View Proposal

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Proposer

Michael Lones

Title

Biologically-inspired computing projects

Goal

Description

Biologically-inspired computing is any form of computing that attempts to mimic processes seen in biological systems in order to achieve some computational outcome. Biologically-inspired computing is interesting because it often solves problems in ways that are quite unintuitive to humans, and often in ways that are more efficient than more conventional computer science methods. Well known examples of bio-inspired computing are artificial neural networks (aka deep learning) and genetic algorithms, but in the 4th year and MSc bio-inspired computing course, we also cover other lesser-known techniques, such as swarm computing and cellular automata. These projects are for anyone who wants to explore the field of biologically-inspired computing and potentially do some original research or applied work in this area. Some examples of previous projects: - Using a genetic algorithm to optimise a pre-trained neural network. There days fine tuning pre-trained deep neural networks has become a pretty standard approach, but it’s still early days regarding how best to do the fine tuning. Genetic algorithms are interesting in this respect because they can explore a very wide space of solutions. - Looking at whether cellular automata can be used as reservoirs within a reservoir computer. Reservoir computers are pretty interesting things - take a look at echo state networks, for example, which are a kind of neural network that can be trained really quickly. - Looking at whether cellular automata can be used for image classification. This project involved using a genetic algorithm to evolve the rules used by a cellular automata. Cellular automata are pretty fascinating; they can solve complex problems using simple systems.

Resources

Background

Url

Difficulty Level

Variable

Ethical Approval

None

Number Of Students

2

Supervisor

Michael Lones

Keywords

machine learning, deep learning, genetic algorithms, cellular automata, swarm computing

Degrees

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems
Master of Engineering in Software Engineering
Master of Design in Games Design and Development
Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence with SMI
Master of Science in Computer Science for Cyber Security
Master of Science in Computing (2 Years)
Master of Science in Data Science
Master of Science in Network Security
Master of Science in Software Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Cyber Security)