The University of Nottingham Homepage The University of Nottingham Homepage School of Computer Science Homepage

Dr Andrew J. Parkes
Mugshot of Andrew Parkes

School of Computer Science
University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK

Room: C78
WWW: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~pszajp/
Email: andrew.parkes AT nottingham.ac.uk

Google Scholar Profile
ORCID Profile

Assistant Professor ('Lecturer') in Operational Research and Computer Science
PAGE IN PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED

(Note that in the UK, an 'Assistant Professor' is a position that was formerly called 'lecturer' and is still commonly referred to that way. It is a permanent job doing research and teaching. Note that it is hence quite different from 'Assistant Professor' in the US which is generally 'tenure track' and so not permanent; in contrast, the UK version is a permanent position.)

I am a member of the COL research group (formerly called ASAP) within Computing Science

I was also a member, and on the executive committee, of "The LANCS Initiative". In particular, I coordinated the research cluster on Heuristic Understanding

I was a member of the winning team in the MISTA 2013 challenge.

I am/was co-organiser for:

  • OR61: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2019), stream on "Combinatorial and Global Optimisation: Exact and Heuristic Approaches"
  • EURO 2019 (July, Dublin): Stream on "Data Science meets Optimisation"
  • EURO 2018 (July, Valencia): Stream on "Data Science meets Optimisation"
  • OR60: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2018), stream on Metaheuristics
  • OR56: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2014), stream on Metaheuristics
  • PPSN 2014: "Joint Workshop on Automated Selection and Tuning of Algorithms".
  • IFORS 2014 (Barcelona) Sttream on Hyper-heuristics
  • OR55: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2013), stream on Metaheuristics
  • OR54: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2012), stream on Metaheuristics
  • PPSN 2012: "Joint Workshop on Automated Selection and Tuning of Algorithms".
  • OR53: (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2011), stream on Metaheuristics
  • Workshop at GECCO 2011 (Dublin, July 2011)
  • OR52 (UK OR Society National Conference, Sep, 2010), stream on Metaheuristics
  • PPSN 2010: workshop on "Understanding Heuristics: How do we get the best of both theory and empirical methods?". (With Ender Ozcan and Jon Rowe)
  • YOR17: stream and timetable co-coordinator for the conference

21/03/2011: Giving an invited talk "Searching for an understanding of heuristics" at Symposium OR problems and AI techniques (Kortrijk, Belgium).

My Google Scholar Profile

Prior to becoming a lecturer in July 2008, I was a research fellow in Educational timetabling and Space Allocation
Research Interests

Optimisation and search techniques: heuristics, meta-heuristics, hyper-heuristics, general search control methods, discrete nonlinear programming, and optimization under uncertainty. Examination timetabling
Quick Links
Teaching
Research
Publications

Teaching

All teaching materials are on the University Moodle system.. (internal access only)

Research

Whilst it was running I was an active part of the The LANCS Initiative, primarily: Workshops/Conferences Organisations:

Until July 2008, I was a Research Fellow on this project: Space Allocation "The overall objective of this project is to develop software tools to aid managers to make better use of existing space, and to plan new space so as to obtain higher utilisation." Besides colleagues in ASAP, the work is also performed in collaboration with Dr Barry McCollum and Dr Paul McMullan.

I was involved with "ITC2007, the second International Timetabling Competition" and, in particular, co-organised the examination timetabling track.

Examination Timetabling Resources including new instances from Yeditepe data.

Co-Investigator on http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/ViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/H000968/1

