School of Computer Science and IT

Automated Scheduling,

Optimisation and Planning

(ASAP) Research Group

Research Report 2003 – 2004

Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1

Innovative Decision Support ............................................................................................ 2

Raising the Level of Generality: A Platform for the Future............................................. 4

Timetabling....................................................................................................................... 5

Cutting and Packing ......................................................................................................... 6

Space Allocation............................................................................................................... 7

Commercial Spin Outs ..................................................................................................... 8

Production Scheduling...................................................................................................... 9

Airport Runway Scheduling ........................................................................................... 10

Airline Scheduling.......................................................................................................... 11

Healthcare Personnel Rostering...................................................................................... 12

Radiotherapy Planning and Scheduling.......................................................................... 13

Co-operative and Collaborative Decision Support......................................................... 14

Bioinformatics ................................................................................................................ 16

Artificial Immune Systems............................................................................................. 18

Grid Scheduling.............................................................................................................. 19

European Collaborations ................................................................................................ 20

The Inter-Disciplinary Optimisation Laboratory............................................................ 21

Publications .................................................................................................................... 22

External Research Awards.............................................................................................. 30

Professional Activities.................................................................................................... 35

Contact Details ............................................................................................................... 43

ASAP Personnel ............................................................................................................. 44

How to Find Us .............................................................................................................. 48

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Introduction

The Automated Scheduling, OptimisAtion and Planning (ASAP) Research Group is one of four research groupings in the School of Computer Science and IT at the University of Nottingham. The School was awarded a grade 5 in the 2001 RAE exercise. Since our last report (2001 – 2002), ASAP has continued to expand. The group currently has 9 members of academic staff (previously 5), 13 postdoctoral research assistants (previously 8) and 34 PhD students (previously 24).

Our research funding has also continued to grow. As in previous years, much of our funding comes from the UK research councils but we have a significant portfolio of research income across a variety of funding sources (see pages 30-34). Since 2003, we have held 35 awards from EPSRC, BBSRC and ESRC which represents a total of £4.5M. This includes an EPSRC Platform award which provides flexible funding to internationally leading groups to enable them to retain key researchers. We have also been successful in obtaining significant EU support, having secured well over €1M. In addition, our industrial research support has seen significant expansion.

This level of industrial support reflects one of our over-riding research goals: to address the complexity and uncertainty that is inherent in a wide variety of real world decision support scenarios. Another main research challenge that the group is addressing is the question of how we can raise the level of generality at which optimisation systems can operate.

We take a broad inter-disciplinary approach to our research. Our core research into underlying search methodologies lies at the interface of Operational Research and Artificial Intelligence and our application areas range across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines and industrial settings.

The ASAP group is pleased to present this overview of our activity during 2003 and 2004. We present a significant amount of work, across a diverse range of applications, which has led to a number of major research achievements. With these achievements in place, and solid scientific foundations laid, we look forward to the exciting and demanding research challenges that lie ahead.

The ASAP Group

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Innovative Decision Support One of the long term goals of the ASAP group is to bring about a fundamental step change in the impact that decision support systems have on industry, commerce, science and government. Addressing the complexity, uncertainty and dynamic nature of real world problems represents a series of key scientific challenges in the development of intelligent and effective decision support systems. In order to achieve this long term goal, the group draws upon its broad inter-disciplinary experience at the interface of Operational Research and Artificial Intelligence to investigate and explore a wide range of techniques and methodologies.

A brief overview of the approaches and methods that have underpinned the group’s research into decision support methodologies is outlined below. Note that these methods are not developed in isolation and, indeed, most of our decision support methodologies are a hybridisation of two or more of these techniques.

Heuristics: A characteristic of the type of problem we address is that the search space is so large that we cannot usually generate the guaranteed best (optimal) solution. Instead, we have to develop heuristics which usually generate good results but offer no guarantees. A heuristic can be thought of as a rule of

thumb.

Simulated Annealing: Hill Climbing is a very simple heuristic that always takes the best solution it can find until it finds no better solution in its neighbourhood. Its major drawback is that it gets stuck in local optima. Simulated Annealing is, essentially, a hill climbing algorithm that will sometimes accept lower quality solutions in order to escape from local optima.

Prof. Gendreau, from the University of Montreal, presenting an ASAP seminar

Tabu Search: This approach is similar (in a certain sense) to Simulated Annealing. It is also based upon Hill Climbing and has a mechanism to escape from local optima. The basic approach employs a tabu list where certain moves are prohibited for a certain number of iterations.

Evolutionary Algorithms: Genetic Algorithms are motivated by the evolutionary process, in the sense that a population of solutions is maintained and the population evolves according to survival of the fittest. Genetic Programming draws on similar motivation but the population consists of programs rather than solutions. Co-evolution refers to techniques where different entities evolve in a co-operative or competitive environment. A Memetic Algorithm can be thought of as a hybridisation of a population based approach and a local search approach (such as Hill Climbing, Simulated Annealing or Tabu Search). The basic idea is that the local search algorithm is applied to each member of the population before the next generation is produced.

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Swarm Optimisation Algorithms:

These approaches mimic the way that animals, birds and insects collectively solve tasks. They are characterised by the emergence of group behaviour from simple individual actions. Perhaps the most often seen example of this type of behaviour is the way that birds flock together. Ant Algorithms are a well known example of this type of approach being employed as an optimisation technique. This method draws its inspiration from the way that ants forage for food.

Artificial Immune Systems: These are emerging as another form of biologically inspired computing. They take their inspiration from the natural immune system which protects our bodies from a wide variety of harmful bacteria and viruses. See page 18 for more details.

Variable Neighbourhood Search: Local search methods tend to use the same neighbourhood structure throughout the search process. Variable Neighbourhood Search enables this structure to change as the search progresses.

Hyper-heuristics: This term refers to heuristics to choose heuristics. It should not be confused with the well known term, meta-heuristics, which usually refers to the broad collection of modern methods that include Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, Evolutionary Algorithms etc). The term hyper-

heuristic simply refers to a search of a space of heuristics rather than a space of potential direct solutions to a problem. Most implementations of meta-heuristics operate on such a search space of direct problem solutions, but ASAP is developing meta-heuristics (and other) methods as hyper-heuristics.

Case Based Reasoning: This is an artificial intelligence methodology based on the premise that human reasoning processes are founded on specific experience rather than a set of general guidelines or first principles. In order to utilise past experience, solutions to earlier problem solving situations are memorised as cases. The memorised cases are organised in a case base and utilised for solving new problems. The retrieval of relevant previous cases is crucial to the success of this methodology. The usefulness of previous cases is determined by assessing the similarity of a new problem with the previous cases.

Fuzzy Reasoning: This constitutes a framework for modelling the decision making processes that we all carry out in the presence of many different forms of uncertainty in the real world. Mechanisms have been created for inferencing or reasoning within this framework.

Agent Based Methods: An agent can be thought of as some form of self-contained, autonomous entity capable of making decisions, either alone or in co-operation with other similar agents. Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems have been applied to solve problems in an increasingly wide range of complex applications.

Adaptive learning: This is a broad term which essentially refers to various computational methods that can adapt to the particular circumstances of the problem that they are trying to solve.

Multi-objective Decision Making:

These methods enable constraints of a fundamentally different nature to be handled simultaneously and enable the system/user to make an appropriate compromise between them according to the regulations and requirements of the particular problem in hand.

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Raising the Level of Generality: A Platform for the Future Our belief is that the next generation of decision support methodology needs to be able to operate at a greater level of generality than is currently possible. The current state of the art tends to employ bespoke tailor-made algorithms (that have had problem specific information hard-coded into them). The development of such problem specific approaches is expensive and resource intensive.

There are, of course, many situations where it is critical to generate the best possible solution. However, in many other real world situations, a company or institution does not require close-to-

optimal solutions. On the contrary what is often required are solutions that are “good enough – soon enough – cheap

enough.” The goal of building a more general methodology that can adapt to specific problem environments and learn about such environments represents one of the most significant research challenges to face the international community.

The ASAP group was awarded a prestigious Platform grant (GR/S70197) worth £422,908 by EPSRC in 2003, which is specifically concerned with this demanding research goal. Indeed, much of our work across several grants is seeking to investigate a range of research issues that impact upon this important scientific challenge. Particular research themes being explored are:

1. Hyper-heuristics (heuristics to choose heuristics): The development of systems which can automatically select the right methodology for the particular problem solving environment in hand is one of the major motivations behind research into hyper-heuristics. Building on a major EPSRC award (GR/N36837), ASAP has been instrumental in driving forward the international research agenda in this area.

2. Genetic Programming: A recent EPSRC award (EC/C523385/1) is exploring Genetic Programming within a hyper-heuristic framework. The idea is to explore how heuristics can be evolved to suit different problem solving environments.

3. Self Adaptation: The group is investigating the development of self-adaptive programs/heuristics that can respond to changing environments and to changing problems.

4. Knowledge Based Heuristic Selection: Another exciting and radical research initiative being undertaken is the exploration of case based methodologies for heuristic selection. The group has developed a highly successful system to intelligently select timetabling heuristics under EPSRC grant GR/M95516/01.

Dr Kendall explains the concept of hyper-heuristics

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Timetabling

The ASAP group has been at the forefront of research into automated educational timetabling for many years and plays a distinguished role in the international timetabling community.

ASAP has been instrumental in organising the international series of conferences on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT) and in attracting both researchers and practitioners to exchange their ideas and approaches to various timetabling problems. The 5th PATAT conference was held in Pittsburgh (USA) in August 2004, while the next will take place in Brno (Czech Republic) in August 2006.

The ASAP group played a major role in the foundation of the EURO (European Association of Operational Research Societies) Working group on Automated Timetabling (WATT). WATT now comprises 388 members from 69 countries.

The main aim of our timetabling research is to investigate novel methods for automatically solving various educational timetabling problems. The emphasis is on:

• The use of parameters which are readily apparent to the timetable officer, such as the time which the decision maker is willing to spend on the construction of a timetable and an estimation of the quality of the desired timetable.

• The development of search techniques which can efficiently search over a very large set of neighbourhood solutions.

• The investigation of hyper-heuristics which can intelligently select a low level heuristic to be applied at each step of timetable construction, by using reinforcement learning.

• Multi-criteria approaches to timetabling which can better reflect the preferences of the different groups of people who are affected by timetabling decisions.

• Case-based reasoning approaches to timetabling in which previous experience gained during solving timetabling problems is employed in solving a new problem.

• Fuzzy-sets and other fuzzy based approaches which handle uncertainties that are inherent in timetabling problems, such as assessing the difficulty of scheduling a course/exam, measuring the similarity between two timetabling problems, etc.

• The development of learning mechanisms which aim to improve the performance of knowledge based timetabling systems.

• The exploration of more general approaches to timetabling problems which can be successfully applied to a wide range of problems, thus reducing the time required for the development of a system for a specific instance of the problem, while at the same time offering high quality timetables.

Prof. Mike Trick opening

PATAT 2004 in Pittsburgh

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Cutting and Packing

Cutting and packing problems cover a wide variety of industries and include cutting steel rods into certain lengths (a 1D problem), cutting cardboard for packaging (2D), cutting polycarbonate and glass for conservatory roofs (2D), cutting sheet metal for ducting (2D) and container loading (3D).

ASAP have been carrying out research into this type of problem for many years and we currently (end of 2004) have the very best results on all the standard international benchmark problems that have appeared in the literature in 2 dimensional rectangular packing and irregular packing. This represents over 80 benchmark datasets across both broad problem areas.

An example of 2D irregular packing for which ASAP has obtained best benchmark results

Two funded projects have recently been successfully completed (“Applying

meta-heuristics and hyper-heuristics to

stock cutting”: EPSRC CNA 00802329) and (“New Approaches to Produce

Efficient Nesting Patterns”: Teaching Company project: TCS 3047). On both these projects we worked with Esprit Automation Ltd, a local engineering company. The results from these projects are being commercially exploited in the steel cutting industry by Esprit. In addition, we have recently established a new spin out company (see page 8) to commercially exploit the results of our work in other industries such as textiles, poly-carbonates and in container packing.

We are continuing to develop innovative heuristic and hybrid approaches to this challenging and industrially relevant problem. We are also undertaking a significant research effort to explore a series of issues surrounding the following unanswered research question: What is the role of a geometric structure (called the No Fit

Polygon) in cutting and packing? We have recently secured a major EPSRC award, held jointly with the University of Southampton, to explore this question. The grant is entitled “An

Investigation of Cutting/Packing and

Planning using Automated Algorithm

Selection” (GR/S52414/01).

The project aims to find a robust implementation of an algorithm to generate No Fit Polygons. Such an algorithm would have a major impact on cutting and packing research but, so far, its development has eluded the scientific community. However, the development of such an algorithm would also have applications beyond cutting and packing. For example, there could be major scientific gains to be made in robot obstacle avoidance. This is particularly appropriate for ASAP, given the investment we have just made in this research area (see pages 14-15).

Our algorithms can, for the first time, deal with irregular shapes containing holes

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Space Allocation

The ASAP group is at the forefront of the development of search methods for solving space allocation problems. These are large and difficult real-world problems in which the central issue is to design layouts which are able to allocate physical space in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Such problems are faced by managers across many different areas, and the development of advanced decision support technology is crucial to help them find adequate solutions. Examples of these problems are the management of office/teaching space and the design of layouts for the distribution of shelf space in shops.

Screen shot of an office space allocation system

ASAP has pioneered research into the application of modern search methods for these problems. Indeed, we have developed effective state of the art hybrid meta-heuristic methods to tackle the problem of allocating office space in academic institutions from both the single and the multiple objective perspectives. In addition, we have recently received significant EPSRC funding (£205K - grant GR/T26115/01) to continue our work in this important area. This project collaborates closely with Real Time Solutions Ltd (who market office space management software) and the School of the Built Environment (who will provide crucial input on space planning).

Efficient shelf stacking can provide an important competitive edge for companies such as Tesco

We have another EPSRC award (“An

Investigation of Novel Methods for

Optimising Shelf Space Allocation”: GR/R60577/01) to address the problem of effectively packing items onto supermarket shelves. This EPSRC funded research is also supported by Tesco. The problem can be thought of as a 3D packing problem, as a generalised knapsack problem or as a shelf space allocation problem.

Solutions to such problems are sometimes called planograms. These are graphical representations that show exactly the way in which products are located on shop shelves. The project has developed highly effective adaptive search techniques (hyper-heuristics) which can automatically deal with different instances of the problem and which can produce high quality planograms across a broad range of problem instances.

