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Professor Shengxiang Yang

Job: Professor of Computational Intelligence, Director of the Centre for Computational Intelligence (CCI)

Faculty: Computing, Engineering and Media

School/department: School of Computer Science and Informatics

Research group(s): Centre for Computational Intelligence (CCI)

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH UK

T: +44 (0)116 207 8805

E: syang@dmu.ac.uk

W: http://www.tech.dmu.ac.uk/~syang/

 

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Personal profile

Shengxiang Yang is Professor of Computational Intelligence and Director of the Centre of Computational Intelligence (CCI), De Montfort University. Before joining the CCI in July 2012, he worked at Brunel University, University of Leicester, and King's College London as a Senior Lecturer, Lecturer, and Post-doctoral Research Associate, respectively.

Shengxiang's main research interests lie in evolutionary computation. He is particularly active in the area of evolutionary computation in dynamic and uncertain environments. Shengxiang has also published on the application of evolutionary computation in communication networks, logistics, transportation systems, and manufacturing systems, etc.

Research group affiliations

Centre for Computational Intelligence

Publications and outputs

  • Evolutionary multi/many-objective optimisation via bilevel decomposition
    dc.title: Evolutionary multi/many-objective optimisation via bilevel decomposition dc.contributor.author: Jiang, Shouyong; Guo, Jinglei; Wang, Yong; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: Decomposition of a complex multi-objective optimisation problem (MOP) to multiple simple subMOPs, known as M2M for short, is an effective approach to multi-objective optimisation. However, M2M facilitates little communication/collaboration between subMOPs, which limits its use in complex optimisation scenarios. This paper extends the M2M framework to develop a unified algorithm for both multi-objective and many-objective optimisation. Through bilevel decomposition, an MOP is divided into multiple subMOPs at upper level, each of which is further divided into a number of single-objective subproblems at lower level. Neighbouring subMOPs are allowed to share some subproblems so that the knowledge gained from solving one subMOP can be transferred to another, and eventually to all the subMOPs. The bilevel decomposition is readily combined with some new mating selection and population update strategies, leading to a high-performance algorithm that competes effectively against a number of state-of-the-arts studied in this paper for both multi- and many-objective optimisation. Parameter analysis and component analysis have been also carried out to further justify the proposed algorithm.
  • Intelligent Optimization: Principles, Algorithms and Applications
    dc.title: Intelligent Optimization: Principles, Algorithms and Applications dc.contributor.author: Li, Changhe; Han, Shoufei; Zeng, Sanyou; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: This textbook comprehensively explores the foundational principles, algorithms, and applications of intelligent optimization, making it an ideal resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate artificial intelligence courses. It remains equally valuable for active researchers and individuals engaged in self-study. Serving as a significant reference, it delves into advanced topics within the evolutionary computation field, including multi-objective optimization, dynamic optimization, constrained optimization, robust optimization, expensive optimization, and other pivotal scientific studies related to optimization. Designed to be approachable and inclusive, this textbook equips readers with the essential mathematical background necessary for understanding intelligent optimization. It employs an accessible writing style, complemented by extensive pseudo-code and diagrams that vividly illustrate the mechanisms, principles, and algorithms of optimization. With a focus on practicality, this textbook provides diverse real-world application examples spanning engineering, games, logistics, and other domains, enabling readers to confidently apply intelligent techniques to actual optimization problems. Recognizing the importance of hands-on experience, the textbook introduces the Open-source Framework for Evolutionary Computation platform (OFEC) as a user-friendly tool. This platform serves as a comprehensive toolkit for implementing, evaluating, visualizing, and benchmarking various optimization algorithms. The book guides readers on maximizing the utility of OFEC for conducting experiments and analyses in the field of evolutionary computation, facilitating a deeper understanding of intelligent optimization through practical application.
  • Continuous variation operator configuration for decomposition-based evolutionary multi-objective optimization
    dc.title: Continuous variation operator configuration for decomposition-based evolutionary multi-objective optimization dc.contributor.author: Liu, Yuan; Li, Jiazheng; Zou, Juan; Hou, Zhanglu; Yang, Shengxiang; Zheng, Jinhua dc.description.abstract: There are various multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) for solving multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs), and the significant difference between them lies in the way they generate offspring, which are the so-called variation operators. Since different variation operators have their own characteristics, it is often tedious to select a suitable EA for a given MOP. Even if the optimal operator is assigned, the fixed operator and hyper-parameters make it difficult to balance exploration and exploitation during the evolutionary process. It is imperative to configure variation operators and hyper-parameters automatically during the evolutionary process, which can improve the efficiency of algorithm search. However, numerous configurations only consider operators or discretize hyper-parameters, making it difficult to achieve satisfactory results. In this paper, we formulate the operator configuration as a continuous Markov Decision Process (MDP) and use a suitable Reinforcement Learning (RL) paradigm to realize the online configuration of EAs. To simplify the deployment of MDP, we adopt a decomposition-based framework and use a one-dimensional vector with a combination of weights and objectives as state spaces. In addition, we take the selection of crossover and mutation operators and the fine-tuning of their hyper-parameters as joint action spaces. With an RL technique, we expect to achieve maximum improvement in the performance of offspring on each preference by selecting an action in a given state. We further explore the effectiveness of the proposed methodology on different characteristic MOPs. Experimental results show that our method is more competitive than other configurations and state-of-the-art EAs. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A novel preference-driven dynamic multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for solving dynamic multi-objective problems