Publications

My Google Scholar Profile

ORCID Profile

  • Semidefinite Programming in Timetabling and Mutual-Exclusion Scheduling
    Jakub Marecek, Andrew J. Parkes
    (Under Review). Arxiv version
  • Pattern-Based Approach to the Workflow Satisfiability Problem with User-Independent Constraints
    Daniel Karapetyan, Andrew J. Parkes, Gregory Gutin, Andrei Gagarin
    Submitted to JAIR. Arxiv version
  • A Hybrid Evolutionary Strategy to Optimise Early-Stage Cancer Screening
    G. Figueredo, P. Shi, A. J. Parkes, K. Evans, J.M. Garibaldi, O. Negm, P. J. Tighe, H. F. Sewell, and J. Robertson
    Accepted for CEC 2019. PDF
  • A guide to conic optimisation and its applications
    A. N. Letchford & A. J. Parkes
    RAIRO RAIRO-OR, 52(4), 1087-1106. PDF
  • Learning the Quality of Dispatch Heuristics Generated by Automated Programming
    A. J. Parkes, N. Beglou, E. Özcan
    International Conference on Learning and Intelligent Optimization (LION 2018). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11353. 154-158. PDF bib LNCS DOI
  • Algorithm Configuration: Learning policies for the quick termination of poor performers
    Daniel Karapetyan, Andrew J Parkes, Thomas Stützle
    International Conference on Learning and Intelligent Optimization (LION 2018). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11353. 154-158. PDF bib LNCS DOI
  • Exploring the Landscape of the Space of Heuristics for Local Search in SAT
    Andrew W. Burnett, Andrew J. Parkes
    Proceeedings of CEC 2017 PDF DOI
  • Two-Stage Stochastic International Portfolio Optimisation under Regular-Vine-Copula-Based Scenarios
    Nonthachote Chatsanga, Andrew J. Parkes
    Arxiv version
  • Markov Chain methods for the Bipartite Boolean Quadratic Programming Problem
    Daniel Karapetyan, Abraham P. Punnen, Andrew J. Parkes
    European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) 260 (2017) 494-506
    DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.01.001 (Open Access)
  • Fairness in Examination Timetabling: Student Preferences and Extended Formulations
    Ahmad Muklason, Andrew J. Parkes, Barry McCollum, Ender Ozcan
    Published in Applied Soft Computing Volume 55, June 2017, Pages 302-318
    DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.01.026
    Preprint PDF
  • Systematic search for local-search SAT heuristics
    Andrew W. Burnett, Andrew J. Parkes
    META 2016 PDF
  • International Portfolio Optimisation with Integrated Currency Overlay Costs and Constraints
    Nonthachote Chatsanga, Andrew J. Parkes
    https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.01463 Published in Expert Systems with Applications (ESWA) 83 (2017) 333-349. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2017.04.009
  • CHaMP: Creating Heuristics via Many Parameters
    Shahriar Asta, Ender Ozcan, Andrew J. Parkes
    Expert Systems with Applications (ESWA) 63 (2016) 208-221
    DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2016.07.005
    Preprint PDF UoN ePrints
  • Lessons from Building an Automated Pre-Departure Sequencer for Airports
    D. Karapetyan, A. J. Parkes, J. A. D. Atkin J.Castro-Gutierrez
    Annals of Operations Research Original extended abstract was published in PATAT 2014
  • Combining Monte-Carlo and Hyper-heuristic methods for the Multi-mode Resource-constrained Multi-project Scheduling Problem
    S. Asta, D. Karapetyan, A. Kheiri, E. Özcan, and A. J. Parkes,
    Accepted for publications in Information Sciences. This is an extended description of the winning algorithm of the MISTA 2013 challenge. The initial extended abstract appeared in MISTA. PDF]
  • A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for a Two-Stage Stochastic Portfolio Optimization With Uncertain Asset Prices
    Tianxiang Cui, Ruibin Bai, Andrew J. Parkes, Fang He, Rong Qu, Jingpeng Li.
    To appear in proceedings of CEC 2015 (Japan).
    Preprint PDF
  • A Software Interface for Supporting the Application of Data Science to Optimisation
    Andrew J. Parkes and Ender Ozcan and Daniel Karapetyan.
    Proceedings of Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference 2015 LION9.
