Adaptive Business Intelligence

Professor Zbigniew Michalewicz

School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide

Date and time: 12:30 – 13:30, Friday 18th March, 2005

Venue: 12.08.02 (Building 12, level 8, room 2)

Sponsors: School of Computer Science and IT and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University

Chair: Xiaodong Li

Abstract:

This talk will summarise my business experience of the last four years. I will talk about (1) current trends in commercial software, (2) a growing importance of adaptive business intelligence, (3) the importance of modern heuristic techniques in general and evolutionary computation in particular. I will emphasize the connection between research and practise. The talk will be illustrated by a few real-world examples of state-of-the-art commercial applications.

About the speaker:

Zbigniew Michalewicz is Professor at the School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide. He completed his MSc degree at Technical University of Warsaw in 1974 and he received PhD degree from Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, in 1981. He holds Doctor of Science (Habilitation) degree in Computer Science from the Polish Academy of Science (1997). In April 2002 he received the title of Professor from the President of Poland, Mr. Alexander Kwasniewski.  From 1988 to 2004 he was Professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA). Zbigniew Michalewicz holds also Professor positions at the Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, at the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology, and a honorary Professor position at State Key Laboratory of Software Engineering of Wuhan University, China.

His current research interests are in the field of evolutionary computation. He has published several books, including a monograph "Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs" (3 editions, a few translations), and over 200 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings. He was one of the editors-in-chief of the "Handbook of Evolutionary Computation". He was the general chairman of the First IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computation held in Orlando, June 1994. He has been an invited speaker of many international conferences and a member of 40 various program committees of international conferences during the last 3 years. He is a current member of the editorial board and/or serves as associate editor on 11 international journals. He also published (together with David B. Fogel) a text on modern heuristic methods, "How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics", which is a standard text on hundreds of universities all over the world (Chinese translation of the book appeared in 2003 and Polish translation will appear later in 2004). Second edition of this book (with additional 4 chapters) has just appeared.

In 1999 Zbigniew co-founded NuTech Solutions, which under his scientific leadership raised $14 million in venture capital, secured more than twenty Fortune 500 customers, and currently employs around 100 people. During his tenure at NuTech Solutions Zbigniew attracted several high-profile investors and board advisers to the company, including former President of Poland and Noble Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa; Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hugh McColl; former National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, Zbigniew Brzezinski; and world-renown fraud expert and inspiration for the movie Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale. He also helped to secure industry contracts valued at more than $10 million from companies such General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Bank of America, U.S. Department of Defense, AirLiquide, PKN Orlen, BB&T, and Dentsu. His scientific and business achievements have been recognized by countless invited talks and publications, including TIME Magazine, Newsweek, New York Times, Forbes, Business Journal, and Associated Press among others.

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Seminar Organisation

Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary. If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar co-ordinator.