Jim Smith

Reader In Artificial Intelligence

Click here to reach the supporting Web site of my (co-authored) book: A.E. Eiben and J.E. Smith, Introduction to Evolutionary Computing,

My Research Interests

My primary research interests are in the field of Computational Intelligence,  that is computer systems which display what can appear to be intelligent behaviour arising from the interaction of many simple parts. The applications of these techniques  fall into two main areas. The first of these is  Data Mining, where I have developed and applied a variety of algorithms such as unsupervised neural networks (in various guises) to the problem of discovering useful patterns and relationships in data. The second large area is Heuristic Optimisation, which can be thought of as  searching through a (possibly infinite) set of candidate solutions to a problem in order to find one that is preferably the best, or at least of high enough quality to be acceptable. Usually this involves the development, theoretical analysis, and application of novel algorithms for problems which are not amenable to solutions by exact methods or other classical techniques either because of the sheer number of possible solutions (in the case of combinatorial optimisation) or other features such as discontinuities etc. (for continuous problems).

One of the aims of this work is to develop algorithms that are able to adapt their behaviour to the nature of the problem being tackled so as to provide more robust "user friendly" techniques. On another level we can view this studies as part of an investigation into "learning how to learn". Some methods of achieving this behaviour via self-adaptation of recombination and mutation operators were explored in my doctoral thesis:  Self Adaptation in Evolutionary Algorithms, (which you can download in compressed postscript or pdf versions. I am  particularly interested in the relationship between the nature of the operators that emerge and the underlying structure of the search landscapes. More recently this work has expanded to include the consideration of Memetic Algorithms, which are combinations of Local Search Heuristics with Evolutionary Algorithms. I am particularly interested in the use of different techniques for adapting the local searchers used dynamically during the course of optimisation.

Whilst conducting these more theoretical studies, I have attempted to keep my feet on the ground by working on a number of difficult "real world" problems, such as VLSI Design Verification, Adaptive Image Segmentation and Classification, Lot-sizing, and bio-informatics problems such as Protein Structure Prediction and Protein Structure Comparison.

Current projects include:

· The EU-FP6 funded project DynaVis, which aims to apply Machine Learning techniques to create dynamically reconfigurable machine vision systems for manufacturing quality control.

· Research collaborations with the UK Office of National Statistics to investigate the use of Evolutionary Algorithms for Statistical Disclosure Control

· EPSRC research project investigating mathematical modelling of statistical disclosure control with ONS

· Higher Education Academy project to create on-line material for teaching Artificial Intelligence

· IPAT (Interactive Parameter Adaptation Tool) [Caleb-Solly & Smith 2002,2004,2007, Papulin, caleb-Solly and Smith 2008] is an application that has been designed to provide an effective and efficient graphical interface to find optimal image segmentation parameters to segment regions of interests (ROI) on images from users’ knowledge. It can also be extended to many types of other problem where AI-based systems can help users develop solutions to their problems without the need for continual dialogue with technical experts.

Read more…

Professional Activities

· Member of IEEE SMC Society Technical Committee on Soft Computing.

· Member of IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Emerging Technologies Task Force on  Memetic Computing

· Member of Editorial Board of the journal Evolutionary Computation

· Member of the Council of Authors of the  International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation

· Programme co-chair for Parallel Problem Solving from Nature 8  held in Birmingham, UK, 18th-22nd September 2004.

· Founder and Organiser (with Natalio Krasnogor and Bill Hart ) of the annual International  Workshops on Memetic Algorithms (WOMA) which have been co-located with the GECCO (2000, 2001, 2003) and PPSN  (2002, 2004 )conferences 

· Member of the Training Committee and the Management Committee of Evonet and EvoNet II , the European Network of Excellence in Evolutionary Computing,

· Member of the Education Committee of COIL (the EU funded Computation Intelligence CLuster)

· Guest Editor of Journal of Evolutionary Computation, Volume 12, number 3, Special Issue on Memetic Algorithms

· Reviewer for the journals Theoretical Computer Science,  Evolutionary Computation , the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Image and Vision Computing, EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing and several others.

· Programme Committee member for Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC), Genetic and Evolutionary Computing Conference (GECCO), Evonet Workshops on Evolutionary Signal Processing,  Memetic Theory in Artificial Systems and Societies (METAS 2005)

Teaching

I am Module Leader forUFCE3H-20-1 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence.