    dc.title: A novel preference-driven dynamic multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for solving dynamic multi-objective problems dc.contributor.author: Wang, Xueqing; Zheng, Jinhua; Hou, Zhanglu; Liu, Yuan; Zou, Juan; Xia, Yizhang; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: Most studies in dynamic multi-objective optimization have predominantly focused on rapidly and accurately tracking changes in the Pareto optimal front (POF) and Pareto optimal set (POS) when the environment undergoes changes. However, there are real-world scenarios where it is necessary to simultaneously solve changing objective functions and satisfy the preference of Decision Makers (DMs). In particular, the DMs may be only interested in a partial region of the POF, known as the region of interest (ROI), rather than requiring the entire POF. To meet the challenge of simultaneously predicting a changing POF and/or POS and dynamic ROI, this paper proposes a new dynamic multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (DMOEAs) based on the preference. The proposed algorithm consists of three key components: an evolutionary direction adjustment strategy based on changing reference points to accommodate shifts in preferences, an angle-based search strategy for tracking the varying ROI, and a hybrid prediction strategy that combines linear prediction models and population manifold estimation within the ROI to ensure convergence and distribution in scenarios where preferences remain unchanged. Experimental studies conducted on 30 widely used benchmark problems in which it outperforms contrasting algorithms on 71% of test suits. Empirical results demonstrate the significant advantages of the proposed algorithm over existing state-of-the-art DMOEAs. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Dynamic constrained multi-objective optimization algorithm based on co-evolution and diversity enhancement
    dc.title: Dynamic constrained multi-objective optimization algorithm based on co-evolution and diversity enhancement dc.contributor.author: Che, Wang; Zheng, Jinhua; Hu, Yaru; Zou, Juan; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: Dynamic constrained multi-objective optimization problems (DCMOPs) involve objectives, constraints, and parameters that change over time. This kind of problem presents a greater challenge for evolutionary algorithms because it requires the population to quickly track the changing pareto-optimal set (PS) under constrained conditions while maintaining the feasibility and good distribution of the population. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a dynamic constrained multi-objective optimization algorithm based on co-evolution and diversity enhancement (CEDE), in which we have made improvements to both the static optimization and dynamic response parts, innovatively utilizing the valuable information latent in the optimization process to help the population evolve more comprehensively. The static optimization involves the co-evolution of three populations, through which their mutual synergy can more comprehensively identify potential true PS and provide more useful historical information for dynamic response. Additionally, to prevent the elimination of potentially valuable infeasible individuals (i.e., individuals that are not dominated by feasible individuals) due to pareto domination, we employ an archive set to store and update these individuals. When the environment changes, to effectively enhance population diversity under complex dynamic constraints and help the population to respond quickly to changes, we propose a diversity enhancement strategy, which includes a diversity maintenance strategy and a center point-based exploration strategy. This strategy effectively enhances population diversity in complex and changing environments, helping the population respond quickly to changes. The effectiveness of the algorithm is validated through two test sets. The experimental results show that CEDE can effectively use valuable information to cope with complex dynamic constraint environments. Compared with several of the most advanced algorithms, it is superior in 94% of the test problems, demonstrating strong competitiveness in handling DCMOPs. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A similarity-detection-based evolutionary algorithm for large-scale multimodal multi-objective optimization
    dc.title: A similarity-detection-based evolutionary algorithm for large-scale multimodal multi-objective optimization dc.contributor.author: Long, Si; Zheng, Jinhua; Deng, Qi; Liu, Yuan; Zou, Juan; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: In recent years, there has been a surge in the development of evolutionary algorithms tailored for multimodal multi-objective optimization problems (MMOPs). These algorithms aim to find multiple equivalent Pareto optimal solution sets (PSs). However, little work has been done on MMOPs with large-scale decision variables, especially when the Pareto optimal solutions are sparse. These problems pose significant challenges due to the dimension curse, the unknown sparsity, and the unknown number of equivalent PSs. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary algorithm based on similarity detection called SD-MMEA to solve large-scale MMOPs with sparse Pareto-optimal solutions. Specifically, it employs a multi-population independent evolution to explore multiple PSs and distinguishes different PSs by double detection of the similarity between subpopulations. Simultaneously, develop online scoring mechanisms for decision variables to guide the subpopulations to explore in different directions. In addition, during the latter stage of evolution, the decision variables of individuals are further optimized by a double-layer grouping process. The proposed algorithm is compared with six state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results show that SD-MMEA has significant advantages in solving large-scale MMOPs with sparse solutions. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A two-stage direction-guided evolutionary algorithm for large-scale multiobjective optimization
