Research Team

Working with Us

If you are interested in our research areas and open research projects, please contact any of the staff whose interests match your own. For admission into VUW's postgraduate programme, please refer to our section on Postgraduates Study for details. The details for funding and other scholarship sources are also available there.

Staff

• Prof Mengjie Zhang (Professor, Group Leader) - Genetic Programming, Evolutionary Deep Learning, Computer Vision and Image Analysis, Modelling and symbolic regression, Multi-Objective Optimisation, Data Mining and Machine Learning, Transfer Learning, Bioinformatics
• Prof Bing Xue (Professor, Group Co-Leader) - Particle Swarm Optimisation, Genetic Programming, Feature Selection and Dimensionality Reduction, Evolutionary Image Analysis, Transfer Learning.
• A/Prof Yi Mei (Associate Professor) - Evolutionary Scheduling and Routing, Differential Evolution, Evolutionary Feature Selection
• A/Prof Hui Ma (Associate Professor) - Evolutionary Web Service Composition, Evolutionary Combinatorial Optimisation, Databases
• A/Prof Xiaoying Sharon Gao (Associate Professor) - Web Intelligence, Text Mining, Evolutionary Data Mining
• Dr Aaron Chen (Associate Professor) - Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning, Learning Classifer Systems, Evolutionary Programming, Differential Evolution, Distributed systems, Multiagent Coordination.
• Dr Qi Chen (Senior Lecturer) - Genetic Programming, Symbolic Regression, Machine Learning (theory)
• Dr Andrew Lensen (Senior Lecturer) - Explainable AI, Genetic Programming, Unsupervised Learning (nonlinear dimensionality reduction), and real-world/interdisciplinary AI in New Zealand.
• Dr Heitor Gomes (Senior Lecturer) -- Stream Data Mining, machine learning
• Dr Bach Nguyen (Lecturer) - Particle Swarm Optimisation, Genetic Programming, Multi-objective Optimisation, Transfer Learning
• Dr Fangfang Zhang (Lecturer and Project Coordinator) - Genetic programming, Scheduling, combinatorial Optimisation, multi-task learning, surrogate
• Dr Mohammad Nekooei (Lecturer) - Fuzzy Logic, Evolutionary Algorithms, Wireless Sensor Networks.
• Dr Ivy (I-Ming) Liu (Associate Professor) - Feature Selection and big dimensionality reduction, Statistical learning, Categorical Data Analysis
• Dr Lifeng Peng (Senior Lecturer) - Bioinformatics, Cellular Metabolism and Metabolic Engineering
• A/Prof Ramesh Rayudu (Associate Professor) - Ant Colony Optimisation, Fuzzy Systems, Neural Networks, Machine Learning and Data Mining, Electronics Optimisation and Processing
• Dr Qurrat Ul Ain (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Evolutionary learning and Cancer detection
• Dr Junhong (Jennifer) Zhao (Research Fellow) - Deep learning, Image lighting understanding, Image synthesis, Image recognition/segmentation
• Dr Emrah Hancer (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Feature selection and its applications
• Dr Longfei Yan (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Evolutionary Combinatorial Optimisation, Reinforcement Learning

