Ed Keedwell BSc (Hons) PhD FHEA 
EMail: E.C.Keedwell@ex.ac.uk| Tel: +44 (0)1392 724014
About Me
Welcome to my homepage. I am a Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter here in the UK.
News
- Mohammed Chachan Younis has graduated with a PhD in Feb 2020 - well done Mohammed!
- Matt Johns and Clodomir Santana Jr. have had their papers accepted to GECCO 2020
- We are running iGECCO (Interactive Methods @ GECCO 2020) again this year
- I'm delighted to be working with Prof. Harries and colleagues at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital on this study investigating viral load in COVID-19 patients
Research Interests
My research interests centre around the study and application of artificial intelligence techniques to real-world problems in the hydroinformatics and bioinformatics. This includes the following techniques:
- Evolutionary Computation (including multi-objective evolutionary algorithms)
- Ant Colony Optimisation
- Particle Swarm Optimisation
- Hyperheuristics
- Neural Networks
- Decision trees and random forests
- Cellular Automata
These techniques have generally been shown to be good at finding solutions to difficult real-world problems including those in the biosciences and engineering fields. Specific applications that I have worked on include:
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology - In particular the discovery of information from large datasets such as gene expression data and single nucleotide polymorphism data; The use of data mining and machine learning in systems biology and the elucidation of regulatory networks from observed data. I work with colleagues from Biosciences and the Systems Biology theme to further this work.
- Hydroinformatics - In particular the optimisation of water distribution networks; the modelling and optimisation of discolouration risk; the modelling of flooding and drainage systems using nature-inspired techniques. I work closely with colleagues from the Centre for Water Systems in this application area.
- Networks and Mobile Networks - I am interested in the application of nature-inspired techniques to the optimisation of and routing through computer networks. I am working in collaboration with Prof. Geyong Min in this area.
Research Group
I lead a research group at Exeter which has attracted over £2.5M in funding since 2009. The group currently consists of 4 PhD students and two postdoctoral researchers working on a variety of computing, hydroinformatics and bioinformatics topics. For more information please go to the Nature-Inspired Research Group pages.
Current Projects
I am currently involved in the following projects:
- Co-I EPSRC Project - "Human Computer Optimisation for Water Systems Planning and Management"
- Co-PI EU Project - "SIM4NEXUS"
- Supervisor for an industrial studentship with BT - "Advanced Metaheuristics and Hyperheuristics for Telecommunications Scheduling Problems"
- Lead for CAFlood fast flood modelling system
Past Projects
- PI - Innovate UK Multi-Horizon Digital Twin Models for Transportation
- PI - EPSRC Project - "SEQuence-Analysis Based Hyperheuristics (SEQAH) for Real-World Optimisation Problems"
- PI - EPSRC-funded Project - "Ant Colony Optimisation for the Discovery of Gene-Gene Interactions in Genome-Wide Association Studies"
- PI - EPSRC CASE Studentship with Mouchel Ltd - "Development of a Discolouration Risk Optimisation Tool"
- Co-I - EPSRC Project - "Simplified Dual-Drainage Modelling for Flood Risk Assessment in Urban Areas"
Media Appearances
- BBC TechTent in 2015 with Rory Cellan-Jones discussing intelligent machines
- BBC Radio 4's Today programme to discuss the Turing Test - 11th June 2014. Listen to John Humphreys talking to Eugene (which preceded my interview) here.
- Our paper on a clinical prediction rule for C.Difficile was published in BMC Infectious Diseases, was published as a news story on the BBC News Website and was a feature on BBC Spotlight.
Teaching & Admin
I am currently the Director of Research for Computer Science.
I have taught on a variety of modules over the years and have taught all or parts of:
- Nature-Inspired Computation (Level 3 & Level M)
- ITMB Case Studies (Level M)
- Frontiers of Computer Science (Level 1 & Level 2)
I have supervised a number of final year and MSc projects in recent years. If you are a 2nd year student looking for a project, see my project proposals.
Professional Activities
I am a member of the EPSRC Review College and have performed reviews for equivalent bodies in France, Switzerland, Austria and South Africa. I have acted as a reviewer for a number of journals and have been a member of the programme committee for a number of recent conferences. For a full list, please click here.
Publications
I have published over 140 papers and one book in the fields of evolutionary computing, engineering optimisation and bioinformatics. For a full list, please click here. A list from Google Scholar with citation counts can be found here.