School of Computer Science and Statistics
Background Training a reinforcement learning agent from scratch for each new edge environment is expensive — in time, data, and compute. Yet edge networks vary enormously: a placement policy tuned for a dense urban deployment may perform poorly in a suburban network with different server topologies, user mobility patterns, and service mixes. Transfer Reinforcement Learning … Read more
Integer division and remainder are relatively complicated, expensive operations. Most modern processors have at least one integer multiplier unit that has both low latency (typically between 3 and 5 cycles) and high throughput (typically the unit can complete a multiply operation every cycle). In contrast, most modern processors do not have a fast integer division … Read more
Almost all modern processors provide special-purpose instructions for integer multiplication. However, some applications require integer values that are larger than fit in a single machine word, such as 256 bit integers. We can multiply these big integer values using a sequence of smaller multiplies. For example, multiplying two 256-bit integer values might be completed with … Read more
In some applications, such as many cryptography algorithms, multiplication by a known integer constant is a common operation. It’s well known that integer multiplication with a constant can be computed with a sequence of shifts and adds. Most modern processors already have fast integer multiplication units, so in software it is usually faster to use … Read more
Matrix multiplication is one of the commonly-used computations across a wide range of applications. For example, most implementations of neural networks implement very large numbers of matrix multiplications. Almost all processor and GPU manufacturers provide libraries with carefully hand-tuned fast matrix multiplication routines. All the best-known algorithms matrix multiplication are out-of-place; that is, the result … Read more
This project will develop a procedural facial feature adjustment system for Unreal Engine MetaHumans that dynamically modifies key facial characteristics based on psychological associations between facial traits and personality impressions—for example, enlarging eyes to convey honesty or adjusting jawline to suggest dominance. The system will map established psychological findings about how facial features … Read more
This project aims to enhance the visual diversity and realism of crowds in real-time virtual environments by combining AI-driven texture generation for clothing with procedural variation techniques applied to a limited set of template MetaHumans in Unreal Engine. By leveraging state-of-the-art AI models to generate diverse, high-quality clothing textures dynamically, the project will create varied … Read more
This project will explore how users select and customize avatars within educational virtual environments and how these choices affect engagement and identification with the learning experience. The student will review existing avatar customization systems, focusing on how well they support user identity expression and ease of use in educational contexts. Using a prototype avatar customization … Read more
This project will investigate how two core gaze behaviors, mutual gaze and gaze cueing, influence user behavior and attention in dynamic virtual environments. In real-world interactions, direct eye contact increases social presence and engagement, while observing another person’s gaze direction can automatically shift our own attention. Using immersive virtual reality, this study will simulate a … Read more
ELIGIBILITY: This project is for a student taking the online MSc in Statistics and Data Science. Survival analysis refers to models and methods for survival data, that is, data on the failure of a system. Usually this takes the form of times when failure occurs, with the failure referring to events like the system no … Read more