Careers in Artificial Life

Larger corporations that engage in computer science and high-tech research include IBM, as well as leading think tanks and research centers such as the Santa Fe Institute, the Rand Corp. and MIT. Check out these links for more companies engaged in A-Life research:

Preparing for a Career in Artificial Life

To prepare for a career in A-Life, a background in computer science, as well as strong theoretical mathematics and programming concepts, like algorithms and data structures, is necessary. In addition, it is necessary to have an understanding of concepts related to A-Life:

Cognitive psychology
Neurobiology
Philosophy
Computational biology
Legal reasoning
Medical informatics
Image understanding
Mobile robots
Instructional systems

Careers in Artificial Life

The field of Artificial Life is now in the formative stages. Most of the work that is done in A-Life is done through university and think tank research on A-Life theories. And now, large corporations and defense/security institutions are becoming interested in exploring how A-Life can be applied for practical purposes, such as:

Internet security and financial analysis.
Military contractors and aeronautics: building simulation software to formulate strategies
Medical researchers: creating a simulation of a heart muscle cell in order to test the probability of drug reactions on the body
Weather forecasting: creating models of weather systems
Software programming: making intelligent Web crawlers and searching algorithms that use adaptive techniques
Financial analysis: determining how markets will react to financial announcements