A multi-layered approach for space allocation

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Commercial Spin Outs

As mentioned in the Introduction, one of ASAP’s fundamental research goals is to address the high levels of complexity and uncertainty that are present in many real world problem solving environments. There is, of course, a significant level of algorithmic insight and understanding that can be gained from problem solving models which abstract away from the real world. Such work can offer an important foundation upon which the decision support community can build. However, there is also a major scientific challenge in modelling and solving complex real world problems which has (in the past) not received as much scientific attention as it deserves. The ASAP group’s overall research mission is underpinned by the goal of tackling this major research challenge.

One of the advantages of taking this approach is that our algorithms can often be readily employed in commercial systems. Indeed, the group’s research has directly led to the formation of two spin out companies which exist to market software that is underpinned by the ASAP group’s research achievements.

eventMap Ltd.

http://www.eventmaponline.com

eventMAP is actually a spin out from two universities: Nottingham and Queen’s University of Belfast. The company represents a successful commercial collaboration between the two universities. eventMAP markets innovative and effective educational timetabling software around the world.

Its systems have been implemented in Australia, France, New Zealand, USA and UK. More details about the group’s timetabling research can be seen on page 5.

Aptia Solutions Ltd.

http://www.aptiasolutions.com

Aptia Solutions is a brand new University of Nottingham spin out company that seeks to exploit the world- leading algorithms we have developed in two and three dimensional cutting and packing. The formation of the company was supported by HEFCE and the East Midlands Development Agency over two start-up grants. As at January 2005, the company has just been formed and we are in the process of formulating and implementing a marketing strategy and a business plan. Indeed, the two grants mentioned above have been awarded to address exactly these tasks.

Novel 3-dimensional packing algorithms

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Production Scheduling

ASAP carries out a multi-disciplinary programme of research into production scheduling which attempts to draw together three research themes for solving difficult, uncertain and dynamic real-world scheduling problems: scheduling/rescheduling, fuzzy reasoning and multi-criteria decision making. ASAP has a large EPSRC grant (GR/R95319/01), held jointly with the Control Theory and Applications Centre (Coventry), which is supported by two industrial collaborators: Sherwood Press Ltd. and the Denby Pottery Company.

The main aim of our research is to develop new methodologies for automated production scheduling systems using multiple, usually conflicting scheduling criteria, in the presence of various identified sources and levels of uncertainty. Scheduling problems are modelled as decision analysis problems under uncertainty with the aim of giving scheduling experts a more interactive role than in classical approaches. The identified uncertain parameters and constraints are formalised using fuzzy logic and fuzzy set based techniques and reflect the preferences of the scheduler.

A significant challenge in tackling real-world scheduling problems is to identify disruptions that occur on the shop floor (such as the dynamic arrivals of new jobs, machine breakdowns, cancellation of jobs, etc.) and to respond to them by modifying the existing schedule. The evaluation of the modified schedule is based both on measures of schedule performance and on schedule stability.

Within production scheduling we are also investigating printed circuit board assembly. This is the problem of placing electronic components onto a printed circuit board. The overall aim is to minimise the amount of time it takes to place all the components, so as to maximise production throughput. The problem can be modelled as a travelling salesman problem but this only solves part of the problem. Our industrial partner on this project, DIMA ST Systems, has presented us with many of the real-world constraints that impact on the problem. These include moving the robot head more slowly when transporting a large component and aligning the component whilst moving the robot head. We have had success in solving this problem using heuristic and hyper-heuristic based approaches.

Providing easy to use visual interfaces is vital in industrial applications

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Airport Runway Scheduling The ASAP group is working with National Air Traffic Services Ltd (NATS) to investigate new meta-heuristic approaches to airport runway scheduling. This project is funded by EPSRC and NATS and was awarded through the auspices of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and Systems Engineering (Faraday Partnership). The project is concerned with airport problems across the UK but is specifically concentrating upon data from Heathrow Airport. The team are interacting closely with staff at Heathrow to ensure that the entire complexity and uncertainty that is inherent in the problem is tackled.

Aircraft queuing for departure

The overall goal is to develop the search methodologies which would underpin a decision support system to aid air traffic controllers in scheduling departing aircraft. The problem is essentially concerned with sequencing aircraft for departure in order to maximise the throughput of the airport and minimise delays. There are a number of constraints which need to be addressed when generating this sequence. For example, the minimum allowed amount of time between departing aircraft is one minute but, if a small aircraft is following a large aircraft, this may have to be increased to two, three or even four minutes. Other factors also affect the amount of time allowed between departing aircraft such as the departure path and the aircraft speed.

Screen shot of runways at Heathrow allowing

complex queuing patterns to be visualised © NATS Ltd.

The aim is to have as many one minute gaps as possible. However, although the core of the problem is sequencing, it is absolutely essential to incorporate routing methods into the approach. There is no point in producing a high quality sequence of aircraft if it is not physically possible to move the aircraft past each other through the airport’s taxiway system in order to actually realise the sequence. Of course, this routing problem is entirely dependent upon an airport’s taxiway network. Such networks are not only very different at different airports but they are even completely dissimilar on different runways (and on different ends of the same runway) at the same airport. Innovative hybrid meta-heuristic approaches to the problem are being investigated and one of the core issues is that such approaches need to be able to respond immediately to the constantly changing nature of the problem. The meta-heuristic methodologies that the team are developing are already producing results, based on historical data from Heathrow, which represent significant improvements over the actual schedules that were produced at the time.

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Airline Scheduling ASAP is working closely with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (and Air France – since the recent merger of the two companies) to explore a series of challenging research issues concerning the understanding and generation of robust airline schedules.

Robust schedules are a priority goal for KLM © Gerardo Dominguez

When an aircraft has finished a flight, it is re-fuelled and “turned around” as quickly as possible to be used on another scheduled flight. The term robust in the context of airline scheduling, refers to schedules which have the ability, at one level or another, to absorb the effect of delays to individual aircraft without leading to major knock-on effects to the rest of the schedule.

A simple way to generate robust schedules is to have more aircraft waiting for longer,

but this is a costly solution © Kar-lok Wong, The Netherlands

In a non-robust schedule, certain delays at critical points could lead to an escalating series of significant delays which could affect (in the worst case) the entire fleet. It is easy to generate robust schedules by introducing large amounts of idle aircraft time between flights. Then if a flight is delayed, the airline can simply bring one of the idle aircraft into operation instead of delaying the time of the next scheduled flight. The difficulty here is that idle aircraft are very expensive. So there is a trade-off between robustness and cost.

Of course, it is possible to reduce costs by reducing the robustness of the schedule. However, if this goes too far and the entire fleet is disrupted for a period of time then the incurred costs would be far higher than the savings generated by reducing the robustness. The goal is to provide an ideal balance between cost and robustness which, of course, amounts to a balance between cost and the risk of generating a breakdown in the schedule.

Without robust schedules, delays in landing will cause knock-on effects to later flights

© Sam Chui (http://www.SamChuiPhotos.com)

The ASAP group is working with our colleagues at KLM and Air France to explore novel ways of measuring and understanding robustness. The goal is then to develop multi-objective decision support and machine learning methodologies for automatically generating robust schedules.

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Healthcare Personnel Rostering

Recent years have seen an increased recognition of the importance of developing intelligent decision support systems for personnel scheduling, particularly in healthcare. The need to ensure adequate numbers of personnel with an appropriate skill mix in order to maintain a high standard of healthcare is a critical issue. For nurse scheduling, there is an absolute requirement to maintain 24 hour cover and high quality schedules should take into account resource utilisation, patient care and the preferences of personnel. The development of automated methods which can handle the wide variety of requirements that are generated by real world problems is a particularly challenging research issue.

The ASAP group has been awarded a number of research grants (GR/N35205/01, GR/S31150/01 and (GR/R92899/01-02) in this area. These grants are investigating Case-Based Reasoning, Bayesian Modelling and Optimisation and other novel meta-heuristic approaches for the scheduling of doctors and nurses, and of clinics. These projects involve a number of UK and internationally leading research / commercial collaborators which include:

Jingpeng Li (Research Associate) is exploring healthcare personnel rostering based on various probabilistic and adaptive learning techniques

• The Intelligent Systems group from KaHo St.-Lieven (Belgium) who have carried out research into nurse rostering together with ASAP for several years;

• ORTEC, a consultancy company from The Netherlands that has commercial interest in healthcare administration;

• GOAL (UK), a software develop-ment company that produces optimisation/scheduling systems;

• The Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham;

• Beaumont hospital, Dublin; and

• The School of Nursing from the University of Nottingham.

Innovative 3D representations may aid in developing and visualising algorithms

Our research work on hybrid tabu search with KaHo St.-Lieven has provided the basis of a commercial package Plane which has been deployed in more than 40 hospitals in Belgium.

The overall aim of our research in this area is to investigate and develop new methodologies to tackle real world rostering problems. One particularly important aim is to increase the generality of the current state of the art and to facilitate the development of flexible systems which will be capable of solving a range of personnel scheduling problems with differing requirements and constraints.

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Radiotherapy Planning and Scheduling

Radiotherapy represents a significant part of the treatment for a large number of cancer patients. Radiotherapy planning and scheduling has been specifically targeted as a priority area by Government health authorities in recent years and, in conjunction with this, the Government has made a large investment in radiotherapy equipment. For example, 226 mammography machines, 46 ultrasound units, 33 MRI scanners, and 56 linear accelerators have been purchased since 1999. This equipment is very expensive and significant staff expertise is required to use it. In order to realise the major potential benefits of this investment, it is essential that these resources are used efficiently with the ultimate goal being to treat as many patients, to as high a standard of effectiveness, as possible.

ASAP, together with Coventry University, has recently been awarded a major EPSRC grant (worth £265,486 and £210,909, respectively) to address this problem. Two large hospital trusts (Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust) are acting as collaborators on this project. The number of patients being referred for radiotherapy treatment in these hospitals (and also in other oncology departments throughout the UK) is increasing and, with the need to carry out more complex procedures, there is an increase in the time required to perform such tasks.

Dr Petrovic is leading the radiotherapy project

This linear accelerator in Nottingham City Hospital is used to administer high energy

X-rays to treat head and neck tumours

As a consequence, the problem of efficient radiotherapy planning and resource management, in terms of both manpower and the availability of equipment, is the key to the smooth running of a radiotherapy clinic. The aim of our research is to cut waiting times from referral to diagnosis and diagnosis to treatment through effective resource utilisation.

Two of the main objectives of this project are:

• To develop an intelligent decision support system to aid in the generation of the treatment plan for each patient. We will investigate the possibilities of using past therapy cases for planning the treatment of a new patient.

• To develop new scheduling models for radiotherapy treatments to deal with multiple resource types that are involved, namely machines (such as simulators and linear accelerators), and personnel (such as consultants, radiographers, medical physicists, nurses, technicians, etc.). The models should enable the dynamic scheduling/rescheduling of patients as a response to the changing environment in the clinic and to the clinical conditions of a patient.

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Co-operative and Collaborative Decision Support

Humans often make decisions by taking into account a range of views, or tackle complex tasks by subdividing them into smaller, easier tasks which can be achieved individually in order to benefit the group as a whole. It has been a long standing problem in artificial intelligence research to try to get computers to simulate such co-operative and collaborative decision making, which is characterised by inherent imprecision and uncertainty. One of ASAP’s overriding research strategies is to investigate approximate decision making methodologies in order to inspire robust and effective solutions to difficult, real-world problems.

As part of an ongoing investment in e-science infrastructure, the ASAP group has secured £280K of SRIF2 funding in order to establish an experimental research facility in which such problems can be studied. This funding has provided the group with three main robotic environments: 1. A co-operative environment based

around developing team strategies for robot football;

2. A generic resource for investigating distributed decision making based around a large number of small, independent robots; and

3. A group of high-powered robots for collaborative decision making.

Robot football represents a challenging and competitive research environment in which individual robots must act co-operatively, as

part of a team, in order to win

In the robot football environment, two five-a-side teams test their collective strategies by competing against each other in an arena of fixed size. The robots have no autonomous sensing capabilities – their positions (and that of the ball and the opposition) are captured by fixed overhead cameras connected to a central computer, one per team. Each computer analyses the current position of all robots and the ball and issues commands to its team via Bluetooth.

A general purpose arena provides the facilities to undertake investigations into, for example,

emergent swarming behaviour

The pitch size, robot sizes and configurations, and camera and lighting conditions are all fixed in order to comply with international competition standards. National, European and International championships are held regularly in order to allow researchers to compare their strategies. Robot football represents a truly demanding environment in which to investigate adaptive, co-operative decision making in a competitive real-time environment. Important aspects of any solution include effectiveness, robustness (how the strategy behaves when dealing with similar scenario conditions), scalability and fault-tolerance (how the strategy behaves in the presence of faults in one or more robots). A project funded by EPSRC and Merlin Systems Corp. Ltd, awarded through the Smith Institute, is currently investigating these issues.

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Merlin Systems Corporation Ltd. are working closely with ASAP to create a bespoke research facility featuring the very latest robotic hardware and software

The second infrastructure, based around the same Miabot Pro robot chassis provides more freedom for advanced research as it is not constrained by the strict rules of the robot football competitions. In a rolling implementation due to be completed by the end of 2005, the ASAP group is working closely with Merlin Systems to design a bespoke research facility that will provide a wide range of scenarios to be investigated, including:

• Swarm behaviour: 32 robots will enable physical realisations of swarm optimisation to be studied.

• Task allocation: how to co-ordinate a team of robots with differing hardware characteristics in order to achieve a global objective.

• Communication and negotiation: how to balance local needs with global requirements.

The third infrastructure (supplied by ActivMedia Robotics) consists of a Pioneer ‘PeopleBot’ and five Pioneer DX3 robots, fitted with a variety of sonar, laser range-finders, cameras, grippers and manipulators. All feature a full PC motherboard capable of running the latest Linux or Windows operating systems and high-speed wireless Ethernet communications. Each robot has a rich selection of sensors to permit accurate localisation under a variety of external environmental conditions, together with the ability to manipulate the environment. In conjunction with the general purpose Miabot Pros, this infrastructure will permit the exciting possibility of linking high performance computing (accessible via the Grid) with the limited local resources of the individual robots in order to solve extremely complex task scenarios.

