Neuroevolution in Games: State of the Art and Open Challenges

This paper surveys research on applying neuroevolution (NE) to games. In neuroevolution, artificial neural networks are trained through evolutionary algorithms, taking inspiration from the way biological brains evolved. We analyse the application of NE in games along five different axes, which are the role NE is chosen to play in a game, the different types of neural networks used, the way these networks are evolved, how the fitness is determined and what type of input the network receives. The article also highlights important open research challenges in the field.Comment: - Added more references - Corrected typos - Added an overview table (Table 1

Innovative librarians: Harnessing passion and involvement for library metamorphosis

During 2010 the RMIT University Library formed the 'Innovative Librarians Group' (ILG). The idea for the ILG was conceived from a debrief meeting with the University Librarian and acting Staff Development Librarian for the group's leader on her return from the Aurora leadership course. The ILG combined her interests in shifting the library staff mindset toward innovation and forward thinking, and integrating a technology focus into the library environment

Evolving scout agents for military simulations

textSimulations play an increasingly significant role in training and preparing the military, particularly in environments with constrained budgets. Unfortunately, in most cases a small number of people must control a large number of simulated vehicles and soldiers. This often leads to micromanagement of computer-controlled forces in order to get them to exhibit the human-like characteristics of an enemy force. This thesis uses Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) to train neural networks to perform the role of scouts which analyze the terrain and decide where to place themselves to best observe the enemy forces. The main attribute that the scout agents consider is a vapor flow rate from the enemy starting location to their intended objective, which according to previous studies indicates likely chokepoints along the enemy route. This thesis experiments with different configurations of sensors and fitness functions in order to maximize how much of the enemy team is spotted over the course of the scenario. The results show that these agents perform better than randomly placed scouts and better than scouts deployed using heuristics in many situations, although not consistently so. Evolutionary optimization of scout agents using vapor flow is thus a promising approach for developing autonomous scout agents in military simulations.Computer Science

The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray air showers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Comment: 53 pages. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

More-than-Human Data Interactions in the Smart City - reflections

How might we design and plan urban spaces to be more hospitable for foxes? How might a worm or a nettle plant experience the neighbourhood we live in? What kinds of urban data might parakeets find useful? And how might we design new technologies for more equitable living spaces for all of London’s inhabitants - human and non-human, big and small? This booklet brings together reflections from a research project called “More-than- Human Data Interactions in the Smart City.” Through a series of probes and proposals, and two workshops in east London with participants that included community organisers, growers, policy-makers, activists, academics, educators and artists, we explored questions about who we share our city with, and how we can better live together with our non-human neighbours with the help of digital infrastructure and data

Changing Publishing Ecologies. A Landscape Study of New University Presses and Academic-led Publishing

DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.442099

Recurrent Models of Visual Attention

Applying convolutional neural networks to large images is computationally expensive because the amount of computation scales linearly with the number of image pixels. We present a novel recurrent neural network model that is capable of extracting information from an image or video by adaptively selecting a sequence of regions or locations and only processing the selected regions at high resolution. Like convolutional neural networks, the proposed model has a degree of translation invariance built-in, but the amount of computation it performs can be controlled independently of the input image size. While the model is non-differentiable, it can be trained using reinforcement learning methods to learn task-specific policies. We evaluate our model on several image classification tasks, where it significantly outperforms a convolutional neural network baseline on cluttered images, and on a dynamic visual control problem, where it learns to track a simple object without an explicit training signal for doing so

Changing Publishing Ecologies: A Landscape Study of New University Presses and Academic-Led Publishing: A Report to JISC

Introduction A new wave of university presses is emerging. Common characteristics are that they are open access (OA), digital first, library-based, and they often offer a smaller set of services than a traditional publisher, blurring the line between publisher and platform. In tandem, a small but notable number of academics and researchers have set up their own publishing initiatives, often demonstrating an innovative or unique approach either in workflow, peer review, technology or business model. These new publishing initiatives have a potentially disruptive effect on the scholarly communication environment, providing new avenues for the dissemination of research outputs and acting as pathfinders for the evolution of academic publishing and the scholarly record. In this report, we have captured the current landscape of new university presses (NUPs) and academic-led presses (ALPs) emerging within the UK. Taking different approaches for these two types of press we have captured the take-up, reasoning and characteristics of these initiatives, as well as future plans. The report concludes with a series of recommendations to help support and foster new developments in this space, to share best practice and collaboration and to identify the tools and services that will facilitate further innovation. Jisc supports universities and researchers in the provision of new digital services and innovation. We will work with the community and stakeholders to decide how we can take forward some of the recommendations listed in this report for the benefit of our members and the research community