Research
Awards
Fellowships
Memberships in Committees and Societies
My research interests are in the area of fuzzy systems and neural networks. I have developed the NEFCON,
NEFCLASS and NEFPROX
models which are all available as software tools.
I am working in the Computational Intelligence Group of BT's
Intelligent Systems Research Centre.
In my current position as a Chief Research Scientist and Technical Group Leader I am involved in a number of projects
in the area of Intelligent Data Analysis.
Neuro-Fuzzy Systems
Neuro-fuzzy systems are a way to induce fuzzy systems from data. They are able to learn both fuzzy rules and
fuzzy sets. Neuro-fuzzy systems obtained their name, because they apply heuristical learning algorithms that are
inspired by artificial neural networks. The learning algorithms operate on local information
and cause local modifications,
i.e. they do not optimise a fuzzy system globally.
Because interpretability is a key feature of fuzzy systems the learning algorithm of a neuro-fuzzy approach
must be constrained such that the semantics of the trained fuzzy system is not affected.
Neuro-fuzzy systems are especially useful for smaller problems where no complex relationships between variables
need be modelled. They can use prior knowledge to initialise the learning process but can also learn fuzzy systems
from scratch.
My current research in this area focusses on the following issues:
- handling non-numerical variables,
- pruning algorithms to simplify solutions,
- fusing expert knowledge and knowledge induced from data,
- assessing and guaranteeing the interpretability of a learning outcome.
Intelligent Data Analysis
Data analysis can be described as the process of computing summaries and derived values from data, or - more
general - as the process of converting data into knowledge or information. Intelligent Data Analysis (IDA) is a
process of critical assessment, exploration, testing and evaluation. It requires the application of knowledge and
expertise about the data and it is fundamentally interdisciplinary. In data analysis the emphasis is not on modeling
but on answering questions. I am working on identifying suitable
analysis techniques from soft computing and machine learning depending on the specific problem and the demands
of the user. The goal is to automatically derive interpretable (meaningful) and applicable (useful) models that
can be readily put to use in industrial solutions.
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