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From the College of Natural Sciences
Experts Forecast the Changes Artificial Intelligence Could Bring by 2030

Experts Forecast the Changes Artificial Intelligence Could Bring by 2030

A panel of academic and industrial thinkers has looked ahead to 2030 to forecast how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) might affect life in a typical North American city — in areas diverse as transportation, healthcare and education — and spur discussion of how to ensure the safe, fair and beneficial development of these rapidly emerging technologies.

A new study, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030,” looks at the likely effects of AI technologies on urban life. Credit: iStock/Askold Romanov, Mlenny & Tricia Seibold
Q&A with Peter Stone: Where is Artificial Intelligence Headed?

Q&A with Peter Stone: Where is Artificial Intelligence Headed?

Peter Stone, a professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Austin, led a groundbreaking study on artificial intelligence (AI) being released today. The study, produced by a panel of 17 experts from around the world, looks at how specialized applications of AI might affect life in a typical North American city by the year 2030.

UT Austin Villa Wins at 2016 World RoboCup

UT Austin Villa Wins at 2016 World RoboCup

Five of the SPL team members at the 2016 RoboCup US Open, which the team won. From left to right, they are Katie Genter, Sanmit Narvekar, Josiah Hanna, Josh Kelle and Jake Menashe.

The UT Austin Villa robot soccer team, led by University of Texas at Austin computer science professor Peter Stone, returned from the 2016 RoboCup competition in Leipzig, Germany as the world champions in the 3D Simulation league and with an impressive second-place win in the Standard Platform League (SPL).

UT Computer Scientist Named Simons Foundation Investigator

UT Computer Scientist Named Simons Foundation Investigator

Computer scientist David Zuckerman of The University of Texas at Austin has been selected as a 2016 Simons Investigator in Theoretical Computer Science by the Simons Foundation for his work in pseudorandomness and randomness extraction.

Why is CGI in the Movies Still So Hard? (Audio)

Why is CGI in the Movies Still So Hard? (Audio)

As the summer movie season kicks into high gear, we talk with a scientist about some of the challenges in simulating the way everyday objects behave on the big screen through computer generated imagery (CGI). Etienne Vouga's computer simulations have helped bring to life a wizard's hair in The Hobbit and clothing in Tangled.

New Method of Producing Random Numbers Could Improve Cybersecurity

New Method of Producing Random Numbers Could Improve Cybersecurity

With an advance that one cryptography expert called a "masterpiece," University of Texas at Austin computer scientists have developed a new method for producing truly random numbers, a breakthrough that could be used to encrypt data, make electronic voting more secure, conduct statistically significant polls and more accurately simulate complex systems such as Earth's climate.

Computer Scientist Earns Prestigious ACM Award for Encryption Achievement

Computer Scientist Earns Prestigious ACM Award for Encryption Achievement

Brent Waters of The University of Texas at Austin has been selected to receive the Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). This award recognizes the outstanding young computer professional of the year for a recent major technical or service contribution that was made at 35 years of age or less.

A.I. Expert Weighs in on Historic Computer vs. Human Contest

A.I. Expert Weighs in on Historic Computer vs. Human Contest

First the robots successfully challenged the chess masters, then the Jeopardy champions. Now comes a match-up for a new generation.

Computer Science Undergrad Gives Back in Big Way

Computer Science Undergrad Gives Back in Big Way

Nicholas Cobb, a second-year computer science student, has won national recognition repeatedly for his work with a charitable organization he started at the age of 12. Most recently, he traveled to New York for recognition at the 2015 Nickelodeon HALO Awards.

Nomadic Computing Speeds Up Big Data Analytics

Nomadic Computing Speeds Up Big Data Analytics

How do Netflix or Facebook know which movies you might like or who you might want to be friends with?

Here's a hint: It starts with a few trillion data points and involves some complicated math and a lot of smart computer programming.

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College Welcomes New Faculty in New Academic Year

College Welcomes New Faculty in New Academic Year

The College of Natural Sciences welcomes 11 new faculty this fall. Whether searching for evidence of exotic new physics, enabling the creation of personal robots, or addressing critical problems in cancer research, these industrious and innovative faculty members build on the college's reputation for pioneering research and research-based teaching.

Computer Scientists Find Mass Extinctions Can Accelerate Evolution

Computer Scientists Find Mass Extinctions Can Accelerate Evolution

At the start of the simulation, a biped robot controlled by a computationally evolved brain stands upright on a 16 meter by 16 meter surface. The simulation proceeds until the robot falls or until 15 seconds have elapsed. Image credit: Joel Lehman.

A computer science team at The University of Texas at Austin has found that robots evolve more quickly and efficiently after a virtual mass extinction modeled after real-life disasters such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs. Beyond its implications for artificial intelligence, the research supports the idea that mass extinctions actually speed up evolution by unleashing new creativity in adaptations.

UT Austin Villa Wins RoboCup 2015

UT Austin Villa Wins RoboCup 2015

The Austin Villa Robot Soccer Team participated in two competitions in the RoboCup 2015 competition in Hefei, China: the Standard Platform League (SPL) and the 3D simulation league.

Researchers Tackle the Dark Side of Moore's Law

Researchers Tackle the Dark Side of Moore's Law

This month marks the 50th Anniversary of Moore's Law, an observation that every couple of years, computer chip manufacturers manage to squeeze twice as many transistors onto a computer chip. Because transistors are the tiny on-off switches that perform calculations and temporarily store information, Moore’s Law also embodies the exponential increase in raw computing power that has unleashed a blizzard of tech innovations.

Computer Scientist Wins Sloan Fellowship

Computer Scientist Wins Sloan Fellowship

A faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin who works to improve the security and reliability of computer software systems has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship for 2015.