About Me:

I work for the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida, and I hold a secondary joint appointment with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science". My area of interest is in developing empirical research and theory for understanding coadaptive learning algorithms for multiagent systems. In particular, in my dissertation I focused on using evolutionary game theory as a tool for understanding the dynamics of compositional (cooperative) coevolutionary algorithms. My wife is an ordained Lutheran Pastor (ELCA). She is currently serving as supply pastor to Epiphany Lutheran Church in Oviedo, Fl. Before that, she used to serve as pastor of Lutheran Church of the Living Word in Columbia, MD. Our daughter, Epiphany Rose Wiegand, is a rambunctious and precocious preschooler.

Recent Activities

• I am co-teaching IDS 5719 (Quantitative Aspects of Modeling & Simulation) with Tom Clarke
• I am working with students to oranize the UCF Algorithms & Theory Group
• I am organizing the 5th annual 2011 Orlando Go Tournament
• I was invited to and attended the 2010 Dagstuhl Seminar on "Theory of Evolutionary Algorithms"
• I taught CAP 5610, Machine Learning Fall 2010
• I am faculty sponsor for the Go Club at UCF and one of the organizers of Go Orlando, an Orlando-based chapter of the AGA (I'm about 7k)
• Annie Wu and I are gradually working to merge our two labs, the NCCS lab and the EC lab, here at UCF
• I'm trying to pick up some simple wood working skills...
• Thomas Jansen, Annie Wu, Ivan Garibay, and I organized the last Foundations of Genetic Algorithms in Orlando, Jan. 9-11 2009.

Publications, etc.

• My research
• My publications
• My dissertation
• My CV (PDF file)