An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N., & Powers, S. T. (2019, June). An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems. Presented at PAAMS 2019: International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Avila, Spain

We present an agent based framework for improving multi-stakeholder optimisation problems, which we define as optimisation problems where the solution is utilised by a number of stakeholders who have their own local preferences. We explore our ideas... Read More about An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems.

Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hoffman, B., Chalmers, K., Urquhart, N., & Guckert, M. (2019, February). Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems. Presented at RWDSL'19: 4th ACM International Workshop on Real World Domain Specific Languages, Washington DC

Implementing solutions for optimisation problems with general purpose high-level programming languages is a time consuming task that can only be carried out by professional software developers who typically are not domain experts. We address this pro... Read More about Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems.

Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems (2018)
Journal Article
Andras, P., Esterle, L., Guckert, M., Anh Han, T., Lewis, P. R., Milanovic, K., Payne, T., Perret, C., Pitt, J., Powers, S. T., Urquhart, N., & Wells, S. (2018). Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems. IEEE technology & society magazine, 37(4), 76-83. https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2018.2876107

Intelligent machines have reached capabilities that go beyond a level that a human being can fully comprehend without sufficiently detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The choice of moves in the game Go (generated by Deep Mind?s Alpha... Read More about Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems.

Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N., & Hart, E. (2018, September). Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites. Presented at Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN) 2018, Coimbra, Portugal

Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problems (WSRP) are very common in many practical domains, and usually have a number of objectives. Illumination algorithms such as Map-Elites (ME) have recently gained traction in application to design problems, in p... Read More about Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites.

Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. (2018, April). Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts. Presented at EvoApplications 2018

EvoFilter is an evolutionary algorithm based tool for searching through large non-dominated fronts in order to find a subset of solutions that are of interest to the user. EvoFilter is designed to take the output of existing Multi Objective Evolutio... Read More about Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts.

Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. (2017, June). Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem. Presented at Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion on - GECCO '17

Optimisation problems based upon real-world instances often contain many objectives. Many existing Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm techniques return a set of solutions from which the user must make a final selection; typically such a set of so... Read More about Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem.

Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N., & Fonzone, A. (2017, July). Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem. Presented at Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference on - GECCO '17, Berlin, Germany

Agencies who provide social care services typically have to optimise staff allocations and the travel whilst attempting to satisfy conflicting objectives. In such cases it is desirable to have a range of solutions to choose from, allowing the agenc... Read More about Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem.

Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., Urquhart, N. B., & Wells, S. (2016, June). Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations. Presented at 14th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Sevilla, Spain

Simulations of real world scenarios often require considerably
large numbers of agents. With increasing level of detail and resolution
in the underlying models machine limitations both in the aspect of
memory and computing power are reached. Even... Read More about Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations.

Demo Paper: AGADE Using Communities of Agents to Provide Realistic Feedback in Business Simulations. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., & Urquhart, N. B. (2015, June). Demo Paper: AGADE Using Communities of Agents to Provide Realistic Feedback in Business Simulations

The need to provide realistic feedback against decisions made
within business games is a requirement if business games are to continue
to remain relevant in training towards increasingly complex business scenarios.
We attempt to address this probl... Read More about Demo Paper: AGADE Using Communities of Agents to Provide Realistic Feedback in Business Simulations..

Multi-Modal employee routing with time windows in an urban environment. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B., Hart, E., & Judson, A. (2015, July). Multi-Modal employee routing with time windows in an urban environment

An urban environment provides a number of challenges and opportunities
for organisations faced with the task of scheduling a mobile
workforce. Given a mixed set of public and private transportation
and a list of scheduling constraints, we seek to... Read More about Multi-Modal employee routing with time windows in an urban environment..

AGADE Using Personal Preferences and World Knowledge to Model Agent Behaviour (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., & Urquhart, N. (2015, June). AGADE Using Personal Preferences and World Knowledge to Model Agent Behaviour. Presented at International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems PAAMS 2015, Salamanca, Spain

BDI agents provide a common well established approach for building multi-agent simulations. In this paper we demonstrate how semantic technologies can be used to model agent behaviour. Beliefs, desires and intentions are mapped flexibly to correspond... Read More about AGADE Using Personal Preferences and World Knowledge to Model Agent Behaviour.

Optimising the scheduling and planning of urban milk deliveries. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B. (2015, April). Optimising the scheduling and planning of urban milk deliveries. Presented at European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation EvoApplications 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark

This paper investigates the optimisation of the delivery of dairy products to households in three urban areas. The requirement for the optimisation to be part of the existing business process has determined the approach taken. The solution is maintai... Read More about Optimising the scheduling and planning of urban milk deliveries..

A real-world employee scheduling and routing application. (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., Sim, K., & Urquhart, N. B. (2014, July). A real-world employee scheduling and routing application. Presented at GECCO 2014

We describe a hyper-heuristic application developed for a client to find quick, acceptable solutions to Workforce Schedul- ing and Routing problems. An interactive fitness function controlled by the user enables five different objectives to be weight... Read More about A real-world employee scheduling and routing application..

Techniques for Auditing the ICT Carbon Footprint of an Organisation (2014)
Journal Article
Mouchet, C., Urquhart, N., & Kemmer, R. (2014). Techniques for Auditing the ICT Carbon Footprint of an Organisation. International Journal of Green Computing, 5(1), 44-61. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijgc.2014010104

This article has presents an extensive survey of the state of the art in Green IT/S. The findings of the survey suggest that there is scope for a reliable carbon footprint auditing tool for organisational ICT usage. A prototype auditing tool is devel... Read More about Techniques for Auditing the ICT Carbon Footprint of an Organisation.

Automated scheduling and planning; from theory to practice. (2013)
Book
(2013). S. Etaner-Uyar, E. Ozcan, & N. B. Urquhart (Eds.), Automated scheduling and planning; from theory to practice. Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39304-4

Incorporating emissions models within a multi-objective vehicle routing problem. (2013)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B., Scott, C., & Hart, E. (2013, July). Incorporating emissions models within a multi-objective vehicle routing problem. Presented at 15th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation

The vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) has previously been investigated as a multi-objective problem. In this paper estimated carbon emissions is added as an objective alongside the number of vehicles required and distance travelled. W... Read More about Incorporating emissions models within a multi-objective vehicle routing problem..

Using graphical information systems to improve vehicle routing problem instances. (2013)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B., Scott, C., & Hart, E. (2013, July). Using graphical information systems to improve vehicle routing problem instances. Presented at 15th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation

This paper makes the assertion that vehicle routing rearch has produced increasingly more powerful problem solvers, but has not increased the realism or compexity of typical problem instances. This paper argues that the time has come of use realistic... Read More about Using graphical information systems to improve vehicle routing problem instances..

Planning and optimising organisational travel plans using an evolutionary algorithm. (2011)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B. (2011, April). Planning and optimising organisational travel plans using an evolutionary algorithm. Presented at European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation

Commuting to the workplace is a highly individualistic experience, especially where the private car is the chosen mode of transport. The costs of using cars with low occupancy rates are significant in environmental terms as well as requiring the prov... Read More about Planning and optimising organisational travel plans using an evolutionary algorithm..

Using emissions model with EAs. (2011)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B. (2011, April). Using emissions model with EAs. Paper presented at YoungOR 17

Using real-world geospatial data with evolutionary algorithms. (2010)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B. (2010, January). Using real-world geospatial data with evolutionary algorithms. Paper presented at Universities' Transport Study Group

Developments in the field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have increased the availability of on-line road network data and associated routing services. The ability to integrate such data and services into web sites and other business system... Read More about Using real-world geospatial data with evolutionary algorithms..