The Pioneer robots have significantly more on-board processing power and advanced sensors and actuators to permit complex tasks to be carried out

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Bioinformatics

The ASAP group is exploiting exciting multi-disciplinary synergies with the School of Chemistry, the Centre of Bio- molecular Sciences, the School of Life Sciences, and others at the University of Nottingham in a range of bioinformatics research problems. All these collaborations are performed under the umbrella of the Inter-disciplinary Optimisation Laboratory. ASAP is working closely with Prof. Jonathan Hirst – in the School of Chemistry – and the Computational Chemistry Research Group to investigate novel meta-heuristic and hybrid approaches to solve protein folding problems. Folding a protein sequence to its three-dimensional structure, from first principles, is one of the most difficult research challenges currently facing bioinformatics. We are carrying out a far reaching investigation into the modelling of this demanding problem and exploring how meta-heuristics can be developed and employed to produce high quality solutions. We aim to develop methods to map real proteins onto the models and to apply and evaluate the developed strategies in the real world. This work is currently being funded by BBSRC and EPSRC under the Bioinformatics initiative (42/BIO14458).

Folded protein conformations found by an ‘ant colony optimisation’ algorithm

As the large majority of applications of protein structure prediction impact into the quality of human life, it is important to have not only robust predictions, but also understandable predictions. To this aim, our grant “Robust Prediction with Explanatory Power for Protein Structure and Related Prediction Problems (GR/T07534/01)” seeks to instil explanatory power to ab initio (‘from scratch’) predictions of a protein’s native state.

Mike Stout (PhD Student)

In parallel to our research efforts in protein structure prediction, we have a complementary research thread on protein structure comparison. Although it may at first seem easier to compare two (or more) proteins than predicting a native state, current models for protein structure comparison are, in many cases, computationally intractable. At the same time, comparing the structure of various proteins lies at the heart of many pharmaceutical endeavours, hence providing effective solutions to this problem is both timely and challenging. Our BBSRC grant “Automated

Grid-Aware, Three-tier, Protocol

for Protein Structure Comparison” (BB/C511764/1) seeks to synergistically integrate our work in protein structure comparison and prediction with user friendly sophisticated interfaces.

17

ASAP and the School of Chemistry are also exploring ways of exploiting recent advances in meta-heuristic technology for parallel synthesis (the automated production of collections of chemical compounds). Meta-heuristic and hybrid optimisation techniques could lead to more efficient approaches for the discovery of new catalysts.

ASAP members also collaborate with The Pseudomonas Quorum Sensing Group, located within the Institute of Infection Immunity and Inflammation in the School of Pharmacy, at the Centre for Biomolecular Sciences. We are investigating the systems biology of Pseudomonas Aeruginosas. This pathogen is a very versatile organism that can adapt to many different environments and can cause diseases in plants, animals and humans. In particular, we are trying to integrate quorum sensing data – genomics, proteomics and metabolomics – into a unified systems biology framework for P. Aeruginosa.

Further bioinformatics research is being carried out within the EU funded (€6.4M) BIOPATTERN Network of

Excellence (see page 20). Currently focussing on the causes and early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, we are investigating the optimisation of molecular models of protein aggregation in conjunction with the School of Chemistry, and decision support systems for the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to identify genetic factors that influence susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease in conjunction with the Division of Clinical Chemistry.

The aim of BIOPTRAIN, an EU funded (€2M) early stage training network (see also page 20), is to establish a permanent European multi-centre interdisciplinary research training programme in bioinformatics optimisation algorithms. This programme involves cutting-edge research spanning areas such as:

• Theoretical and high performance bioinformatics search algorithms;

• Protein structure and folding optimisation algorithms;

• Sequence analysis / high throughput genotyping algorithms;

• Gene expression data mining; and

• Machine learning, statistical methods and data visualisation.

Molecular modelling techniques are being used to predict the aggregation of short fragments of proteins

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Artificial Immune Systems

The central challenge in computer security is determining the difference between normal and potentially harmful activity. For half a century, developers have protected their systems using rules that identify and block specific events. However, the nature of current and future threats in conjunction with ever larger IT systems urgently requires the development of automated and adaptive defensive tools.

A promising solution is emerging in the form of biologically inspired computing, and in particular Artificial Immune Systems (AIS). The natural immune system can detect and defend against harmful and previously unseen invaders, so can we not build a similar system for our computers? Perhaps such systems would then have the same beneficial properties as the natural immune system such as error tolerance, adaptation and self-monitoring.

The natural immune system protects against damage from an extremely large number of harmful bacteria and viruses, termed pathogens. It does this largely without prior knowledge of the structure of these pathogens. This property, along with the distributed, self-organised and lightweight nature of the mechanisms by which it achieves this protection, has in recent years made it

the focus of increased interest within the computer science and intrusion detection communities. Seen from such a perspective, the natural immune system can be viewed as a form of anomaly detector with very low false positive and false negative rates.

A dendritic cell in action – one of the

core cells of the immune system

An increasing amount of work is being carried out which attempts to understand and extract the key mechanisms through which the natural immune system is able to achieve its detection and protection capabilities. Here in Nottingham, we are currently exploring these issues funded by the largest EPSRC adventure grant (£657K) awarded under this prestigious scheme (GR/S47809/01). We are also actively involved at all levels with the UK wide Artificial Immune Systems Network funded by EPSRC (GR/S56627/01).

Can artificial immune cells protect your computer from nasty bugs?

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Grid Scheduling

The ‘Grid’ is the name given to the vision of the next stage in collaborative computing following the Internet and World Wide Web. In essence, the Grid consists of various digital resources connected together on the Internet in order to provide remote services. In its widest sense the Grid includes, for example, remote access to super-computers and the creation of powerful distributed computers by linking together ordinary PCs, or remote data storage facilities through shared hard disks, and the Grid concept even extends to other scientific resources such as particle accelerators, telescopes or the Antarctic research stations. However, although there are plenty of examples of limited cases of the Grid that are already functional, the full ‘grand vision’ is far from realisation. There are many challenging research issues that remain to be overcome before a fundamental objective, that users may submit jobs to the Grid and have them processed without knowledge of the underlying infra-structure, can be achieved. One of these research challenges is to tackle the difficult problem of efficiently scheduling Grid resources.

ASAP is addressing this problem, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Manchester, through an EPSRC funded project entitled Service

Level Based Agreements for Grid

Scheduling (GR/S67661/01). In moving away from traditional and very simple approaches based on concepts such as ‘first-come, first-

served’ and block booking of fixed timeslots, we are investigating the incorporation of advanced scheduling mechanisms within each local scheduler. These novel mechanisms will allow service level agreements (SLAs), a type of two-way contract between the user (requiring resources) and the service provider (providing resources), to be negotiated in a flexible manner, in order to satisfy both the users’ needs for the job to be completed by a certain time and the providers’ wishes to achieve the maximum possible resource utilisation. Furthermore, the SLA framework can be extended to deal with the financial aspects of such contracts and SLA renegotiation in response to inevitable resource failures or the arrival of more important (costly) contracts.

Advanced scheduling algorithms will permit job requests to be negotiated and renegotiated

despite the inherent uncertainties in the Grid environment

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European Collaborations

In addition to our numerous national and international links, the ASAP group has a wide range of links to other groups and individual scientists across the European Union (EU). We were active in the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5), are playing a leading role in several Sixth Framework (FP6) projects and are already anticipating the forthcoming FP7. ASAP was a key node in the FP5 European Network for Intelligent

Technologies (EUNITE), leading the Smart Adaptive Systems – Research

Theory and Development committee, whose remit included contributing to an EU roadmap document outlining important future research issues in adaptive decision support.

Visiting the Commission in Brussels

The €6.4M BIOPATTERN FP6 Network of Excellence brings together 31 academic and industrial partners around the EU to investigate novel decision support in healthcare, with particular focus on diagnosis, prognosis and treatments for cancer and brain diseases. Within this Network, ASAP leads the Bioinformatics Special Interest

Group, integrating post-genomic technologies with conventional medical indicators. As part of this, we are carrying out fundamental research into decision support methods to allow the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

This research includes investigations into protein aggregation (believed to be implicated somehow in the disease onset) and complex analysis of potential genetic markers, in collaboration with our colleagues in Computational Chemistry, the Queens Medical Centre and other European partners.

The first Biopattern Steering Committee meeting held on Lake Maggiore, Italy

ASAP is also leading the €2M BIOPTRAIN FP6 project to establish an interdisciplinary postgraduate training programme in advanced optimisation algorithms for the analysis of bioinformatics problems. The five partner institutions collaborating in this ground-breaking initiative are:

• University of Nottingham, UK

• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

• Poznan Univeristy of Technology, Poland

• University of Firenze, Italy

• Borås Technical University, Sweden

Other formal links within the EU include EPSRC funded Visiting Fellowships to promote interactions with leading European scientists such as Prof. Peter Brucker (Germany) and Prof. Jacek Blazewicz (Poland), ASAP’s membership of the FP6 Nature

Inspired Smart Information Systems (NiSIS) Co-ordinated Action, and the group’s major role in the foundation of the EURO Working group on Automated Timetabling (see page 5).

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The Inter-Disciplinary Optimisation Laboratory

The Inter-disciplinary Optimisation

Laboratory is a leading research centre that was established in 2000 on the Jubilee Campus at the University of Nottingham. The laboratory is directed by Prof. Burke and the central focus is to support multi-disciplinary decision support research not only within the UK, but also in the international arena. We have been successful in establishing collaborative links with researchers from a wide range of disciplines. Current projects range across Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, Biology, Nursing, Clinical Sciences, Operational Research, Mathematics, the Built Environment, Life Sciences, Pharmacy, and Clinical Chemistry.

The Inter-disciplinary Optimisation Laboratory has received external funding for a number of inter-disciplinary projects. At present, projects carried out within the laboratory represent external funding of over £2.5M. The main externally funded projects that are being carried out within the laboratory are:

• Adaptive Multi-objective Heuristic and Meta-heuristic Approaches to Space Allocation – EPSRC grant GR/T26115/01.

• Robust Prediction with Explanatory Power for Protein Structure and Related Prediction Problems – EPSRC grant GR/T07534/01.

• Automated Grid-aware, Three-tier, Protocol for Protein Structure Comparison – BBSRC grant BB/C511764/1.

• Danger Theory: The Missing Link Between Artificial Immune Systems and Intrusion Detection – EPSRC grant GR/S47809/01.

• Hybrid Meta-heuristic Optimisation of Chiral Catalysts – EPSRC grant GR/S75765/01.

• Novel Approaches to Radiotherapy Planning and Scheduling in the NHS– EPSRC grant EP/C549511/1.

• BIOPTRAIN – Bioinformatics Optimisation Training – EU grant FP6-007597.

• BIOPATTERN FP6 Network of Excellence – EU grant FP6-508803.

• Hybrid Metaheuristics for Sequence Structure Function Problems – BBSRC/EPSRC grant 42/BIO14458.

Prof. Dror and Prof. Blazewicz

Recently, we have been awarded Visiting Fellowships from the EPSRC to support inter-disciplinary research collaboration between ASAP and leading scientists including:

• Prof. Moshe Dror, from the University of Arizona, USA.

• Prof. Jacek Blazewicz, from the Poznan Institute of Technology in Poland.

• Prof. Amnon Meisels, from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

• Prof. Peter Brucker, from the University of Osnabrück in Germany.

Prof. Meisels Prof. Brucker

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Publications

Journals (Editorships / Associate Editorships / Guest Editorships)

• U. Aickelin: Assistant Editor of the Journal of the Operational Research Society.

• U. Aickelin: Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

• E.K. Burke: Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Scheduling.

• E.K. Burke: Area Editor (for Combinatorial Optimisation) of The Journal of Heuristics.

• E.K. Burke: Associate Editor of the INFORMS Journal on Computing.

• E.K. Burke: Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

• E.K. Burke and S. Petrovic: Guest Co-editors of a feature issue of the European Journal of

Operational Research on “Timetabling and Rostering”, issue 153/1, February 2004.

• E.K. Burke: Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming feature issue of the European Journal of

Operational Research on “Evolutionary and Metaheuristic Scheduling”.

• E.K. Burke and G. Kendall: Guest Co-editors of a forthcoming issue of Annals of Operations

Research on “Cutting, Packing and Space Allocation”.

• J.M. Garibaldi: Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Sets on “Extensions to Type-1 Fuzzy Logic”.

• J.M. Garibaldi: Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Applied Artificial Intelligence on “Methods for Adaptive Intelligent Systems”.

• G. Kendall: Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Advances in Econometrics on “Applications of AI in Finance & Economics”, vol. 19, 2004.

• G. Kendall: Member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Systems Science.

• G. Kendall: Member of the editorial board of Intelligent Systems in Accounting Finance and

Management.

• G. Kendall: Associate editor of INFOR, the journal of the Canadian Operational Research Society.

• N. Krasnogor: Member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Computational

Intelligence.

• N. Krasnogor: Member of the editorial board of Evolutionary Computation.

• N. Krasnogor: Guest Co-editor of a special issue of Evolutionary Computation on “Memetic Algorithms”.

• N. Krasnogor: Guest Co-editor of a special issue of Fuzzy Sets and Systems on “Bioinformatics”.

• N. Krasnogor: Guest Co-editor of a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and

Cybernetics on “Memetic Algorithms”.

• S. Petrovic: Guest Editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Scheduling on “Expert Systems and Machine Learning in Scheduling”, 2006.

• S. Petrovic and G. Vanden Berghe: Guest Co-editors of a forthcoming special issue of the Annals of

Operations Research on “Personnel Scheduling and Planning”.

• S. Petrovic: Member of the Editorial Board of the Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research.

• J.D. Landa Silva: Guest Co-editor of forthcoming issues in Journal of Mathematical Modelling

and Algorithms (JMMA) and Journal of the Operational Research Society (JORS) on selected papers from the 4th EU/ME International Workshop on Design and Evaluation of Advanced Hybrid Metaheuristics, Nottingham, November 2005.

Books

• X. Yao, E.K. Burke, J.A. Lozano, J. Smith, J.J. Merelo-Guervós, J.A. Bullinaria, J. Rowe, P. Tiňo, A. Kabán, H-P. Schwefel (editors), Proceedings of the 8

th International Conference on Parallel

Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 18-22 September 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3242, Springer, 2005.

• E.K. Burke and P. De Causmaecker (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling IV, selected papers from the 4th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Ghent, Belgium, 21- 23 August 2002, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2740, Springer, 2003.

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• E.K. Burke and G. Kendall (editors), Search Methodologies: Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation

and Decision Support, to be published by Springer, 2005.

