2011. Now at Eleven Engineering, Inc.
• Tomoyuki Kaneko, Assistant Professor from University of Tokyo, author of the top shogi program GPS shogi, visited for 2 months in 2011.
• David Tom, MSc 2010.
  David's MSc thesis: Investigating UCT and RAVE: steps towards a more robust method. Now Technical Analyst at Tantus Solutions Group.
• Broderick Arneson, Senior programmer/analyst 2010. Now at Google.
• Arpad Rimmel, Postdoc 2010. Now at Supelec.
• Teri Drummond, undergraduate summer student 2010. Now at Bioware.
• Xiaozhen Niu, PhD student 2004-2010. Now at CGI, Victoria, BC.
• David Silver PhD 2009, co-supervised with Rich Sutton.
  David's PhD thesis: Reinforcement Learning and Simulation-Based Search in Computer Go.
  Outstanding PhD Thesis Award.
  Now at Google DeepMind in London, England, AlphaGo lead architect and leader of the Reinforcement Learning group.
• Ling Zhao PhD student 2002-2009.
• Markus Enzenberger Senior programmer/analyst 2002-2009. Main author of Fuego.
• Travis Dick Undergraduate summer student 2008, NSERC USRA summer student 2009. MSc at UAlberta with Rich Sutton, now PhD student at CMU.
• Adi Botea PhD 2006, co-supervised with Jonathan Schaeffer. Now at Eaton, Ireland. Adi's PhD thesis
• Akihiro Kishimoto PhD 2005. Now at IBM Research Ireland. Kishi's PhD thesis
• Zhichao Li: summer student / programmer, 2002 - 2005. Now at Bioware.
• Xiaozhen Niu MSc 2004. Now at CGI, Victoria, BC.
• Mack Male: summer student 2004. Now an Edmonton-based entrepreneurial journalist and founder of digital publishing company Taproot Publishing Inc.
• Roy de Bruijn: summer student 2003, co-supervised with Rob Holte.
• Jianjun Zhou MSc 2003. Now a Research Scientist at Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data.
• Ling Zhao MSc 2002, co-supervised with Jonathan Schaeffer.
• Nathan Bullock MSc 2002, co-supervised with Jonathan Schaeffer. Now software engineer at Google.
• Theodore Tegos: MSc 2002, co-supervised with Jonathan Schaeffer.
• Andrew Creskey: summer student 2001, co-supervised with Rob Holte.

External examiner for PhD defense, PhD candidacy

• Mihai Dobre, PhD defense, University of Edinburgh, 2018
• Neil McKay], PhD defense, Dalhousie University, 2016
• Abdallah Saffidine, PhD defense, Universit\'e Paris Dauphine, 2013
• Hilmar Finnsson, PhD defense, University of Reykjavik, May 21, 2012
• Fabien Teytaud, PhD defense, Universite Paris Sud, Dec 8, 2011
• Junichi Hashimoto, PhD defense, JAIST, Feb 1, 2011
• Hilmar Finnsson, PhD candidacy, University of Reykjavik, July 2, 2010
• Guillaume Chaslot, PhD assessment committee, Maastricht University, 2010
• Arpad Rimmel, PhD defense, Universite Paris Sud, 2009
• Paul Ottaway, PhD defense, Dalhousie, 2009

External examiner for MSc defense

• Hilmar Finnsson, University of Reykjavik, 2007
• Jonheidur Isleifsdottir, University of Reykjavik, 2007

Created: Sep 13, 2000 Last modified: Nov 20, 2021