Research
I direct the Intelligent Agents Lab at UCF. My research is in the area of activity and plan recognition; my Ph.D. thesis was on multi-agent plan recognition and focused on the problem of recognizing tactical team plans from spatio-temporal traces of military teams in urban settings. I am lead editor of a book (Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition: Theory and Practice) on this topic. My work on activity recognition has focused primarily on the following domains:
- adversarial games
- assistive technologies
- human-robot interactions
- cooperation in multi-agent systems
- software support for human teams
My area of expertise is AI and machine learning, primarily in the context of multi-agent and multi-robot systems. For a synopsis of my group's work, please check out my UCF faculty showcase profile or the summary of my work on Data-Driven Social Informatics (long version). For my work on robotics check out this talk at the NSF Robot Learning workshop. To find out about me and other women STEM faculty at UCF, check out this interview. I was also interviewed for an overview on AI by the Florida High Tech magazine.
Graduate research applicants to my group should have prior experience in one of the following areas: multi-agent systems, machine learning, probabilistic graphical models, social media analysis, games/simulations, or robotics.
Awards and Recognitions
- AAAI Senior Member (2021)
- St. George's School John B. Diman Alumni Award (2017)
- IFAAMAS Board of Directors (2016-2022)
- DARPA ISAT Study Group (2015-2018)
- UCF Reach for the Stars (2015)
- ACM Senior Member (2013)
- UCF Research Incentive Award (2013, 2021)
- CECS Dean's Research Professorship Award (2013)
- UCF Faculty Excellence for Doctoral Mentoring (Engineering and Sciences) (2012)
- IEEE Senior Member (2012)
- CECS Distinguished Researcher (2011)
- Charles N. Millican Faculty Fellow (2010, 2012)
- NSF CAREER (2009)
- DARPA Computer Science Study Group (2009)
- AFOSR Young Investigator (2009)
- ONR Summer Faculty Fellow (2008)
Teaching
- Fall 2007: Plan, Activity and Intent Recognition (CAP6938)
- Spring 2008: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2008: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 3060C)
- Spring 2009: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2009: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 3060C)
- Spring 2010: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2010: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 3060C)
- Spring 2011: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2011: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 3060C)
- Spring 2012: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2012: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 3060C)
- Spring 2014: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Fall 2014: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2015: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Spring 2015: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Fall 2016: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Spring 2017: Intelligent Systems (CAP6671)
- Spring 2017: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Fall 2017: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Spring 2018: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2018: Intelligent Systems (CAP 6671)
- Fall 2018: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Fall 2018: Machine Learning (CAP 5610)
- Spring 2019: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2019: Intelligent Systems (CAP 6671)
- Fall 2019: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Fall 2019: Machine Learning (CAP 5610)
- Spring 2020: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2020: Intelligent Systems (CAP 6671)
- Fall 2020: Algorithms for Machine Learning (CAP 4611)
- Fall 2020: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Spring 2021: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2021: Intelligent Systems (CAP 6671)
- Fall 2021: Robotic Systems (EEL 4660)
- Spring 2022: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Fall 2022: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Fall 2023: Introduction to Robotics (EGN 4060C)
- Spring 2023: Intelligent Systems (CAP 6671)
Office Hours (Fall 2023-Spring 2024)
- Zoom only (by request)
Service
- Associate Editor, ACM Transations on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (TAAS)
- Program Committee, International Conference for Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2007)
- Program Committee, AAAI Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition (PAIR 2007)
- Organizing Committee, Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science (OURCS 2007)
- Program Committee, International Conference for Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Special Multi-Robot Track (AAMAS 2008)
- Program Committee, AI Video Competition (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Program Committee, Conference on Foundation for Digital Games (FDG 2009)
- Publication Chair, Pacific Rim International Conference on Multi-Agents (PRIMA 2009)
- Co-Organizer, IJCAI 2009 Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition
- Program Committee, 2009 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT 2009)
- Doctoral Mentoring Co-Chair, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2010)
- Program Committee, Florida AI Research Society (FLAIRS 2010, 2011, 2012)
- Program Committee, IEEE Computational Intelligence in Games (CIG 2010)
- Program Committee, Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2010)
- Program Committee, IAT 2010)
- Co-Organizer, AAAI 2010 Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition
- Co-Organizer, AAAI Fall Symposium on Proactive Assistant Agents, PAA 2010
- Associate Editor, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010)
- Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2011)
- Program Committee, ICAPS 2011 Workshop on Goal, Activity, and Plan Recognition
- Program Committee, International Joint Conference on AI (IJCAI 2011)
- Program Committee, AI and Interactive Entertainment (AIIDE 2011)
- Co-Organizer, AAAI 2011 Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition
- Program Committee, 2011 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT 2011)
- Program Committee, 2011 International Joint Conference on Ambient Intelligence (AMI 2011)
- Co-chair and Chair, AAAI Symposia Series (2012-2017)
- Program Committee, International Conference for Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2012)
- Program Committee, Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2012)
- Program Committee, ASE/IEEE International Conference of Social Computing (SocialCom 2012)
- Program Committee, 15th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2012)
- Program Committee, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT 2012)
- Program Committee, ASE/IEEE International Conference on Social Informatics (Social Informatics 2012)
- Program Committee, IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games (CIG 2012)
- Program Committee, Ubicomp 2012 Workshop on Situation, Activity, and Goal Awareness (SAGAware2012)
- Program Chair, AAAI Conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2012)
- Senior Program Committee, Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2013)
- Program Committee, International Conference for Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (Main and Demo Tracks) (AAMAS 2013)
- Organizing Committee, AAMAS Workshop on Multiagent Interaction Networks (MAIN 2013)
- Program Committee, ASE International Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom 2013)
- Organizing Committee, AAAI Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition (PAIR 2013)
- General Chair, AAAI Conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2013)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference for Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (Robotics Track) (AAMAS 2014)
- Program Committee, International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI2014)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2014)
- Area Chair, International Conference on Social-Cultural Modeling and Behavior Prediction (SBP 2014)
- Organizing committee, AAMAS Workshop on Agents, Virtual Societies, and Analytics
- Senior Program Committee, National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2014)
- Student Scholarship Chair and Senior Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2015)
- Senior Program Committee, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015)
- Associate Editor, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015)
- Doctoral Mentoring Co-Chair, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2016)
- Workshop Co-Chair International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2016)
- Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2016)
- Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2016)
- Workshop Co-Chair, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2017)
- Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2017)
- Senior Program Committee, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2017)
- Program Committee, AAAI Senior Member Presentation Track (AAAI 2018)
- Program Chair, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS 2018)
- Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2019)
- Program Committee, AAAI Workshop on Plan, Activity, and Intent Recognition (PAIR 2019)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2019)
- Senior Program Committee, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2019)
- General Chair, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2020)
- Senior Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI for Social Impact (AAAI 2020)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2021)
- Senior Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI for Social Impact (AAAI 2021)
- Program Committee, European Conference on Multi-agent Systems (EUMAS 2021)
- Program Committee, AAMAS Doctoral Consortium (AAMAS 2021 DC)
- Co-chair, IJCAI Diversity and Inclusion Program, (IJCAI 2021)
- Program Committee, Conference on Uncertainty in AI, (UAI 2021)
- Organizing Committee, AAAI Fall Symposium on Computational Theory of Mind for Human-Machine Teams (TomForTeams 2021)
- Co-chair, Workshop track, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2022)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2022)
- Senior Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI for Social Impact (AAAI 2022)
- Program Committee, International Conference on Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 2022)
- Co-chair, IJCAI Diversity and Inclusion Program, (IJCAI 2022)
- Senior Program Committee, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI for Social Impact (AAAI 2023)
- Co-chair, AAMAS Diversity and Inclusion Program, (AAMAS 2023)
- Area Chair, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2024)
- Program Committee, AAAI Conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2023)
- Program Committee, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2023)
- Senior Program Committee, International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2024)
- Program Committee, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2024)
- Program Committee, European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2024)
- Reviewer, Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (JAAMAS)
Biography
I joined the faculty of computer science at University of Central Florida, Orlando in fall 2007. I received my Ph.D. from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon, an M.S. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon, and an A.B. in psychology from Princeton University. Between my masters and Ph.D., I worked as a researcher at Compaq Research/HP Labs (CRL) in the handheld computing group. Outside of work, I practice martial arts and have a shodan (1st degree black belt) in Shotokan Karate. I also have an advanced PADI diver certification and have recently completed my 270th dive. My husband (and diving buddy), Dr. Rahul Sukthankar, is a researcher in computer vision at Google Research.
Contact
Dr. Gita Sukthankar
University of Central Florida
Department of Computer Science
Mail: 4000 Central Florida Blvd
Orlando, FL, 32816-2362
Physical: 4328 Scorpius St.
Orlando, FL, 32816-2362
Tel: 407-823-4305
Dept Fax: 407-823-5835
Email: gitars at eecs.ucf.edu