Dr Jason Atkin

My work led to a system which is running live at Heathrow, predicting take-off times for aircraft while they are still parked at the stands, and determining appropriate push-back times which will allow these aircraft to meet their take-off times while absorbing more time at the stands. The TSAT system aids airport capacity and reductions in fuel burn can have significant benefits.
For algorithm details see: Transportation Science paper, Journal of Scheduling paper.
The work was discussed on the BBC4 algorithms programme, The secret rules of modern living: Algorithms.
Geert De Maere is currently also working with Heathrow, adding enhancements and a follow-on system.

The Heathrow work arose from my PhD research, Hybrid Metaheuristic Solutions for Runway Scheduling, which was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services Ltd) through a grant awarded via the The Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and Systems Engineering.
My PhD thesis can be found here: On-line decision support for take-off runway scheduling at London Heathrow airport, and contains much more information about the situation at Heathrow.

I was the first supervisor for the following PhD graduates in this area:
Stefan Ravizza: investigating the ground movement problem at airports (primarily Manchester and Zurich). Graduated 2012. Thesis available here: Enhancing decision support systems for airport ground movement.
Amadeo Asco: investigating resource allocation problems at airports (primarily Heathrow). Graduated 2013. Thesis available here: Constructive and evolutionary algorithms for airport baggage sorting station and gate assignment problems
Urszula Neuman: investigating the gate allocation problem at airports (primarily Manchester and Zurich). Graduated 2015. Thesis available here: Modelling and analysis of real world airport gate allocation problem
Chris Bayliss: investigating airline reserve crew scheduling Thesis available here: Airline reserve crew scheduling under uncertainty
Christofas Stergianos: investigating electrical taxiing at airports Thesis available here: Improving the realism of ground movement models

I also (co-)supervised the following PhD graduates:
Mohamed Mohamed: Optimised DC microgrid for future aircraft platforms, graduated 2022. Thesis available here: Optimised DC microgrid for future aircraft platforms.
Duriye BETUL Gumus: Parameter tuning for cross-domain search, graduated 2020. Thesis available here: Parameter tuning for cross-domain search
Luiz JONATA Pires de Araujo: Enhancing decision support for solutions of packing problem in additive manufacturing: features, datasets and experimental studies, graduated 2019. Thesis available here: Enhancing decision support for solutions of packing problem in additive manufacturing: features, datasets and experimental studies
Yan Jin: Advanced computational methods in portfolio optimisation, graduated 2017. Thesis available here: Advanced computational methods in portfolio optimisation.
Xin Wang: Optimised Operational Control for an Electric Power Systen on more Electric Aircraft. Thesis available here: Optimized operational control for an electric power system on more electric aircraft.
Angel Andres Recalde Lino: Design and Synthesis of Optimal Power System Architectures Considering Reliability Specifications for a More Electric Aircraft Application.
Salman Arif: Considering the benefits of track shortening by modelling aircraft trajectories.

For more recent papers please see:

University of Nottingham repository or

Google scholar publication list.

Older papers, less likely to be in repositories:

2016:

Christofas Stergianos, Jason A.D. Atkin, Herve Morvan, "Airport ground movement with pushback modelling: Understanding the effects of prioritisation levels for arrivals or departures", Journal of Applied Operational Research 7:2, 68-79, 2016.

Christofas Stergianos, Jason A.D. Atkin, Patrick Schittekat, Tomas E. Nordlander, Herve Morvan, "The importance of considering pushback time and arrivals when routing departures on the ground at airports", Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Applied Operational Research, ICAOR. Lecture Notes in Management Science 8, pp. 41-46, 2016.

D. Betul Gumus, E. Özcan and J. Atkin, "An Investigation of Tuning a Memetic Algorithm for Cross-domain Search", Proc. of the IEEE CEC 2016, to appear.

Yan Jin, Rong Qu, Jason Atkin, "Constrained Portfolio Optimisation: the state-of-the-art Markowitz Models", The 2016 International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems ( ICORES'16), 23-25 Feb 2016 (pdf file)

2015:

C. Stergianos, J. Atkin, P. Schittekat, T.E. Nordlander, C. Gerada, H. Morvan "The effects of pushback delays on airport ground movement", Journal of Applied Operational Research, 7:2, 68-79.

