Dr Cameron Browne

 

Research Fellow in Simon Colton's Computational Creativity Group at Imperial College, London. My current work involves Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) for procedural content generation in creative domains. I am investigating ways in which MCTS — typically used for move planning in games — can instead be harnessed to analyse, optimise and design new games, music and artwork.

Call for Papers: Monte Carlo Tree Search for Games, special session at CIG 2012.

Education
2008
1993
1991
1989		 PhD in AI and game design, QUT (Brisbane). Dean's Award for Outstanding Thesis.
Computer Science Honours, 1st class, La Trobe University (Melbourne).
Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, University of Queensland (Brisbane).
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Queensland (Brisbane).

Work

2010
2009
2008
2003
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994

 Research Fellow, Computational Creativity Group, Imperial College London.
Administrator, AI & Games Network, Imperial College London.
Research Associate, University of Edinburgh: Automated modelling for casual game design.
Developer, SWiSHzone.com (Sydney): SwishMax, the world's second most popular Flash editor.
Researcher/Developer, CISRA (Canon Research, Sydney): Artistic effects and animation.
Developer, Microsoft (Seattle): Windows 2000, GDI+ fonts for the NT Team.
Developer, CISRA (Canon Research, Sydney): Automatic font decoration. Inventor of the Year 1998.
Visiting Researcher, International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Berkeley (USA).
Tutor, Faculty of Information Technology, QUT (Brisbane).
Tutor, Department of Computing, La Trobe University (Melbourne).

Grants

2010

2009

2008

 EPSRC grant, UCT for Games and Beyond (EP/I001964), Imperial College London.
£546,000: Author and named researcher (part of larger £1.5m project).
TSB grant, Board Game Generation for the iPhone (AK318J), Imperial College London.
£15,000: Author and named researcher.
Flexibility Funding, Automated Math. Modelling for Casual Game Design, Univ. Edinburgh.
£12,000: Author and named researcher.

Books

2011
2005
2000

 C. Browne, Evolutionary Game Design, Springer, Berlin.
C. Browne, Connection Games: Variations on a Theme, AK Peters, Massachusetts.
C. Browne, Hex Strategy: Making The Right Connections, AK Peters, Massachusetts.

Thesis

2008

 C. Browne, Automatic Generation and Evaluation of Recombination Games, PhD Thesis, QUT.

Papers
2012 C. Browne, E. Powley, D. Whitehouse, S. Lucas, P. I. Cowling, P. Rohlfshagen, S. Tavener, D. Perez, S. Samothrakis and S. Colton, “A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods,” IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, 4:1, 1-43.

2011

 C. Browne, “On the Dangers of Random Playouts,” ICGA Journal, 34:1.
C. Browne, “Towards MCTS for Creative Domains,” ICCC-11, Mexico City.
J. Togelius, G. Yannakakis, K. Stanley and C. Browne (2011) “Search-based Procedural Content Generation:
     A Taxonomy and Survey,” IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games (in press).
C. Browne, “Metrics for Better Puzzles,” in Game Metrics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data,
     M. S. El-Nasr, A. Drachen, A. Canossa and K. Isbister (eds), Springer, Berlin (to appear).
C. Browne, “Counting Creatures,” Entertainment Computing (to appear).
G. Williams, C. Browne, S. Colton, S. Tavener, “Predicting Game Quality from MCTS Trees,” (in preparation).

2010

 C. Browne and F. Maire, “Evolutionary Game Design,” IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, 2:1, 1-16.
J. Togelius, G. Yannakakis, K. Stanley and C. Browne, "Search-Based Procedural Content Generation,"
     EvoApplications Workshop, LNCS 2024, 141-150.
A. Howlett, S. Colton and C. Browne, “Evolving Pixel Shaders for the Prototype Video Game Subversion,”
     AI and Games Symposium, AISB'10.
A. Martin, A. Lim, S. Colton and C. Browne, “Evolving 3D Buildings for the Prototype Video Game Subversion,”
     Proceedings of the EvoGames Workshop, 111-120.

2009

 S. Colton and C. Browne, “Evolving Simple Art-based Games,” EvoGames Workshop, LNCS 5485, 283-292.

2008

 C. Browne, “Duotone Truchet-like Tilings,” Mathematics and the Arts, 2:4, 189-196.
C. Browne, “Truchet curves and surfaces,” Computers & Graphics, 32:2, 268-281.
C. Browne, “Gaudi's organic geometry,” Computers & Graphics, 32:1, 105-115.
C. Browne, “Artistic box trees,” Fractals, 15:3, 249-253.

2007

 C. Browne, “Efficient trees: greed is good,” Computers & Graphics, 31:4, 610-616.
C. Browne, “Impossible fractals,” Computers & Graphics, 31:4, 659-667.
C. Browne, “Harmonograms,” Computers & Graphics, 31:2, 292-300.
C. Browne, “Taiji variations: Yin and Yang in multiple dimensions,”Computers & Graphics 31:1, 142-146.

