Lecturer

Kathryn Merrick is a lecturer in information systems at the University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA). She completed a Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Sydney in 2002 and a PhD in computer science through the National ICT Australia and the University of Sydney in 2007. She moved to ADFA in 2008.

Kathryn's research interests span the broad fields of artificial intelligence and virtual worlds. Specifically, she researches the design of computational models of motivation that allow machine learning algorithms to function in complex, dynamic environments. In such environments it may be difficult to predefine learning tasks or provide a teacher. Computational models of motivation use general task-independent concepts such as interest and curiosity to motivate the learning of task oriented behaviours.

Applications of Kathryn's research include the control of believable digital characters in online games, intelligent sensed environments, developmental robots and creative decision making.

Kathryn has worked as a computer programmer in the financial services industry, as an intern in digital image processing and as a research assistant at the Key Centre for Design Computing and Cognition at the University of Sydney.