Philip S. Thomas · Home (original) (raw)

Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Autonomous Learning Lab, and

Doctoral Program Director

Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences

University of Massachusetts

pthomas [at] cs [dot] umass [dot] edu

My research focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), with particular emphasis on reinforcement learning and AI safety. I introduced the qualia optimization (.pdf) framework, which formalizes problem settings where the experiential quality (e.g., pain or pleasure) of AI agents is considered alongside performance. I also introduced Seldonian algorithms for safe and fair AI. I am the co-director of the Autonomous Learning Lab (ALL) at UMass (2017–present) and president and co-founder of the Reinforcement Learning Conference (RLC).

Previously I worked as a postdoc for Emma Brunskill at CMU. I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UMass in 2015, where Andrew Barto was my adviser. I completed my B.S. and M.S. in computer science at CWRU in 2008 and 2009, where Michael Branicky was my adviser. Before that, in high school, I was introduced to computer science and mentored by David Kosbie.