Living Machines Lab
In our laboratory, informally named Living Machines Lab, we have been working in the field of Artificial Life for more than 15 years.
Artificial Life seeks to understand life by building it, exploring how simple interactions can give rise to organisms, intelligence, and entire ecosystems.
Our current research focuses on two interconnected directions: neural cellular automata (NCAs) and agentic AI ecosystems. Both explore how local interactions give rise to collective organisation, learning, and agency.
- Neural cellular automata provide an abstraction for many living processes and biological computations, including morphogenesis, regeneration and ageing, neural organisation in the cortex, memory and reasoning mechanisms, and emergent multi-scale competency.
- Agentic AI ecosystems provide a new substrate for Artificial Life, where autonomous agents interact, adapt, and form digital ecologies. We investigate collective intelligence and its emergence through interactions among many agents. Our work tackles safety from the lens of positive and developmental alignment, alongside the laws, governance structures, economic systems, and institutions needed for societies of humans and AI agents to coexist and cooperate.
Join:
- We accept visiting researchers. Send an email to stefano.nichele@hiof.no.
- We mentor students on research projects, bachelor and master thesis at the intersection of artificial life, artificial intelligence, robotics, complex systems, and art. We expect to produce some sort of tangible results by the end of the mentorship period, for example a research paper, a poster, or a demo/presentation of the project. Interested? Send an email to stefano.nichele@hiof.no.
PhD Students
Master Students
- Elias Wallin Saksæther
- Kinga Maria Jakubowska
- Martine Muller
- Amr Kandil
Research Assistants
- Anna Pierro
PhD Students co-supervised
Alumni:
Post-doc
PhD
- Hege Tapio, (co-supervisor)
- Tom Glover, (main supervisor)
- Giorgia Nadizar, (co-supervisor)
- Kristine Heiney, (main supervisor)
- Sidney Pontes-Filho, (main supervisor)
- Johannes Jensen, (co-supervisor)
- Barbora Hudcova, (visiting from University of Prague, Czech Republic)
- Vegard Fiskum, (co-supervisor)
- Peter Aaser, (co-supervisor)
- Jacopo Talamini, (visiting from University of Trieste, Italy)
Master Students
- Shokoufeh Ghadersouri, Daniel Eggereide, Vemund Brynjulfsen, Anda Leseanu, Aarati Shrestha, Sanyam Jain, Aksel Susegg, Shailendra Bhandari, Jørgen Farner, Glare Eugenio Dumo, Ruben Jahren, Eman Azab, Piera Riccio, Kristoffer Olsen, Magnus Poppe Wang, Erik Wiker, Haakon Haraldsen Roen, Benjamin Bocquillon, Erik Aaron Hansen, Khagendra Basnet, Muhammad Qammar Shehzad, Santosh Nepali, Ramesh Upreti, Tony Chau, Andreas Molund, Magnus Gundersen, Mathias Ose, Peter Aaser, Sindre Fjermestad, Kristian Normann, Emil Taylor Bye, Sigve Sebastian Farstad, Tom Glover, Caroline Sæhle, Andreas Giskeødegård, Gonzalo Alsina, Håkon Wold, John Anthony
Bachelor Students
- Jonas Karlsen, Rayan Nabaz Kanabi, Andreas Loar Jensen, Younes El Amir Kheloufi Hansen, Stian Pettersen, Dennis Brill Janssen, Ellen Fougner Arnesen, Trygve Berger Ausland, Hedda Marie Westlin, Rosy Oo, Ilham Jilani, Danial Afzaal, Yassin El-Barkani, Niman Yusuf, August Reinholt, Jan Andre Fagereng, Kim Mikal Torp, Øyvind Innvær Mjelstad, Joachim Berg, Gustav Berggren, Arqam Sajid, Ruben Jahren, Sivert Borgeteien, Nikolai Sveum Hopland, Vako Varankian, Mona Heggen, Sondre Rosenborg
Research Assistants
- Etienne Guichard, Carl-Hendrik Peters, Ashay Singh, Preeti Grewal, Sanyam Jain, Aarati Shrestha, Giulia Marchiori, Alessandro Pierro, Håkon Weydahl, Alexandre Variengien, Sergio Sotres, Vako Varankian, Christina Eline Ellingsen, Stephanie Hoebeke, Haakon Haraldsen Roen, Åsmund Røst Wien, Jonas Ege Carlsen
Artists
- Ingvild Bertelsen
- Daniel Slåttnes