Past Staff Members

• Dr Ruwang Jiao (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Evolutionary algorithms, large scale optimisation, feature selection
• Peng Wang (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Multi-modal optimisation
• Dr Harith Al-Sahaf (Senior Lecturer) - Genetic Programming, Image Analysis, Cybersecurity
• A/Prof Peter Andreae (Associate Professor) - Genetic Programming, Evolutionary Feature Selection and Construction. (retired)
• Dr Xingsi Xue (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Evolutionary learning and optimisation
• Dr Ying Bi (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Genetic programming, Evolutionary Deep Learning, Image Classification and Analysis, transfer learning, machine learning for aquaculture
• Dr Cuie Yang (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Deep learning and transfer learning/optimisation
• Dr Tao Shi (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Cloud Resource Optimisation
• Dr Baligh Al-Helali (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Genetic programming, symbolic regression, unbalanced data, feature selection
• Dr Yahui Jia (Postdoctoral Fellow) - Routing, Combinatorial Optimisation, Large Scale Optimisation
• Prof Will Browne (Associate Professor) - Learning Classifier Systems, Machine Learning, Applied Cognitive Systems
• Dr Wei Gao (Senior Lecturer) - Natural language processing, Information retrieval, Web search,Social media analytics,Social computing
• Dr Hang Xu (Postdoctoral Fellow) --- Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimisation, Feature Selection, Combinatorial Optimisation
• Dr Yanan Sun (Postdoctoral Fellow, July 2017 -- April 2019 ) --- Genetic Algorithms, Deep Neural Networks, Image Analysis
• Cao Truong Tran (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019) - Evolutionary Computation for Classification with Missing Data
• Binh Tran (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019) - Evolutionary Computation for Feature Manipulation in High-dimensional Classification
• Dr Su Nguyen (Postdoctoral Fellow, July 2013 -- June 2019) - Genetic Programming, Job Shop Scheduling.
• Harith Al-Sahaf (Postdoctoral Fellow, Oct 2016 -- Oct 2018) Genetic Programming for Image Analysis
• Dr Mark Johnston (Senior Lecturer) - Genetic Programming, Operations Research, Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimisation
• Bianca Grizhar --- Artificial Intelligence, Commercialisation
• Dr Yu Xue (Visiting Researcher, Aug 2016 -- Aug 2017) -- Evolutionary Computation, Feature Selection, Adaptive Search
• Dr Muhammad Iqbal (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2016) - Evolutionary Image Analysis, Learning Classifier Systems, Genetic Programming
• Dr Kourosh Neshatian (Research Fellow/BuildIT Postdoctoral Fellow, Mar 2010 -- May 2012) - Genetic Programming, Classification, Feature Ranking and Selection, Dimension Reduction
• Dr Rohitash Chandra (Postdoctoral Fellow, Jan 2012 -- Jun 2012) -- Bioinformatics
• Dr Toktam Ebadi (Research Scientist, Sep 2010 -- Apr 2012 ) - Learning Classifier Systems, Image Classification
• Dr Jingxuan Wei (Visiting Researcher, Oct 2010 -- Oct 2011) -- Particle Swarm Optimisation, Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimisation
• Dr Ignas Kukenys (Researcher, Sep 2010 -- Feb 2011) -- Learning Classifier Systems
• Dr Ammar Mohemmed (Research Fellow, Oct 2007 -- Feb 2010) - Particle Swarm Optimisation

