Lisa Torrey - Associate Professor of Computer Science


I teach in the department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics at St. Lawrence University, where my courses are about programming, algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computational theory.

Most of my research involves agents that learn to perform tasks in complex virtual worlds using reinforcement learning. I study human-inspired ways to facilitate this type of learning, such as transfer from other tasks and advice or demonstration from a human or another agent. I have also been known to study human learning in computer science classrooms.

I mentor student projects in a wide range of topics, though most often in machine learning. Recent projects include:

  • Taonga Soko - SLU fellowship, Summer 2023
    Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of ChatGPT
  • Grace Cicchinelli - SLU fellowship, Summer 2022
    Denoising Protein Images with Deep Learning
  • Laura Bolduc - SLU fellowship, Summer 2022
    Using Game Camera Images to Identify Animal Presence
  • Peyton Hamilton - LAS scholarship, Spring 2022
    Simulating the Spread of Infectious Disease
  • Cameron Kessler - SURE fellowship, Summer 2021
    Using Machine Learning to Detect Tumors in MRI Brain Scan Images
  • Sam Reyes - LAS scholarship, Spring 2021
    Using Machine Learning to Predict Who Will Vote
  • Corinna Pilcher - Honors SYE, Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
    Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Reduce Data Analysis Limitations in Wildlife
  • Peixuan Cai - SYE, Fall 2020
    Exploring Object Detection in Atari Games