I was previously module leader for  

· UFCE3P-15-M Evolutionary Computing,

· UFCE3Y-60-M Master's Dissertation (Computer Science)

· UFCEL4-15-M Generic Skills for Research Students

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I also  supervise final year undergraduate projects: a list of project ideas can be found here

Current and Past Students

· Kashif Hameed is studying high-performance linux-based computing

· Martin Serpell is studying the  mathematical modelling of, and evolutionary approaches to,  Statistical Disclosure Control

· Natalio Krasnogor has completed his PhD on "Studies on the Theory and Design Space of Memetic Algorithms" (2002)

· Michal Steuer has completed his PhD. “A Modified Neocognitron for Pattern Recognition with an Application to Respiratory Signal Classification” (2003)

· Praminda Caleb-Solly has completed her PhD on the use of adaptive computing techniques for image processing and classification, focussing on interactive evolutionary systems for building on-line systems to detect and classify defects in hot-rolled steel. (2005)

· Chris Stone has completed his PhD. on the use of Learning Classifier Systems for learning financial trading rules.

· Niraj Updahayaya has completed his PhD. studying the methods for implementing global shard memory within clustered linux processors

· Yong Yang has completed his PhD.  “Efficient parallel genetic algorithms applied to numerical optimisation” (2008)

· Andrea Staggemeier has completed her PhD "Metaheuristics in a Production Lot-Sizing and Scheduling Problem"

Publications

Books

· Eiben, A.E. and Smith, J.E. “Introduction to Evolutionary Computing”,   ISBN 3-540-40184-9 Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 2003. 

· Yao, Burke, Lozano, Smith, Merelo-Guervos, Bullinaria, Rowe, Tino Kaban and Schwefel (eds) (2004) "Parallel Problem Solving from Nature- PPSN VIII", ISBN 3-540-23092-0,  Springer,  Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

· Hart, W.E., Krasnogor, N., & Smith, J.E. (2004)   “Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms”, ISBN3-540-22904-3 Springer,  Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

Book Chapters:

· Smith, J.E. (2008) Self-Adaptation in Evolutionary Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimisation pp31-57 in Adaptive and Multilevel Metaheuristics, Cotta, Sevaux and Sorenson (Eds), Springer.

· Tahir, M. A,  and Smith, J.E. (2008), "Feature Selection using Intensified Tabu Search for Supervised Classification". Local Search Techniques: Focus on Tabu Search, I-Tech Publishing, Vienna, Austria

· M. A. Tahir and J. E. Smith. (2008): "Feature Selection for Heterogeneous Ensembles of Nearest Neighbour Classifiers using Hybrid Tabu Search":
Pp 69-85 in Advances in Metaheuristics for Hard Optimization, Siarry P. and Michalewicz, Z. (Editors)  Springer, 2008

· Eiben, A.E., Michalewicz, Z., Schoenauer, M and Smith, J.E. (2007) “Parameter Control in Evolutionary Algorithms” pp 19-46 in  Lobo, Lima and Michalewicz (eds) Parameter Setting in Evolutionary Algorithms, Springer

· Hart, W.E., Krasnogor, N.,  & Smith, J.E. (2004)  “Memetic Evolutionary Algorithms”. pp 3-30 in  “Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms”, Hart, Krasnogor and Smith (eds)   Springer,  Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

· Smith, J.E. (2004)  “Co-evolution of memetic algorithms f or protein structure prediction”, pp 105-128 “Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms”, Hart, Krasnogor and Smith (eds)  Springer,  Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

· Smith, J.E. 2002: "Genetic Algorithms". pp. 275-363, "Handbook of Global Optimization - volume 2: Heuristic Approaches",  eds. Romeijn and Pardalos, Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 1-4020-0632-2

Journal Contributions

· Smith, J.E. and Fogarty T.C (1997) "Operator and Parameter Adaptation in Genetic Algorithms". pp 81--87, Soft Computing , 1:2, June 1997. Springer Verlag

· Smith, J.E. and Vavak, F. (1999)  "Replacement strategies in steady state genetic algorithms: dynamic environments" ,             p 49-60 Journal of Computing & Information Technology, Special Issue on Evolutionary Computing. Vol. 7 No. 1. March 1999

· Smith, Jim (2002) "On Appropriate Adaptation Levels for the Learning of Gene Linkage" pp 129-155, Journal of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines Vol 3, Number 2, June 2002

· Smith, J.E. (2004) Editorial Introduction to Special Issue on Memetic Algorithms, pp3-4 Evolutionary Computation 12:3

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

· Smith, J.E. (2007) "On Replacement Strategies in Steady State Evolutionary Algorithms"  Evolutionary Computation,  15:1, 29—59.

