Dr. Alan Mackworth

Biography

Alan Mackworth is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. He earned his B.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1966, an A.M. from Harvard University in 1967, and a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex in 1974. Mackworth began his academic career as a Lecturer at the University of Toronto from 1967 to 1970, subsequently serving as an Assistant Professor at UBC in 1974, an Associate Professor in 1979, and a full Professor from 1984 onwards. He has been recognized as an Institute Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. As a prominent researcher in artificial intelligence, his work focuses on building intelligent systems and understanding how knowledge agents can perceive, reason, and act in real-world environments. He has pioneered developments in constraint-based computational intelligence including constraint programming, which have applications across various domains such as robotics, scheduling, and simulation. Mackworth has also worked on the online Constraint Net model, which aids in the design and verification of intelligent embedded systems. His research includes building sensor-based robotic systems and creating teams of mobile robots for tasks like soccer playing and telerobotics.

Research Interests