PhD course "Intelligent Agents" Largely updated for fall 2025
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Research Topics
In Rudolf Mester's research group, we are currently addressing central topics of AI and Intelligent Systems.
Autonomy, Embodied AI for Robotics, and AI-based Maritime Systems are strongly represented in our projects,
but we address also problems of Explainability and the Validation of AI-based systems.
- Environment Perception for Autonomous Marine Vehicles
- Environment Perception for Autonomous Driving
- AI for marine surface vehicles (cooperation with NTNU's autonomous ferry projects, in SFI AutoShip and AutoSight)
- Large scale student project "AutoDocking25" (15 students from IDI and ITK, jointly supervised with E.Brekke, A.Stahl, D.Varagnolo, and M.Breivik)
- Perception for Underwater Snake Robots (together with Prof. Kristin Y. Pettersen and Prof. Annette Stahl)
- AI-based inspection of cracks and other structural faults in ship tanks
- Autonomous and semi-autonomous inspection and cleaning of ship hulls.
- Multi-sensor based surveillance of complex urban road crossings
- Simulated Multi-Vehicle Autonomous Driving and Autonomous Navigation, using reinforcement learning and MPC
- Large scale fish health tracking in aquaculture, including re-identification of salmon in populations of 100.000s. (NFR-project "cAIge")
Student Projects (status April 2025)
📢 Important: Students interested in the MSc/Preproject topics are advised to indicate their interest and their background early to Prof. Mester in order to secure a project in the 2025/26 season.
Individually designed student project topics based on personal background and interest are possible.
For a complete list of project topics see here in Innsida.
For students who have a particular interest in deep investigations into the mathematical/statistical structure of deep learning and who are not afraid of thorough theoretical analysis, there are challenging topics that can be defined also on individual preferences.