Home ▻ Research▻People▻Computer Science

Computer Science

Dr Patrick Mannion

B.Eng, Phd

Contact Details

Lecturer Above the Bar / Assistant Professor in Computer Science
Computer Science Building
University of Galway
E: patrick.mannion@universityofgalway.ie
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zjX2dVcAAAAJ
 
researcher
 

Biography

Dr Patrick Mannion is a permanent member of academic staff at University of Galway, where he lectures in Computer Science. He is also Programme Director of the PgCert in Artificial Intelligence for Professionals. Since 2020 he has served as Deputy Editor of The Knowledge Engineering Review journal which is published by Cambridge University Press (impact factor 2.1, Scimago rank Q1). He previously served as a permanent Lecturer in Computing at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). 

He received a BEng in Civil Engineering, a HDip in Software Development and a PhD in Machine Learning from NUI Galway (now University of Galway), a PgCert in Teaching & Learning from GMIT (now ATU) and a PgCert in Sensors for Autonomous Vehicles from IT Sligo (now ATU). Dr Mannion was awarded an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and an NUI Galway College of Engineering and Informatics Postgraduate Scholarship for his PhD studies. He was a silver medalist in the 2006 Irish Junior Science Olympiad, and represented Ireland in the 2006 International Junior Science Olympiad in Sao Paulo. In 2018, he visited Prof Kagan Tumer at the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, Oregon State University as a Fulbright-TechImpact Scholar. 

Dr Mannion co-founded a workshop series on Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODeM), and has served as Co-Chair and Co-Organiser for all three editions held to date: MODeM 2021 (Online), MODeM 2023 (@ ECAI 2023, Kraków) and MODeM 2024 (@ ECAI 2024, Santiago de Compostela). He also served as Co-Chair and Co-Organiser for three editions of the Adaptive and Learning Agents (ALA) workshop series: ALA 2017 (@ AAMAS 2017, Sao Paulo), ALA 2018 (@ Federated AI Meeting 2018, Stockholm) and ALA 2019 (@ AAMAS, Montreal). Dr Mannion has served as a member of the Senior Steering Committee of the Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop series since May 2019. He has also served on the Senior Program Committee for the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence for three editions: ECAI 2020, ECAI 2023 and ECAI 2024.

Dr Mannion regularly reviews for many of the top AI conferences and journals such as the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and various IEEE journals. He previously served as a Guest Editor for three special issues on Adaptive and Learning Agents and for a special issue on Evolutionary Machine Learning for The Knowledge Engineering Review journal. He is currently serving as Lead Guest Editor for two topical collections of the Springer journal Neural Computing and Applications (Impact Factor 6.0), and as Lead Guest Editor for a special issue on Multi-Objective Decision Making for the Springer journal Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (Impact Factor 1.9).

His main research interests include (sequential) decision making, multi-agent systems, multi-objective optimisation, game theory, reinforcement learning and metaheuristic algorithms. Application domains of interest include transportation and autonomous vehicles, energy systems and smart grid, multi-robot coordination and AI for games (game-playing + procedural content generation). He has (co-)supervised two PhD students to completion, both of whom worked on multi-objective reinforcement learning. He currently (co-)supervises four PhD students at University of Galway and 1 PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.


Research Interests

Dr Mannion's main research interests are in the following areas:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
  • Game Theory
  • Multi-Objective Optimisation
  • Evolutionary Computation

Dr Mannion is also interested in applications of the above techniques to challenging problem domains, such as:
  • Game-playing Agents
  • Multi-Robot Systems
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Energy Systems / Smart Grid

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2020) 'Multi-Objective Multi-Agent Decision Making: A Utility-based Analysis and Survey'
Radulescu, R; Mannion, P; Roijers, DM; Nowé, A (2020) 'Multi-Objective Multi-Agent Decision Making: A Utility-based Analysis and Survey'. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 34 (10) [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Reward shaping for knowledge-based multi-objective multi-agent reinforcement learning'
Mannion, P; Devlin, S; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2018) 'Reward shaping for knowledge-based multi-objective multi-agent reinforcement learning'. Knowledge Engineering Review, 33 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'Special issue on adaptive and learning agents 2017'
Mannion, P; Harutyunyan, A; Subramanian, K (2018) 'Special issue on adaptive and learning agents 2017'. Knowledge Engineering Review, 33 [Details]
(2017) 'Policy invariance under reward transformations for multi-objective reinforcement learning'
Mannion, P; Devlin, S; Mason, K; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2017) 'Policy invariance under reward transformations for multi-objective reinforcement learning'. Neurocomputing, 263 :60-73 [DOI] [Details]
(2017) 'Multi-agent credit assignment in stochastic resource management games'
Mannion, P; Devlin, S; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2017) 'Multi-agent credit assignment in stochastic resource management games'. Knowledge Engineering Review, 32 [DOI] [Details]
(2015) 'Pyritiferous mudstone/siltstone: factors affecting expansion and predictions of expansion rates'
McCabe, B.A., McKeon, E.P., Virbukiene, R.J., Mannion, P.J., O'Connell, A.M. (2015) 'Pyritiferous mudstone/siltstone: factors affecting expansion and predictions of expansion rates'. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 48 :41-54 [DOI] [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2016) 'An Experimental Review of Reinforcement Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Traffic Signal Control'
Mannion, P; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2016) 'An Experimental Review of Reinforcement Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Traffic Signal Control' In: Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems. :47-66 CHAM: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG. [DOI] [Details]

