List of hosting institutions for the SPECIES Scholarship program in 2021. A short overview of each institution is given. More details of the supervisor, research group, available projects, and others, is provided as a PDF document in the section dedicated to each institution.

Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey

  • Location: Civil Engineering Department, Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Supervisor: Y. Cengiz Toklu (Homepage)
  • Project: Total Potential Optimization using Metaheuristic Algorithms (TPO/MA)
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Beykent-info-2021

Brunel University London, London, UK

  • Location: Department of Computer Science College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences, Brunel University London, London, UK
  • Supervisor: Crina Grosan (Homepage)
  • Project: Experimental artificial intelligence for healthcare data
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: London_info

Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK

  • Location: Department of Computing Science, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
  • Supervisor: Kevin Sim (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Algorithm Selection for meta-heuristics, leveraging a range of machine-learning approaches.
    • Evolution of algorithm portfolios which exhibit diversity of behaviours.
    • Lifelong learning in optimisation: methods for continual adaptation of algorithms based on problem-solving experience.
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Edinburgh-info-2021

Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

  • Location: Department of Mathematics, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • Supervisor: Bismark Singh (Homepage)
  • Project: Methods and Models for Energy Transformation and Integration Systems
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Erlangen-Nuremberg-info-2021

Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey

  • Location: Management Information Science Department, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Supervisor: Oğuzhan Ceylan (Homepage)
  • Project: Nature-inspired algorithms for smart grid and power systems optimization problems.
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Istanbul_info

Mathematical Institute, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

  • Location: Mathematical Institute, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Mathematical programming and optimization research group,  Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Supervisor: Tatjana Davidović (Homepage)
  • Project: Integrating Machine Learning and Metaheuristics
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Belgrade_info

Sorbonne University, Paris, France

  • Location: Computer science department LIP6,  Sorbonne University, Paris, France
  • Supervisor:  Carola Doerr (Homepage)
  • Project: Optimization algorithm benchmarking ontology
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Paris-info-2021

Technical Institute of Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico

  • Location: Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Technical Institute of Tijuana (ITT), Mexico.
  • Supervisor: Leonardo Trujillo (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Integrating Local Search methods into our GPU-based implementations of GP
    • CUDA-based implementation of RANSAC-GP
    • A distributed platform for GP-based search
    • GI-benchmarking
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Tijuana_info

Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  • Location: School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  • Supervisor: Amiram (Ami) Moshaiov (Homepage)
  • Projects
    •  Genetic Transfer for Solving Combinatorial Multi-objective Problems in Operation Research and Management
    • Evolutionary Algorithms for Multi-concept Optimization
    • Multi-Modal Multi-Objective Evolutionary Optimization for Problems with Solutions of Variable-Length
    • Co-evolving Rationalizable Strategies for Multi-payoff Games
    • Many-objective Topology and Weight Evolution of Neural-Network for Neuro-control and/or Multi-class Classification
    • Multi-objective Evolution of Neuro-Fuzzy Controllers for Traversing Rugged Terrains by Autonomous Mobile Robots
    • Addressing the Pandemic Health-Economy Dilemma by Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Tel-Aviv-info-2021

University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal

  • Location: Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE), Department of Informatics Engineering and Electronics,  University of Algarve, Portugal.
  • Supervisor: Fernando Lobo (Homepage)
  • Project: Automating parameter selection in local search algorithms
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects and others: Algarve_info

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Austria

  • Location: Heuristic and Evolutionary Algorithms Laboratory (HEAL) research group, Software Engineering Department located, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus, Austria.
  • Supervisor: Stefan Wagner (Homepage)
  • Project: Adaptive Optimization in Dynamic Environments
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: UpperAustria_info

University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

  • Location: Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
  • Supervisor: Nuno Lourenço (Homepage) and Penousal Machado (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Evolutionary Multitask Learning
    • Grammatical Evolution
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Coimbra-info-2021

University of Granada, Granada, Spain

  • Location: GenNeura research team, Department of Computer Architecture and Technology, University of Granada, Spain.
  • Supervisor: Juan Julián Merelo Guervós (Homepage)
  • Projects:
    • Computational intelligence in games.
    • Data science applied to soccer and other games.
    • Procedural content generation using metaheuristics.
    • Distributed/concurrent evolutionary algorithms
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Granada_info

University Gustave Eiffel, Lille, France

  • Location:  COSYS-ESTAS team, University Gustave Eiffel, Lille, France.
  • Supervisor: Paola Pellegrini (Homepage)
  • Project: Real-time railway traffic management
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Lille_info_2021

University of Leicester, Leicester, England, UK

  • Location: School of Informatics,  University of Leicester, UK.
  • Supervisor: John H. Drake (Homepage)
  • Project: High-level search methodologies for problem-solving in industrial applications.
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Leicester-info-2021

University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain

  • Location: School of Computer Science, University of Málaga, Spain.
  • Supervisor: Manuel López-Ibáñez (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Automatic Design of Multi-objective Algorithms for the Optimisation of Supply Chains
    • Parameter Importance and Sensitivity in Automatic Algorithm Configuration
    • Visualizations of the Empirical Attainment Function with ggplot2, plotly and plot3Dgl
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Malaga-info-2021

University of Parma, Parma, Italy

  • Location: Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Intelligent Bio-Inspired Systems (IBIS) Lab
  • Supervisor: Stefano Cagnoni (Homepage)
  • Project: Using Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning Algorithms to explain Deep Neural Nets results
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Parma-info-2021

University of Plymouth, Plymouth, England, UK

  • Location: Plymouth Optimisation Group, Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems (CRNS), University of Plymouth, Plymouth, England, UK.
  • Supervisors: David Walker (Homepage) and Matthew Craven (Homepage)
  • Projects:
    • Visualisation
    • Benchmarking
    • Industrial optimisation
    • Hybrid optimisation
  • Details about supervisors, research group, projects, and others: Plymouth_info

University of Trento, Trento, Italy

  • Location:  Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI), University of Trento,  Italy.
  • Supervisor: Giovanni Iacca (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Hybridization of deep reinforcement learning and metaheuristics
    • Evolution of network protocols
    • Evolution of communication using interpretable agents
    • Evolutionary learning of interpretable models
    • Problem classification via evolutionary dynamics
  • Details about supervisor, research group, projects, and others: Trento-info-2021

University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

  • Location: Evolutionary Robotics and Artificial Life lab (ERALLab), and Machine Learning lab (MaLeLab), Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA), University of Trieste, Italy.
  • Supervisor: Eric Medvet (Homepage), Luca Manzoni (Homepage)
  • Projects
    • Neuroevolution for voxel-based soft robots
    • Adaptive evolutionary optimization of graphs
    • Fitness landscape manipulation techniques via reversible transformations and surrogate modelling
  • Details about research group, projects, and others: Trieste_info