ANDREW JAMES SMITH


109 Bond St. North, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 3W4

http://www.psychology.mcmaster.ca/beckerlab/smitha/

Tel. 905-527-1850,   905-525-9140 ext. 24832

andys "at" mcmaster.ed.ac.uk


Date of Birth: 12 August 1975
Nationality: British



Education and Qualifications


1998 - Present	University of Edinburgh

			Institute for Adaptive & Neural Computation (http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/)

			Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence

			"Dynamic Generalisation of Continuous Action Spaces in

			Reinforcement Learning: A Neurally Inspired Approach".


1996 - 1997		University of Edinburgh

			Centre for Cognitive Science  (http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/)

			M.Sc. in Cognitive Science

			Class: Distinction


1993 - 1996		University of Kent at Canterbury

			B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science

			Class: First


1991 - 1993		Solihull Sixth Form College

			A Levels:	Mathematics: 	Grade A

					Computing:	Grade A


1986 - 1991		Arden School, Knowle, Solihull

			Nine GCSEs

			Extension Mathematics: Distinction



Relevant Experience


1998 - 1999		University of Edinburgh

			Tutoring various logic courses.

 	

1997 - 1998		IBM, Winchester

Software developer on a product called MQSeries, designed to provide
consistent and secure cross-platform communication. Worked with Unix
(Solaris, AIX, HP), Windows NT and OS2.


1995/96 (Summer)	Root Solutions, Cambridge

			Software developer.

Additional Information


My current research interests lie in understanding, engineering and
modelling adaptive systems, both natural and artificial. My Ph.D.
thesis addresses the issue of adapting real-valued actions in
reinforcement learning tasks, with a particular emphasis on the use of
unsupervised learning. My academic background is broad, drawing on
computer science, cognitive science and artificial intelligence, and I
am interested in focusing on research within any of these areas.


Study programmes that I have enjoyed include neural computation,
cognitive psychology, natural language processing, and logic. During my
postgraduate studies I tutored three logic courses on topics including
first order logic, computability, GÖdel's incompleteness theorems,
Montague semantics and natural deduction, and also proposed and joint
supervised an M.Sc. project on an application of genetic algorithms to
robot learning.


I have been involved in a number of software engineering projects
within both commercial and academic environments, and am familiar with
a range of programming languages from C and C++, to Visual Basic,
Pascal and Delphi, Matlab, Prolog (logic), Fortran (scientific),
Miranda (functional), Occam (parallel), and 68000 assembler.
Experienced with both Unix and Windows.




Activities and Interests


My other interests include music, mountaineering, squash, skiing and
short story writing. I enjoy playing the piano, hiking in the Scottish
Highlands, and have made a number of other trips to the Alps, Rockies,
and more recently the Himalaya where our expedition climbed the highest
trekking peak in Asia.




Referees


Professor David Willshaw

Head of Institute
Adaptive & Neural Computation
5 Forrest Hill
University of Edinburgh
david@anc.ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 650 4404

Dr Gillian Hayes
Senior lecturer
Perception, Action & Behaviour
Dept. of Artificial Intelligence	
University of Edinburgh	
gmh@dai.ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 650 3082

Dr Paul Schweizer
Senior lecturer
Division of Informatics
80 South Bridge
University of Edinburgh
pablo@dai.ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 650 2704

Dr John Hallam
Senior lecturer
Perception, Action & Behaviour
Dept. of Artificial Intelligence	
University of Edinburgh	
john@dai.ed.ac.uk