Conference Publications

  Year Publication
(2019) 2019 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2019)
Rockefeller, G; Mannion, P; Tumer, K (2019) Curriculum Learning for Tightly Coupled Multiagent Systems 2019 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2019) [Details]
(2019) Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop (at AAMAS 2019)
Radulescu, R; Mannion, P; Roijers, DM; Nowé, A (2019) Equilibria in Multi-Objective Games: a Utility-Based Perspective Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop (at AAMAS 2019) Montreal, [Details]
(2019) International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP)
Talpert, V; Sobh, I; Kiran, BR; Mannion, P; Yogamani, S; El-Sallab, A; Perez, P (2019) Exploring applications of deep reinforcement learning for real-world autonomous driving systems International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP) [Details]
(2017) AAMAS'17: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS
Mannion, P;Duggan, J;Howley, E (2017) A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Reward Transformations in Multi-Objective Stochastic Games AAMAS'17: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS , pp.1625-1627 [Details]
(2016) Learning, Inference and Control of Multi-Agent Systems (at NIPS 2016)
Mannion, P; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2016) Generating Multi-Agent Potential Functions using Counterfactual Estimates Learning, Inference and Control of Multi-Agent Systems (at NIPS 2016) Barcelona, [Details]
(2016) AAMAS'16: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS AGENTS & MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS
Mannion, P; Mason, K; Devlin, S; Duggan, J; Howley, E (2016) Multi-Objective Dynamic Dispatch Optimisation using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning AAMAS'16: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS AGENTS & MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS Singapore, , pp.1345-1346 [Details]
(2015) ABMTRANS’15: 4th International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility, Traffic and Transportation Models, Methodologies and Applications
P. Mannion, J. Duggan, & E. Howley. (2015) Parallel Reinforcement Learning for Traffic Signal Control ABMTRANS’15: 4th International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility, Traffic and Transportation Models, Methodologies and Applications [Details]
(2015) Adaptive Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop held at AAMAS ’15
P. Mannion, J. Duggan, & E. Howley (2015) Learning Traffic Signal Control with Advice Adaptive Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop held at AAMAS ’15 [Details]
(2015) Adaptive Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop held at AAMAS ’15
P. Mannion, J. Duggan, & E. Howley (2015) Parallel Learning using Heterogeneous Agents Adaptive Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop held at AAMAS ’15 [Details]

Thesis

  Year Publication
(2017) Knowledge-Based Multi-Objective Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning.
Mannion, P (2017) Knowledge-Based Multi-Objective Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning. National University of Ireland Galway Thesis [Details]

Honours and Awards

  Year Title Awarding Body
2018 Fulbright-TechImpact Scholarship Fulbright Commission
2015 Best Paper Award 5th NUIG UL Research Day 2015
2014 Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Irish Research Council
2013 College of Engineering and Informatics Postgraduate Scholarship National University of Ireland Galway
2006 Silver Medallist Irish Junior Science Olympiad

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop Series Senior Steering Committee Member 13-MAY-19 /

Committees

  Committee Function From / To
Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop @ AAMAS 2019, Montreal Co-chair 01-NOV-18 / 31-MAY-19
Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop @ Federated AI Meeting 2018, Stockholm Co-chair 01-NOV-17 / 31-MAY-18
Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop @ AAMAS 2017, Sao Paulo Co-chair 01-NOV-16 / 31-MAY-17

Employment

  Employer Position From / To
National University of Ireland Galway Lecturer in Computer Science 01-JUN-19 /
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology Assistant Lecturer in Computing 01-JAN-17 / 31-MAY-19

Education

  Year Institution Qualification Subject
2019 Institute of Technology Sligo PgCert Sensors for Autonomous Vehicles
2018 Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology PgCert Teaching and Learning
2018 National University of Ireland Galway PhD Machine Learning
2013 National University of Ireland Galway HDipAppSc Software Design and Development (Industry Stream)
2012 National University of Ireland Galway BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning