Andrew Barto Named Co-recipient of ‘Nobel Prize of Computing’ for Foundational Work on AI Technology
Andrew Barto and his former graduate student Richard Sutton honored with Turing Award as pioneers of reinforcement learning.
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Andrew G. Barto, University of Massachusetts Amherst Manning College for Information and Computer Sciences professor emeritus, has been awarded the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of a branch of artificial intelligence known as reinforcement learning (RL).
The honor is awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, and is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” It carries a $1 million prize, for which Google Inc. provides the financial support, and is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the foundations of computing more than 70 years ago.
Barto shares the award with his former UMass Amherst Ph.D. student, Richard S. Sutton, now professor of computer science at the University of Alberta, research scientist at Keen Technologies and a Fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii).
“I came to UMass Amherst in 1977 as a postdoctoral researcher to join three faculty members who were working on neural networks,” says Barto. “Sutton joined my lab, and UMass Amherst gave us the opportunity to be free ranging, exploring and pioneering the field.”
In a series of papers beginning in the 1980s, Barto and Sutton introduced the main ideas, constructed the mathematical foundations and developed important algorithms for reinforcement learning — a machine learning technique that teaches software to make decisions, one of the most important approaches for creating artificially intelligent systems. In the past 15 years RL has been merged with deep learning algorithms, leading to the technique of deep reinforcement learning.
“We are beyond thrilled that our UMass and UMass-trained researchers have won the ‘Nobel of computing,’” says UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes. “From the initial seeds that Barto and Sutton helped plant four decades ago, UMass Amherst has become a global leader in AI research, ensuring that as this technology continues to develop, it does so for the common good.”
Laura Haas, Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Dean of CICS says, “Andrew’s intellectual legacy lives on at UMass Amherst. While continuing to contribute to the growth of the field, he is guiding a new generation of UMass Amherst faculty and students who are pioneering algorithms for safety and fairness, and engaging researchers from around the world on new applications of reinforcement learning.”
Barto and Sutton, jointly and with others, developed many of the basic algorithmic approaches for reinforced learning. Their textbook, Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (1998), is still the standard reference in the field, has been cited over 75,000 times and continues to inspire significant research activity in computer science today.
“Research areas ranging from cognitive science and psychology to neuroscience inspired the development of reinforcement learning, which has laid the foundations for some of the most important advances in AI and has given us greater insight into how the brain works,” explains ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. “Barto and Sutton’s work is not a steppingstone that we have now moved on from. Reinforcement learning continues to grow and offers great potential for further advances in computing and many other disciplines. It is fitting that we are honoring them with the most prestigious award in our field.”
Andrew G. Barto
Andrew Barto began his career at UMass Amherst as a postdoctoral research associate in 1977 and has subsequently held various positions including associate professor, professor and department chair before receiving emeritus status upon his retirement in 2012. He received a BS degree in mathematics (with distinction) from the University of Michigan, where he also earned his MS and Ph.D. degrees in computer and communication sciences.
Barto’s honors include the UMass Neurosciences Lifetime Achievement Award, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence Award for Research Excellence and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Neural Network Society Pioneer Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
This story was originally published by the UMass Amherst Office of News and Media Relations.