CAREER: Identifying and Exploiting Multi-Agent Symmetries

NSF Award Search · 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $535,346 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

It is widely believed by scientists that our universe follows certain symmetry patterns and principles, which lead to profound implications such as conservation laws. Artificial intelligence (AI) can and has already benefited tremendously from exploiting these symmetries. This project seeks to identify and exploit symmetries that are prevalent in cooperative AI tasks, where a group of multiple autonomous sequential decision makers, or agents, plan and learn to maximize their combined benefit. As an example, consider the application of adaptive traffic signal control, where each intersection can be modeled as an agent controlling its traffic signal in a way that adapts to real-time traffic conditions to reduce congestion. There exist certain symmetries when the topology of the road network is regular, e.g., as a 4-connected grid, and the road condition is uniform. When done properly, such multi-agent symmetries can be identified and exploited to greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the current solutions to cooperative AI. This project also integrates the proposed research into an array of education initiatives, playing key roles in the curriculum development and undergraduate research experiences at the PI's university, as well as outreach activities that bridge academia with industry practitioners and community stakeholders. This research will establish a unified framework and develop a set of interdependent methods that formulate, identify, and exploit mul

Key facts

NSF award ID
2544948
Awardee
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)
SAM.gov UEI
HJNQME41NBU4
PI
Qi Zhang
Primary program
01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
CAREER-Faculty Erly Career Dev, ROBUST INTELLIGENCE, EXP PROG TO STIM COMP RES
Estimated total
$535,346
Funds obligated
$387,654
Transaction type
Continuing Grant
Period
07/01/2025 → 04/30/2028