    To appear in Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
    Preprint PDF
  • A Stochastic Local Search Algorithm with Adaptive Acceptance for High-school Timetabling
    A. Kheiri, E. Özcan, and A. J. Parkes,
    Annals of Operations Research. DOI: 10.1007/s10479-014-1660-0 Available online 2014
    [Preprint PDF]
  • An investigation into the use of Haskell for dynamic programming
    D. McGillicuddy, A. J. Parkes and H. Nilsson.
    Published in PATAT 2014
  • Fairness in Exam Timetabling Problems: A Survey and the problem formulation
    A. Muklason, A. J. Parkes, B. McCollum and E. Ozcan
    Published in PATAT 2014
    To be submitted to journal.
  • Lessons from Building an Automated Pre-Departure Sequencer for Airports
    D. Karapetyan, A. J. Parkes, J. A. D. Atkin J.Castro-Gutierrez
    Extended abstract was published in PATAT 2014
  • Hyperion2: a toolkit for {meta-, hyper-} heuristic research
    Alexander Brownlee, Jerry Swan, Ender Özcan, and Andrew J. Parkes.
    GECCO Comp '14 Proceedings of the 2014 conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation companion.
    Online from ACM.
  • Portfolio Optimisation with Second-Order Stochastic Dominance Criteria
    . N. Chatsanga and A. J. Parkes. (abstract). Presented at 11th International Conference on Computational Management Science (CMS 2014)
  • "Exploring Heuristic Interactions in Constraint Satisfaction Problems: A Closer Look at the Hyper-Heuristic Space"
    Jose Carlos Ortiz-Bayliss, Hugo Terashima-Marin, Ender Ozcan, Andrew J. Parkes and Santiago Enrique Conant-Pablos,
    to appear in Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2013).
    (PDF)
  • "An Ensemble Based Genetic Programming System to Predict English Premier League Games"
    Tianxiang Cui, Jingpeng Li, John R. Woodward and Andrew J. Parkes
    in Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI2013), IEEE Press, Singapore.
  • Combining Monte-Carlo and Hyper-heuristic methods for the Multi-mode Resource-constrained Multi-project Scheduling Problem S. Asta, D. Karapetyan, A. Kheiri, E. Özcan, and A. J. Parkes, Description of the winning algorithm of the MISTA 2013 challenge. In proceedingds of MISTA 2013 PDF]
  • Dimension reduction in the search for online bin packing policies. S. Asta, E. Özcan and A. J. Parkes, Proceedings of the 2013 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion, pp. 65-66, 2013. [PDF]
  • Initial Results on Fairness in Examination Timetabling A. Muklason, A. J. Parkes, B. Mccollum, E. Özcan, The 6th Multidisciplinary Int. conf. on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2013), accepted.
  • "Generalizing hyper-heuristics via apprenticeship learning"
    Shahriar Asta, Ender Özcan, Andrew J. Parkes, and A. Sima Etaner-Uyar
    Proceedings of EvoCOP 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) Vol. 7832, 2013, 169-178.
    (pdf).
  • "Batched Mode Hyper-heuristics"
    Shahriar Asta, Ender Özcan, and Andrew J. Parkes
    Proceedings of LION 2013, (pdf) Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2013, pp 404-409 (final pdf)
  • A Genetic Programming Hyper-heuristic: Turning Features into Heuristics for Constraint Satisfaction J. C. Ortiz-Bayliss, E. Özcan, A. J. Parkes and H. Terashima-Marin, , The 13th Annual Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), pp. 183-190, 2013. [PDF]
  • "HySST: Hyper-heuristic Search Strategies and Timetabling"
    Ahmed Kheiri, Ender Ozcan and Andrew J. Parkes Shahriar Asta, Ender Özcan, Andrew J. Parkes, and A. Sima Etaner-Uyar,
    International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling PATAT2012, Son, Norway. (pdf).
  • "Improving the Performance of Vector Hyper-heuristics through Local Search"
    J.C. O.-Bayliss, H. T.-Marin, S. E. Conant-Pablos, E. Özcan, and A. J. Parkes
    Accepted for GECCO 2012.
  • "Matrix Analysis of Genetic Programming Mutation"
    European Conference on Genetic Programming (EuroGP 2012)
    Andrew J. Parkes, Ender Özcan and Matthew R. Hyde
    Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012, Volume 7244/2012, 158-169, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29139-5_14 LNCS page.
