Stefano Nichele, Professor profile picture

Stefano Nichele

Professor
Østfold University College
Machine Learning research group
Director of Østfold AI hub

Email: stefano [DOT] nichele [AT] hiof [DOT] no
Address: B R A Veien 4, 1783 Halden, Norway
Office nr.: D1-039
Postal: P.O. Box 700, NO-1757 Halden

Professor II
Oslo Metropolitan University


My research is in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Life (ALife), and Complex Systems (CS).

My long-term goals are:
  • understand how intelligence can emerge in machines as it does in biological organisms;
  • create machines that are more adaptive, alive, and generally intelligent.
To achieve such goals, I investigate:
  • evolution of genetic representations for intelligent and living machines;
  • self-organization and development of robot brains and bodies;
  • global coordination and learning through local interactions;
  • emergence of complexity from simple rules.

Keywords

  • Artificial Life, Complex Systems, Evo-Devo, Cellular Automata, Evolutionary Robotics
  • Artificial General Intelligence, Biological and Artificial Neural Networks, Reservoir Computing
  • Bio-inspired and Evolutionary Computation, Unconventional Computing, Computational Neuroscience


Short CV

  • 2022 - ongoing: Professor, Østfold University College, Halden, Norway
  • 2022 - ongoing: Professor II, OsloMet, Oslo, Norway
  • 2023 : Visiting Professor (6 months), University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
  • 2021 - 2022: Professor, OsloMet, Oslo, Norway
  • 2020 - 2022: Adjunct Research Scientist, Simula Metropolitan, Oslo, Norway
  • 2017 - 2021: Associate Professor, OsloMet, Oslo, Norway
  • 2014 - 2017: Researcher, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
  • 2016: Visiting Researcher at Robotics, Evolution and Art Lab, ITU, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 2010 - 2014: PhD in Computer Science, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
  • 2009: MSc in Computer Science, Univerity of Insubria, Varese, Italy


Awards

  • 2024: Distinguished Early-Career Investigator Award by the International Society for Artificial Life
  • 2024: Best oral presentation award at NORA annual conference 2024
  • 2022: Best paper award at ICML (International Conference on Machine Learning) workshop "Collective Learning Across Scales"
  • 2021: IEEE Brain Award runner-up at IEEE SSCI 2021
  • 2019: Young Research Talent Award by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR)
  • 2017: Best poster award at ECAL 2017
  • 2015: Publication Prize at the Dept. of Computer and Information Science at NTNU, Norway
  • 2015: Best paper award at Future Computing 2015


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