Scott R. Kuindersma
Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst
CV: [pdf]
Contact:
office: Computer Science Building room 266email: scottk (at) cs [dot] umass [dot] edu
About me:
I am a third year graduate student in the Computer Science MS/PhD program at UMass Amherst. My advisor is Prof. Andy Barto and I am a member of the Autonomous Learning Lab (ALL). My research interests include biologically-inspired machine learning, robotics, and representation learning. I spend my days working in the Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics (LPR).
Currently:
I am working with Prof. Rod Grupen defining a control basis for postural stability and mobility on the uBot-5. After that is done, I can use reinforcement learning to sequence these controllers to achieve cool behaviors such as knuckle walking.
I am also collaborating with Prof. Brian Blais building a hierarchically-organized spatiotemporal clustering system. This work is inspired by Jeff Hawkins' theory of the neocortex and the preliminary results of HTM research at Numenta. Our goal is to build a more scalable system that incorporates feedback as it is described in the biological theory.
Papers and Talks
- B. Blais, M. Frenkel, S. Kuindersma, R. Muhammad, H. Shouval, L. Cooper, Mark F. Bear. (2008). Recovery from monocular deprivation using binocular deprivation: Experimental observations and theoretical analysis. Journal of Neurophysiology.
- Blais, B. and Kuindersma, S. (2008). A Hierarchical Spatiotemporal Model of Neocortex with Probabilistic Feedback. 12th International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems (ICCNS 2008).
- Kuindersma, S. and Blais, B. (2007) Teaching Bayesian Model Comparison With the Three-Sided Coin. The American Statistician, 61, pp. 239-244
- Blais, B. and Kuindersma, S. (2005) Synaptic Modification in Spiking-Rate Models: A Comparison between Learning in Spiking Neurons and Rate-Based Neuron Models. Society For Neuroscience Conference Abstracts. [abstract] [slides]
- Blais, B., Frenkel, M., Kuindersma, S., and Bear, M. (2005). The Role of Structure and Noise in the Mouse Visual System. 9th International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems (ICCNS 2005). [abstract] [slides]