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Professor, Teaching Stream,
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto
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Research Profile
I've been involved in several research projects over the years. While the projects listed below are a summary of my current and past research, I'm open to discuss new ideas and research collaborations.
Publications
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Engels, S., Pikula, B., FlexComb: A Facial Landmark-based Model for Expression Combination Generation, poster presentation at AIIDE ‘23 (Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment)
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Engels, S., Gerigk, J., Playing Various Strategies in Dominion with Deep Reinforcement Learning, poster presentation at AIIDE ‘23 (Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment)
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Engels, S., Design Factors for Educational Video Games, PhD thesis
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Engels, S., Tong, T., Chan, F., Automatic Real-Time Music Generation, poster presentation at AIIDE ‘15 (Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment)
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Nacke, L., Engels, S., Mirza-Babaei, P., Actionable Inexpensive Games User Research, in Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '15)
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Engels, S., Zingaro, D., Tong, T., Designing and Evaluating Audio-Based Game Features, poster presentation at CHI Play (part of ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
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Engels, S., Massively Multiplayer: A Dozen Schools Teach Together, Collaboratively and Competitively, lecture presentation at Game Developers Conference 2014
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Engels, S., Eisner, D., Automatic Real-Time Music Generation, poster presentation at Game Developers Conference 2011
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Engels, S., Lakshaman, V. and Craig, M., Plagiarism Detection using Feature-Based Neural Networks, in Proceedings of Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference 2007
Current Research
My current research interests revolve around video game design and applications of machine learning & artificial intelligence (largely related to game design).
Facial Expression Generation
I've been fortunate enough recently to collaborate with Ubisoft La Forge on several exciting projects. Some of the initial work that led me to La Forge was in facial expression generation, which created authentic character expressions based on facial training data in the wild.
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Game Design for STEM Education
Our student research teams work
with UofT's Science
Unlimited program to create
games that can supplement the
high school science
curriculum. We generate around
half a dozen games each year, in
the hope that we can create a
complete corpus of activities
that help science teachers in
and out of the classroom.
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Automatic Music Generation
We have created software that
can take in a piece of music,
analyse the patterns in the
notes, and generate original
music in the same style, in real
time, forever. We presented this
research at the Game Developer's
Conference in 2011, and have
been working on it since then to
improve the way it generates
music at a high level.
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3D Terrain Generation
Similar to the music generation project, we created a tool that allows a level designer to specify basic constraints that a level must have, before filling in the rest of the level with procedurally generated terrain. This tool allows levels to be stored very cheaply as simply contours, which would make it easier for game servers to transmit large-scale levels in a short amount of time. In addition, the type of terrain generated by this tool can be based on a corpus of example levels, which can make the style of the new level imitate the style of the original level.
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Augmented Reality
We've worked on making a real-time augmented reality product for mobile devices, which detects features in a room with the digital camera, and estimates the dimensions of the room based on the relative movement of these features.
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Past Research
My initial research interests at the University of Toronto were in applications of artifical intelligence techniques and video game design.
Games for the Blind
For several years, Daniel
Zingaro and I designed video
games for blind players. Our
goal was to raise the standard of
these games, by providing a set
of best practices for potential
game designers.
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Games for Seniors
I've done some work over the
years with Dr. Jing
Feng (and indirectly, with
Dr. Ian
Spence) on their research
into video
games to improve
cognition. Based on their
findings, we make games that act
as the basis for further
research. They provide the
target, and we try to hit it :)
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Open Data
Open data (and big data in general) will be a really big thing in the not-so-distant-future. Large information datasets are a currency that some people hoard and are reluctant to share. But this is why it's exciting to have groups like the Canadian government release large datasets in the hope that people will generate cool apps from it...like me :)
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Biometrics
I hate the thought of identity
theft, and wanted to find a way
to prevent people from using my
computer while I'm away from my
desk, or impersonating me after
hacking my account. We created a
secondary security algorithm
that tracks the cadence of a
user's typing style, and would
kick a current user out if the
user's typing style didn't match
that of the account owner.
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Captcha Decoding
One day I wondered how hard it
would be to remove the
distortions from a Captcha text
image. As it turns out, the
distortions wern't the biggest
obstacle to overcome. Getting a
decent OCR tool that's available
for free? Now that's
hard.
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Plagiarism Detection
What features do you use to figure out that two students have been cheating off each other for their assignment? We created a neural network that trains off student assignments, to figure out what features are good indicators for plagiarism. Not only does it create a strong classifier, it lets you know which features are important, and which ones aren't useful at all.
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Steve's Research, before UofT
My research interests started in artificial
intelligence, with leanings towards natural
language processing. I did my master's degree
at the University of
Waterloo, under the supervision of Dale
Schuurmans.
During that time, I was exploring the areas of
machine learning, natural language and
information extraction. I took a term as a
graduate intern at Whizbang!
Labs and took another term to teach.
The focus of my research was on the use of
human learning techniques to improve the
performance of language learning systems,
particularly through the use of developmental
learning heuristics. See the documents below
for more information on these past research
interests.
M.Math Thesis
Effects of Developmental Heuristics for Natural Language Learning
Supplementary Slides, Intro to Comp Sci course (CS 134, UWaterloo)
| Title | Subject | Format |
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| Explanation of Interfaces |
CS 134 Slides |
Postscript,
Powerpoint |
| Davis Centre Simulation Document |
CS 134 Slides |
Powerpoint |
| Code for Sublist and Binary Tree Methods |
CS 134 Slides |
Postscript,
Powerpoint |
| Maximum Sum Solutions |
CS 134 Document |
Word |
| So You Want To Do Formal Verification |
CS 134 Handout |
Postscript,
Word |
| Verification of Selection Sort |
CS 134 Document |
Postscript |
| Verification of Quicksort |
CS 134 Document |
Word |
Research Presentations
Course Reports
Stat NLP Tutorials
Assorted
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