2006

 C. Browne, “Wild knots,” Computers & Graphics, 30:6, 1027-1032.
C. Browne and P. Wamelen, “Spiral packing,” Computers & Graphics, 30:5, 834-842.
C. Browne, “Fractal board games,” Computers & Graphics, 30:1, 126-133.

2005

 C. Browne, “Cantor knots,” Computers & Graphics, 29:6, 998-1003.
C. Browne, “Rep-tiles with woven horns,” Computers & Graphics, 29:4, 625-629.

2003

 C. Browne, “Akron: Connections in a Higher Dimension,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:14.

2002

 C. Browne, “Hex Strategy 5: Opening Theory,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:10.
C. Browne, “Rep-tiles with Woven Horns,” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 5:4.

2001

 C. Browne, “Hex Strategy 4: Computer Hex,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:8.
C. Browne, “Gonnect: The Best of Go and Hex,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:6.

2000

 C. Browne, “Hex Strategy 3: Ladders,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:4.
C. Browne, “Hex Strategy 2: Board Analysis,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:3.
C. Browne, “Hex Strategy 1: Introduction and Basic Strategy,” Abstract Games Magazine, 1:2.

1998

 C. Browne, “Font Decoration by Automatic Mesh Fitting,” Electronic Publishing, Artistic Imaging, and Digital
     Typography, R. D. Hersch, J. Andre and H. Brown (eds), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 23-43.

1996

 C. Browne, J. Hogan, and J. Hynd, “Prediction of Student Performance Using Neurocomputing Techniques,”
     Proceedings of the 1st Australasian Conference on Computer Science Education, ACM, 57-72.

Erdõs number 3 (thanks Paul!)

Guest Editorship

2011

"Computational Aesthetics in Games," special issue of IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games.

Invited Talks

2010

2008

"Monte Carlo Tree Search," Imperial College London (UK).
“Fast Playouts for Connection Games,” Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet, Jena (Germany).
“Truchet Curves and Surfaces,” London Knowledge Lab (UK).
“Evolutionary Game Design,” Jet Propulsion Lab, Cambridge University (UK).

Programme Committees

2011

2010

Computers in Games (CIG 2011), Seoul (South Korea).
AI & Games Symposium (AISB '11), York (UK).
IEEE Games Innovation Conference (GIC'2010), Hong Kong.
11th annual European GAMEON Conference (GAMEON'2010), Leicester (UK).
IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games (CIG'2010), Copenhagen (Denmark).
Workshop on Procedural Content for Computer Games (PC Games 2010), Monterey (USA).
4th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital games (ICFDG 2010), Sydney (Australia).
AIBS Symposium on AI & Games (AI&GAMES 2010), Leicester (UK).

Workshop and Event Organisation

2010

 Android programming workshop, Imperial College London.
3rd Networking Event, AI & Games Network, Dana Centre (London).
MCTS: State of the Art, Imperial College London. The world's first international symposium on MCTS!
iPad programming workshop, Imperial College London.

Supervisions

2011
2010

 Stephen Tavener, PhD, Imperial College London, co-supervisor.
Gareth Williams, MSc, Imperial College London, co-supervisor.

Board Games

2010



2009


2008


2006

 Akron, Pancerola (Poland).
Margo, Pancerola (Poland).
Triad, Pancerola (Poland).
Celtica, Nestorgames (Spain).
Cross, Nestorgames (Spain).
Mutton, Nestorgames (Spain).
Rebel Moon Defense, Nestorgames (Spain).
Palago, Colour of Strategy (NZ).
Yavalath, Nestorgames (Spain).
Limit, Nestorgames (Spain).
Trilith, IQideas (NZ).

BoardGameGeek entry listing most of my game designs (55 at last count).

Artwork

2010
2009

2008


2007
2006
2005
2003
2000

Publicity art for the 10th anniversary of the California Mathematics Council.
C. Pickover, The Math Book, Sterling (contributor).
H. Gilbert and J. Lo, Performance and Cosmopolitics, Palgrave Macmillan (cover image).
A. Tiedermann, Pythagoras' Firkant: Matemagi for talfreaks, Forlaget Matematik, Nordby (contributor).
Bridges 2008, 11th annual Bridges Conference, Leeuwarden, Netherlands (exhibitor).
Computers & Graphics, all 2008 issues (cover image).
Fractals: Complex Geometry, Patterns, and Scaling in Nature and Society, September issue (cover image).
C. Pickover, The Mobius Strip, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York City (contributor).
C. Browne, Connection Games: Variations on a Theme, AK Peters, (cover image and illustrations).
H. Gilbert and A. Johnston, In Transit: Travel, Text, Empire, Peter Lang (cover image).
C. Browne, Hex Strategy: Making The Right Connections, AK Peters (cover image and illustrations).

Samples



 

September 2007 cover for Fractals.

  

2008 cover for Computers & Graphics.

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