· Smith, J. E. (2007) “Co-evolving Memetic Algorithms: A review and progress report” IEEE Transactions in Systems, Man and Cybernetics, part B, 2007. Vol 37:1 pp 6--17.

· Caleb-Solly, P. and Smith, J.E. (2007) "Adaptive Surface Inspection via Interactive Evolution" Journal of Image and Vision Computing, Special Issue on Machine Vision, vol. 25:7, pp1058—1072.

· Krasnogor, N, and Smith, J.E. (2008) “Memetic Algorithms: The Polynomial Local Search Complexity Theory Perspective”.  Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms 7: 3-24 

· Pauplin, O., Caleb-Solly, P. and Smith, J.E. (2009) “User-Centric Image Segmentation using an Interactive Parameter Adaptation Tool”.  Journal of Pattern Recognition (in press): DOI 10.1016/j.patcog.2009.03.007

· Tahir, M. & Smith, J.E. (2009) "Creating Diverse Nearest Neighbour Ensembles using Simultaneous Metaheuristic Feature Selection." Pattern Recognition Letters (in press).

· Smith, J.E., Tahir, M.A., Caleb-Solly, P., Lughofer, E., Eitzinger, C., Sannen D., and Nuttin, M.(2009) "Human-Machine Interaction Issues in Quality Control Based on On-Line Image Classification" IEEE Transactions on Systems Man & Cybernetics, Part A (in press).

· Serpell, M, and Smith, J.E.(2009) "Self-Adaption of Mutation Operator and Probability for Permutation Representations in Genetic Algorithms" Evolutionary Computation(accepted for publication).

· Raiser, S., Lughofer, E., Eitzinger, C. and Smith, J.E. (2009): "Impact of Object Extraction Methods on Classification Performance in Surface Inspection Systems" Accepted for publication in Machine Vision and Applications, Special Issue on ’Integrated Imaging and Vision Techniques for Industrial Inspection’.

· Eitzinger, C. , Heidl, W., Lughofer, E. Raiser, S. Smith, J. E., Tahir, M. A., Sannen, D. and Van Brussel, H. (2009): ": Assessment of the Influence of Adaptive Components in Trainable Surface Inspection Systems": Accepted for publication in Machine Vision and Applications, Special Issue on ’Integrated Imaging and Vision Techniques for Industrial Inspection’.

Refereed Conference Proceedings

· Smith,J.E., Fogarty,T.C. & Johnson I.R. (1994) " Genetic Feature Selection for Clustering and Classification " in IEE Colloquium on Genetic Algorithms in Image Processing & Vision, London 1994, IEE Digest 1994/193.

· Smith,J.E. & Fogarty,T.C. (1995) " An Adaptive Poly-Parental Recombination Strategy". pp 48- 61. "Evolutionary Computing 2" ed. Fogarty,T.C. Springer Verlag.

· Smith, J.E. & Fogarty, T.C. (1996a) " Self Adaptation of Mutation Rates in a Steady State Genetic Algorithm ". pp 318 - 323 Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computing 1996.IEEE Press

· Smith,J.E. & Fogarty,T.C. (1996b) "Recombination Strategy Adaptation via Evolution of Gene Linkage"  pp 826 - 831 Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computing 1996.

· Smith, J.E. & Fogarty T.C. (1996c) "Adaptively Parameterised Evolutionary Ststems: Self Adaptive Recombination and Mutation in a Steady State Genetic Algorithm".    pp 441-450 "Parallel Problem Solving from Nature IV", eds. Voigt,Ebeling,Rechenberg and Schwefel, Springer Verlag.

