1. Joelle Pineau: General info
PhD in Robotics (2004), CMU.
At McGill since 2004 in the School of Computer Science.
Co-director of the Reasoning
and Learning Lab.
Supervising 2 post-docs, 4 PhDs, 2 MScs.
Contact:

2. Overview and objectives
Main scientific goal: Synthesis and analysis of intelligent decision-making systems.
Main tools: Probability theory, statistics, machine learning, optimization, analysis of algorithms, numerical approximations, …
Abilities
Goals/Preferences
Prior Knowledge
Robot
Observations
Actions
Environment

3. Reinforcement learning paradigm
Choose actions such as maximize the sum of rewards,
Challenging cases: state space is large/continuous, states are partially observed, state representation is not given, action space is continuous, dynamics and effects of actions are poorly modeled, rewards are not known in advance, …

4. SmartWheeler project
Autonomous navigation in large natural environments under sensor uncertainty.
Robust human-robot interaction and dialogue management.
Learning patterns of user behaviors.

5. Adaptive deep-brain stimulation
Goal: To create an adaptive neuro-stimulation system that can maximally reduce the incidence of epileptiform activity.