CSEE faculty & students win human-machine teaming events

CSEE faculty and grad students show expertise in human-guided system adaptation at Columbia University event

A team led by CSEE Professors Tinoosh Mohsenin and Tim Oates recently competed in three events at the Human-Guided System Adaptation (HSA) Science Challenge and Hackathon Week. The event, sponsored by the Columbia University Program for Human-Guided Machine Adaptation and the Army Research Lab, was held at Columbia the week of August 8-12 with the goal of extending the state-of-the-art in human-machine teaming. UMBC either won or was on the team that won all three events.

The first competition required the participants to prepare a five-minute video proposing a testbed for human-machine teaming that included specific drivers in the 2040+ Vision of the US Army: advanced intelligence, superhuman capabilities, and rapid technological change. Dr. Oates proposed using Nomic--a game in which a move corresponds to proposing and voting on changes to the rules--as the testbed. His video tied for first place with Duke University.

The second competition required the team to propose a sequence of five or more experiments in a single testbed to answer critical scientific questions in one of the following areas: Human-Guided Machine Learning, Tech Savvy, Hybrid Thinking, Rapid Adaptable Small Teams, and Distributed Teams. Dr. Mohsenin's team, led by ARL collaborator Dr. Nick Waytowich, won first place.