Visitors

• Mingqian Lin, Nanjing University, China, Dec. 2023-Feb. 2024
• Junjia Feng, Nanjing University, China, Dec. 2023-Feb. 2024
• Prof. Hisao Ishibuchi, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China, 4-8th Feb 2024
• Dr. Thomas Bensky, California Polytechnic State University, California, USA, 8th Jan 2024-29th March 2024
• Dr. Joanna Weng, Zurich University of Applied Science，Zurich, 8-18th Jan 2024
• Prof. Frank-Peter Schilling, Zurich University of Applied Science, Zurich, 8-18th Jan 2024
• Yuquan Wang, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, Nov. 2023-Feb. 2024
• Shaojin Geng, Tongji University, China, Oct. 2023-Oct. 2025
• Prof. Gaige Wang, Ocean University of China, China, 16th Oct-26th Nov, 2023
• Xinxin Xu, Ocean University of China，China, Oct. 2023-Oct. 2025
• Fei Ming, China University of Geosciences, China, Oct. 2023-Apr. 2025
• Nan Li, Northeastern University, China, Sep. 2023-Mar. 2025
• Xinming Shi, Southern University of Science and Technology, China, October 2023-December 2023
• Long Chen, Beijing Jiaotong University, China, Sep 2023-Sep 2024
• Prof Haibo He, University of Rhode Island, USA, 23-27th June, 2023
• Prof Yaochu Jin, Bielefeld University, Germany, 10-14th June, 2023
• Tong Guo, Beihang University, China, May 2023-May 2024
• Zaixing Sun, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, Apr. 2023-Apr. 2024
• Shihui Liu, Dalian Maritime University, China, Mar. 2023-Mar. 2024
• Cheng Xie, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, Mar. 2023-Mar. 2024
• A/Prof Andy Song, RMIT, 19th-26th January 2023
• Zhenshou Song, Xidian University, China, January 2023-January 2024
• Huixiang Zhen, China University of Geosciences, China, Nov. 2022-Nov. 2023
• Botao Jiao, China University of Mining and Technolog, China, Nov. 2022-Nov. 2023
• Shanshan Tang, Northeast University, China, Nov. 2022-Nov. 2024
• Prof Huanhuan Chen, University of Science & Technology of China, 26th Oct-31th Oct 2022
• Dr Julie Blommaert, Plant and Food, 14th Oct 2022
• Prof Wolfgang Banzhaf, Michigan State University, Michigan, United States, 29th Sep-15th Dec 2022
• Prof Carlos A. Coello Coello, CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico, 19-23th Sep 2022
• Dr Faizal Hafiz, Université Côte d'Azur, France, 19-23th Sep 2022
• Prof Jinyan Li, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 6-9th Sep 2022
• Jiangshu Wei, Sichuan Agricultural University, Nov 2019 to Nov 2020
• Bo Peng, North China Electric Power University, 1 Dec 2019 to 30 Nov 2020
• Guanqiang Gao, Beijing Institute of Technology, Nov 2019 to Oct 2020
• Dr Miao Lu, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Remote Sensing (AGRIRS), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs / Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China, June 2019 -- June 2020
• Dr Su Nguyen, La Trobe University, Australian, 6 May 2019 - 20 May 2019
• Dr Baolei Li, Nanyang institute of Technology, China, Jan 2019 - Dec 2019
• Jiabin Lin, Guangdong University of Technology, Jan 2019 - Jan 2020
• Ke Chen, Shandong University, China, Dec 2018 - Dec 2020
• Prof.JingxuanWei, Xidian University, China, Sep - Dec 2018
• Dr Anda Li, Tianjin University of Commerce, China, July - Dec 2018
• Prof. Juergen.Branke, The University of Warwick, UK, 27 April - 12 May 2018
• Prof. Zhi-Hua Zhou, Nanjing University, China, 11 - 19 Feb 2018
• Prof. TAN Kay Chen, City University of Hong Kong, 26 - 29 Jan 2018
• Dr Wenlong Fu, SAP, Auckland, 12 Jan 2018
• Dr Juan Rada-Vilela , Xero, Wellington, 12 Jan 2018
• Dr Andy Song, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, 8-10 Dec 2017
• Prof. Mario Koeppen, Kyuhsu Institute of Technology, Japan, Visitor, 7-9 Dec 2017
• Prof Carlos Coello Coello: Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization using Hybrid Approaches, 14 - 16 Aug, 2017
• Pro. Emma Hart, Edinburgh Napier University. Visitor, 14-29 Jan 2017
• Pro. Gary Yen, Oklahoma State University, USA. Visitor, 9-13 Dec 2017
• Pro. Jun Wang, City University of Hong Kong. Visitor, 23-25 Nov 2016
• Dr Grant Dick, University of Otago. Visitor, 2-8 Jul 2016
• Professor Hisao Ishibuchi, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan. Visitor, 15 - 18 Jun, 2016
• Dr Xiaodong Li, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, 2-9 May, 2016
• Prof Carlos Coello Coello: Recent Results and Open Problems in Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization: talk-wellington-2015.pdf, 3 - 5 Sep, 2015
• Dr Andy Song, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, Oct - Nov 2015
• Prof. KC Tan National University of Singapore, Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transcations on Evolutionary Computation, 03-05 Jun 2015
• Dr Jianbin Ma, College of Information Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding City, Hebei Province, China, Dec 2014 -- Dec 2015
• Prof Yongsheng Gao: Vision Perception for Environmental Informatics Details can be seen here 27/11/2015
• Kevin Korb: The Evolution of Utility, Or Why Is Sex Fun? 10/12/2014
• Dr Yi Mei School of Computer Science and Information Technology, RMIT University, 7-14 Jun 2014, His Talk: DECOMPOSITION FOR L ARGE S CALEC APACITATED ARC ROUTING P ROBLEM
• Prof Yaochu Jin. Professor of Computational Intelligence, Department of Computing, University of Surrey, 10 Feb 2014
• Dr Kai Qin. School of Computer Science and Information Technology, RMIT University, 8-20 Dec 2013
  
