Faculty

John Licato

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Associate Professor

ENB 301D | 813-974-6212

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Biography

John Licato is founder and director of the Advancing Machine and Human Reasoning (AMHR) Lab and owner of the startup company Actualization.AI. His research focuses on AI, NLP, human reasoning, cognitive modeling, and legal and regulatory reasoning, with practical applications informed by more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Licato is an associate professor in the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing at the University of South Florida. He earned a PhD in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2015, working under Professor Selmer Bringsjord and specializing in the computational modeling of analogical reasoning. He has been featured by NPR's Marketplace Tech, ABC Action News, Spectrum News and the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Research Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Computational Cognitive Modeling
  • Cognitive Science
  • Legal Reasoning
  • Tech Startups
  • Automated Theorem Provers
  • Argumentation
  • Human Reasoning

Teaching Interests

  • Natural language processing
  • Computational cognitive modeling and modeling human reasoning
  • Automated theorem proving
  • Logical reasoning with AI agents
  • Legal reasoning

Education

  • Ph.D., Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2015
  • B.S., Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude), University of South Alabama, 2010

Honors and Awards

  • Global and National Security Institute Faculty Senior Fellow (2024)
  • Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellow (2022,2023,2024)
  • Science Central STEM Community Fellow (2016)
  • Sigma Xi (IPFW Chapter) Researcher of the Year (2016)
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator's Program (YIP) award (2015,2017)
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Founders Award of Excellence (2012)