Dr Tommy Thompson
Find a member of staff
Job title: Lecturer in Computer Science
Email: t.thompson@derby.ac.uk
Phone No: 01332 591594
Room: Kedleston Road, E512
Recent publications
2012:
Artificial and Computational Intelligence in Games (Dagstuhl Seminar 12191): Co-author on reports in Video Game Description Languages & General Video Game Playing.
Editors: Simon M. Lucas, Michael Mateas, Mike Preuss, Pieter Spronck and Julian Togelius
Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, 2012.
2009:
"Realtime Execution of Automated Plans using Evolutionary Robotics." T. Thompson and J. Levine. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 09). September 2009.
"Improving Control Through Subsumption in the EvoTanks Domain." T. Thompson, F. Milne, A. Andrew, and J. Levine. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 09). September 2009.
Experience in Industry
Spent time working as a consultant to clients in the investment banking sector upon completion of my PhD. This included working with prominent firms in the sector based both in Europe and the US developing a range of software. This includes extensive development of databases, enterprise systems and mobile applications for several investment banks.
Faculty: Business, Computing and Law
School: School of Computing and Mathematics
Subject Area: Artificial Intelligence
I am a lecturer in the School of Computing and Mathematics and the Programme Leader for Computer Games Programming. I teach on both the Computer Science and Computer Games Programming modules, focussing on introductory programming modules, software engineering and Artificial Intelligence.
Furthermore, I am an active researcher in the field of artificial intelligence, with a specific interest in how AI can be applied to games. This is an interesting field of study that has seen significant growth in the last 10 years, since act as a useful tool both as a potential benchmark domain for methodologies, but also presents new challenges to the field.
Teaching responsibilities
Teaching Responsibilities for 2012/2013:
Term 1:
(4CC510) Programming 1
Term 2:
(4CC511) Programming 2
(4CC512) Subjects in Computer Science
(5CC503) Application Development
(5CC516) Software Engineering
(6CC507) Game Behaviour
Research interests
Experimentation and application of Artificial Intelligence methodologies in the context of games. Focus is placed upon the use of machine learning algorithms as well as automated planning and scheduling technologies, with their potential to be used to control non-player characters (NPC), develop in-game content and provide intelligent analysis in simulations, serious games and commercial video game applications.
Membership of professional bodies and advisory committees
Professional member of the British Computer Society.
Programme committee member for the IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games (CIG) and the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) and reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence in Games (IEEE-TCIAIG).
Editorial board member for www.AIGameResearch.org: a new website that focusses on disseminating new games developed by AI researchers and enthusiast to showcase their work and emerging ideas in the field.
Former member of the EPSRC AI & Games Network: an effort to promote discussion and collaboration between academia and the games industry to explore the application of AI methodologies in commercial video games.
Recent Conferences
2012:
Participated in the Schloss Dagstuhl sessions on Computational and Artificial Intelligence in Games; a research retreat to discuss the future of the science and how to proceed in the coming years (http://www.dagstuhl.de/12191).
Undergraduate qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Computer Science, University of Strathclyde
Postgraduate qualifications
- MSc Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh
Research qualifications
- PhD on Application of Automated Planning and Evolutionary Robotics for Games, University of Strathcylde