• Prof Hussein Abbas. University of New South Wales @ADFA. 29 Nov 2013.
• Dr Grant Dick. Deputy Head of Department, Information Science, University of Otago. 20 Oct - 18 Nov 2013.
• Prof Garry Greenwood. Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. Portland State University, USA. Visitor, 5-9 Sep 2013. Seminar: Introduction to Evolutionary Game Theory.
• Prof Zeng-Guang Hou, The State Key Lab of Management and Control for Complex Systems, the Institute for Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Visitor, 2-5 Jun 2013.
• Prof Philip Yu. IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow. University of Illinois at Chicago. Visitor, 13-15 Apr 2013. Seminar: On Mining Big Data.
• Prof Chengqi Zhang. University Technology Sydney, Australia. Visitor, 13-15 Apr 2013. Seminar: Research Center Development and Experience.
• A/Prof Ben Niu. Shenzhen University, China. Visitor, 21 Jan - 18 Feb 2013.
• Dr Edilson Delgado-Trejos, Institute of Geological Nuclear Sciences (GNS), NZ. Visitor, 21 Sep 2012. His Talk: Effective Representation of Physiological Systems and Training for Pattern Recognition.
• Prof Jean Nezan, INSA REnnes, France. Visitor, 26 Jun 2012.
• Dr Xiaodong Li, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, 1-6 May, 2012. His Talk: Advances in PSO
• A/Prof Lin Shang, Nanjing University, China. Visitor, 8 Feb - 28 Apr, 2012
• Prof KC Tan, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, National University of Singapore. Visitor. 1-7 Dec 2011.
• Prof De Xu, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Visitor. 7 Dec 2011.
• Dr Andy Song, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, 10 Aug - 9 Dec 2011.
• Dr Grant Dick, University of Otago. Visitor, 4-5 Aug 2011, 3-5 May 2012.
• Prof Jing Liu, Xidian University, China. Visitor, 23 Aug - 19 Sep 2011.
• Prof Xinghuo Yu, IEEE Fellow, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, RMIT University, Australia. Visitor, 25-26 Mar 2011.
• Prof Yang Gao, Nanjing University, China. Visitor, 28 Feb - 3 Mar, 2011
• A/Prof Lin Shang, Nanjing University, China. Visitor, 28 Feb - 3 Mar, 2011
• Prof Xin Yao, IEEE Fellow, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, University of Birmingham, UK. Visitor, 16-19 Nov 2010

Current Thesis and Research Project Students

Below is a list of our current (and incoming) research thesis and project students. You can also check our CompletedResearchStudents.

