Giuseppe Cuccu

Hello, I'm Giuse (pron. "Joozeh"),

I'm an USI PhD candidate at IDSIA under the supervision of Faustino Gomez and Jürgen Schmidhuber.

Short bio

I was born on the mountainous interiors of the Island of Sardinia (IT). I got both my BSc and MSc in Computer Science in Milan at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, under the supervision of Leonardo Vanneschi.

I'm interested in machine learning for non-linear controls: I mostly work with evolved neural networks for reinforcement learning control tasks. My efforts are focused on fitness estimation, with particular regard on the role of explicit exploration scores in individuals' evaluation.

I always look for inspiration in game intelligence and robotics, as a way to keep science in contact with reality. I'm a big fan of the Lisp programming language - although I code mostly in Mathematica since two years. I'm also an addicted but non-religious linux user since 2004.

Keywords: Machine Learning, Non-linear Controls, Evolutionary Computation, Recurrent Neural Networks, NeuroEvolution, Reinforcement Learning, Fitness Estimation, Explicit Exploration, Game Intelligence, Evolutionary Robotics.

I'm an eclectic, playful and passionate person. I love literature, foreign languages, martial arts, strategy, sports, cooking, videogames, engineering, motors (particularly motorbikes), and much more. I have a broad curiosity and I like to share it.

Honors and awards

• October 2009: Best Paper Award of the conference ICEC 2009, for the paper "A Study of Genetic Programming Variable Population Size for Dynamic Optimization Problems", L. Vanneschi and G. Cuccu.
• 2009: Summa cum Laude grade from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, based on career and thesis outcome.
• 2003-09: Scholarship from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, based on career.

Teaching experience

1. September 11 Thesis field supervisor - Master Course, Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Lugano (CH)
   Alessandro Andreani - A Mathematica-YARP Interface for Robotic Controller Neuroevolution - [ pdf ]
   Awarded a score of 10/10 and praised for outstanding breadth and complexity.

2. April 10: Thesis official supervisor - Bachelor Course, Università di Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Milano (IT)
   Marko Bojovic - Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies: Studio, Implementazione ed Estensione - [ pdf ]
   First collaboration between IDSIA and UNIMIB.
   Awarded a score of 9/10 and praised for its innovative content.

3. Fall semester 09: Teaching Assistant - Master Course, Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI)
   Intelligent Systems
   Achieved maximum TA grade, with positive nominations from both university staff and students.
   Different students asked for a stage position after the course; one was ultimately accepted with prominent results (see Andreani above).

Book chapters

• Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2011, Volume 343/2011, 121-134
  Reconstructing Dynamic Target Functions by Means of Genetic Programming Using Variable Population Size, Leonardo Vanneschi and Giuseppe Cuccu - [ ref ]

Journal Publications

1. Vincent Graziano, Tobias Glasmachers, Tom Schaul, Leo Pape,
   Giuseppe Cuccu, Jürgen Leitner, and Jürgen Schmidhuber (2011):
   Artificial Curiosity for Autonomous Space Exploration.
   To appear in: Acta Futura Journal (ESA).
   [ pdf | ref | code ]
   
   

Conference Publications

Open Source Utilities

• rbackup - Remote backup utility, based on rsync and completely safe
• sshkeyauth - Sets up password-less ssh access setup via shared keys - warning, will overwrite your configuration
• sshconf - Constructs server configuration for ~/.ssh/config, completely safe
• icub_install - iCub install script (to come)

Contact

• 
  +41 (0)58 666 6670
  
  
• IDSIA
  c.a. Cuccu
  Galleria 2,
  6928 Manno
  Switzerland
  
  
• Get to IDSIA's building.
  Go to the center of the building, floor 1.
  Head west to find IDSIA's corridor.
  Walk it all down, I'm in Room 208.
  
  
cv