Stefan Schaal


Stefan Schaal is a German-American computer scientist specializing in robotics, machine learning, autonomous systems, and computational neuroscience.[1] Born in Frankfurt, Main in Germany, Schaal grew up in the North Bavarian town of Nürnberg. After graduating from school, he served in the German army in the Ski Patrol Devision of Bad Reichenhall, where he honorably discharged with the rank of a Lieutenant. Schaal studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich, graduating in 1987 with a Diploma degree (Summa Cum Laude). Subsequently, Schaal pursed his Ph.D. in computer aided design and artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Munich and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his Ph.D. in 1991 (Summa Cum Laude).

In 1991, Schaal was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department and Brain and Cognitive Science and the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Scholarship Foundation. Starting from 1992, he became an invited researcher at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Labs in Japan, where he created a robotics lab focusing on biological principles of motor control and learning. In 1994, Schaal moved to the Georgia Institute of Technology as an adjunct assistant professor, and also held the same rank at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1996, Schaal assumed a group leader position in the ERATO Kawato Dynamic Brain Project in Japan. Starting from 1997, Schaal began his tenure at the University of Southern California, where he advanced from the ranks of assistant professor, to associate professor, to full professor.

In 2009, Schaal became a founder in defining and creating the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen/Stuttgart Germany, an institute focussing on principles of perception-action-learning systems in synthetic intelligence. In 2012, Schaal created the Autonomous Motion Department at this institute and led it to international recognition.

In 2018, DER SPIEGEL published an article alleging that Schaal had improperly accepted the position at MPI while retaining his full-time position at USC and was under investigation for misuse of public funds. His employment for the Max Planck Society has since been terminated.[2]

Stefan Schaal's interests focus on autonomous perception-action-learning systems, in particular anthropomorphic robotic systems. He works on topics of machine learning for control, control theory, computational neuroscience for neuromotor control, experimental robotics, reinforcement learning, artificial intelligence, and nonlinear dynamical systems. Stefan has co-authored more than 400 publications.[3] in top conference and journals, and served as organizers on various top conferences in machine learning and robotics. He has received numerous best paper awards and honors in his scientific community. Stefan Schaal as been noted as one of the five leaders in robotics in 2011,[4] and among the top robotics experts in the world.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab - Main / Stefan Schaal browse". Clmc.usc.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  2. ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/usc-and-max-planck-double-life-of-a-top-robotics-researcher-a-1199174.html
  3. ↑ "Stefan Schaal - Google Scholar Citations". Scholar.google.com. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "Five leaders of the robot revolution". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  5. ↑ "Top 40 experts in Robotics with citation metrics - Ioannis Kourouklides - Blog - Quora". Kourouklides.quora.com. Retrieved 27 August 2018.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.