  • "HyFlex: A Benchmark Framework for Cross-domain Heuristic Search"
    G. Ochoa, M. Hyde, T. Curtois, J. A. Vazquez-Rodriguez, J. Walker, M. Gendreau, G. Kendall, B. McCollum, A. J. Parkes, S. Petrovic, E. K. Burke
    European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP 2012)
    Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012, Volume 7245, 136-147 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29124-1_12 LNCS page
  • "Dynamic Data Structures for Taskgraph Scheduling Policies with Applications in OpenCL Accelerators"
    Jakub Marecek, Andrew J. Parkes, Edmund K. Burke, Robert Elliot, Hedley Francis, Anton Lokhmotov
    Proceedings of MISTA 2011 pre-print
  • "A new model for automated examination timetabling"
    Barry McCollum, Paul McMullan, Andrew J. Parkes, Edmund K. Burke and Rong Qu
    Annals of Operations Research Volume 194, Number 1 (2012), 291-315, DOI: 10.1007/s10479-011-0997-x Springer-download
  • "Evolutionary squeaky wheel optimization: A new framework for analysis"
    Jingpeng Li, Andrew J. Parkes and Edmund K. Burke
    Journal: Evolutionary Computation, Volume 19 Issue 3, Fall 2011 ACM download
  • "The Interleaved Constructive Memetic Algorithm and its application to timetabling"
    Ender Özcan, Andrew J. Parkes, and Alpay Alkan
    Computers & Operations Research, Volume 39, Issue 10, October 2012, Pages 2310–2322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2011.11.020
  • "Policy Matrix Evolution for Generation of Heuristics"
    Ender Özcan and Andrew J. Parkes
    Proc. of the 13th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO '11) (Winner of a best paper award). PDF
    ACM DL Author-ize servicePolicy matrix evolution for generation of heuristics
    Ender Özcan, Andrew J. Parkes
    GECCO '11 Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation, 2011
  • "On the idea of evolving decision matrix hyper-heuristics for solving constraint satisfaction problems"
    José Carlos Ortiz-Bayliss, Hugo Terashima-Marín, Ender Özcan and Andrew J. Parkes
    Proc. of the 13th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO '11) ACM-download
  • "The Cross-domain Heuristic Search Challenge- An International Research Competition"
    With Edmund K. Burke, Michel Gendreau, Matthew Hyde, Graham Kendall, Barry McCollum, Gabriela Ochoa, and Sanja Petrovic
    Proc. of LION 5. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011, Volume 6683/2011, 631-634, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-25566-3_49 LNCS
  • "Semidefinite Programming Relaxations in Timetabling"
    With Jakub Marecek and Edmund K. Burke
    PATAT 2010 (extended abstract). PDF
  • "Combined Blackbox and AlgebRaic Architecture (CBRA)"
    Andrew J. Parkes
    In Proc. of PATAT 2010 (extended abstract). PDF
  • "Properties of Yeditepe Examination Timetabling Benchmark Instances"
    With Ender Ozcan
    In Proc. of PATAT 2010 (extended abstract). PDF
  • "Mapping the Performance of Heuristics for Constraint Satisfaction"
    With Jose Carlos Ortiz-Bayliss, Ender Özcan, and Hugo Terashima-Marin
    Accepted for IEEE CEC 2010 at WCCI (Barcelona, July 2010).
  • "University Space Planning and Space-type Profiles"
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, B.McCollum, and P.McMullan.
    Special Issue of Journal of Scheduling on "Applications and Methodologies for Planning and Scheduling", Volume 13 Issue 4, August 2010 DOI 10.1007/s10951-010-0178-9 (pre-print pdf)
  • "Decomposition, Reformulation, and Diving in University Course Timetabling"
    With E. K. Burke and J. Marecek and H. Rudova.
    Computers & Operations Research, 37, 2010, pages 582--597. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2009.02.023 (pdf)
    google-scolar
  • "Setting the Research Agenda in Automated Timetabling: The Second International Timetabling Competition"
    B. McCollum, A. Schaerf, B. Paechter, P. McMullan, R. Lewis, A.J. Parkes, L. Gaspero, R. Qu, and E.K. Burke
    INFORMS Journal on Computing Vol. 22, Winter 2010, pp. 120-130.
    DOI: 10.1287/ijoc.1090.0320 (online)
    google-cited-by
  • "An Extended Great Deluge Approach to the Examination Timetabling Problem"
