Dr Neil Urquhart
| Post Nominals | FHEA |
|---|---|
| Biography | Dr Neil Urquhart is a lecturer in School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. His research has brought in over £400K in funding and he has published over 60 peer reviewed papers. In 2022 he published "Nature Inspired Optimisation for Delivery Problems - From Theory to the Real World" (Springer), based on his research work. He completed his PhD in 2002 which examined the use of nature inspired techniques and software agents to construct and optimise delivery networks. Since 2002 he has worked as a lecturer within the School of Engineering, Computing and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University where he has taught primarily in the areas of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. He was responsible for developing and then leading the MEng Software Engineering and BSc Computer Science degree programmes. Since 2022 he as been the Lead for Learning and Teaching within the Computer Science subject group. This leadership role overseas the delivery of 12 degree programmes (UG and PG) and over 90 module instances. In addition the role involves teaching workload management for over 35 academic staff. Within this role he has lead the subject group through an Education Review, delivering considerable resource savings in provision and is currently leading the subject group through the Institution Lead Review process. |
| Research Interests | Dr Neil Urquhart's research interests centre around the optimisation of real-world problems. He has worked with a range of techniques including Evolutionary Algorithms, Multi-Agent Systems, Random Forrest, MAP-Elites and others. The application areas investigated include urban logistics, vehicle routing, workforce scheduling and public transport. |
| Teaching and Learning | Neil Urquhart is the Lead for Learning and Teaching within the Computer Science group. Prior to this he developed and led the BSc Computer Science programme. He has taught a range of modules in areas including Artificial Inteligence, Software Engineering and Multi-Agent Systems. |