    dc.title: A two-stage direction-guided evolutionary algorithm for large-scale multiobjective optimization dc.contributor.author: Zou, Juan; Tang, Li; Liu, Yuan; Yang, Shengxiang; Wang. Shiting dc.description.abstract: Large-scale multiobjective optimization problems (LSMOPs) have exponential growth in the search space as the decision variables increase, and the vast search space poses a challenge to the performance of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). Many current large-scale MOEAs need to consume a large amount of computational resources to get good performance. This paper proposes a two-stage direction-guided evolutionary algorithm for large-scale multiobjective optimization (LMOEA-S2D) to balance the performance and computational resource overhead. The algorithm exploits the Pareto-optimality property of domination and the diversity-preserving property of decomposition to optimize the performance in the two stages, respectively, and designs a corresponding direction-guided mechanism to improve search efficiency. LMOEA-S2D designs global direction search and local direction search in the domination-based stage for efficient exploitation to accelerate population convergence. To promote greater population diversity, a hybrid direction search was devised to aid diversity exploration in the decomposition-based stage, and this facilitates even distribution of candidate solutions across the Pareto optimal frontier. LMOEA-S2D is compared with five state-of-the-art large-scale MOEAs on some large-scale multiobjective test suites with 100 to 5,000 decision variables. The experimental results show that LMOEA-S2D significantly outperformed all compared algorithms under limited computational resources. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A dual-population coevolutionary algorithm for balancing convergence and diversity in the decision space in multimodal multi-objective optimization
    dc.title: A dual-population coevolutionary algorithm for balancing convergence and diversity in the decision space in multimodal multi-objective optimization dc.contributor.author: Li, Zhipan; Rong, Huigui; Yang, Shengxiang; Yang, Xu; Huang, Yupeng dc.description.abstract: Many multimodal multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MMEAs) are effective in solving multimodal multi-objective problems (MMOPs), which have multiple equivalent Pareto optimal sets (PSs) mapping to the same Pareto optimal front (PF). Due to the existence of the global convergence-first mechanism, these MMEAs will remove the solutions that can improve the diversity of the decision space but have poor convergence and even lead to the loss of PS when encountering MMOPs with an imbalance between convergence and diversity in the decision space (MMOP-ICD) or an MMOP with a local PS (MMOPL). We propose a new dual-population coevolutionary algorithm to address these issues. The auxiliary population helps the main population locate areas where equivalent PSs may exist, and the main population focuses on balancing convergence and diversity in the decision space. When updating the auxiliary population, a strength local convergence quality (SLCQ) is used to explore the distribution of the equivalent PSs. When updating the main population, the new niche-based truncation strategy first deletes the solutions that contribute less to convergence. Then, a distance-based subset selection method balances the diversity between the decision and objective spaces. The comparison results show the overall performance of the proposed algorithm is significantly better than other state-of-the-art algorithms. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A Learning-Assisted Bi-Population Evolutionary Algorithm for Distributed Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling With Maintenance Decisions
    dc.title: A Learning-Assisted Bi-Population Evolutionary Algorithm for Distributed Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling With Maintenance Decisions dc.contributor.author: Yan, Qi; Wang, Hongfeng; Yang, Shengxiang dc.description.abstract: In the post-pandemic era, more manufacturers have expedited the shift from centralized to distributed manufacturing to enhance supply chain resilience. Along with this, the distributed shop floor scheduling problem has attracted much attention from academia, one of which is the distributed flexible job-shop scheduling problem (DFJSP). Nonetheless, the majority of research on DFJSPs overlooks crucial real-world necessities, such as multi-objective decision making and preventive maintenance (PM). Thus, this article suggests a multi-objective DFJSP with PM (DFJSP/PM) as a new variant of the DFJSP. The aim is to achieve a trade-off between production and maintenance to minimize the makespan, maintenance cost, and energy consumption. To this end, we establish a mathematical model and then customize a learning-assisted bi-population evolutionary algorithm (LBPEA) to solve it. In LBPEA, a novel encoding mechanism is proposed to initialize the population randomly. Then, a neighborhood search heuristic is designed to enhance the population’s quality. To balance the convergence and diversity of the population, a bi-population evolution idea is introduced during the environmental selection. Besides, a two-stage local search (LS) process is adaptively triggered to balance the allocation of computational resources between exploration and exploitation. At the first stage, a reinforcement learning mechanism is employed to intelligently select LS operators to adjust either the operations’ sequence or assignment to different factories and machines, while the second stage is to adjust the number and placement of maintenance decisions. Experimental results show that LBPEA has excellent performance in terms of convergence and diversity when solving the proposed multiobjective DFJSP/PM. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Differential evolution based on local grid search for multimodal multiobjective optimization with local Pareto fronts
    dc.title: Differential evolution based on local grid search for multimodal multiobjective optimization with local Pareto fronts dc.contributor.author: Zou, Juan; Xie, Tianbin; Deng, Qi; Yu, Xiaozhong; Yang, Shengxiang; Zheng, Jinhua dc.description.abstract: Multimodal multiobjective optimization problems (MMOPs) are characterized by multiple Pareto optimal solutions corresponding to the same objective vector. MMOPs with local Pareto fronts (MMOPLs) are common in the real world. However, existing multimodal multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MMEAs) face significant challenges in finding both global and local Pareto sets (PSs) when dealing with MMOPLs. For this purpose, we propose a differential evolution algorithm based on local grid search, called LGSDE. LGSDE establishes a local grid region for each solution, achieving a balanced distribution by judging the dominant relationship only among solutions within that local region. This approach enables the population to converge towards both global and local PSs. We compare LGSDE with other state-of-the-art MMEAs. Experimental results demonstrate LGSDE exhibits superiority in addressing MMOPLs.