• E.K. Burke and M. Trick (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V, selected papers from the 5th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Pittsburgh, USA, 18-20 August 2004, to appear in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• K. Deb, R. Poli, W. Banzhaf, H-G Beyer, E.K. Burke, P. Darwen, D. Dasgupta, D. Floreano, J. Foster, M. Harman, O. Holland, P. Lanzi, L. Spector, A. Tettemanzi, D. Thierens and A. Tyrrell (editors), Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2004) Seattle, USA, 26-30 June, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3102 and 3103, Springer, 2004.

• G. Kendall, E.K. Burke, S Petrovic and M. Gendreau (editors), Multidisciplinary Scheduling : Theory

and Applications, selected papers from the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, Springer, 2005.

• E. Cantú-Paz, J.A. Foster, K. Deb, L.D. Davis, R. Roy, U.M. O’Reilly, H-G, Beyer, R. Standish, G. Kendall, S. Wilson, M. Harman, J. Wegener, D. Dasgupta, M.A. Potter, A.C. Schultz, K.A. Dowsland, N. Jonoska and J. Miller (editors), Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary

Computation Conference (GECCO 2003), Chicago, USA, 12-16 July 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2723 and 2724, Springer, 2003.

• G. Kendall (associate editor) Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence

(IC-AI’03) (eds. H.R. Arabnia, R. Joshua, Y. Mun), Las Vegas, USA, 23-26 June 2003, CSREA Press.

• G. Kendall and S. Lucas (editors) Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence

and Games, Essex, UK, 4-6 April 2005.

• W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, and J.E. Smith (editors) Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, Springer, 2005

• N. Krasnogor, S. Gustafson, D.A. Pelta, J.L. Verdegay (editors) Systems Self-Assembly:

Multidisciplinary Snapshots, to appear in Elsevier’s series on Multidisciplinarity, 2005.

• A. Lotfi and J.M. Garibaldi (editors) Applications and Science in Soft Computing, selected papers from the 4th International Conference on Recent Advances in Soft Computing (RASC 2002), Nottingham, UK, 12-13 December, Advances in Soft Computing, Springer, 2004.

Book Chapters

• U. Aickelin and D. Dasgupta, Artificial Immune Systems, in Search Methodologies: Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation and Decision Support, Springer, 2005.

• R. Bai and G. Kendall, An Investigation of Automated Planograms Using a Simulated Annealing

Based Hyper-heuristic, in Meta-heuristics: Progress as Real Problem Solvers (eds. T. Ibaraki , K. Nonobe , M. Yagiura), Springer, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, P. De Causmaecker and G. Vanden Berghe, Novel Meta-heuristic Approaches to Nurse

Rostering Problems in Belgian Hospitals, in The Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis (ed. J. Leung), Chapter 44, CRC Press, 2004.

• E.K. Burke, P. De Causmaecker, S. Petrovic and G. Vanden Berghe, Variable Neighborhood Search

for Nurse Rostering Problems, in METAHEURISTICS: Computer Decision-Making (eds. M.G.C. Resende and J. Pinho de Sousa), Chapter 7, pp. 153-172, Kluwer (Combinatorial Optimization Book Series), 2003.

• E.K. Burke, M. Dror, S. Petrovic, and R. Qu, Hybrid Graph Heuristics in a Hyper-Heuristic

Approach to Exam Timetabling, in The Next Wave in Computing, Optimization and Decision Technologies (eds. B.L. Golden, S. Raghavan & E.A. Wasil), pp. 79-92, Springer, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, E. Hart, G. Kendall, J. Newall, P. Ross and S. Schulenburg, Hyper-heuristics: An

Emerging Direction in Modern Search Technology, Handbook of Meta-heuristics (eds. F. Glover and G. Kochenberger), Chapter 16, pp. 457-474, Kluwer, 2003.

• E.K. Burke, J. Kingston and D. De Werra, Applications to Timetabling, Section 5.6 of the Handbook of Graph Theory (eds. J. Gross and J. Yellen), pp. 445-474, Chapman Hall/CRC Press, 2004.

• E.K. Burke and J.D. Landa Silva, The Design of Memetic Algorithms for Scheduling and Timetabling

Problems, in Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, (eds. W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, pp. 289-312, Springer, 2004.

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• E.K. Burke, J.D. Landa Silva and E. Soubeiga, Multi-objective Hyper-heuristic Approaches for

Space Allocation and Timetabling, in Meta-heuristics: Progress as Real Problem Solvers (eds. T. Ibaraki , K. Nonobe , M. Yagiura), Springer, 2005.

• J.M. Garibaldi, Fuzzy Expert Systems, in Do Smart Adaptive Systems Exist? Best Practice for Selection and Combination of Intelligent Methods (eds. B. Gabrys, K. Leiviskä, J. Strackeljan), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 173, Chapter 5, Springer, 2005.

• W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor and J.E. Smith, Memetic Evolutionary Algorithms, in Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, (eds. W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, pp. 3-30, Springer, 2004.

• N. Krasnogor, Towards Robust Memetic Algorithms, in Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, (eds. W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, pp. 185-208, Springer, 2004.

• N. Krasnogor and S. Gustafson, Self-Assembling of Local Searchers in Memetic Algorithms, in Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, (eds. W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, pp. 229-258, Springer, 2004.

• J.D. Landa Silva and E.K. Burke, Using Diversity to Guide the Search in Multi-objective

Optimisation, in Applications of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms, Advances in Natural Computation (eds. C.A. Coello Coello and G.B. Lamont), Vol. 1, pp. 727-751, World Scientific, 2004.

• J.D. Landa Silva, E.K. Burke and S. Petrovic, An Introduction to Multiobjective Metaheuristics for

Scheduling and Timetabling, in MetaHeuristics for Multiobjective Optimisation (eds. X. Gandibleux, M. Sevaux, K. Sorensen and V. T’Kindt), Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Vol. 535, pp. 91-129, Springer, 2004

• D. Ouelhadj, P. Cowling, and S. Petrovic, Contract Net Protocol for Cooperative Optimisation and

Dynamic Scheduling of Steel Production, in Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (eds. I. Ajith, K. Franke and M. Koppen), pp. 457-470, Springer-Verlag, 2003.

• D.A. Pelta and N. Krasnogor, Multimeme Algorithms Using Fuzzy Logic Based Memes For Protein

Structure Prediction, in Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms, (eds. W.E. Hart, N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Vol. 166, pp. 49-64, Springer, 2004.

• S. Petrovic and E.K. Burke, University Timetabling, in The Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis (ed. J. Leung), Chapter 45, CRC Press, 2004.

PhD Theses

• G. Whitwell, Novel Heuristic and Metaheuristic Approaches to Cutting and Packing, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, September 2004.

• Y. Yang, Solving Examination Timetabling Problems by Case Based Reasoning, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, September 2004.

• S. Gustafson, An Analysis of Diversity in Genetic Programming, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, February 2004.

• D. Ouelhadj, A Multi-agent System for the Integrated Dynamic Scheduling of Steel Production, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, August 2003.

• Y. Bykov, Time-Predefined and Trajectory-Based Search: Single and Multiobjective Approaches to

Exam Timetabling, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, November 2003.

• J.D. Landa-Silva, Metaheuristic and Multiobjective Approaches for the Space Allocation Problem, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, October 2003.

• E. Soubeiga, Development and Application of Hyperheuristics to Personnel Scheduling, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, June 2003.

• R. Keuthen, Heuristic Approaches for Routing Optimisation, PhD Thesis, School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham, UK, January 2003.

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Journal Papers

In Press and To Appear

• M. Ayob and G. Kendall, A Triple Objective Function with a Chebychev Dynamic Pick-and-place

Point Specification Approach to Optimise the Surface Mount Placement Machine, European

Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 164, No. 3, pp. 609-626, 2005.

• G. Beddoe and S. Petrovic, Determining Feature Weights Using a Genetic Algorithm in a Case-

Based Reasoning Approach to Personnel Rostering, accepted for publication in the European

Journal of Operational Research, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, P. De Causmaecker, S. Petrovic, G. Vanden Berghe, Metaheuristics for Handling Time

Interval Coverage Constraints in Nurse Scheduling, accepted for publication in Applied Artificial

Intelligence, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, R. Hellier, G. Kendall and G. Whitwell, A New Bottom-left-Fill Heuristic Algorithm for

the 2D Irregular Packing Problem, accepted for publication in Operations Research, 2005.

• E.K. Burke and J.D. Landa Silva, Hybrid Metaheuristics Based on Cooperative Local Search for the

Space Allocation Problem, accepted for publication in the INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2005.

• E.K. Burke and J.D. Landa Silva, The influence of the Fitness Evaluation Method on the

Performance of Multiobjective Optimisers, accepted for publication in the European Journal of

Operational Research, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic and R. Qu, Multiple-Retrieval Case Based Reasoning for

Course Timetabling Problems, accepted for publication in the Journal of the Operational Research

Society, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, A. Meisels, S. Petrovic and R. Qu, A Graph-Based Hyper Heuristic for Timetabling

Problems, accepted for publication in the European Journal of Operational Research, 2005.

• E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic and R. Qu, Case Based Heuristic Selection for Timetabling Problems, accepted for publication in the Journal of Scheduling, 2005.

• S. Cayzer and U. Aickelin, A Recommender System based on Idiotypic Artificial Immune Networks, accepted for publication in Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms, 2005.

• K. Dowsland, E. Herbert, G. Kendall and E.K. Burke, Using Tree Search Bounds to Enhance a

Genetic Algorithm Approach to Two Rectangle Packing Problems, accepted for publication in the European Journal of Operational Research, 2005.

• K. Dowsland, E. Soubeiga and E.K. Burke, A Simulated Annealing Hyper-heuristic for Determining

Shipper Sizes, accepted for publication in the European Journal of Operational Research, 2005.

• P.R. Innocent, R.I. John and J.M. Garibaldi, Fuzzy Methods in Medical Diagnosis, Applied

Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 19/1, pp. 69-98, 2005.

• N. Krasnogor, J.E. Smith, A Tutorial for Competent Memetic Algorithms: Model, Taxonomy and

Design Issues, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 2005.

• J.L. Melville, K.R.J. Lovelock, C. Wilson, B. Allbutt, E.K. Burke, B. Lygo and J.D. Hirst, Exploring

Phase-Transfer Catalysis with Molecular Dynamics and 3D/4D Quantitative Structure-Selectivity

Relationships, accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modelling, Vol. 45, 2005.

• D.A. Pelta, N. Krasnogor, C. Bousono-Calzon, J. Verdegay, E.K. Burke, A Fuzzy Sets based

Generalization of Contact Maps for the Overlap of Protein Structures, accepted for publication in Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 2005.

• X.Y. Wang and J.M. Garibaldi, Simulated Annealing Fuzzy Clustering in Cancer Diagnosis, accepted for publication in Informatica, 2005.

26

2004

• U. Aickelin and P. White, Building Better Nurse Scheduling Algorithms, Annals of Operations

Research, Vol. 128, pp 159-177, 2004.

• J. Binner, G. Kendall and A. Gazely, Evolving Neural Networks with Evolutionary Strategies: A New

Application to Divisia Money, Advances in Econometrics, Vol. 19, pp. 127-143, 2004

• J. Blazewicz, E.K. Burke, M. Jaroszewski, M. Kasprzak, B. Paliswiat, and P. Pryputniewicz, On the

Complexity of the Double Digest Problem, Control and Cybernetics, Vol. 33 Number 1, 2004, pages 133-140.

• E.K. Burke, P. De Causmaecker, G. Vanden Berghe and H. Van Landeghem, The State of the Art of

Nurse Rostering, Journal of Scheduling, Vol. 7 issue 6, November/December 2004, pages 441-499.

• E.K. Burke, G. Kendall and G. Whitwell, A New Placement Heuristic for the Orthogonal Stock

Cutting Problem, Operations Research, Vol. 52 Number 4, 2004, pages 655-671.

• E.K. Burke and J. Newall, Solving Examination Timetabling Problems through Adaptation of

Heuristic Orderings, Annals of Operations Research, Vol. 129, 2004, pp 107-134.

• E.K. Burke, Y. Bykov, J. Newall and S. Petrovic, A Time-Predefined Local Search Approach to

Exam Timetabling Problems, IIE Transactions, Vol. 36 No 6, June 2004, pp 509-528.

• E.K. Burke, S. Gustafson and G. Kendall, Diversity in Genetic Programming: An Analysis of

Measures and Correlation with Fitness, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 8(1), pp. 47-62, 2004.

• P. Cowling, D. Ouelhadj and S. Petrovic, Dynamic Scheduling of Steel Casting and Milling using

Multi-Agents, Production Planning and Control, Vol. 15, pp. 1-11, 2004.

• S. Gustafson, A. Ekart, E.K. Burke and G. Kendall, Problem Difficulty and Code Growth in Genetic

Programming, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 271-290, 2004.

• N. Krasnogor, Self-Generating Metaheuristics in Bioinformatics: The Protein Structure Comparison

Case, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 181-201, 2004.

• N. Krasnogor, and S. Gustafson, A Study on the use of ‘Self-Generation’ in Memetic Algorithms, Natural Computing, Vol. 3(1), 53-76, 2004.

• N. Krasnogor, D.A. Pelta, Measuring the Similarity of Protein Structures by Means of the Universal

Similarity Metric, Bioinformatics, Vol. 20(7), 2004.

• M. Lozano, F. Herrera, N. Krasnogor, D. Molina, Real-Coded Memetic Algorithms with Crossover

Hill-Climbing, Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 12(2), pp. 273-302, 2004.

• D. Ouelhadj, S. Petrovic, P. Cowling and A. Meisels, Inter-Agent Cooperation and Communication

for Agent-based Robust Dynamic Scheduling in Steel Production, Advanced Engineering

Informatics, Vol. 18, pp. 161-172, 2004.

2003

• U. Aickelin and L. Bull, On the Application of Hierarchical Coevolutionary Genetic Algorithms:

Recombination and Evaluation Partners, Journal of Applied System Sciences, Vol. 4(2), pp 2-17, 2003.

• U. Aickelin and K. Dowsland, An Indirect Genetic Algorithm for a Nurse Scheduling Problem, Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 31(5), pp 761-778, 2003.

• E.K. Burke, G. Kendall and E. Soubeiga, A Tabu Search Hyper-Heuristic for Timetabling and

Rostering, Journal of Heuristics, Vol. 9(6), December 2003, pages 451-470.

• E.K. Burke, Y. Bykov, J. Newall and S. Petrovic, A Time-Predefined Approach to Course

Timetabling, Yugoslav Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, pages 139-151, 2003.

• P. Cowling, D. Ouelhadj and S. Petrovic, A Multi-Agent Architecture for Dynamic Scheduling of

Steel Hot Rolling, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp.457-470, 2003.

