Brendan CoughlanBrendan Coughlan

Research

Exploring intelligent systems.

I'm currently pursuing my Master's in Computer Science at the College of Staten Island, with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

My current research focuses on reinforcement learning and multi-agent decision-making, particularly how different learning approaches perform in strategic environments.

Current Research

Master's Thesis

Evaluating Actor-Critic Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Agent Decision-Making in So Long Sucker

College of Staten Island

Multi-agent reinforcement learning provides a framework for studying decision-making among interacting agents in competitive and cooperative environments. So Long Sucker is a four-player strategic game involving competition, temporary coalitions, and changing player incentives.

Previous research introduced the game as a multi-agent reinforcement learning benchmark and evaluated value-based methods including Deep Q-Networks (DQN), Double DQN (DDQN), and Dueling DQN.

My research extends this work by evaluating actor-critic reinforcement learning methods and comparing their performance with these previously tested value-based approaches.

Approach

01

Reproduce

Replicate the existing value-based experiments to evaluate reproducibility and establish experimental baselines.

02

Extend

Implement selected actor-critic reinforcement learning methods within the existing So Long Sucker environment.

03

Compare

Evaluate value-based and actor-critic approaches under comparable experimental conditions and analyze their relative performance.

Research Interests

Reinforcement LearningMulti-Agent SystemsDeep LearningArtificial IntelligenceMachine Learning