Assistant Professor Xi Jessie Yang and Associate Professor Cong Shi, from U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering, have received funding from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to continue their research in improving the trust dynamics between human agents and autonomous agents.
The ARL is the nation’s premier laboratory for land forces. It focuses on research that modernizes the Army while also emphasizing disruptive science and technology for long term and future Army capabilities.
“We are excited to work on the project. It allows us to investigate trust-driven human-agent teaming,” said Yang. “This project gives us opportunities to build synergies with researchers from ARL and to work on long-range and large scope projects.”
“…This project gives us opportunities to build synergies with researchers from ARL and to work on long-range and large scope projects.”
Jessie YangAssistant Professor, U-M Industrial & Operations Engineering
The goal of this research is to have a fundamental understanding of trust dynamics in human-agent teams wherein a human agent interacts with a highly capable autonomous agent.
The researchers hope to develop computational models that enable the autonomous agent to make optimal decisions by explicitly considering trust dynamics in the team. This research will be highly beneficial to the ARL, which is overseeing the ever-transforming application of human-agent teaming throughout many aspects of U.S. Army operations.
Cong Shi will serve as co-PI on the research. Shi’s primary research interests are focused on the design of efficient algorithms with theoretical performance guarantees for stochastic optimization models in operations management.
Jessie Yang joined U-M IOE in 2016 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. Beyond human-agent teaming, Yang’s main research interests include human factors in high-risk industries.
