The Teamcore group is focused on research driven by real-world problems. Our roots are in Artificial Intelligence and within that areas of intelligent agents and multiagent systems and computational game theory: our research has dealt with systems where multiple intelligent agents interact, where these agents may be humans, software agents, virtual agents in simulations, virtual or real crowds, or robots. Given our focus on research inspired by real-world problems, typically problems of security, safety and sustainability, our collaborations cut across disciplinary boundaries. We have established strong collaborations with faculty members in Psychology, Operations Research, Civil and Environmental Engineering and several other departments at USC and elsewhere.

Key examples of this use-inspired research include our ARMOR, IRIS, GUARDS and PROTECT systems. While ARMOR is focused on a game-theoretic application for security scheduling at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), IRIS does game-theoretic scheduling for the FAMS (Federal Air Marshals service) and GUARDS for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). PROTECT generates weighted randomized patrols and is planned to be used by the Coast Guard. In this work, we created new algorithms for solving a class of game-theoretic games known as Stackelberg games to address efficiency concerns with existing techniques. Only in overcoming these challenges could we successfully produce a practical application for real-world use. Today, the ARMOR system has received numerous accolades and has been in use at LAX since August 2007. IRIS has been in use since October 2009. GUARDS and PROTECT are being evaluated by the TSA and the Coast Guard for large-scale deployment respectively.

While our research in multiagent systems includes work in Belief-Desire-Intentions (BDI) systems, in Distributed Constraint Reasoning (DCR), and in Decision Theoretic and Game Theoretic approaches, a key aspect of our research is the interedisciplinary partnerships beyond Computer Science, such as with the Game theory and human behavior group.