Bradley J. Best, PhD
College Instructor: Digital Design and Development, Computer Science, Psychology
President: Mindworks Technologies Incorporated
I am a tech educator and entrepreneur with deep experience in computational learning models and intelligent systems. I completed graduate degrees in Computer Science and Psychology and did my post-doctoral training in Human Computer Interaction, which ties the CS and Psych threads together.
My previous development shop, Adaptive Cognitive Systems LLC, focused on delivering human simulation software to government and academic collaborators and customers. After more than a decade of completing multi-year projects, I've moved on from the world of large-scale government contracting to focus on teaching tech and Psychology at North Island College and taking on smaller tech projects at Mindworks Technologies Inc.
When I'm not busy at work in front of a computer, I try to stay in motion as much as possible. Whether on a bike, skis, kayak, or foot, I like to keep moving.
Featured Projects
View selected projects below. If you'd like more information, contact me!
Training with Asymmetric Adversaries
Members of law enforcement organizations and the military often come up against people behaving badly. Learning how to deal with those people on the job can be incredibly costly. This project focused on delivering anywhere-anytime training software against simulated "bad guys". This enables learning to take place in simulation systems, where it's relatively cheap when things go wrong -- nobody gets hurt, nothing gets broken, and there's a low cost of failure. My role here was a dual role: lead developer (of the software), and lead psychological subject matter expert (for generating detailed behavior profiles for incorporation into the software).
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Modeling the Spread of an Illness
The spread of illness is often as related to human behavior as it is to the details of the pathogen itself but many commonly used models of epidemics leave that human element out. This project was completed for a Canadian public health agency to model the spread of illness, taking social and behavioral factors into account, and successfully simulating the historical spread of a particular illness in a large city. The primary gain of behavioral modeling is allowing for public health professionals to work through "what if" scenarios to see how changes in public behavior might impact the future spread of an illness. On this project, I served as the project and development lead, managing the overall project and communication with the client and leading the technical work.
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Rapid Tactics Generation
Simulation systems require extensive programming which makes their development prohibitively expensive. This project, completed for the US Office of Naval Research, focused on developing machine learning techniques for automatically generating computational models of behavior through task demonstration by human experts. Rather than programming flight maneuvers, we had real pilots execute tasks in a simulator and recorded their performance in detail (eye tracking, physiology monitoring, control inputs). Using these data, we developed techniques to learn to mimic their behavior (without programming it). To this end, I lead a team to develop novel machine learning algorithms and to develop a system to enable experts to demonstrate tasks in short vignettes.
View project / case studyWork Experience
Over the last twenty five years, I've lead and completed a variety of software projects focused on simulating human and intelligent behavior. For most of these projects, I was responsible for defining the concept, securing funding, negotiating contracts, hiring and training the team, and managing the budgets, in addition to performing as technical lead on them. Because many of these projects have an educational or training focus, it has been a natural fit to move directly to education, where I teach a number of classes informed by my work experience.
President
Mindworks Technologies Inc.
2017-present
Conduct R&D projects in human behavior modeling and simulation.
- Defined projects and secured funding.
- Developed team websites for sharing research results.
- Served as technical lead on software development of cognitive models
- Managed operations for business including all financial functions.
Instructor
North Island College, Digital Design and Development, Psychology
2019-present
In my role as an Instructor, I developed and taught college classes in a range of departments, eventually securing a permanent position split across Digital Design and Development and Psychology.
- Developed curriculum for remote digital learning (synchronous and asynchronous)
- Taught classes in Statistics, Psychology, Computer Science, Web Development, and Business.
- Assessed student work using a variety of novel assessments developed to work within a digital environment.
- Worked with students to identify goals and advance their knowledge and development of professional skills.
Chief Scientist, Managing Partner
Adaptive Cognitive Systems LLC, Boulder, CO and Blaine, WA
2006-2018
Completed government and industry funded research and development on computational models of human behavior totalling ~$5MMCAD across a decade.
- Managed all financial functions of company, including budgeting, planning, and securing of funding.
- Performed all Human Resources functions.
- Served as technical lead and project manager.
- Recruited, hired, and trained new employees.
- Chaired industry conferences and served as reviewer for a number of conferences and publications.
Senior Scientist
Micro Analysis & Design, Boulder, CO
2003-2006
Completed government and industry funded research and development on computational models of human behavior.
Education
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Human Computer Interaction, completed with adviser Christian Lebiere
Developed simulations of human behavior in virtual environments, including teamwork, communication, and spatial planning
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
PhD in Psychology, completed with advisers Herbert A. Simon and John R. Anderson
Conducted experiments (human data collection), modeling and simulation studies of people completing spatial tasks
Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
Master of Science in Computer Science
Thesis work developed system to recover stereoscopic depth from binocular images