Teaching computers to help people make better decisions

Professor Yi Mei, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, presents his inaugural lecture.

Every day computers help make difficult decisions that affect our lives—from timetabling and planning parcel deliveries to scheduling factory production and dispatching ambulances. These tasks often involve an enormous number of possible choices that are possibly greater than the number of atoms in the observable universe. Faced with such overwhelming complexity, computers cannot simply test every possibility. Instead, they must learn how to search intelligently for high-quality solutions.

In this inaugural lecture, Professor Yi Mei shows how evolutionary computation and machine learning can be combined to create algorithms that learn, adapt, improve through experience, and explain their reasoning. Drawing on two decades of research, Professor Mei explores how intelligent algorithms can help people make better decisions in an increasingly complex world.

Professor Yi Mei with Professor Nicola Nelson and Vice-Chancellor Professor Bryony James — Inaugural Lecture (from left to right): Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering, Professor Nicola Nelson, Professor Yi Mei, and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bryony James.

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