    B. McCollum, P.J. McMullan, A. J. Parkes, E.K. Burke, S. Abdullah
    Proc. of MISTA 2009 PDF
  • "An investigation of fuzzy multiple heuristic orderings in the construction of university examination timetables"
    Hishammudin Asmuni, Edmund K. Burke, Jonathan M. Garibaldi, Barry McCollum and Andrew J. Parkes
    Computers and Operations Research. Volume 36, Pages: 981-1001, 2009
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2007.12.007
  • "Threshold Effects in the Teaching Space Allocation Problem with Splitting"
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, D. Landa-Silva, B. McCollum and P. McMullan
    pre-print pdf
  • "A New Model for Automated Examination Timetabling"
    Barry McCollum, Paul McMullan, Edmund K. Burke, Andrew J. Parkes and Rong Qu
    Pre-print pdf
  • "A Supernodal Formulation of Vertex Colouring with Applications in Course Timetabling"
    With E.K. Burke, J. Marecek and H. Rudova
    To appear in Annals of Operations Research.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10479-010-0716-z
    revised/retitled version of "On a Clique-Based Integer Programming Formulation of Vertex Colouring with Applications in Course Timetabling"
    google-scholar
  • A Branch and Cut Procedure for Udine Course Timetabling" Proceedings of PATAT 2008. (pdf)
    With E.K. Burke, J. Marecek and H. Rudova
    Submitted to Annals of Operations Research.
  • "Multi-objective aspects of the examination timetabling competition track". (Extended abstract).
    With E.K. Burke, B. McCollum and P. McMullan
    Proceedings of PATAT-2008. (pdf)
  • "Enrollment Generators, Clustering and Chromatic Numbers". (Extended abstract).
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, B. McCollum and P. McMullan
    Proceedings of PATAT-2008. (pdf)
  • "Conflict Inheritance in Sectioning and Space Planning". (Extended abstract).
    With C.Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, D. Landa-Silva, B. McCollum and P. McMullan
    Proceedings of PATAT-2008. (pdf)
  • "Evaluating the Space Planning Benefits of Partitionable Rooms". (Extended abstract).
    With C.Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, B. McCollum and P. McMullan
    Proceedings of PATAT-2008. (pdf)
  • "Penalising Patterns in Timetables: Integer Programming Formulations."
    With Edmund K. Burke, Jakub Marecek, and Hana Rudova.
    To appear in Proceedings of OR2007.
    Available at: http://springerlink.com/content/q722927p4227308x/
    BibTeX
  • "The Second International Timetabling Competition: Examination Timetabling Track"
    With Edmund K. Burke, Barry McCollum, Paul McMullan and Rong Qu
    Technical Report: QUB/IEEE/Tech/ITC2007/Exam/v4.0/17. September 20, 2007. (For the examination timetabling track of "ITC2007, the second International Timetabling Competition".)
    Download PDF
  • "A Survey of NP-Complete Puzzles"
    With G. Kendall and K. Spoerer
    International Computer Games Association Journal, volume 31, pages 13-34, 2008
    google-scholar
  • "Towards Improving the Utilization of University Teaching Space"
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, J.D. Landa-Silva, B. McCollum, and P. McMullan.
    Journal of the Operational Research Society (2009) 60, 130–143.
    http://www.palgrave-journals.com/doifinder/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602523
    (PDF of tech. report)
    google-scholar
  • "The Teaching Space Allocation Problem with Splitting"
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, D. Landa-Silva, B. McCollum, and P. McMullan.
    Proceedings of     PATAT-06. Complete proceedings of PATAT 2006
    Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) volume 3867/2007 http://www.springerlink.com/content/h41030n26jt4rk75/
  • "Understanding the Role of UFOs Within Space Exploitation" (Extended Abstract.)
    With C. Beyrouthy, E.K. Burke, J. Dario Landa-Silva, B. McCollum, P. McMullan.
    Proceedings of PATAT-06 August 2006. PDF

Publications including those previous to Nottingham:

Please check on google scholar, or via ORCID, etc

Miscellaneous

General Issues Related to Scientific Methods