Katja Hofmann

I am a Principal Researcher at the Game Intelligence group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, where I lead a research team that focuses on reinforcement learning with applications in video games. We share the belief that games will drive a transformation of how we interact with AI technology. One of the projects developed by my team is Project Malmo, which uses the popular game Minecraft as an experimentation platform for developing intelligent 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.

Before joining Microsoft Research, I completed my PhD in Computer Science as part of the ILPS group at the University of Amsterdam. I worked with Maarten de Rijke and Shimon Whiteson on smart search engines that learn directly from their users.

Current Students

I currently co-supervise the following PhD students, who are funded through the Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship program:

• Rémy Portelas (Inria, Bordeau, France) co-supervised with Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
• Steindor Saemundsson (Imperial College London, UK) – co-supervised with Marc Deisenroth
• Luisa Zintgraf (University of Oxford, UK) – co-supervised with Shimon Whiteson