Austin Ferguson

Austin Ferguson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Grand Valley State University's College of Computing. His research focuses on leveraging computational modeling to advance evolutionary biology theory through experimental/digital evolution, artificial life, and evolutionary computation.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. Candidate (2024) in Computer Science and Engineering & Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from Michigan State University
  • B.S. (2018) in Digital Simulation and Gaming Engineering & Computer Engineering from Shawnee State University

Research Interests: Austin specializes in digital evolution frameworks to study evolvability and historical contingency in evolutionary processes. His work enables controlled experiments on evolutionary dynamics that are challenging in natural systems.

Teaching: He emphasizes foundational computer science education spanning programming, data structures, computer architecture, and Linux terminal/git proficiency, while also promoting interdisciplinary exploration.

Personal: Passionate about outdoor activities (hiking, cycling, ultimate frisbee), game development, and plant care (notably succulents). Active in academic software development with repositories like pyvarco and contributions to tools like MABE2 and Empirical.