“Artificial intelligence is inherently an interdisciplinary science.”

Research focus: Artificial intelligence, Philosophy of computing, Information and computing sciences

Computer scientist Mehdi Dastani is Professor and chair of the Intelligent Systems group of the department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University and program leader of the master program Artificial Intelligence.

Focus on artificial intelligence

His research focuses on formal and computational models in artificial intelligence. Inspired by knowledge and insights from other scientific disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, economy and law, Dastani investigates and develops computer models for autonomous agents whose behaviors are decided based on reasoning about social and cognitive concepts such as knowledge, desires, norms, responsibility and emotions.

Theories and applications of multi-agent systems

His current research focuses on theories and applications of multi-agent systems, in particular specification and programming languages for autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, logics to reason about (multi-)agent specifications and programs, agent-based social simulation, and formal modelling of social and cognitive phenomena such as autonomy, norm enforcement, monitoring and control, and decision making. Dastani has obtained several grants for his research, for theoretical as well as applied projects.

Inaugural lecture: Controllable Artificial Intelligence: A Human-centered Approach

Video: A different state of mind (Studium Generale)