· Smith J.E. & Fogarty T.C. (1996d) "Evolving Software Test Data - GAs learn Self Expression". pp. 137--146, "Evolutionary Computing" T.C. Fogarty(ed), LNCS 1143 Springer Verlag

· Smith, J.E., Bartley, M. and Fogarty T.C. (1997) "Microprocessor Design Verification by Two-Phase Evolution of Variable Length Tests".  pp 453--458 Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computing , IEEE Press

· Smith, R.E. and Smith, J.E. (1999)   "An examination of tuneable, random search landscapes" pp 165-182 "Foundations of Genetic Algorithms V", Banzhaf & Reeves (editors) Morgan Kaufmann

· Smith, J.E. and Vavak, F. (1998)  "Replacement strategies in steady state genetic algorithms: static environments" , pp 219-234 "Foundations of Genetic Algorithms V", Banzhaf & Reeves (editors) Morgan Kaufmann

· Krasnogor, N., Hart, W., Smith, J.E. & Pelta, D. (1999) "Protein Structure Prediction With Evolutionary Algorithms".  pp 1569-1601, Proceedings of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. Banzhaf, Daida, Eiben,Garzon, Honovar, Jakiela and Smith (editors) Morgan Kaufmann

· Krasnogor, N, and Smith, J.E (2000): MAFRA: A Java Memetic Algorithms Framework , Workshops Proceedings of the 2000 International Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO2000), editor A.S. Wu

· Krasnogor, N., and Smith J. (2000) "A Memetic Algorithm With Self-adaptive Local Search: TSP as a case study"  pp 987-994 in Proceedings of  GECCO 2000, Whitley, Goldberg,Cantu-Paz,Spector, Parmee and Beyer (eds). Morgan Kaufmann

· Smith, R. E. and Smith, J.E. (2001) "New Methods for Tunable Random Landscapes"  pp 47--69, Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 6, Martin and Spears (eds), Morgan Kaufmann.

· Smith, J.E. (2001) "Modelling GAs with Self Adaptive Mutation Rates" pp 599-606 in Spector, L., E. Goodman, A. Wu, W.B. Langdon, H.-M. Voigt, M. Gen, S. Sen, M. Dorigo, S. Pezeshk, M. Garzon, and E. Burke, editors. 2001.  Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2001. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

· Krasnogor, N, and Smith, J.E. (2001) "Emergence of Profitable Search strategies Based on a Simple Inheritance Mechanism" pp 432-439 in Spector, L., E. Goodman, A. Wu, W.B. Langdon, H.-M. Voigt, M. Gen, S. Sen, M. Dorigo, S. Pezeshk, M. Garzon, and E. Burke, editors. 2001.  Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2001. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

· Steuer,M. Caleb-Solly, P. Smith, J.E. (2001) " An Alternative Approach for the Evaluation of the Neocognitron" Proceedings of the 9th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, 25-27 April 2001, Bruges, Belgium

· Steuer, M. Caleb-Solly, P. & Smith, J.E. (2001) "A Modified Neocognitron Network for Medical Signal Classification", Proceedings of the International Conference: Neural Networks and Expert Systems in Medicine and HealthCare.

· Stone, C & Smith, J.E. (2002) "Strategy Parameter Variation in Self-Adaptation of Mutation Rates" pp586-593, Langdon et al (eds) Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Morgan Kaufmann

· Carr, B., Hart, W., Krasnogor, N., Hirst, J., Burke, E. and Smith, J. (2002) "Alignment of Protein Structures with a Memetic Evolutionary Algorithm", pp 1027-1034 Langdon et al (eds) Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Morgan Kaufmann

· Caleb-Solly, P & Smith, J.E. (2002) "Adaptive Image Segmentation Based on Visual Interactive Feedback Learning", I. Parmee (editor) Proceedings of ACDM2002, Springer Verlag.

· Smith, J.E. (2002) "Co-Evolution of Memetic Algorithms : Initial Results", pp 537-548 in Merelo, Adamitis, Beyer, Fernandez-Villacans and Schwefel (Eds) Parallel problem solving from Nature - PPSN VII. Springer Verlag LNCS 2439

· Smith J.E. (2002) "Co-Evolution of Memetic Algorithms for Protein Structure Prediction". In Hart, Krasnogor and Smith (eds) Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Memetic Algorithms

· Staggemeier, A., Clarke, A, Aickelin, U., and Smith, J.E. (2002) “A hybrid genetic algorithm to solve a lot sizing and scheduling problem” Proceedings of the Conference of International Federation of Operational Research Societies

· Smith, J.E. (2003) "Parameter Perturbation Mechanisms in Binary Coded GAs with Self-Adaptive Mutation"  pp 329—346, in Rowe, Poli, DeJong & Cotta (eds) Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 7 Morgan Kauffman.

