Austin Nguyen awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to study multi-agent reinforcement learning

Incoming PhD student Austin Nguyen has received a National Science FoundationGraduate Research Fellowship for his promising research in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Nguyen’s work is centered on multi-agent reinforcement learning and devising algorithms scalable to many agents and supported by intuitive mathematical reasoning. 

Inspired by real-world applications, Nguyen likens his work with large numbers of agents to that of an ant colony: “I always like to draw parallels between multi-agent coordination with ants. Colonies of ants are able to build bridges with their bodies, construct large buildings, and forage for food with elementary coordination methods. From there, I hope to expand on those ideas to more complex policies and environments.”

This prestigious program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based masters and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. It is accompanied by three years of significant financial support.

Nguyen completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California-Berekley. He  is advised in his studies at Michigan by Lynn A. Conway Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Michael Wellman. Wellman also serves as Richard H. Orenstein Division Chair of Computer Science and Engineering.