L. J.P. Araujo, E. Özcan, J. A.D. Atkin, M. Baumers, C. Tuck and R. Hague, "Toward Better Build Volume Packing in Additive Manufacturing: Classification Of Existing Problems and Benchmarks", Proceedings of the 2015 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium - An Additive Manufacturing Conference, to appear, 2015. pdf

Rodrigo Lankaites Pinheiro, Dario Landa-Silva, Jason Atkin, "A Variable Neighbourhood Search for the Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problem", Advances in Nature and Biologically Inspired Computing, Series Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 419, Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Nature and Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC 2015), pp. 247-259, Springer, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, December 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-27400-3_22

D. Karapetyan, J.A.D. Atkin, A.J. Parkes, J. Castro-Gutierrez, "Lessons from Building an Automated Pre-Departure Sequencer for Airports" Annals Of Operations Research, accessible from online first

R.L. Pinheiro, D. Landa-Silva, J. Atkin, "Analysis of Objectives Relationships in Multiobjective Problems Using Trade-Off Region Maps", Proceedings of the 2015 on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO '15, accessible from ACM Digital Library DOI: DOI: 10.1145/2739480.2754721

C. Stergianos, J. Atkin, P. Schittekat, T.E. Nordlander, C. Gerada, H. Morvan "Pushback delays on the routing and scheduling problem of aircraft", Lecture Notes in Management Science 7, 34-40, pdf from LNMS web site

G. De Maere, J.A.D. Atkin "Pruning rules for optimal runway sequencing with airline preferences", Lecture Notes in Management Science 7, 76-82, pdf from LNMS web site

2014:

C. Bayliss, G. De Maere, J. Atkin, M.Paelinck, "A Simulation Scenario Based Mixed Integer Programming Approach to Airline Reserve Crew Scheduling Under Uncertainty", 10th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2014), 2014 pdf from PATAT web site

D. Karapetyan, A.J. Parkes, J.A.D. Atkin, J. Castro-Gutierrez, "Lessons from Building an Automated Pre-Departure Sequencer for Airports" 10th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2014), 2014 pdf from PATAT web site

Y. Jin, R. Qu, J. Atkin, "A Population-based Incremental Learning Method for Constrained Portfolio Optimisation", 16th International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC 2014), 2014 submitted pdf

E. Kent, J. Atkin, R. Qu, "Vehicle Routing in a Forestry Commissioning Operation using Ant Colony Optimisation", Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science vol 8890, p95-106, proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Natural Computing (TPNC'14), Granada, Spain, December 9-11, 2014. 10.1007/978-3-319-13749-0_9 submitted pdf

S. Ravizza, J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, "A more realistic approach for airport ground movement optimisation with stand holding", Journal of Scheduling, Volume 17, Issue 5 (2014), Page 507-520, 2014. doi: 10.1007/s10951-013-0323-3 submitted pdf

M. Weiszer, J. Chen, S. Ravizza, J. Atkin, P. Stewart, "A heuristic approach to greener airport ground movement", Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), p3280-3286, July 6-11, 2014, Beijing, China. doi: 10.1109/CEC.2014.6900372 pdf via IEEExplore

S. Ravizza, J. Chen, J.A.D. Atkin, P. Stewart, E.K. Burke, "Aircraft taxi time prediction: comparisons and insights", Applied Soft Computing, Vol. 14, Part C, 397-406, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.asoc.2013.10.004

R. Bai, J. Li, J.A.D. Atkin, G. Kendall, "A novel approach to independent taxi scheduling based on stable matching", Journal of the Operational Research Society, Number 65, 1501-1510, 2014 doi: 10.1057/jors.2013.96. Available online first: 4th September 2013

A Asco, J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke: "An analysis of constructive algorithms for the airport baggage sorting station assignment problem", Journal of Scheduling, 2014. doi: 10.1007/s10951-013-0361-x. Submitted pdf. Available online first 18th December 2013.

2013:

J.A.D. Atkin, G. De Maere, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, "Addressing the Pushback Time Allocation Problem at Heathrow Airport", Transportation Science, Vol. 47, Issue 4, 584-602, 2013. (Published online first: Dec 13, 2012) doi: 10.1287/trsc.1120.0446

U. M. Neuman, J.A.D. Atkin, "Airport Gate Assignment Considering Ground Movement", in Computational Logistics, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8197, pp 184-198, 2013. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-41019-2_14 submitted pdf

C. Bayliss, G. De Maere, J.A.D. Atkin, M. Paelinck, "Scheduling Airline Reserve crew to Minimise Crew Related Delay Using Simulated Airline Recovery and a Probabilistic Optimisation Model", in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, p1944-1950, 2013. doi: 10.1109/SMC.2013.334.

S. Ravizza, J.Chen, J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, P. Stewart, "The trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption in airport ground movement", Public Transport, Public Transport, Volume 5, Number 1, 25-40, 2013. doi: 10.1007/s12469-013-0060-1
An earlier shorter conference paper version is in the proceedings of the Conference on Advanced Systems for Public Transport (CASPT 12), Santiago, Chile, 2012

S. Ravizza, J.A.D. Atkin, M.H. Maathuis, E.K. Burke, "A combined statistical approach and ground movement model for improving taxi time estimations at airports", Journal of the Operational Research Society, Volume 64, 1347-1360, 2013. doi: 10.1057/jors.2012.123. Available online first: 3rd October 2012

2012:

