ECOLE Website “Meet the Team”

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Meet our project team

The research groups at the University of Birmingham and University of Leiden, lead by

Professor Xin Yao and Thomas Back respectively, will focus on the theoretical and algorithmic

strands. Honda Research Institute and NEC lead by Professor Bernhard Sendhoff and Dr Zhao

Xu respectively, will focus on the application strand. This multidisciplinary team has innovation

at heart and our mission is to train a cohort of highly skilled Early Stage Researchers in Machine

Learning and Optimisation to address challenges in product design and engineering.

University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham Logo

CERCIA@ University of Birmingham (UoB) is a world leader in nature-inspired computation

(especially evolutionary computation) and its application. Its expertise include evolutionary

computation, ensemble learning and search based software engineering. CERCIA@UoB is the

overall coordinator of the ECOLE project.

It employs two ESRs and supervises PhD studies of four ESRs. The supervisors involved include

Xin Yao, Leandro Minku, Peter Tino, Ata Kaban and Shuo Wang.

Prof Xin Yao Dr Leandro Minku Dr Shuo Wang

NEC

NEC Laboratories Logo

NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH will provide opportunities for ESRs to participate in Machine

Learning and Artificial Intelligence research, help the ESRs better understand the industrial

demands and applications, and supervise the ESRs to produce cutting-edge technologies with

industrial impact.

They will be responsible for dedicated topics within project seminars and workshops as well as

hosting a summer school.

Dr Zhao Xu

Honda Research Institute Europe

Honda Research Institute Logo

Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH is the European office of the three globally well-

established fundamental research institutes of Honda. It focuses on the research of intelligent

system technologies for “a sustainable and joyful society by creating innovations that

harmonize technology, nature and people.” It won the prestigious IEEE Computational

Intelligence Society Outstanding Organization Award for its leadership and innovative work in

this field.

Prof Bernhard Sendhoff Dr Stefan Menzel

Universiteit Leiden

Universiteit Leiden Logo

The Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) is a center of excellence for

multidisciplinary research and education in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI).

LIACS concentrates on the study of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science,

with a strong foundation in core computer science. Research programmes include Artificial

Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data Mining, Natural Computing, Optimisation and

Multiple-Criteria Decision Making.

All ESRs will have access to LIACS’ vibrant research and education environment and the

institute’s modern office and computing facilities, including with the two computing clusters

that it hosts for ESRs to carry out CPU-intensive research work.

Prof Thomas Bäck

ESRs

ESR1: Thiago Rios, (Brazil) • Project Topic: High-dimensionality and big-data models in learning-based optimisation methods.

• Objectives: Develop novel learning algorithms for optimisation and design space exploration in high

dimensional spaces integrating modelling techniques that use multi-domain knowledge.

Benchmarking them on practical and academic benchmarks.

• Degree/Qualification: Masters Mechanical Engineering at UFSC (Florianopolis, Brazil).

• Hobbies/interests: Motorsports and cycling.

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.HONDA-RI.DE/

Thiago Rios

ESR2: Sneha Saha, (India) • Project Topic: Constrained, multiple-criteria and preference-aware optimisation.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare learning-based constrained and multi-

objective constrained optimisation algorithms on both benchmarks and industrial problems.

• Degree/Qualification: Integrated masters on Digital Media Technology, Delft University of

Technology, The Netherlands, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

• Hobbies/interests: Painting, Exploring new places.

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.HONDA-RI.DE/PEOPLE/

Sneha Saha

ESR3: Sibghat Ullah, (Pakistan) • Project Topic: Uncertainty handling and robust design in learning-based optimisation.

• Objectives: To develop, evaluate and compare self-tuning learning-based, multi-objective

constrained optimisation algorithms on both benchmarks and industrial problems in dynamic

environment, with uncertainty handling ability and robust design.

• Degree/Qualification: MS Data Science, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

• Hobbies/interests: Football.

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.UNIVERSITEITLEIDEN.NL/EN/STAFFMEMBERS/SIBGHAT-

ULLAH#TAB-1

Sibghat Ullah

ESR4: Duc Anh Nguyen, (Vietnam) • Project Topic: Automatic algorithm configuration for parameter tuning of modelling and

optimisation algorithms.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare algorithm configuration approaches for

their application in the context of learning and optimisation.

• Degree/Qualification: Masters in Information Technology Management, Vietnam National

University, Vietnam

• Hobbies/interests: Reading & sport

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.UNIVERSITEITLEIDEN.NL/EN/STAFFMEMBERS/ANH-

NGUYEN#TAB-1

Duc Anh Nguyen

ESR5: Jiawen (Fay) Kong, (China)

• Project Topic: Class imbalance classification through semi-supervised and active earning for

experience-based optimisation.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare novel class imbalance learning algorithms

using semi-supervised and active learning ideas on both benchmarks and industrial problems.

• Degree/Qualification: Master in Statistics, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

• Hobbies/interests: Translating English lyrics into Chinese, handmade bags by myself.

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.UNIVERSITEITLEIDEN.NL/EN/STAFFMEMBERS/JIAWEN-

KONG#TAB-1

Jiawen Kong

ESR6: Stephen Friess, (Germany) • Project Topic: Big data analytics through learning in the model space for experience computation.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare novel methods for model generation,

distance measures and model learning in the framework of learning in the model space on both

benchmarks and industrial problems.

• Degree/Qualification: Master of Science, Physics, Darmstadt University of Technology.

• Hobbies/interests: Travelling.

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://STEPHENSBLOG90.WORDPRESS.COM/

Stephen Friess

ESR7: Gan Ruan, (China)

• Project Topic: Online learning in experience-based optimisation in dynamic and uncertain

environments.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare effective real-time online learning algorithms

for concept drifts in a dynamic and uncertain environment on both benchmarks and industrial

problems.

• Degree/Qualification: Bachelor degree of Engineering and Master degree of Engineering, Xiangtan

University, China

• Hobbies/interests: Traveling, reading books, playing games.

• Personal Webpage: HTTP://WWW.ESCIENCE.CN/PEOPLE/GRUAN/INDEX.HTML

Gan Ruan

ESR8: Giuseppe Serra, (Rome, Italy) • Project Topic: Text and social media mining with deep probabilistic models for product feature

optimisation.

• Objectives: To develop, analyse, evaluate and compare novel text mining methods for automatically

detecting customers’ opinions on aspects and features of products from large collections of

unstructured texts.

• Degree/Qualification: BSc in Statistics for Management, MSc in Data Science, Sapienza, University of

Rome.

• Hobbies/interests: Passionate about Music, Futsal (5-a-side football) Player

• Personal Webpage: HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/GIUSEPPE-SERRA-A70261120/

Giuseppe Serra