Austin Ferguson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (616)-331-3020
Office: MAK C-2-216
Website: Personal Website
Education
Dual Ph.D., Computer Science and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, & Behavior, Michigan State University, 2024
Semester Schedule
Other office hours by appointment only.
|
Day |
Session Title |
Time |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Monday |
CIS 241-1 CIS 241-2 |
12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. |
MAK A 1105 MAK A 1105 |
|
Tuesday |
CIS 162-10 |
8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. |
MAK BLL 110 |
|
Wednesday |
CIS 241-1 CIS 241-2 |
12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. |
MAK A 1105 MAK A 1105 |
|
Thursday |
CIS 162-10 |
8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. |
MAK BLL 110 |
|
Friday |
CIS 241-1 CIS 241-2 |
12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. |
MAK A 1105 MAK A 1105 |
Biography
Dr. Austin Ferguson is a computer scientist whose research leverages computational modeling to explore and advance evolutionary biology theory. His work focuses on running in silico experiments that would be otherwise impossible with natural organisms, offering insights into how life evolves and how we study that process. Dr. Ferguson's research bridges multiple domains, including artificial life, digital evolution, evolutionary computation, and artificial intelligence. He is a member of the International Society for Artificial Life and regularly serves as a reviewer for top conferences like ALife and GECCO. In the classroom, Dr. Ferguson is passionate about building strong theoretical and practical foundations in computer science, teaching everything from introductory programming and data structures to systems-level topics like computer architecture, Linux, and git. He also enjoys mentoring students with interests in interdisciplinary topics like agent-based modeling and evolutionary computation. Outside of academia, you’ll likely find him on a hiking trail, behind a board game, or attempting to keep his houseplants alive.
Recent Publications
- Austin J. Ferguson, Charles Ofria, Clifford Bohm; July 22–26, 2024. "Predicting the Unpredictable: Using replay experiments to disentangle how evolutionary outcomes are altered by adaptive momentum." Proceedings of the ALIFE 2024: Proceedings of the 2024 Artificial Life Conference. ALIFE 2024: Proceedings of the 2024 Artificial Life Conference. Online. (pp. 69). ASME. https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00801
- Austin J. Ferguson and Charles Ofria (2023). Potentiating Mutations Facilitate the Evolution of Associative Learning in Digital Organisms. Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Artificial Life, 496-504.
- Katherine G. Skocelas, Austin J. Ferguson, Clifford Bohm, Katherine Perry, Rosemary Adaji, Charles Ofria (2022). The Evolution of Genetic Robustness for Cellular Cooperation in Early Multicellular Organisms. Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Artificial Life, 345-353.
- Alexander Lalejini, Austin J. Ferguson, Nkrumah A. Grant, and Charles Ofria (2022). The evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity stabilizes populations against environmental fluctuations. (Article summary). Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Artificial Life, 143-145.
- Austin J. Ferguson, Jose Guadalupe Hernandez, Daniel Junghans, Alexander Lalejini, Emily Dolson, and Charles Ofria (2020). Characterizing the Effects of Random Subsampling on Lexicase Selection. Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XVII.
Research with Students
None ongoing (I just started!), but always happy to talk to interested students!