27

Selected Refereed Conference Papers

In Press and To Appear

• H. Asmuni, E.K. Burke and J.M. Garibaldi, Fuzzy Multiple Heuristic Ordering for Examination

Timetabling, to appear in The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V (eds. E.K. Burke and M. Trick), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• F. Bernardini, M. Gheorghe, N. Krasnogor and G. Terrazas, Membrane Computing – Current Results

and Future Problems, to appear in Computability in Europe (CiE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 8-12 June, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• F. Bian, E.K. Burke, S. Jain, G. Kendall, G.M. Koole, J.D. Landa Silva, J. Mulder, M.C.E. Paelinck, C. Reeves, I. Rusdi, M.O. Suleman, Measuring the Robustness of Airline Fleet Schedules, to appear in Multidisciplinary Scheduling Theory and Applications (eds. G. Kendall, E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic, M. Gendreau), pp. 381-392, Springer, 2005.

• G. Escuela, G. Ochoa and N. Krasnogor, Evolving L-Systems to Capture Protein Structure Native

Conformations, to appear in Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP 2005), Berlin, Germany, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3447, pp 73-83, Springer, 2005. Nominated for best paper award.

• C. Fayad, S. Petrovic, A Genetic Algorithm for the Real World Fuzzy Job-Shop Scheduling, to appear in Proceedings of International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems (IEA/AIE-2005), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• J.M. Garibaldi, S. Musikasuwan, and T. Ozen, The Association between Non-Stationary and Interval

Type-2 Fuzzy Sets: A Case Study, to appear in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2005), Reno, USA, 22-25 May, 2005.

• S. Gustafson, E.K. Burke and N. Krasnogor, The Tree-String Problem: An Artificial Domain for

Structure and Content Search, to appear in Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Genetic Programming, Lausanne, Switzerland, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• G. Kendall and N. Mohd Hussin, Tabu Search Hyper-heuristic Approach to the Examination

Timetabling Problem at MARA University of Technology, to appear in The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V (eds. E.K. Burke and M. Trick), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• G. Kendall and N. Mohd Hussin, An Investigation of a Tabu Search Based Hyper-heuristic for

Examination Timetabling, to appear in Multidisciplinary Scheduling Theory and Applications (eds. G. Kendall, E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic, M. Gendreau), pp. 309-330, Springer, 2005.

• D. Ouelhadj, J.M. Garibaldi, J. MacLaren, R. Sakellariou, K. Krishnakumar, A Multi-Agent

Infrastructure and a Service Level Agreement Negotiation Protocol for Robust Scheduling in Grid

Computing, in Proceedings of the European Grid Conference, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• S. Petrovic, V. Patel and Y. Yang, University Timetabling with Fuzzy Constraints, to appear in The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V (eds. E.K. Burke and M. Trick), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• S. Petrovic, Y. Yang, M. Dror, Case-Based Initialisation of Metaheuristics for Examination

Timetabling, to appear in Multidisciplinary Scheduling Theory and Applications (eds. G. Kendall, E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic, M. Gendreau), pp. 289-308, Springer, 2005.

• C. Schoreels and J.M. Garibaldi, The Effect of Varying Parameters on Performance for Adaptive

Agents in Technical Equity Market Trading, to appear in Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics (ICCC 2005), Mauritius, 2005.

• G. Terrazas, N. Krasnogor, M. Georghe, F. Bernardini, S. Diggle and M. Camara, An Environment

Aware P-Systems Model of Quorum Sensing, to appear in Computability in Europe (CiE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 8-12 June, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

• Y. Yang, S. Petrovic, A Novel Similarity Measure for Heuristic Selection in Examination

Timetabling, to appear in The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V (eds. E.K. Burke and M. Trick), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005.

28

2004

• U. Aickelin, J. Greensmith and J. Twycross, Immune System Approaches to Intrusion Detection - A

Review, in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS-2004) , Catania, Italy, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3239, pp. 316-329, Springer, 2004.

• J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, A Metaheuristic Approach to Aircraft

Departure Scheduling at London Heathrow Airport, in Electronic Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer-Aided Scheduling of Public Transport (CASPT 2004), San Diego, USA, 2004.

• M. Ayob and G. Kendall, A Nozzle Selection Heuristic to Optimise the Hybrid Pick and Place

Machine, in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, Singapore, 1-3 December, pp. 1259-1264, 2004.

• J.M. Garibaldi, S. Musikasuwan, T. Ozen and R.I. John, A Case Study to Illustrate the Use of Non-

Convex Membership Functions for Linguistic Terms, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2004), Budapest, Hungary, 25-29 July, pp. 1403-1408, IEEE Press, 2004.

• M.J. Geiger and S. Petrovic, An Interactive Multicriteria Optimisation Approach to Scheduling, in Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations (eds. M. Bramer and V. Devedzic), pp. 475-484, Kluwer, 2004.

• S. Gustafson, E.K. Burke and G. Kendall, Sampling of Unique Structures and Behaviours in Genetic

Programming, in Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Genetic Programming, Coimbra, Portugal, 5-7 April, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3003, pp. 279-288, Springer, 2004.

• P. Hingston and G. Kendall, Ant Colonies Discover Knight’s Tours, in Proceedings of Advances in Artificial Intelligence: 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI’04), Cairns, Australia (eds. G.I. Webb, Y. Xinghuo), 4-6 December, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3339, pp. 1213-1218, 2004.

• P. Hingston and G. Kendall, Learning versus Evolution in Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, in Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’04), Portland, USA, 20-23 June, pp. 364-372, 2004.

• G. Kendall and M. Mohamad, Channel Assignment In Cellular Communication Using A Great

Deluge Hyper-heuristic, in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Network (ICON2004), Singapore, 16-19 November, pp. 790-795, 2004.

• G. Kendall and M. Mohamad, Channel Assignment Optimisation Using a Hyper-heuristic, in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS 2004), Singapore, 1-3 December, pp. 769-773, 2004.

• G. Kendall and K. Spoerer, Scripting the Game of Lemmings with a Genetic Algorithm, in Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’04), Portland, USA, 20-23 June, pp. 117-124, 2004.

• G. Kendall and Y. Su, Learning with Imperfections - A Multi-Agent Neural-Genetic Trading Systems

with Differing Levels of Social Learning, in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetic and Intelligent Systems (CIS 2004), Singapore, 1-3 December, pp. 47-52, 2004.

• G. Kendall, R. Yaakob and P. Hingston, An Investigation of an Evolutionary Approach to the

Opening of Go, in Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’04), Portland, USA, 20-23 June, pp. 2052-2059, 2004.

• J. Li and U. Aickelin, The Application of Bayesian Optimization and Classifier Systems in Nurse

Scheduling, in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3242, pp. 581-590, Springer, 2004.

• S. Musikasuwan, T. Ozen and J.M. Garibaldi, An Investigation into the Effect of Number of Model

Parameters on Performance in Type-1 and Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Systems, in Proceedings of Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge Based Systems (IPMU 2004), Perugia, Italy, 4-9 July, pp. 1593-1600, 2004.

• T. Ozen and J.M. Garibaldi, Effect of Type-2 Fuzzy Membership Function Shape on Modelling

Variation in Human Decision Making, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2004), Budapest, Hungary, 25-29 July, pp. 971-976, IEEE Press, 2004.

29

• T. Ozen, J.M. Garibaldi and S. Musikasuwan, Modelling the Variation in Human Decision Making, in Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society (NAFIPS 2004), Banff, Canada, 27-30 June, pp, 617-622, IEEE Press, 2004.

• T. Ozen, J.M. Garibaldi, S. Musikasuwan, Preliminary Investigations into Modelling the Variation in

Human Decision Making, in Proceedings of Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge Based Systems (IPMU 2004), Perugia, Italy, 4-9 July, pp. 641-648, 2004.

• C. Schoreels, B. Logan and J.M. Garibaldi, Agent Based Genetic Algorithm Employing Financial

Technical Analysis for Making Trading Decisions using Historical Equity Market Data, in Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT 2004), Beijing, China, pp. 421-424, 2004.

• X.Y. Wang, G. Whitwell and J.M. Garibaldi, The Application of a Simulated Annealing Fuzzy

Clustering Algorithm for Cancer Diagnosis, in Proceedings of the IEEE 4th International Conference on Intelligent System Design and Application, Budapest, Hungary, 26-28 August, pp. 467-472, 2004.

2003

• U. Aickelin, P. Bentley, S. Cayzer, J. Kim and J. McLeod, Danger Theory: The Link between AIS

and IDS?, in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS-2003), Edinburgh, UK, 1-3 September, pp. 147-155, Springer, 2003.

• M. Ayob and G. Kendall, Real-time Scheduling for Multi Headed Placement Machines, in Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International. Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning (ISATP’03), Besançom, France, 10-11 July, pp. 128-133, 2003.

• E.K. Burke, S. Gustafson, G. Kendall and N. Krasnogor, Is Increased Diversity Beneficial in Genetic

Programming: An Analysis of the Effects on Fitness, in Proceedings of Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 1398-1405, 2003.

• J.M. Garibaldi and R.I. John, Choosing Membership Functions of Linguistic Terms, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2003), St Louis, USA, 25-28 May, pp. 578-583, 2003.

• L. Han and G. Kendall, Guided Operators for a Hyper-Heuristic Genetic Algorithm, in Proceedings of Advances in Artificial Intelligence: The 16th Australian Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI 2003) (eds. T.D. Gedeon and L.C. Che Fung), Perth, Australia, 3-5 December, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pp. 807-820, Springer, 2003.

• L. Han and G. Kendall, Investigation of a Tabu Assisted Hyper-Heuristic Genetic Algorithm, in Proceedings of Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 2230-2237, IEEE Press, 2003.

• G. Kendall and C. Smith, The Co-Evolution of Blackjack Strategies, in Proceedings of Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 2474-2481, IEEE Press, 2003.

• G. Kendall and Y. Su, A Multi-agent Based Stock Market - Testing on Different Types of Stocks, in Proceedings of Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 2298-2305, IEEE Press, 2003.

• J. Li and U. Aickelin, A Bayesian Optimisation Algorithm for the Nurse Scheduling Problem, in Proceedings of the 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 2149-2156, IEEE Press, 2003.

• D. Ouelhadj, P.I. Cowling and S. Petrovic, Utility and Stability Measures for Agent-Based Dynamic

Scheduling of Steel Continuous Casting, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Taipei, Taiwan, 14-19 September, pp. 175-180, 2003.

• S. Petrovic and X. Song, A New Approach for Two-Machine Flow Shop Problems with Uncertain

Processing Time, in Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Uncertainty, Modeling and Analysis (ISUMA) , College Park, USA, 21-24 September (eds. B. Ayyub and N. Attoh-Okine), pp. 110-115, IEEE Computer Society, 2003.

30

External Research Awards An Investigation of the Role of

Genetic Programming in a Hyper-

Heuristic Framework (£227,672 to

Nottingham from EPSRC; £246,984

to Essex from EPSRC; £15,000 from

BT Group PLC) Funding Body: EPSRC (EC/C523385/1)

Principal Investigator (Nottingham): E.K.Burke

Principal Investigator (Essex): R.Poli Co-Investigators: G.Kendall, N.Krasnogor

and E.Tsang Collaborators: BT Group PLC Start Date: 1st Oct 2005 Duration: 3 years Notes: Joint with the University of Essex

Novel Approaches to Radiotherapy

Planning and Scheduling in the NHS

(£265,486 to Nottingham from

EPSRC; £210,909 to Coventry from

EPSRC; £70,000 from Nottingham

NHS Trust; £25,000 from Coventry

and Warwickshire NHS Trust) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/C549511/1) Principal Investigator (Nottingham):

S.Petrovic

Principal Investigator (Coventry): C.Reeves

Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, J.M.Garibaldi, D.Petrovic, O.Haas

Collaborators: Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

Awarded: May 2005 Duration: 4 years Notes: Joint with Coventry University

BIOPTRAIN – Bioinformatics

Optimisation Training Marie-Curie

Early Stage Training (Approx.

£580,000 to Nottingham) Funding Body: EU (FP6-007597) Co-Ordinator: J.M.Garibaldi Co-Investigators (Nottingham): E.K.Burke,

J.D.Hirst and N.Krasnogor Start Date: 1st Sep 2005 Duration: 4 years Notes: Joint with 4 other European

institutions to support 12 PhD students, worth a total of over €2M

Robust Prediction with Explanatory

Power for Protein Structure and

Related Prediction Problems

(£209,589) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/T07534/01) Principal Investigator: N.Krasnogor Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke and J.D.Hirst Start Date: 1st Feb 2005 Duration: 3 years Notes: Joint with the School of Chemistry

IDEAS Factory – Chemical

Craftwork: Evolvable CHELLware

(£77,658) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D021847/1) Principal Investigator: N.Krasnogor Recognised Researcher: S.Gustafson Start Date: 1st Oct 2005 Duration: 3 years Notes: An IDEAS Factory project joint with

the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and Southampton

£2,674K

£1,366K

£466K

£860K

£800K

£390K

EPSRC Responsive Mode

Other EPSRC Awards

Other Research Councils(BBSRC/ESRC)

Industry

EU

Other Sources

ASAP has held or secured over £6.5M of external funding since 2003 –

this chart shows the split by funding source

31

Danger Theory: The Missing Link

between Artificial Immune Systems

and Intrusion Detection (£657,407

from EPSRC; £15,000 from HP Labs;

£18,000 from ECSC / Tedesco) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S47809/01) Principal Investigator: U.Aickelin Co-Investigators: J.McLeod, P.Treleaven Collaborators: Hewlett Packard Labs, ECSC

/ Tedesco Start Date: 5th Jan 2004 Duration: 3 years Notes: Largest EPSRC Adventure Fund grant

Adaptive Multi-Objective Heuristic

and Meta-Heuristic Approaches to

Space Allocation (£205,378 from

EPSRC; £112,500 from Real Time

Solutions Ltd) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/T26115/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: G.Kendall, B.Medjoub and

J.D.Landa Silva Collaborators: Real Time Solutions Ltd Start Date: 1st Apr 2005 Duration: 4 years Notes: Funded under EPSRC’s Mathematics

for Business initiative

The Commercialisation of

Internationally Leading Cutting and

Packing Technologies (£6,000) Funding Body: Nottingham Innovation and

Regional Award (NIRA) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: G.Kendall, P.H.Ford Start Date: 1st Apr 2004 Duration: 1½ years Notes: Supporting the spin-off of Aptia

Solutions Ltd

Decision Support for the Textile and

Leather Industries - A HEROBC

Innovation and Regional Fellowship

(£12,330) Funding Body: HEFCE and East Midlands

Development Agency (EMDA) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: G.Kendall, P.H.Ford Start Date: 1st Apr 2004 Duration: 1½ years Notes: Supporting the commercialisation of

cutting & packing research in the leather/ textile industries (in conjunction with the above award)

Automated Grid-Aware, Three-Tier

Protocol for Protein Structure

Comparison (£66,314) Funding Body: BBSRC (BB/C511764/1) Principal Investigator: N.Krasnogor Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, J.D.Hirst,

J.M.Garibaldi, H.Ashman, T.Brailsford Start Date: 1st Feb 2005 Duration: 1½ years Notes: Joint with the School of Chemistry

The Role of Management Practices in

Closing the Productivity Gap – A

Closing the Gap, Crossing the Levels

IDEAS Factory Project (£118,936) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D503949/1) Principal Investigator: U.Aickelin Start Date: 1st Oct 2005 Duration: 2½ years Notes: An IDEAS Factory project joint with

University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield and Aston University

SRIF2: Infrastructure for

Collaborative Decision Making in

Uncertain Environments (£280,000) Funding Body: SRIF2 Principal Investigator: J.M.Garibaldi Co-Investigator: E.K.Burke, G.Kendall Start Date: 1st Oct 2004 Duration: 4 years Notes: Part of a larger award for Ubiquitous

eScience and Grid Infrastructure worth a total of £2.3M

Collaborative Decision Making in

Uncertain Environments (£40,000

from EPSRC; £21,000 from Merlin

Systems Corp Ltd) Funding Body: EPSRC through the Smith

Institute (Faraday Partnership) Principal Investigator: J.M.Garibaldi Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke Collaborators: Merlin Systems Corp Ltd Start Date: 1st Oct 2004 Duration: 3 years Notes: A CASE studentship

Symposium on Computational

Intelligence in Games (£3,880) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/C546024/1) Principal Investigator: G.Kendall Co-Investigator: S Lucas Start Date: 1st Apr 2005 Duration: 1 year Notes: Joint with the University of Essex

32

External Research Awards (Continued) Models and Algorithms for Complex

Scheduling Problems: A Visiting

Fellowship (£21,240) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/T23374/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: J.M.Garibaldi Start Date: 1st Oct 2004 Duration: 5 years Notes: Supporting a visiting fellowship for

Prof. Peter Brucker, Osnabruck

BIOPATTERN FP6 Network of

Excellence (Approx. £220,000 to

Nottingham) Funding Body: EU (FP6-508803)

Lead Researcher (Nottingham): J.M.Garibaldi

Co-Investigators (Nottingham): E.K.Burke, J.D.Hirst and N.Krasnogor

Start Date: 1st Jan 2004 Duration: 4 years Notes: The Network was awarded €6.4

million to a consortium of 31 partners

Prisoners Dilemma Competition:

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary

(£11,848 to Nottingham, £11,870 to

Birmingham) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S63465/01) Principal Investigator (Nottingham):

G.Kendall

Principal Investigator (Birmingham): X.Yao

Start Date: 1st Apr 2004 Duration: 1½ years

Hybrid Meta-heuristic Optimisation

of Chiral Catalysts (£220,227) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S75765/01) Principal Investigator: J.D.Hirst Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, B.Lygo Recognised Researcher: J.L.Melville Start Date: 1st Apr 2004 Duration: 3 years Notes: Joint with the School of Chemistry

DNA Mapping by Combinatorial

Optimisation – A Visiting Fellowship

(£10,224) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S64530/01) Amount Awarded: £10,224 Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: J.D.Hirst, G.Kendall,

N.Krasnogor Start Date: 1st Sep 2003 Duration: 5 years Notes: Supporting a visiting fellowship for

Prof. Jacek Blazewicz, Poznan

Service Level Agreement Based

Scheduling Heuristics (£141,492 to

Nottingham, £202,916 to Manchester) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S67661/01)

Principal Investigator (Nottingham): J.M.Garibaldi

Principal Investigator (Manchester): R.Sakellariou

Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, S.Petrovic, T.A.Rodden, W.T.Hewitt, J.MacLaren

Start Date: 1st Feb 2004 Duration: 3 years Notes: Funded under the Fundamental

Computer Science for e-Science call

PLATFORM: Towards More

General Optimisation/Search

Systems (£422,908) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S70197/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: S.Petrovic, G.Kendall,

J.M.Garibaldi, N.Krasnogor Recognised Researcher: K.A.Dowsland Start Date: 1st Feb 2004 Duration: 5 years

Hybrid Methods for Space Allocation

(£14,700) Funding Body: Real Time Solutions Ltd. Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Start Date: 22nd Sep 2003 Duration: 3 years Notes: Providing industrial support for a

University of Nottingham funded CASE studentship

Co-operative and Collaborative

Decision Support (£140,000) Funding Body: Merlin Systems Corp. Ltd. Principal Investigator: J.M.Garibaldi Start Date: 1st Oct 2004 Duration: 4 years Notes: Providing generic industrial support

for the e-science robotic infrastructure

An Investigation of Cutting/Packing

and Planning using Automated

Algorithm Selection (£153,670 to

Nottingham, £150,105 to

Southampton) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S52414/01)

Principal Investigator (Nottingham): G.Kendall

Principal Investigator (Southampton): J.Bennell

Co-Investigator: E.K.Burke Start Date: 2nd Feb 2004 Duration: 3 years

33

Novel Meta-heuristic Research

Directions in Healthcare Personnel

Rostering (£191,581 from EPSRC;

£81,000 from ORTEC; £22,500 from

Gower; £3,000 from KaHo) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S31150/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: S.Petrovic and G.Kendall Collaborators: ORTEC BV, Gower Optimal

Algorithms Ltd, KaHo St.-Lieven Start Date: 1st Oct 2003 Duration: 3 years

An Investigation of Novel Methods

for Optimising Shelf Space Allocation

(£62,947 from EPSRC; £30,000 from

Tesco; £8,800 from Space Software;

£8,000 from Retail Vision) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/R60577/01) Principal Investigator: G.Kendall Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, P.I.Cowling

and S.Petrovic Collaborators: Tesco Ltd, Space Software

Solutions Ltd, Retail Vision Start Date: 31st Jul 2002 Duration: 3 years

The Supervisor: Towards A Human

Scheduling Algorithm (£69,282) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/R92899/02) Principal Investigator: U.Aickelin Start Date: 1st Jan 2003 Duration: 2½ years

Scheduling Agents for Distributed

Timetabling and Rostering – A

Visiting Fellowship (£10,350) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S53459/01) Principal Investigator: G.Kendall Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, S.Petrovic Start Date: 20th Jul 2003 End Date: 19th Apr 2004 Notes: Supported a visiting fellowship for

Prof. Amnon Meisels, Ben-Gurion

An Investigation of Non-

Deterministic Fuzzy Reasoning

(£62,451 from EPSRC; £5,000 from

Neoventa) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/R55085/01-02) Principal Investigator: J.M.Garibaldi Collaborators: Neoventa Medical AB Start Date: 27th May 2002 End Date: 18th August 2004

Fuzzy Multicriteria Approaches to

Scheduling and Rescheduling

Problems in Uncertain Environments

(£211,593 to Nottingham from

EPSRC; £210,743 to Coventry from

EPSRC; £70,000 from Denby;

£60,000 from Sherwood Press) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/R95319/01)

Principal Investigator (Nottingham): S.Petrovic

Principal Investigator (Coventry): D.Petrovic

Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, G.Kendall, K.Burnham and C.Reeves

Collaborators: Sherwood Press Ltd and Denby Pottery Company Ltd

Start Date: 1st Jan 2003 Duration: 3 years Notes: Joint with Coventry University

Hybrid Meta-heuristic Approaches

for Air Traffic Control Scheduling

(£40,000 from EPSRC; £21,000 from

NATS Ltd) Funding Body: EPSRC through the Smith

Institute (Faraday Partnership) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Collaborators: National Air Traffic Services

(NATS) Ltd. Start Date: 1st Oct 2003 Duration: 3 years Notes: A CASE studentship

Tutorials in Optimisation and Search

Methodology (£3,000 from EPSRC;

£2,000 from LMS) Funding Body: EPSRC and London

Mathematical Society (LMS), under the MathFIT initiative

Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: G.Kendall Co-Author: J.D.Landa Silva Start Date: 1st Jan 2003 End Date: 31st Oct 2003 Notes: Supported the INTROS workshop

A Dual Examination of Scheduling

Problems – A Visiting Fellowship

(£7,800) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/S07124/01) Principal Investigator: S.Petrovic Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke and G.Kendall Start Date: 2nd Sep 2002 End Date: 1st Oct 2003 Notes: Supported a visiting fellowship for

Prof. Moshe Dror, University of Arizona

34

External Research Awards (Continued) An Inter-disciplinary Scheduling

Network (£62,985) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/R12268/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: P.I.Cowling, S.Petrovic

and G.Kendall Collaborators: Over 60 universities and

companies across many disciplines Start Date: 1st May 2001 End Date: 30th April 2004

New Approaches to Produce Efficient

Nesting Patterns (£86,268 from

Teaching Company Directorate;

£40,400 from Esprit) Funding Body: Teaching Company

Directorate and Esprit Automation Ltd (TCS 3047)

Lead Academic: E.K.Burke Academic Supervisor: G.Kendall Start Date: 1st Oct 2000 End Date: 30th Sep 2003

Applying Meta-heuristics and Hyper-

heuristics to Stock Cutting (£28,920

from EPSRC; £13,200 from Esprit) Funding Body: EPSRC (CNA 00802329) Principal Investigator: G. Kendall Collaborators: Esprit Automation Ltd. Start Date: 1st Oct 2000 End Date: 30th Sep 2003 Notes: A CASE for New Academics Award

Using Real Time Information for

Effective Dynamic Scheduling

(£48,939 from EPSRC; £43,500 from

Dash) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/N04225/01-02) Principal Investigator: P.I.Cowling

(University of Bradford) Co-Investigators: S.Petrovic and E.K.Burke Collaborators: Dash Optimisation Start Date: 27th Apr 2000 End Date: 11th Jul 2004 Notes: Joint with the University of Bradford

A Case Based Approach to Heuristic

Selection for Timetabling (£190,545) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/M95516/01) Principal Investigator: E.K.Burke Co-Investigators: S.Petrovic and

P.I.Cowling Start Date: 27th Mar 2000 End Date: 26th Oct 2003

A Hybrid Meta-heuristic Approach to

Simplified Sequence-Structure-

Function Problems (£134,844) Funding Body: BBSRC/EPSRC Bio-

informatics initiative (42/BIO14458) Principal Investigator: J.Hirst (Chemistry) Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke, P.I.Cowling,

G.Kendall and S.Petrovic Start Date: 20th Aug 2001 Duration: 3½ years Notes: Joint with the School of Chemistry

An Investigation of Hyperheuristic

Methods (£196,343 to Nottingham;

£256,547 to Napier) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/N36837/01)

Principal Investigator (Nottingham): E.K.Burke

Principal Investigator (Napier): P.Ross Co-Investigators: P.I.Cowling, S.Petrovic,

G.Kendall and E.Hart Start Date: 18th Dec 2000 End Date: 17th Jul 2004 Notes: Joint with Napier University

Representational Design Principles to

Humanise Automated Systems

(£264,650) Funding Body: ESRC/EPSRC People At the

Centre of Communication and Information Technologies (PACCIT) programme (L328253012)

Principal Investigator (Sussex): P.Cheng Co-Investigator (Nottingham): E.K.Burke Co-Investigator (Bradford): P.I.Cowling Co-Investigator (Queen’s): B.McCollum Start Date: 1st Dec 2000 End Date: 31st Apr 2004 Notes: Joint with Sussex University, Queen’s

University of Belfast and the University of Bradford

Case Based Reasoning in Personnel

Rostering (£58,684 from EPSRC;

£24,000 from QMC) Funding Body: EPSRC (GR/N35205/01) Principal Investigator: S.Petrovic Co-Investigators: E.K.Burke and

P.I.Cowling Collaborators: Queen’s Medical Centre,

Nottingham Start Date: 1st Dec 2000 End Date: 31st Aug 2004 Notes: Joint with the Queen’s Medical Centre

and the School of Nursing

35

Professional Activities

Edmund Burke

• Member of the EPSRC Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Strategic Advisory Team (2003-2005).

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (2000-2002 and 2003-2005).

• Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS).

• Member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC).

• Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scheduling.

• Area Editor (for Combinatorial Optimisation) of The Journal of Heuristic.

• Associate Editor of the INFORMS Journal on Computing .

• Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

• Guest Co-editor of a feature issue of the European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR ) on “Timetabling and Rostering”, issue 153/1, February 2004.

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Annals of Operations Research (AOR ) on “Cutting, Packing, Layout and Space Allocation”.

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming feature issue of the European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR ) on “Evolutionary and Meta-heuristic Scheduling”.

• Director of Research for eventMAP Ltd.

• Director of Aptia Solutions Ltd.

• Member of the Scientific Committee of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering (Faraday Partnership).

• Member of the Scientific Board of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications (CERCIA).

• Chairman of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Working Group on Evolutionary Scheduling and Timetabling.

• Chairman of the Advisory Committee and Co-ordinator of the EURO Working group on Automated Timetabling (WATT).

• Chairman of the Steering Committee of the international series of conferences on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT).

• Co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 18-22 September 2004.

• Co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 5th Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT) Conference, Pittsburgh, USA, 18-20 August 2004.

• Chairman of the Special Programme Committee on Evolutionary Scheduling and Routing of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2004), Seattle, USA, 26-30 June 2004.

• Co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 1st Multi-Disciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA03 ), Nottingham, UK, 13-15 August 2003.

• Co-organiser of the International Workshop on Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation and Search Methodologies (INTROS), Nottingham, UK, August 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 19th International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems (IEA/AIE 2006), Annecy, France, 27-30 June 2006.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Mini Euro Conference (MEC) on Variable Neighbourhood Search, Tenerife, Spain, 23-25 November 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2005), Barcelona, Spain, 14-17 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of 7th International Conference on Artificial Evolution (EA’2005), Lille, France, 26-28 October 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2005 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI 2005), London, UK, 5-7 September 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC05), Edinburgh, UK, 2-5 September 2005.

36

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 6th Metaheuristics International Conference (MIC2005), Vienna, Austria, August 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee for 2nd Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2005), New York, USA, 18-21 July 2005.

