Alan Fedoruk

Background

About Alan Fedoruk

Prior to joining MRU in 2006, I spent many years in the IT field as a computer technician, a programmer, a system administrator, a database and data administrator, and an application development manager. Now I teach computer science and computer information systems courses, mainly databases and web development, and general education courses.I did my PhD research in artificial intelligence using multi-agent systems (MAS) — systems composed of a distributed collection of simpler systems (agents). In much the same way that a single neuron is not capable of much, but billions of neurons together are a mind, the goal of MAS research is to explore how the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.I developed Stakeholder Search, which is a MAS comprised of a collection of ‘stakeholder agents’ that work cooperatively and competitively to find solutions to hard problems. A common approach to solving a difficult problem (e.g. land-use planning) is to gather the stakeholders together and have them work out a solution. Stakeholders will work toward finding a solution that meets their goals, at the same time as seeing that the collective goals are met. A stakeholder search works the same way. Agents try to find solutions that meet their own goals, and the MAS will collectively be trying to find solutions that meet the overall goals.I am a mountaineer, a skier, an environmentalist, and an urban cyclist. While riding my bike to work, I like to dream about living in a city without cars.