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Natural Computation

Contact:
Prof Xin Yao
CERCIA
School of Computer Science
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston, Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Email: informatics-crn-enquiries[at]cs.bham.ac.uk
Website: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/NC/

Natural computation is the study of computational systems that use ideas and get inspiration from natural systems, including biological, ecological and physical systems. It is an emerging interdisciplinary area in which a range of techniques and methods are studied for dealing with large, complex, and dynamic problems. At Birmingham, the research includes evolutionary computation (including genetic algorithms, genetic programming and artificial life), data mining, neural networks, fuzzy logic and more. These are being applied to areas as diverse as financial forecasting, optimising production processes, healthcare and astronomy.

The School of Computer Science is home to CERCIA (The Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications), which takes this world-leading research into industry and businesses, helping them become more competitive by applying these techniques to real world problems.

Recent projects explore the evolution of fault-tolerant systems, distributed chess-playing systems, prediction of epileptic seizures, object recognition, model building and calibration, among many others.

Natural computation is also influencing art and design.