A. Ascó, J.A.D. Atkin, E. K. Burke, "An Evolutionary Algorithm for the Over-constrained Airport Baggage Sorting Station Assignment Problem", in Simulated Evolution and Learning, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7673, 32-41, 2012.
Previously presented at the 9th International Conference on Simulated Evolution And Learning (SEAL2012), 2012. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-34859-4. Submitted pdf

C. Bayliss, G. De Maere, J.A.D. Atkin, and M. Paelinck. "Probabilistic airline reserve crew scheduling", in Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems (ATMOS 2012), 2012. doi: 10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2012.132

R. Bai, G. Kendall, R. Qu, J.A.D. Atkin, "Tabu assisted guided local search approaches for freight service network Design.", Information Sciences, Volume 189, Number 15, 266-281, 2012. [doi, submitted pdf]

2011:

J. Chen, S. Ravizza, J.A.D. Atkin, P. Stewart, "On the Utilisation of Fuzzy Rule-Based Systems for Taxi Time Estimations at Airports", in proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization and Systems (ATMOS 2011), Saarbrücken, Germany, 2011. [doi, submitted pdf, proceedings]

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, S. Ravizza, "A Statistical Approach for Taxi Time Estimation at London Heathrow Airport", in proceedings of the 10th workshop on Models and Algorithms for Planning and Scheduling Problems (MAPSP 2011), Nymburk, Czech Republic, 2011. [submitted pdf, proceedings]

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, S. Ravizza, "A more realistic approach for airport ground movement optimisation with stand holding", in proceedings of the 5th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference (MISTA 2011), Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 2011. [submitted pdf]

A. Ascó, J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, "The Airport Baggage Sorting Station Allocation Problem", in proceedings of the 5th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference (MISTA 2011), Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 2011. Submitted pdf

R Bai, J. Li, J. Atkin, G. Kendall, "A Game Theoretic Approach for the Taxi Scheduling Problem with Street Hailing", in proceedings of the 5th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference (MISTA 2011), Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 2011. [submitted pdf]

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, "A comparison of two methods for reducing take-off delay at London Heathrow airport", Journal of Scheduling, Volume 14, Issue 5, 409-421, 2011.
Available from SpringerLink: here (doi 10.1007/s10951-011-0228-y)
An earlier version is available in electronic proceedings of the 4th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference, (MISTA2009), Dublin, Ireland, August 10-12, 2009. [Submitted pdf]

S. Ravizza and J.A.D. Atkin, "Exploration of the ordering for a sequential airport ground movement algorithm", Technical Report, The University Of Nottingham. Available here (http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1543/)

2010:

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, S. Ravizza, "The Airport Ground Movement Problem: Past and Current Research and Future Directions", in proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (ICRAT 2010), Budapest, Hungary, June, 2010. [submitted pdf]

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, "The TSAT Allocation System at London Heathrow: The Relationship Between Slot Compliance, Throughput and Equity", in Public Transport, Volume 2, Number 3, 173-198, 2010.
Available from SpringerLink: here (doi 10.1007/s12469-010-0029-2)
Earlier version appeared in electronic proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Systems for Public Transport, (CASPT09), Hong Kong, July 20-22, 2009. [Submitted pdf]

2009:

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, "An examination of take-off scheduling constraints at London Heathrow Airport", in Public Transport, Volume 1, Number 3, 169-187, 2009.
Available from SpringerLink: here
Uncorrected draft: pdf, 180kb
Earlier version appeared in electronic proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer-Aided Scheduling of Public Transport , (CASPT2006), Leeds, UK, June 21-23, 2006. [pdf, 173kb]

2008:

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, "On-line Decision Support for Take-off Runway Scheduling with Uncertain Taxi Times at London Heathrow Airport", in Journal of Scheduling, Volume 11, Number 5, pages 323-346, 2008.
Available from SpringerLink: here Uncorrected draft: pdf, 257kb

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, "A metaheuristic approach to aircraft departure scheduling at London Heathrow Airport", in Computer Aided Systems in Public Transport, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, volume 600, pages 235-252, (M.Hickman, P. Mirchandani, and S.Voss , Eds.) Springer 2008
Available from SpringerLink: here
Uncorrected draft: pdf, 162kb
Earlier version appeared in electronic proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer-Aided Scheduling of Public Transport, (CASPT2004), San Diego, California, 2004. (pdf, 143kb)

2007:

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, "Hybrid Metaheuristics to Aid Runway Scheduling at London Heathrow Airport", in Transportation Science, Volume 41, Number 1, pages 90-106, 2007. (pdf, 168kb)

2006:

J.A.D. Atkin, E.K. Burke, J.S. Greenwood, D. Reeson, "The effect of the planning horizon and freezing time on take-off sequencing", in proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (ICRAT 2006), Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, June 24-28, 2006. (pdf, 58kb)

J.A.D. Atkin, "Airport Airside Optimisation Problems", Book chapter in Automated Scheduling and Planning, From Theory to Practice, A Simer Etaner-Uyar, Ender Ozcan Neil Urquhard Eds., Springer 2013. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-39304-4