• Ning Li, Text Mining, PhD Thesis. 1 Apr. 2024, CSC-VUW Scholarships. (with A/Prof Xiaoying Sharon Gao)
• Jiyuan Pei, Combinatorial Optimisation, PhD Thesis. 1 Apr. 2024，self-financing. (with A/Prof Yi Mei)
• Bisma Ayaz: Language Processing. PhD Thesis. 1 March. 2024，XXX Scholarships. (with A/Prof Xiaoying Sharon Gao)
• Ya Shen: Optimization of Cloud Computing Workflow Scheduling by Combining Evolutionary Algorithms with Machine Learning. PhD Thesis. 1 Feb. 2024，CSC-VUW Scholarships. (with Dr Aaron Chen and A/Prof Hui Ma)
• Ambica Dixit: Cybersecurity and AI Ethic, PhD Thesis. 1 Feb. 2024，VUW doctoral Scholarship. (with Prof Mengjie Zhang and Prof Bing Xue)
• Yuye Zhang: Machine Learning for Classification. PhD Thesis. 1 Feb. 2024，VUW Doctoral Scholarship. (with Dr Fangfang Zhang, Prof Bing Xue, and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Jigang Fan: Image analysis using explainable evolutionary computation methods. PhD Thesis. 1 Nov. 2023，CSC-VUW Scholarships. (with Prof Bing Xue and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Benny Lin: Machine Learning Application in Computer Vision. PhD Thesis. 1 Nov. 2023, Project Funded Scholarship. (with Prof Bing Xue and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Xiaocheng Liao: Genetic programming, Reinforcement learning and Transfer optimization. PhD Thesis. 1 Nov. 2023, VUW doctoral Scholarship. (with A/Prof Yi Mei, and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Bocheng Lin: Genetic Programming and Deep Reinforcement Learning for Automated Algorithm Design. PhD Thesis. 1 Nov 2023, CSC-VUW joint Scholarship. (with A/Prof Yi Mei, and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Yun Zhou: Machine Learning for Cyber-Marine fish data analysis, PhD Thesis. 1 September 2023. Project Funded Scholarship. (with Prof Bing Xue, and Dr Aaron Chen)
• Beihong Yang: Analysis influential nodes in network. PhD Thesis. 1 Sep 2023, self-financing. (with A/Prof Hui Ma and Dr Aaron Chen)
• Ruiqi Chen: Genetic programming and reinforcement learning for job shop scheduling. PhD Thesis. 1 Sep 2023, CSC-VUW joint Scholarship. (with A/Prof Yi Mei, Dr Fangfang Zhang, and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Nimasha Herath: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Geographic Information Systems, PhD Thesis. 1 August 2023. (with Dr Andrew Lensen, Dr Anya Leenman, Dr Mairead de Roiste)
• Lin Dong: Genetic Programming for Image Analysis, PhD Thesis. 1 August 2023, Marsden Scholarship. (With Prof Mengjie Zhang, and Prof Bing Xue and Dr Ying Bi)
• Jiahong Wei: Advanced Evolutionary Deep Learning, PhD Thesis. 1 July 2023, Marsden Scholarship. (With Prof Mengjie Zhang and Prof Bing Xue)
• Carl McMillan: Object detection, Supervised learning, and Mussel Farms, PhD Thesis. 1 July 2023. Project Funded Scholarship. (with Prof Bing Xue and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Ze Chen：Machine Learning for Genomic Fish Breeding Project, PhD Thesis. 1 May 2023. (with A/Prof Yi Mei and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Saining Liu: Combinatorial Optimisation, PhD Thesis. 1 April 2023. Marsden Funded Scholarship.
• Junwei Pang: Combinatorial Optimisation, PhD Thesis. 1 April 2023. CSC-VUW joint Scholarship.
• Taran John: Utilising Machine Learning to Extract Clinically Oriented Features for Skin Cancer Detection, PhD Thesis. 1 March 2023, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (Dr Harith Al-Sahaf, Dr Qurrat Ul Ain and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Yuan Tian: Hyper-heuristics algorithm design for combinatorial problem, PhD Thesis. 1 March 2023, CSC-VUW joint scholarship. (With A/Prof Yi Mei and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Mohamad Rimas Mohamad Anfar, GP for interpretable Symbolic Regression, PhD Thesis. 1 Feb 2023. Marsden Funded Scholarship. (with Dr Qi Chen and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Zhengxin Fang: Workflow scheduling in container-based cloud computing, PhD Thesis. 1st February 2023, CSC-VUW joint scholarship. (with A/Prof Hui Ma and Dr Aaron Chen)
