Dr. Karl Mason is a Lecturer Above the Bar (Assistant Professor) in the School of Computer Science at University of Galway. His research group aims to develop novel machine learning and AI algorithms, and to apply these to solve real world problems. His research explores multiple topics including: deep learning, evolutionary computing, reinforcement learning, multi-agent systems, swarm intelligence and robotics. He has also applied these algorithms to problems including: renewable energy, infrastructure planning, smart grid, and cloud computing.

Dr. Mason is a Research Ireland funded Principal Investigator. He has secured over 2.1 million euro in research funding. To date, he has supervised/co-supervised over 15 funded researchers at the University of Galway, including postdoctoral researchers, PhD researchers and research assistants. Previously, he has held appointments as a visiting Academic at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK. This work was supported by the Charlemont Award from the Royal Irish Academy. He was also a Postdoctoral Researcher in the CIREGS lab at Cardiff University, UK (funded by the EPSRC) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA within the ACES Research Group, in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories. His work here was funded by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Science Foundation. He completed his PhD in Computer Science at University of Galway. This PhD dissertation was nominated for the European AI PhD Dissertation award. 

His work has been presented at leading AI conferences, including AAAI, AAMAS, GECCO and ECAI, as well as published in AI journals such as Transactions on Machine Learning Research and Neurocomputing. His applied work has also been published leading journals, including Applied Energy, Solar Energy, Advanced Functional Materials, and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence. He regularly reviews papers for top journals and serves on the program committee and senior program committee for multiple leading AI conferences, including: AAAI, AAMAS, ECAI and IJCAI. He was a guest editor in the 2023 special issue on Evolutionary Machine Learning for The Knowledge Engineering Review journal, published by Cambridge University Press. He has also organized multiple workshops at high profile AI conferences, e.g. ECAI and ECML.

Research Group: Mason Research Group

Research Publications: Google Scholar

Dr. Masons research interests include: Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Deep learning, Neural networks, Evolutionary computing, Reinforcement learning, and Multi-agent systems. His research also includes applications of machine learning methods to problems including: Robotics and automation, Renewable energy, Smart grid, and Cloud computing.

Data Science, Programming, Python, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Algorithms