· Smith, J.E. (2003) "Co-evolving Memetic Algorithms: A learning approach to robust scalable optimisation", pp498-505 in Proc. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Press

· Smith, J.E. (2003) "Protein Structure Prediction with Co-evolving Memetic Algorithms" pp 2346--2353 in Proc. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Press

· Duarte-Flores, S. and Smith, J.E. (2003) "Study of Fitness Landscapes for the HP model of Protein Structure Prediction", pp 2338-2345 in Proc. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Press

· Caleb-Solly, P.  & Smith J.E. (2004) "Interactive Evolutionary Strategy Based Discovery of Image Segmentation Parameters" pp 209-220, in Parmee (Ed.) Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture VI, Springer.

· Cayzer, S., Smith, J., Marshall, J.A.R., & Kovacs, T.,(2005) : “What Have Gene Libraries Done for AIS?” pp 86-99 Proc. Artificial Immune Systems: 4th Intnl Conf., ICARIS 2005. Jacob, Pilat, Bentely & Timmis (eds). Springer

· Caleb-Solly, P. & Smith, J. (2005) Incorporation of Adaptive Mutation Based on Subjective Evaluation in an Interactive Evolution Strategy. pp 979—986, Proc. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. IEEE press.

· Cayzer, S. and Smith, J, (2006): Gene Libraries: Coverage, Efficiency and Diversity.  In H. Bersini and J. Carneiro (Eds.): ICARIS 2006, LNCS 4163, pp. 136 – 149,  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

· Tahir, M.A., and Smith, J.E. (2006) “Improving Nearest Neighbor Classifier Using Tabu Search and Ensemble Distance Metrics” pp 1086-1090 in “ICDM’06, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Data mining, IEEE Press

· Smith, J. E. (2007) “Credit Assignment in Adaptive Memetic algorithms”. Pp 1412-1419 Proceedings of Gecco, the ACM-SIGEVO conference on Evolutionary computation, July 2007.

· Smith, J.E. and Tahir, M.A. (2007), "Stop Wasting Time: On Predicting the Success or Failure of Learning for Industrial Applications", 8th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL'08), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS 4881, pp 673-683, Springer Verlag, December 2007. 

· Tahir, M. A., Smith, J., and Caleb-Solly, P (2008); “A Novel Feature Selection based Semi-Supervised method for Image Classification”. Pp 484-493, proceedings of 6th International Conference on Computer Vision Systems, Greece, 2008.

· Sannen, D., Nuttin, M., Smith, J., Caleb-Solly,P., Tahir, M. A., Eitzinger, C. and Lughofer, E. (2008), “An On-Line Interactive Self-Adaptive Image Classification Framework”. Pp 171-180, proceedings of 6th International Conference on Computer Vision Systems, Greece, 2008.

· Pauplin, O., Caleb-Solly, P. and Smith, J.E. (2008): "Interactive Parameter Adaptation Tool for Image Segmentation". Proceedings of IADIS  Computer Graphics and Visualization 2008 (CGV 2008) Conference. Amsterdam, July 2008. **Winner of Best Paper Award**

· Serpell, M., Clark, A., Smith, J.E. and Staggemeier, A. (2008). Pre-processing Optimisation applied to the Classical Integer Programming Model for Statistical Disclosure Control. Proceedings of Privacy In Statistical Databases, Istanbul September 2008, Springer.

· Lughofer, E., Smith, J.E., Tahir, M.A., Caleb-Solly, P., Eitzinger, C., Sannen, D., van Brussels, H. (2009). On Human-Machine Interaction During Online Image Classifier Training, Proc. of the International Conference on Computational Intelligence for Modelling, Control and Automation (CIMCA), pp. 995-1001, Vienna, 2008

· Smith, J.E., Clark, A., and Staggemeier, A. (2009). "A Genetic Approach to Statistical Disclosure Control". to appear in Proceedings of Gecco, the ACM-SIGEVO conference on Evolutionary computation, July 2009.

Contact Details

· Room Number : 3P1

· E-mail address : XXJames.Smith@uwe.ac.uk (remove the XX)

· Phone Number : +44 (0) 117 3283161

· Fax Number : +44 (0) 117 9750416

· Mail Address :-

                Dr. J.E. Smith

                Bristol Institute of Technology,

                The University of the West of England,

                Bristol

                BS16 1QY

                United Kingdom.

This page created by Jim Smith. Last updated September 15th 2008