• Chunyu Wang: Genetic Programming for Symbolic Regression, PhD Thesis. 1st December 2022, CSC-VUW joint scholarship. (with Dr Qi Chen, Prof Bing Xue, and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Hamish O'Keeffe, Machine Learning Techniques for Modeling Shellfish Harvest Assessments, MSc Thesis, 1 July 2022. (Callaghan and MBIE Scholarship)(with Prof Bing Xue and Nelson AI Institute)
• Hengzhe Zhang: Modelling and Symbolic Regression, PhD Thesis. 1 August 2022, CSC-VUW joint Scholarship. (with Prof Mengjie Zhang, Prof Bing Xue and Dr Qi Chen)
• Amer Saeed: Hybrid IoT with Cloud Computing and Fog Computing, PhD Thesis, 1st XXX 2022, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship (Dr Aaron Chen and A/Prof Hui Ma)
• Fengyang Sun: Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for IoT service composition, PhD Thesis, 1st March 2022, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship (A/Prof Hui Ma and Dr Aaron Chen)
• Jesse Wood: Rapid determination of bulk composition and quality of marine biomass in Mass Spectrometry, PhD Thesis. 1 March 2022, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (with Prof Bing Xue, Dr Bach Nguyen, Prof Mengjie Zhang, and Dr Daniel Killeen)
• Abdullah Mamun: EC and cybersecurity (with A/Prof Ian Welch and Dr Harith Al-Sahaf)
• Ziyi Sun: Evolutionary Computation for Image Analysis, PhD Thesis. 1 Oct 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship.(with Prof Bing Xue and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Jordan MacLachlan: Evolutionary Computation for Emergency Medical Services Routing, PhD Thesis. 1 Oct 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship.(with A/Prof Yi Mei, Dr Fangfang Zhang and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Dylon Zeng: Evolutionary Computation for Image Analysis, PhD Thesis. 1 Oct 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (with Prof Mengjie Zhang, Ivy Liu, and Prof Bing Xue)
• Qinyu Wang: Evolutionary Computation for image analysis, PhD Thesis. 1 Sep 2021, China Scholarship Council. (with Prof Bing Xue and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Anjali de Silva: Community Detection in Complex Social Networks, PhD Thesis. 1st July 2021, Wellington Doctoral scholarship. (with Dr Aaron Chen, A/Prof Hui Ma and Dr Mohammad Nekooei)
• Kaan Demir: Sparsity-based Dimensionality Reduction for Multi-label Classification, PhD Thesis. 1 April 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (with Dr Bach Nguyen and Prof Bing Xue)
• Christian Raymond: Meta Learning for Loss Function Learning, PhD Thesis. 1 March 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (with Dr Qi Chen and Prof Bing Xue)
• Hayden Andersen: Evolutionary Computation for Creating Human-friendly Explanations, PhD Thesis. 1 March 2021, Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. (with Dr Andrew Lensen, A/Prof Yi Mei, and Prof Will Browne)
• Yifang Yang: Genetic Programming for Dynamic Multi-workflow in Network-aware Cloud, PhD Thesis. 1 Nov 2020, China Scholarship Council. (with Dr Aaron Chen, A/Prof Hui Ma and Prof Mengjie Zhang)
• Kirita-Rose Escott: Genetic Programming for Dynamic Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Computing, PhD Thesis. 1 June 2019 (with A/Prof Hui Ma and Dr Aaron Chen)