Katja Hofmann
Principal Researcher
About
I am a Principal Researcher and lead of Game Intelligence at Microsoft Research Cambridge. My team and I advance the state of the art in reinforcement learning, driven by current and future applications in video games. We share the belief that games will drive a transformation of how we interact with AI technology. My long-term goal is to develop AI systems that learn to collaborate with people, to empower their users and help solve complex real-world problems.
As part of the Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship program, I currently co-supervise the following PhD students:
- Rémy Portelas (Inria, Bordeaux, France) – co-supervision with Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
- Steindor Saemundsson (Imperial College London, UK) – co-supervision with Marc Deisenroth
- Laetitia Teodorescu (Inria, Bordeaux, France) – co-supervision with Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
- Luisa Zintgraf (University of Oxford, UK) – co-supervision with Shimon Whiteson
One of…
Featured content
Project Malmo competition returns with student organizers and a new mission: To democratize reinforcement learning
When I was asked about my favorite movie in a game with friends after my wedding ceremony, I replied Star Wars. That was about two decades ago, and, yes, it’s still the case. I especially like Return of the Jedi.…
Optimistic Actor Critic avoids the pitfalls of greedy exploration in reinforcement learning
One of the core directions of Project Malmo is to develop AI capable of rich interactions. Whether that means learning new skills to apply to challenging problems, understanding complex environments, or knowing when to enlist the help of humans, reinforcement…
The road less traveled: With Successor Uncertainties, RL agents become better informed explorers
Imagine moving to a new city. You want to get from your new home to your new job. Unfamiliar with the area, you ask your co-workers for the best route, and as far as you can tell ... they’re right!…
Malmo, Minecraft and machine learning with Dr. Katja Hofmann
Episode 39, August 29, 2018 - Dr. Hofmann talks about her vision of a future where machines learn to collaborate with people and empower them to help solve complex, real-world problems. She also shares the story of how her early years in East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, shaped her both personally and professionally, and ultimately facilitated a creative, exploratory mindset about computing that informs her work to this day.
The Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in MalmÖ (MARLÖ) Competition
Learning in multi-agent scenarios is a fruitful research direction, but current approaches still show scalability problems in multiple games with general reward settings and different opponent types. The Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in MalmÖ (MARLÖ) competition is a new challenge that…