Projects & Collaborators

Research I'm either leading or involved with, both here at American University and with external collaborators. If you're a student interested in working on a project with me please take a look!

Projects

Generative AI & creative tools:

• Robust LLM-based AI
• Characterizing generative audio
• Parametric design for creative tools

Game AI, simulation & design:

• Automated and assisted game design
• Modeling social processes in games
• What does AI's success at game playing tell us?

See also: Publications

Students

Current:

• Waheeb Al Mimoni: Undergraduate research assistant, Spring 2026
• Joseph DeNavas: Undergraduate research assistant, Summer 2025 – present
• Katherine Nechyba: Undergraduate research assistant, Spring 2026
• Megan Williams: Undergraduate research assistant, Spring 2026

Recent past:

• Adam Liewehr: Undergraduate research assistant, Fall 2025
• Emma Taylor: MS thesis student, Fall 2024 – Spring 2025
• Chris Pedretti: Undergraduate research assistant, Spring 2024 – Fall 2024
• Javad Rajabi: Graduate research assistant, Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
• Yifei Wang: Graduate research assistant, Fall 2022 – Spring 2023
• David Dunleavy: Graduate research assistant, Fall 2020 – Spring 2022
• Shi Johnson-Bey: Visiting PhD student (from UC Santa Cruz), Summer 2021
• Ilia Kowalzik: Graduate research assistant, Spring 2021

Collaborators

Current:

• Mark Cartwright, New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Swen Gaudl, University of Gothenburg
• Amy K. Hoover, New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Elliot Meyerson, Cognizant AI Lab
• Ben Samuel, University of New Orleans
• Mike Treanor, American University

Past:

• TODO, for now see coauthor sidebars on DBLP or Google Scholar.

Labs & Resources

• Computing resources provided by Lovelace (the American University HPC cluster) and the National Research Platform
• Student desk and equipment space in the Computer Science lab, DMTI 212
• Affiliated faculty at the AU Game Center, which has a variety of resources

Alumni

• Emma Taylor (MS, 2025) – Now a Fulbright scholar
• David Dunleavy (MS, 2022) – Now on the OpenXLA team at Google

• Thorbjørn S. Nielsen (MS, 2015) – Now at Hutlihut Games
• Nina Croitoru (MS, 2013) – Now PhD student at the IT University of Copenhagen
• Simon Cutajar (MS, 2013) – Now at Resolution Games
• Martin Dejean (MS, 2013) – Now at Unity
• Tilman Geishauser (MS, 2013) – Now at KUKA
• Oana Goge (MS, 2013) – Now at HIA Technologies
• Nils Iver Holtar (MS, 2013) – Now at Interactive Tapes
• Miika Pirtola (MS, 2013)
• Isaac Dart (MS, 2011)