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Natural Computation and Its Applications

Natural Computation and Its Applications. Xin Yao Natural Computation Group Email: x.yao@cs.bham.ac.uk http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~xin. What This Lecture is NOT About. Not Commercial. Not Programming. Not Even Lecturing!. Frustration with Computers. Brittle Non-adaptive Doesn’t learn

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Natural Computation and Its Applications

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  1. Natural Computation and Its Applications Xin Yao Natural Computation Group Email: x.yao@cs.bham.ac.uk http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~xin

  2. What This Lecture is NOT About

  3. Not Commercial

  4. Not Programming

  5. Not Even Lecturing!

  6. Frustration with Computers • Brittle • Non-adaptive • Doesn’t learn • Hopeless in dealing with noisy and inaccurate information • Doesn’t do the homework for me although I told it that I want a mark over 70% • …

  7. Mother Nature Who designed us and all our wonderful capabilities?

  8. Natural Computation Nature-Inspired Computation

  9. Natural Computation • Evolutionary computation • Neural computation • Molecular computation • Quantum computation • Ecological computation • Biological computation • …

  10. Evolutionary Algorithm: An Example • Initialise the population • Repeat until the halting criteria are met • Fitness evaluation • Parent selection (natural selection) • Breeding/reproduction by crossover and mutation to generate the new generation

  11. Comparison of Four Methods • http://www.evonet.polytechnique.fr/CIRCUS2/node.php?node=71

  12. Moving Target • http://www.evonet.polytechnique.fr/CIRCUS2/node.php?node=73

  13. Evolving a Nozzle • http://www.evonet.polytechnique.fr/CIRCUS2/node.php?node=72

  14. Ant Colony Optimisation

  15. Channel Allocation Inspired by Fruit Flies Fruitflies have an insensitive exoskeleton peppered with sensors formed from short bristles attached to nerve cells. It is important that the bristles are more or less evenly spread out across the surface of the fly. In particular it is undesirable to have two bristles right next to each other. The correct pattern is formed during the fly's development by interactions among its cells. The individual cells "argue" with each other by secreting protein signals, and perceiving the signals of their neighbours.  The cells are autonomous, each running its own "algorithm" using information from its local environment.  Each cell sends a signal to its neighbours; at the same time it listens for such a signal from its neighbours.  The signal is saying, in effect, "I want to make a bristle".  The more "loudly" it "hears" its neighbours signalling, the less of the signal it produces.  In other words the signal is inhibitory.  This "arguing" process is the inspiration for the channel allocation method presented here.

  16. Container Packing • How to pack a standard size container with various sized boxes to minimise wasted space? • How cut a standard length stock according to different requirements while minimising wastage? • …

  17. Applications of Evolutionary Computation • Genetic Algorithms in Parametric Design of Aircraft • Air-Injected Hydrocyclone Optimization Via Genetic Algorithm • A Genetic Algorithm Approach to Multiple Fault Diagnosis • A Genetic Algorithm for Conformational Analysis of DNA • Automated Parameter Tuning for Sonar Information Processing • http://www.nutechsolutions.com/case_studies/

  18. Neural Computation • Parallel and distributed • Learnable • Fault-tolerant • Noise-tolerant • Efficient computation from slow components! • Good at perception tasks • …

  19. Artificial Life • Life as it could be vs. life as it is • Great at exploring the huge space of artefacts • Boids • Karl Sims’s artificial creatures • …

  20. Evolutionary Art • Evolutionary art from Andrew Rowbottom • Genetic art by Peter Kleiweg • Organic art by William Latham • By our own student! • …

  21. Where to Find More information • MSc in Natural Computation • The Natural Computation Group • CERCIA (The Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications) • AI/NC Seminars

  22. MSc in Natural Computation • EPSRC studentships available, covering tuition fees and maintenance costs, great as a stepping stone for a PhD • Lots of industrial partners, good for a company career • Small class size with lots of interactions with lecturers

  23. Programme Structure

  24. Natural Computation Group • One of the strongest in the world • 7 core academic members and more than 20 PhD students • 4 other teaching staff with strong overlaps

  25. CERCIA • Four research fellows (additional to NC group staff) and three admin staff • Specialise in applied research and industrial projects • Current work includes energy consumption prediction, evolutionary art, business match, etc.

  26. Summary • Ever-increasing complexity of the problems to be solved by computers and the ever-increasing complexity of the computer systems require a radical rethinking of future directions of computing • Natural computation (nature inspired computation) is a promising future direction

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