Click here to view a full listing of Shengxiang Yang's publications and outputs.

Research interests/expertise

  • Evolutionary Computation

  • Swarm Intelligence

  • Meta-heuristics

  • Dynamic Optimisation Problems

  • Multi-objective Optimisation Problems

  • Relevant Real-World Applications

Areas of teaching

Research Methods for Intelligent Systems and Robotics MSc, Software Engineering MSc, Computing MSc, and Business Intelligence Systems and Data Mining MSc Degrees.

Qualifications

BSc in Automatic Control, Northeastern University, China (1993)

MSc in Automatic Control, Northeastern University, China (1996)

PhD in Systems Engineering Northeastern University, China (1999)

Courses taught

I have taught numerous modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Quite a number of modules I taught were significantly developed by myself. The modules I taught are usually designed to be practice-oriented with problem-solving lab sessions based on Java or C++ programming, and hence are highly interesting to and greatly useful for students. They are also very important for different degree programmes in Computer Science and relevant subjects. Some of the modules I have taught are listed as follows:

  • CS3002 Artificial Intelligence (2010 – 2012, Brunel University): 3rd year Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) BSc module, module leader

  • CS2005 Networks and Operating Systems (2010 – 2012, Brunel University): 2nd year Network Computing BSc module, part module

  • CS5518 Business Integration (2011-2012, Brunel University): Business Systems Integration MSc module, part module

  • CO2017 Networks and Distributed Systems (2005–2010, University of Leicester): 2nd year Computer Science BSc module, module leader

  • CO2005 Object-Oriented Programming Using C++ (2006–2009, University of Leicester): 2nd year Computer Science BSc module, module leader

  • CO1003 Program Design (2006-2007, University of Leicester): 1st year Computer Science BSc module, module leader

  • CO3097 Programming Secure and Distributed Systems (2003–2005, University of Leicester): 3rd year Computer Science BSc & Advanced Computer Science MSc module, module leader

  • CO1017 Operating Systems and Networks (2001 – 2004, University of Leicester): 1st year Computer Science BSc module, module leader

  • CO1016 Computer Systems (2000 – 2002, University of Leicester): 1st year Computer Science BSc module, part module

I have also co-ordinated several BSc projects, as shown below.

