About
My name is Derek Harter and I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Comp
uter Science and Information Systems at Texas A&M University - Commerce. These pages contain information and resources related to my professional, research and teaching activities.
My research focuses on developing biological approaches to modelling learning, psychology and complex bahavior in real-world robotics and artificial systems. My research spans several areas, from complex systems and neuroscience to cognitive science and psychology. I consider myself primarily a computational scientist, a new interdisciplinary category where I apply the tools of computation, modeling, software & hardware engineering and high performance computing to exploring fundamental scientific questions. My applied area is in understand intelligence, both animal and human, and using these insights to apply them to the development of artificial systems that exhibit aspects of these improved models of intelligent behavior. Research projects and papers found on this site relate to many of my following interests:
- Biology / Neuroscience: Biomimetics, Distributed Associative Networks, Computational Neurodynamics, Mesoscopic neuronal modeling, Cognitive Maps & Hippocampal Networks
- Robotics: Robot Design, Autonomous Learning, Sensorimotor learning, Epigenetic Robotics, Cognitive Robotics,
- Artificial Intelligence / Cybernetics: Dynamical Systems, Connectionism, Self-Organisation, Reward Learning, Pattern Recognition, Homeostasis, Dynamic Liquid Association, Collective Intelligence, Neural Network, Intelligent Tutoring Systems
- Psychology / Cognitive Science: Cognitive Modelling, Emotion, Schemata, Priming, Conditioning, Interactive Learning, Ontogenetic Development, Developmental Systems, Active Vision, Event Perception, Embodied & Situated Cognition, Evolution of Language
- Computational Science / Scientific Computing: Cluster Computing, Grid Computing, Scientific Visualization, Virtual Environments
Curriculum Vita: