Roy H. Campbell
Also known as Roy Campbell
Roy Campbell is a computer scientist known for operating systems and internet video, and his research also applies machine learning to health data. He joined the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign faculty in 1976 and led its Systems Research Group until his retirement in 2019. In 2019 he co-authored an arXiv paper describing SimPLe, a model-based deep reinforcement learning algorithm for Atari games, and a PLOS ONE study on unplanned intensive care unit readmission. He held the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi professorship from 2004 to 2019 and was recognized as an IEEE Fellow in 2005. As of October 2026, he is the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.
- Works
- 788
- Citations
- 18,240
- h-index
- 63
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1969–1976
Degrees from Sussex and Newcastle
He receives a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Sussex in 1969. He then completes an M.Sc. in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1976, both in computer science, at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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1976–2019
Systems Research Group at Illinois
He joins the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign faculty in 1976 and leads the Systems Research Group until his retirement in 2019. His early research includes the Vosiac real-time internet video distribution system and object-oriented parallel processing operating systems.
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2004–2019
Sohaib and Sara Abbasi professorship
He is named the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professor in computer science in 2004, a post he holds until 2019.
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2005
Named an IEEE Fellow
He is recognized as an IEEE Fellow in 2005.
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2011–2017
Director of Assured Cloud Computing
He becomes director of the Assured Cloud Computing University Center of Excellence in 2011 and holds the post until 2017.
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March 2019
SimPLe for Atari games
He co-authors Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Atari, a paper submitted to arXiv in March 2019. The paper describes SimPLe, a model-based deep RL algorithm built on video prediction models.
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2019
Predicting ICU readmission
He co-authors a 2019 PLOS ONE study on unplanned intensive care unit readmission. The study uses recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory.
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As of October 2026
Emeritus professor at Illinois
He is a computer scientist and the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. His research interests include machine learning, neural networks, transformers and federated learning, applied to health data analytics.
Sources and credits
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- Roy H. Campbell - Wikipedia
- After 43 Years, Roy Campbell Retires, But Legacy of Innovation, Leadership Will Remain | Siebel School of Computing and Data Science | Illinois
- Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professorship in Computer Science | Siebel School of Computing and Data Science | Illinois
- [1903.00374] Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Atari
- Analysis and prediction of unplanned intensive care unit readmission using recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory | PLOS One
- Roy H Campbell | Information Trust Institute | Illinois