  • CS3072/CS3074/CS3105/CS3109 BSc Final Year Projects (2010 – 2012, Brunel University): Co-ordination Team Member

  • CO3012/CO3013/CO3015 Computer Science BSc Final Year Projects (2004 – 2010, University of Leicester): Co-ordinator

  • CO3120 Computer Science with Management BSc Final Year Project (2007 – 2010, University of Leicester): Co-ordinator

  • CO3014 Mathematics and Computer Science BSc Final Year Project (2004 – 2010, University of Leicester): Co-ordinator

  • CO2015 Second Year BSc Software Engineering Project (2003 – 2004, University of Leicester): Co-ordinator

Honours and awards

  • Nominatee to the Best Paper Award for EvoApplications 2016: Applications of Evolutionary Computation, for the paper "Direct memory schemes for population-based incremental learning in cyclically changing environments" by Michalis Mavrovouniotis and Shengxiang Yang, published in EvoApplications 2016: Applications of Evolutionary Computation, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9598, pp. 233-247, 2016.

  • Nominatee for the Best-Paper Award of the ACO-SI Track at the 2015 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, for the paper "An ant colony optimization based memetic algorithm for the dynamic travelling salesman problem" by Michalis Mavrovouniotis, Felipe Martins Muller and Shengxiang Yang, published in the Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 49-56, 2015.

  • Winner of the 2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation Best Student Paper Award, for the paper entitled "A test problem for visual investigation of high-dimensional multi-objective search" by Miqing Li, Shengxiang Yang and Xiaohui Liu, published in the Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, pp. 2140-2147, 2014.

  • Nominatee for the 2005 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Best Paper Award, for the paper "Memory-based immigrants for genetic algorithms in dynamic environments" by Shengxiang Yang, published in the Proceedings of the 2005 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Vol. 2, pp. 1115-1122, 2005.

  • Visiting Professor (2012 – 2014, 2016-2018), College of Information Engineering, Xiangtan University, China

  • Visiting Professor (2011 – 2017), College of Mathematics and Statistics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • Founding Chair, Task Force on Intelligent Network Systems (TF-INS), Intelligent Systems Applications Technical Committee (ISATC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), 2012–2018.

  • Chair, Task Force on Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments (ECiDUE), Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee (ECTC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), 2011–2018.

  • Senior Member, IEEE, since 2014.

  • Member, IEEE, 2000 – 2013.

  • Member, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), since 2005.

  • Member, Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee (ECTC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), since 2011.

  • Member, Intelligent Systems Applications Technical Committee (ISATC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), since 2013.

  • Member, Task Force on Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments (ECiDUE), Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee (ECTC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS), 2003 – 2010.

Current research students

First Supervisor:

  • Muhanad Tahrir Younis: Swarm intelligence for dynamic job scheduling in grid computing, started from October 2014

  • Conor Fahy: Evolutionary computation for data stream analysis, started from October 2015

  • Zedong Zheng: started from October 2016
  • Matthew Fox: started from October 2017

Second Supervisor:

  • Ahad Arshad: PhD candidate, co-supervised with Prof. Paul Fleming at De Montfort University, started in October 2017.

  • William Lawrence: PhD candidate, co-supervised with Dr. Mario Gongora at De Montfort University, started in April 2012

Complete PhD Students (I was the 1st Supervisor):

  • Changhe Li: Particle swarm optimisation in stationary and dynamic environments, 2011

  • Imtiaz Ali Korejo: Adaptive mutation operators for evolutionary algorithms, 2011

  • Sadaf Naseem Jat: Genetic algorithms for university course timetabling problems, 2012

  • Shakeel Arshad: Sequence based memetic algorithms for static and dynamic travelling salesman problems, 2012

  • Michalis Mavrovouniotis: Ant Colony Optimization in Stationary and Dynamic Environments, 2013