• Member of Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Systems Management (IESM05), Marrakech, Morocco, 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2005 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington DC, USA, 25-29 June 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 8th European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP 2005), Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 5th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization, (EvoCOP 2005), Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April 2005 .

• Member of Programme Committee for the 23rd Workshop of the UK Planning and Scheduling Special Interest Group (PlanSIG 2004), Cork, Ireland, December 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee for the 5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Soft Computing (RASC2004), Nottingham, UK, 16-18 December 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee for the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS), Singapore, 1-3 December, 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution And Learning SEAL 2004, Busan, Korea, 26-29 October 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2004 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI2004), Loughborough, UK, 6-8 September 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2004 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB), La Jolla, California, 7-8October 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 1st International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO), Setubal, Portugal, 25-28 August 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 17th European Conference on Combinatorial Optimisation (ECCO), Beirut, Lebanon, 24-26 June 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC04), Portland, Oregon, USA, 20-23 June 2004.

• Member of International Advisory Committee of the 2004 Conference on Applied Mathematical Programming and Modelling Conference (APMOD04), London, UK, 20-23 June 2004.

• Member of the Scientific Committee of the 6th International Conference on Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture (ACDM 2004), Bristol, UK, 20-22 April 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the Fourth European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization (EvoCOP 2004), Coimbra, Portugal, 5-7 April 2004.

• Member of the International Advisory Board of the 2nd International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CIRAS), Singapore, 15-18 December 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee for the 22nd UK Planning and Scheduling SIG Workshop (PLANSIG 2003), Glasgow, UK, 9-10 December 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2003 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI-03), Bristol, UK, 1-3 September 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 5th Metaheuristics International Conference (MIC03), Kyoto, Japan, 25 - 28 August 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, USA, 12-16 July 2003.

• Member of the International Programme Committee of the “Applied Mathematics, Operational Research and Optimization” Symposium. This is one of four symposiums which form the IMACS/IEEE Multi-conference (CESA’2003), Lille, France, 9-11 July 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 16th International Conference on Industrial & Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems (IEA/AIE-2003), Loughborough, UK, June, 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 6th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Production Management (IEPM’03), Porto, Portugal, 26-28 May 2003.

37

• Member of Programme Committee of the Third European Workshop on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization (EvoCOP 2003), Essex, UK, 14-16April 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the IFAC International Conference on Intelligent Control and Signal Processing (ICONS 2003), Faro, Portugal, 8-11 April 2003.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 6th Workshop on Models and Algorithms for Planning and Scheduling Problems (MAPSP 03), Aussois, France, 30 March - 5 April 2003.

Graham Kendall

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (2003–2005).

• Chairman of the International Society of Interdisciplinary Scheduling (ISIS).

• Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Systems Science, Taylor & Francis.

• Member of the editorial board of Intelligent Systems in Accounting Finance and Management, Wiley.

• Associate editor of INFOR, the journal of the Canadian Operational Research Society, University of Toronto Press.

• Guest Co-editor of Advances in Econometrics, vol. 19, 2004 (Applications of AI in Finance & Economics)

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Annals of Operational Research on “Cutting, Packing and Layout”.

• Co-Chair of the Programme Committee of the 2nd Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2005), New York, USA, 18-21 July 2005.

• Co-Chair of the Programme Committee of Computational Intelligence and Games, Essex UK, 4-6 April 2005.

• Co-Editor of the proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games, Essex, UK, 4-6 April 2005. To be published by IEEE

• Co-Chair of the Programme Committee of Computational Intelligence and Games, Reno, USA, July 2006.

• Co-Chair of the Programme Committee of the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 17 - 21 August 2003.

• Co-Chair of the co-evolution track of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2003 (GECCO 2003), Chicago, Illinois, USA, 12-16 July 2003.

• Technical Co-Chair for the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’06), Vancouver, Canada, 16-21 July, 2006.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd Indian International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-05), Pune, India, 20-22 December 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of 2005 ICSC Congress on Computational Intelligence Methods and Applications (CIMA’2005) (First International ICSC Symposium on Advanced Computing in Financial Markets (ACFM 2005)), Istanbul, Turkey, 2-14 December 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The 18th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI’05), 5 9 December 2005, Sydney, Australia

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Life (ACAL’05), Sydney, Australia, 5-7 December 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee the 2005 International Conference on Natural Computation (ICNC’05), Changsha, China, 27-29 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO), Barcelona, Spain, 14-17 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 6th Metaheuristics International Conference (MIC2005), Vienna, Austria, August 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 4th International Workshop on Computational Intelligence in Economics and Finance (CIEF’2005), Salt Lake City, USA, July 21-26 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2005 (GECCO 2005), Washington DC, USA, 25-29 June 2005.

38

• Member of the Programme Committee of International Digital Games Research (DiGRA) Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 16-20 June 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the OR Practice in Africa (ORPA), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 7-8 April 2005.

• Co-Chair of the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG’05), Essex, UK, 4-6 April, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 5th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization (EvoCOP2005), Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP2005), Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 20th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2005), Santa Fe, USA, 13-17 March 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 5th International Conference in Soft Computing (RASC2004), Nottingham, UK, 16-18 December 2004.

• Member of the Steering Committee of The 2004 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA’04), Louisville, USA, 16-18 December 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI 2004), Cairns, Australia, 6-10 December 2004.

• Member of the Technical Committee of the Second Annual International Workshop in Computer Game Design and Technology, Liverpool , UK, 15-16 Nov 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2004 workshop on the Design and Evaluation of Advanced Hybrid Meta-Heuristics, Nottingham, UK, 3-4 Nov 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS’04), Singapore, 1-3 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The Eighth International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 18-22 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Ninth International Conference on Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALife IX), Boston, USA, 12-15 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support (ICKEDS’2004), Porto, Portugal, 19-23 July, 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The Fourth International Conference on Computers and Games (CG’04), Ramat-Gan, Israel, 5-7 July 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2004), Seattle, USA, 26-30 June 2004

• Member of the Programme Committee of The Congress of Evolutionary Computation 2004 (CEC’04), Portland, USA, 19-23 June 2004. I co-organised (with Simon Lucas) a special session at this conference entitled Evolutionary Computation and Games.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 4th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization (EVOCOP2004), Coimbra, Portugal, 5-7 April 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2004), Evolutionary Computing and Optimization (ECO) stream, Nicosia, Cyprus, 14-17 March 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Second International Symposium on Scheduling in Japan (ISS2004), 24-26 May 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The Congress of Evolutionary Computation 2003 (CEC’03), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The First Australian Conference on Artificial Life (ACAL2003), Canberra, Australia, 6-7 December 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IC-AI’2003), Las Vegas, USA, 23-26 June, 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of The International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA’03), Los Angeles, USA, 23-24 June 2003.

39

Uwe Aickelin

• Assistant Editor of the Journal of the Operational Research Society.

• Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

• Executive Board Member of ARTIST: A Network for Artificial Immune Systems (EPSRC).

• Invited Speaker at the 46th annual Operational Research Society Conference, York, UK, 7–9 September 2004 (Keynote Speaker on Heuristics and Artificial Immune Systems).

• Invited Speaker at the International Workshop on Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation and Search Methodologies (INTROS), Nottingham, UK, August 2003 (Artificial Immune Systems and Intrusion Detection Tutorial).

• Co-organiser of the Artificial Immune Systems Special Session at the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC05), Edinburgh, UK, 2-5 September 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2005 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2005) Washington DC, USA, 25-29 June 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2005), Edinburgh, UK, 2-5 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2005), New York, USA, 18-21 July 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 8th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2005), Canterbury, UK, 5- 9 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee the 4th International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS 2005), Banff, Canada, 14-17 August, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 3rd International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS 2004), Catania, Italy, 13-16 September, 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham UK, 18-22 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Congress of Evolutionary Computation 2004 (CEC 2004), Portland, USA, 19-23 June 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2004 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2004), Seattle, USA, 26-30 June 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of 2nd International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (ICARIS 2003), Edinburgh, UK, 1-3 September 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 1st Multi-Disciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 13-15 August 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 7th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES 2003), Oxford, UK, 3-5 September 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Congress of Evolutionary Computation 2003 (CEC 2003), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2003), Chicago, USA, 12-16 July 2003.

Jon Garibaldi

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (2003–2005).

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Sets on “Extensions to Type-1 Fuzzy Logic”.

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Applied Artificial Intelligence on “Methods for Adaptive Intelligent Systems”.

• Co-ordinator, Chairman of the Steering Committee and Lead Scientist of the BIOPTRAIN (Bioinformatics Optimisation Training) FP6 Marie-Curie Early Stage Training Centre.

• Chairman of the Bioinformatics Special Interest Group Committee of BIOPATTERN (Computational Intelligence for Biopattern Analysis in Support of eHealthcare) FP6 Network of Excellence, 2004-2008.

40

• Chairman of the Smart Adaptive Systems – Research Theory and Development Committee of EUNITE (European Network on Intelligent Technologies) FP5 Network of Excellence, 2002-2004.

• Invited Keynote Speaker at the Opening Session of the 1st International Meeting on Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (CIBB 2004), Perugia, Italy, 14-15 September 2005.

• Invited Keynote Speaker at the Closing Session of the EUNITE 2004 International Conference on Smart Adaptive Systems, Aachen, Germany, 10-12 June 2004.

• Publications Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2007), London, UK, 2007.

• Co-Organiser of a Special Session on “Approximate Human Reasoning” for 20th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Santa Fe, USA, 14-17 March 2005.

• Organiser of an Invited Session on “Grid Scheduling” at the 2004 CORS/INFORMS International Conference, Banff, Canada, 16-19 May 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2005 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI2005), London, UK, 5-7 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the European Conference on Emergent Aspects in Clinical Data Analysis (EACDA 2005), Pisa, Italy, 28-30 September 2005.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2nd International Meeting on Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (CIBB 2005), Crema, Italy, 15-17 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2005 International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare (CIMED2005), Lisbon, Portugal, 29 June - 1 July 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2005), Reno, USA, 22-25 May 2005.

• Co-Chair of the Organising Committee of the 5th International Conference in Soft Computing (RASC 2004), Nottingham, UK, 16-18 December 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Joint 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS) and IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), Singapore, 1-3 December, 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of First International Workshop on Grid Computing and its Application to Data Analysis (GADA’04), Larnaca, Cyprus, 25-29 October 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 18-22 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2004), Budapest, Hungary, 25-29 July 2004.

• Member of Programme Committee of the 2004 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI-2004), Loughborough, UK, 5-7 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of 2nd International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CIRAS 2003), Singapore, 15-18 December 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2003 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI-2003), Bristol, UK, 1-3 September 2003.

• Member of the Organising Committee of the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 13-16 August 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE 2003), St. Louis, USA, 25-28 May 2003.

Sanja Petrovic

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (2003–2005).

• Guest Co-editor of the European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) on “Timetabling and Rostering”, Vol.153, No.1, 2004, Elsevier.

• Guest Editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Scheduling on “Expert Systems and Machine Learning in Scheduling”, 2006, Kluwer.

• Guest Co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Annals of Operations Research on “Personnel Scheduling and Planning”, Kluwer.

41

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling : Theory and Applications (MISTA 2005), New York, USA, 18-21 July 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 4th International Conference on Recent Advances in Soft Computing (RASC2004), Nottingham, UK, 16-18 December, 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham UK,18-22 September 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee for the 5th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2004), Pittsburgh, USA, August 2004.

• Member of the Special Programme Committee on Evolutionary Scheduling and Routing of the 2004 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2004), Seattle, USA, 26-30 June 2004.

• Organiser of a Session on University Timetabling within the cluster on Scheduling/Timetabling at the CORS/INFORMS Joint International Meeting, Banff, Canada, 16-19 May 2004.

• Co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications, MISTA 2003, Nottingham, 13-16 August, 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2003 (CEC’03), Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December 2003.

• Organiser of the Session on Employee Timetabling within the track “Planning and Scheduling in Services and Manufacturing” at the Production and Operations Management Society (POM 2003), Savannah, USA, 4-7 April 2003.

Natalio Krasnogor

• Board member of the UK Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour.

• Member of the editorial board of the Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour Quarterly,

• Member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence

• Member of the editorial board of Evolutionary Computation.

• Guest Co-editor of a special issue of Evolutionary Computation on “Memetic Algorithms”, MIT Press.

• Guest Co-editor of a special issue of Fuzzy Sets and Systems on “Bioinformatics”, Elsevier.

• Guest Co-editor of a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics on “Memetic Algorithms”, IEEE Press.

• Member of the Organising Committee of the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 13 – 16 August 2003.

• Member of the Organising Committee International Workshop on Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation and Search Methodologies (INTROS ’03), Nottingham, UK, 12 August 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Orlando, Florida, 27 – 30 July 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2005), Seatle, DC, USA, 25-29 July 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2004), Seatle, Washington, USA, 26-30 July 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2003), Chicago, USA, 12-16 July 2003.

• Co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 4th International Workshop on Memetic Algorithms (WOMA IV), Chicago, USA, 12 July 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 30th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2003) – Workshop on Evolutionary Computation, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 30 June – 4 July 2003.

• Member of the Programme Committee for Congreso Mexicano de Computacion Evolutiva 2003 (COMCEV ’03), Guanajuato, Mexico, 28 – 30 May 2003.

42

Dario Landa-Silva

• Co-chair of the 4th EU/ME International Workshop on Design and Evaluation of Advanced Hybrid Metaheuristics, Nottingham, UK, 4-5 November, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee for the 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2005).

• Member of the Programme Committee for the First Conference on OR Practice in Africa (ORPA 2005).

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 4th EU/ME International Workshop on Design and Evaluation of Advanced Hybrid Meta-heuristics, Nottingham, UK, November 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee for the 2005 International Conference on Evolutionary Multi-criterion Optimization (EMO 2005), Guanajuato, Mexico, 9-11 March 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee for the 2004 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2004), Portland, USA, 19-23 June 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee for the 2nd EU/ME Workshop on “Multiobjective Metaheuristics”, Paris, France, November 2002.

• Member of the Organising Committee for the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 13 – 16 August 2003.

Djamila Oelhadj

• Member of the European Network of Excellence for Agent-based Computing (AGENTLINK).

