VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Field of Interest: Data mining, soft computing, evolutionary computing, neural networks, social networks.
Talk 1: Computational Topology an Introduction
Abstract: The primary motivation for lecture is the significance and utility of topological concepts in solving problems in computer science. These problems arise naturally in computational geometry, graphics, robotics, structural biology, and chemistry. Often, the questions themselves have been known and considered by topologists. Unfortunately, there are many barriers to interaction: Computer scientists do not know the language of topologists. Topology, unlike geometry, is not a required subject in high school mathematics and is almost never dealt with in undergraduate computer science. The axiomatic nature of topology further compounds the problem as it generates cryptic and esoteric terminology that makes the field unintelligible and inaccessible to non-topologists. Topology can be very unintuitive and enigmatic and therefore can appear very complicated and mystifying, often frightening away interested computer scientists. Topology is a large field with many branches. Computer scientists often require only simple concepts from each branch. We select a number of offerings in topology in this course concerned with deep questions and existential results.
Talk 2: Particle Swarms Heuristics in Optimization
Abstract: Optimization methods are widely used in various fields, including engineering, economics, management, physical sciences, social sciences. The process of using optimization methods to solve a practical problem mainly involves these two steps. First, formulate the optimization problem which involves determining the decision variables, objective function and constraints, and possibly an analysis of the optimization problem. Second, select an appropriate numerical method, solve the optimization problem, test the optimal solution and make a decision accordingly. A metaheuristic or a metaheuristic method is formally defined as an iterative generation process which guides a subordinate heuristic by combining intelligently different concepts for exploring and exploiting the search space. Learning strategies are used to structure information in order to find efficiently near-optimal solutions. In the last two decades, PSO has been frequently used as an optimization algorithm because of its effectiveness in performing difficult optimization tasks. In addition, the scheme obtains better results in a faster and cheaper way compared to several other methods with fewer parameters to adjust. Application areas can be found in multi-objective optimization problems, min-max problems, integer programming problems, combinatorial optimization problems, clustering and classification problems and numerous engineering applications.
Biography: Václav Snášel is Professor of Computer Science at VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. He works s researcher and university teacher. He is Dean Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is head of research programme IT4 Knowledge management at European center of excellence IT4Innovations. His research and development experience includes over 30 years in the Industry and Academia. He works in a multi-disciplinary environment involving artificial intelligence, social network, conceptual lattice, information retrieval, semantic web, knowledge management, data compression, machine intelligence, neural network, web intelligence, nature and Bio-inspired computing, data mining, and applied to various real world problems. He has given more than 16 plenary lectures and conference tutorials in these areas. He has authored/co-authored several refereed journal/conference papers, books and book chapters. He has supervised many Ph.D. students from Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Libya, Jordan, Yemen, China and Vietnam. He supervised 20 PhD students who successfully defended PhD theses. He is also served as a Guest Editor of number of journals, e.g. Neurocomputing, Elsevier, Journal of Applied Logic, Elsevier etc. He was responsible investigator and cooperating investigator of 15 research projects in the field of basic and applied research. He is senior member IEEE, and he is the Chair of IEEE SMC Czechoslovak chapter.