  •  Miqing Li: Evolutionary Many-Objective Optimization: Pushing the Boundaries, 2015
  • Jayne Eaton: Ant Colony Optimisation for Dynamic and Dynamic Multi-objective Railway Rescheduling Problems, 2017
  • Shouyong Jiang: Evolutionary Algorithms for Static and Dynamic Multiobjective Optimization, 2017

Externally funded research grants information

  • EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (PI, Project ID: 661327, 09/2015-08/2017, €195,455): Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Constrained Optimization Problems (ECDCOP)

  • EPSRC (PI, Standard Research Project, EP/K001310/1, 18/2/2013-17/02/2017, £445,069): Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Optimisation in Network Environments

  • EPSRC (PI, Standard Research Project, EP/E060722/1 and EP/E060722/2, 1/1/2008-1/7/2011, £307,469): Evolutionary Algorithms for Dynamic Optimisation Problems: Design, Analysis and Applications

  • EPSRC (PI, Overseas Travel Grants GR/S79718/01, 1/11/2003-31/1/2004, £6,700): Adaptive and Hybrid Genetic Algorithms for Production Scheduling Problems in Manufacturing. This grant supported my research visit to Waseda University, Japan, during my Sabbatical leave period. Additionally, Waseda University, Japan contributed JPY140,000 (~£800) toward the visit

  • State Key Laboratory of Synthetical Automation of Process Industry, Northeastern University, China (PI, Open Research Project, 1/1/2012-31/12/2013, CNY300,000 (~£30,000)): Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Scheduling Problems in Process Industries

  • State Key Laboratory of Synthetical Automation of Process Industry, Northeastern University, China (PI, Open Research Project, 1/1/2010-31/12/2011, CNY150,000 (~£15,000)): Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Optimization and Scheduling Problems

  • Transport iNet, European Regional Development Fund (Co-I, 11/11/2013 - 28/02/2015, £62,134), Evolutionary Computation for Optimised Rail Travel (EsCORT). This is a linked project between De Montfort University and Go Travel Solutions, a Leicester based SME specialising in assisting businesses to develop sustainable travel solutions, covering people and goods.

  • Hong Kong Polytechnic University Research Grants (Co-I, Grant G-YH60, 1/7/2009-30/6/2010, HKD120,000 (~£10,000)): Improved Evolutionary Algorithms with Primal-Dual Population for Dynamic Variation in Production Systems. Partners:

In addition, I have also received several conference travel grants from UK Research Councils, e.g., Royal Society Conference Travel Grant (£700 in 2007 and £719 in 2005) and Royal Academy of Engineering Conference Grant (£800 in 2007 and £1,200 in 2006).

Internally funded research project information

  • De Montfort University Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) 2017-18 (Co-I, 01/12/2017-31/07/2018, £14,000): Brian-Computer-Interface Prototyping System: Data-based Filtering and Dynamic Characterisation.

  • De Montfort University Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) 2015-16 (PI, 01/01/2016-31/07/2016, £24,800): Development of a Dynamic Resource Scheduling Prototype System for Airports.

  • De Montfort University PhD Studentships 2017-18 (PI, 1/10/2017–30/09/2020, approximately £60,000): supporting stipend and fees for one EU/Home PhD student for three years

  • De Montfort University Fee Waiver PhD Scholarships 2016-17 (PI, 1/10/2016–30/09/2019, approximately £40,000): supporting fees for one overseas PhD student for three years

  • De Montfort University PhD Studentships 2015-16 (PI, 1/10/2015–30/09/2018, approximately £60,000): supporting stipend and fees for one EU/Home PhD student for three years

  • De Montfort University PhD Studentships 2013-14 (PI, 1/10/2013–30/09/2016, approximately £80,000): supporting stipend and fees for one overseas PhD student for three years

  • De Montfort University PhD Studentships 2013-14 (PI, 1/4/2013–31/03/2016, approximately £60,000): supporting stipend and fees for one home PhD student for three years

  • Brunel University PhD Studentships 2011-12 (PI, 01/10/2011–30/09/2014, approximately £80,000): supporting stipend and fees for one overseas PhD student for three years

  • University of Leicester PhD Studentships 2008-09 (PI, 1/10/2008–30/9/2011, approximately £50,000): supporting stipend and fees for one PhD student for three years

  • University of Leicester Research Fund 2001 (PI, 1/1/2001- 31/12/2001, £3,200): Using Neural Network and Genetic Algorithm Methods for Job-Shop Scheduling Problem.

Professional esteem indicators

Shengxiang-Yang