• Member of the Programme Committee of the International Conference on Parallel Computing (EURO-PAR05), Portugal, 30 August - 2 September, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the First International Workshop on Knowledge and Data Mining Grid(KDMG05), Lodz, Poland, 6-9 June 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the Seventh International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Natural Computing (CINC05), Salt Lake City, USA, 21-26 July, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the IADIS International Conference Applied Computing (CA05), Algarve, Portugal, 22-25 February, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 35th International Computers & Industrial Engineering Conference (CIE05), Istanbul, Turkey, 19-22 June, 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 9th WSEAS International Conference on Computers (WSEAS05), Athens, Greece, 14-16 July 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2005), Barcelona, Spain, 14-17 September 2005.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 5th IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Grid Computing (GRID2004), Pittsburgh, USA, 8 November, 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the International Symposium on Scheduling (ISS2004), Japan, 24-26 May 2004.

• Member of the Programme Committee of the 1st International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO04), Setubal, Portugal, 25-28 August 2004.

• Publicity Chair and Member of the Programme Committee of the Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA04), Budapest, Hungary, 26-28 August 2004.

• Member of the Organising Committee of the First Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 12-16 August 2003.

Rong Qu

• Member of the Organising Committee of the First Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, 12-16 August, 2003.

43

Contact Details

Academic Staff

Professor Edmund Burke

(Head of Group and

Director of Inter-Disciplinary

Optimisation Laboratory)

Professor of Computer Science Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4206 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: ekb@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ekb Dr Graham Kendall

Reader Tel: +44 (0) 115 846 6514 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: gxk@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gxk Dr Jon Garibaldi

Senior Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4216 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: jmg@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~jmg Dr Natalio Krasnogor

Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 846 7592 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: nxk@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~nxk Dr Djamila Ouelhadj

Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4793 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: dxs@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~dxs

Mrs Emma-Jayne Dann

PA to Prof. Burke Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4246 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: ejd@cs.nott.ac.uk Dr Uwe Aickelin

Senior Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4215 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: uxa@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~uxa Dr Sanja Petrovic

Senior Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 951 4222 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: sxp@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~sxp Dr Dario Landa Silva

Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 846 6522 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: jds@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~jds Dr Rong Qu

Lecturer Tel: +44 (0) 115 846 6521 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4249 email: rxq@cs.nott.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~rxq

44

ASAP Personnel

Academic Staff

Prof. Edmund Burke Professor of Computer Science

Dr Graham Kendall Reader of Computer Science

Dr Uwe Aickelin

Senior Lecturer

Dr Jon Garibaldi Senior Lecturer

Dr Sanja Petrovic Senior Lecturer

Dr Natalio Krasnogor

Lecturer

Dr Dario Landa Silva Lecturer

Dr Djamila Ouelhadj Lecturer

Dr Rong Qu Lecturer

Administrative Staff

Mrs Emma-Jayne Dann PA to Prof. Burke

45

Associated Staff

Prof. Jacek Blazewicz

EPSRC Visiting Fellow

Prof. Peter Brucker EPSRC Visiting Fellow

Prof. Moshe Dror EPSRC Visiting Fellow

Prof. Amnon Meisels EPSRC Visiting Fellow

Prof. Patrick

De Causmaecker Visiting Professor

Dr Kath Dowsland Industrial Fellow

Dr Barry McCollum Visiting Researcher

Dr Greet Vanden Berghe Visiting Researcher

Research Staff

Masri Ayob James Bacardit Daniel Barthel Yuri Bykov

Carole Fayad Steven Gustafson Marcin Jaroszewski Jingpeng Li

Andrew Parks Jamie Twycross Glenn Whitwell

46

Research Staff (Joint with School of Chemistry)

James Melville Mark Oakley

PhD Students

Salwani Abdullah Hishammuddin

Bin Asmuni Jason Atkin German Terrazas

Aungulo

Rubin Bai Joseph Baxter Gareth Beddoe Camille Beyrouthy

Phil Birkin Qi Chen Tim Curtois Aniza Mohamed Din

Adam Eckersley Martin Geiger Julie Greensmith Limin Han

47

PhD Students (Continued)

Rob Hellier Naimah Hussin Lin Li Scott Littlewood

Geert De Maere Rahul Singh Majhail Mazlan Mohamed Baharuddin

Bin Mohamed

Salang Musikasuwan Ross O’Brien Cyril Schoreels Xeuyan Song

Kristian Spoerer Mike Stout Yan Su Xiao Ying Wang

William Wilson Razali Yaakob

48

How to Find Us

See http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/campuses/jubilee for full directions

Jubilee Campus Map

ASAP Posters at EPSRC’s Operational Research Theme Day

Editor: Dr Jon Garibaldi Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning (ASAP) Research Group School of Computer Science and Information Technology The University of Nottingham Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road Nottingham, NG8 1BB United Kingdom URL: http://www.asap.ac.uk © ASAP 2005

School of Computer Science and IT

Automated Scheduling,

Optimisation and Planning

(ASAP) Research Group

Report Addendum 2005 This is an update to the ASAP Research Group Report 2003-2004, detailing selected activities during 2005.

© ASAP 2006

External Research Awards ASAP has secured external research funding of more than £3 million since June 2005.

Next Generation Decision Support:

Automating the Heuristic Design Process

(£2,663,528) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D061571/1) Principal Investigator: Professor E.K. Burke Other Investigators: Dr R. Qu, Dr S. Petrovic, Dr

G. Kendall, Dr J.M. Garibaldi, Dr N. Krasnogor and Dr J.D. Landa Silva

Start Date: 1 March 2006 End Date: 28 February 2011

NETWORK: Interdisciplinary Cutting,

Packing and Space Allocation (£63,212) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D031079/01) Principal Investigator: Dr G. Kendall Other Investigators: Professor E.K. Burke Start Date: 1 March 2006 End Date: 28 February 2009 Notes: This is an inter-disciplinary network across

academia and industry. A brief summary can be found in EPSRC's Research Portfolio.

Towards a Framework for Modelling

Variation in Automated Decision Support

(£143,282) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/C542207/1) Principal Investigator: Dr J.M. Garibaldi Other Investigators: Professor E.K. Burke Start Date: 1 January 2006 End Date: 31 December 2008

Hyper-heuristics for Scheduling, Rostering

and Routing: An International

Collaboration (£31,828) Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D027039/1) Principal Investigator: Dr J.M. Garibaldi Other Investigators: Professor E.K. Burke, Dr G.

Kendall Start Date: 1 March 2006 End Date: 28 February 2011 Notes: Supporting Professor M. Gendreau

IDEAS Factory Productivity Network -

Closing the Gap, Crossing the Levels (£109,686)

Funding Body: EPSRC (EP/D036623/1) Principal Investigator: Dr U. Aickelin Start Date: 1 October 2005 End Date: 31 March 2009

Multi Sensor Data Fusion for Threat

Analysis in Computer Security (£59,464) Funding Body: EPSRC through the Smith Institute

for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering.

Collaborators: NetFort Ltd. (£ 19,821) Principal Investigator: Dr U. Aickelin Start Date: 1 June 2005 End Date: 31 December 2008

Publications

Books • E.K. Burke (co-editor with others), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from

Nature (PPSN IX), Reykjavik, Iceland, 9-13 September 2006, to be published by Springer in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.

• E.K. Burke and M. Trick (eds.), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V : Selected Papers of the 5th International Conference on Practice & Theory of Automated Timetabling, Pittsburgh, USA, August 18th-20th 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 3616, 2005.

• E.K. Burke and G. Kendall (eds.), Search Methodologies: Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation and Decision Support, Springer, 2005, ISBN: 0-387-23460-8.

• X. Yao, E.K. Burke, J.A. Lozano, J. Smith, J.J. Merelo-Guervos, J.A. Bullinaria, J. Rowe, P. Tino, A. Kaban and H.P. Schwefel (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 18-22 September 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 3242, 2004.

Journal Papers

In press and to appear

• S. Abdullah, S. Ahmadi, E.K. Burke and M. Dror, “Investigating Ahuja-Orlin's Large Neighbourhood Search Approach for Examination Timetabling”, accepted for publication in OR Spectrum, to appear 2006.

• S. Abdullah, S. Ahmadi, E.K. Burke, M. Dror and B. McCollum, “A Tabu Based Large Neighbourhood Search Methodology for the Capacitated Examination Timetabling Problem”, accepted for publication in the Journal of the

Operational Research Society, to appear 2006.

• G. Beddoe and S. Petrovic, "Enhancing Case-Based Reasoning for Personnel Rostering with Selected Tabu Search Concepts", accepted for publication in the Journal of the Operational Research Society, to appear 2006.

• F. Bernardini, M. Gheorghe and N. Krasnogor, “Quorum Sensing P Systems”, accepted for publication in Journal of

Theoretical Computer Science, to appear 2006.

• U. Aickelin and J. Li, “An Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for Nurse Scheduling”, accepted for publication in Annals

of Operations Research, to appear 2006.

• R. Bai, and G. Kendall, “A Model for Fresh Produce Shelf Space Allocation and Inventory Management with Freshness Condition Dependent Demand”, accepted for publication in INFORMS Journal on Computing, to appear 2006.

• E.K. Burke, P. De Causmaecker, S. Petrovic and G. Vanden Berghe, “Metaheuristics for handling Time Interval Coverage Constraints in Nurse Scheduling”, to appear in Applied Artificial Intelligence, 20(3), 2006.

• E.K. Burke, R. Hellier, G. Kendall and G. Whitwell, “Complete and Robust No-Fit Polygon Generation for the Irregular Stock Cutting Problem”, accepted for publication in the European Journal of Operational Research, to appear 2006.

• J.M. Garibaldi and T. Ozen, “Uncertain Fuzzy Reasoning: A Case Study in Modelling Expert Decision Making”, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions in Fuzzy Systems, to appear 2006.

• D. Petrovic, A. Duenas, S. Petrovic, “Decision Support tool for Multi-objective Job Shop Scheduling Problems with Linguistically Quantified Decision Functions”, accepted for publication in Decision Support Systems, to appear 2006.

• S. Petrovic, Y. Yang and M. Dror, "Case-based Selection of Initialisation Heuristics for Metaheuristic Examination Timetabling", accepted for publication in Expert Systems with Applications, to appear in 33(3), 2007.

• S. Petrovic and X. Song, “A New Approach to Two-Machine Flow Shop Problem with Uncertain Processing Time”, accepted for publication in Optimisation and Engineering, to appear 2006.

• X.Y. Wang, J.M. Garibaldi, B. Bird and M.W. George, “A Novel Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm for the Analysis of Axillary Lymph Node Tissue Sections”, accepted for publication in Applied Intelligence, to appear 2006.

2006

• E.K. Burke, and L.D. Landa Silva, “The Influence of the Fitness Evaluation Method on the Performance of Multiobjective Search Algorithms”, European Journal of Operational Research, 169(3), pp. 875-897, 2006.

• E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic and R. Qu, “Multiple-Retrieval Case Based Reasoning for Course Timetabling Problems”, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 57(2), pp 148-162, 2006.

• E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic and R. Qu, “Case Based Heuristic Selection for Timetabling Problems”, Journal of Scheduling, 9(2), pp 99-113, 2006.

• K. Dowsland, E. Herbert, G. Kendall and E.K. Burke, “Using Tree Search Bounds to Enhance a Genetic Algorithm Approach to Two Rectangle Packing Problems”, European Journal of Operational Research, 168(2), pp 390-402, 2006.

• N. Krasnogor, M. Gheorghe, G. Terrazas, S. Diggle, P. Williams, and M. Camara, “An Appealing Computational Mechanism Drawn from Bacterial Quorum Sensing”, in: Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer

Science, 135-148, 2005.

• G. Tedesco and U. Aickelin, “Data Reduction in Intrusion Alert Correlation”, WSEAS Transactions on Computers, 1(5), pp 186-193, 2006.

2005

• S. Cayzer and U. Aickelin. “A Recommender System based on Idiotypic Artificial Immune Networks”. Journal of

Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms, 4(2), pp 181-198, 2005.

• N. Krasnogor and J.E. Smith, “A Tutorial for Competent Memetic Algorithms: Model, Taxonomy and Design Issues”, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 9(5), pp 474- 488, 2005.

• J. Li and R.S.K. Kwan, “A Self-Adjusting Algorithm for Driver Scheduling”, Journal of Heuristics, 11(4), pp 351-367, 2005.

• J.L. Melville, K.R.J. Lovelock, C. Wilson, B. Allbutt, E.K. Burke, B. Lygo,and J.D. Hirst, “Exploring Phase-Transfer Catalysis with Molecular Dynamics and 3D/4D Quantitative Structure-Selectivity Relationships”, Journal of Chemical

Information and Modeling, 45, pp 971-981, 2005.

• M.T. Oakley, J.M. Garibaldi and J.D. Hirst, “Lattice Models of Peptide Aggregation: Evaluation of Conformational Search Algorithms”, Journal of Computational Chemistry, 26, pp. 1638-1646, 2005.

• D. Ouelhadj, S. Petrovic, P. Cowling and A. Meisels, “Inter-Agent Cooperation And Communication For Agent-Based Robust Dynamic Scheduling in Steel Production”, Advanced Engineering and Informatics (Artificial Intelligence in

Engineering), 18(3), pp. 161-172, 2005.

• D.A. Pelta, N. Krasnogor, C. Bousono-Calzon, J.L. Verdegay and E.K. Burke, “A Fuzzy Sets based Generalization of Contact Maps for the Overlap of Protein Structures”, Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 152(1), pp 103-123, 2005.

• X.Y. Wang and J.M. Garibaldi, “Simulated Annealing Fuzzy Clustering in Cancer Diagnosis”, European Journal of

Informatica, 29(1), pp 61-70, 2005.

Refereed Conference Papers and Book Chapters The group has published in a wide range of refereed international conferences and book chapters since the publication of our 2003/2004 report, with many more accepted or submitted to conferences due to be held in 2006. Full details will be included in the next research group report.

© ASAP 2006

New Group Members

Mrs. Christine Fletcher

Group Support Coordinator

Mrs. Debbie Pitchfork

EPSRC Network Administrator

Peer-Olaf Siebers

Research Associate Amanda Whitbrook

Research Associate Adrian Adewunmi

PhD Student Pai-Chun Chen

PhD Student

Qun Bo Chen

PhD Student Jan Feyereisl

PhD Student Linda Fiaschi

PhD Student Itziar Frades

PhD Student

Yousof Al Hammadi

PhD Student Matthew Hyde

PhD Student William Leung

PhD Student Robert Oates

PhD Student

Peter Siepmann

PhD Student Daniele Soria

PhD Student

Gianni Tedesco

PhD Student

Pawel Widera

PhD Student

Khoi Le

PhD Student

Dr Jiawei Li Visiting Scholar

Dr Michel Gendreau

EPSRC Visiting Fellow