Esteem Indicators
In addition to the esteem mentioned elsewhere in my personal web pages, below are other indicators of my esteem.
Chairing Duties
- Hybrid Scheduling Chair of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Malaga, Spain, 14th-18th July (2025)
- Organiser (with Professor Ender Ozcan and Professor Vittorio Maniezzo) of the session, "From Theory to Practice: Predict and Optimize", under the "Data Science meets Optimization" stream at the European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2025), University of Leeds, UK, 22nd-25th June (2025)
- Hybrid Scheduling Chair (with Dr Nguyen Su and Dr Dhananjay Thiruvady) of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Melbourne, Australia, 14th-18th July (2024) [pic]
- Hybrid Scheduling Chair (with Dr Arnaud Liefooghe) of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Lisbon, Portugal, 15th-19th July (2023)
- Hybrid Scheduling Chair of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Boston, USA, 9th-13th July (2022) [This is a new role that has been introduced this year for the first time]
- Organiser (with Professor Adam Letchford, Dr Ivan Svetunkov, Dr Anna-Lena Sachs and Dr Rebecca Killick) of the "Prediction and Optimisation (POP)" workshop, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 16th-17th June (2022). This workshop was organised with the aim of enriching the vibrancy of the STOR-i research environment. We had the privilege of hosting three keynote speakers and facilitating a total of 16 talks over the course of two days [pic]
- Organiser of the "Logistics and Transportation" stream at OR63 (OR Society Annual Conference), University of Southampton, UK (Virtual Event), 14th-16th September (2021)
- Scheduler of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Lille, France (Electronic-only Conference), 10th-14th July (2021)
- Organiser of the "Logistics and Transportation" stream at OR62 (OR Society Annual Conference), University of Warwick, UK (Virtual Event), 15th-17th September (2020) [v] [resources]
- Scheduler of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Cancun, Mexico (Electronic-only Conference), 8th-12th July (2020)
- Organiser (with Dr Trivikram Dokka, Dr Rebecca Killick, Professor Adam Letchford and Dr Ivan Svetunkov) of the "Prediction and Optimisation" workshop, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 2nd-3rd April (2020) [cancelled due to the coronavirus]
- Organiser of the "Metaheuristics" stream at the "New to OR 2019" OR Society Biennial Conference, Aston University Business School, Birmingham, UK, 10th-11th April (2019)
- Organiser, Scheduler and Keynote Editor of the "New to OR 2019" OR Society Biennial Conference, Aston University Business School, Birmingham, UK, 10th-11th April (2019)
- Organiser (with Dr Jonathan Thompson) of the "Timetabling and Scheduling" stream at OR60 (OR Society Annual Conference), Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 11th-13th September (2018)
- Keynote Editor of the OR Society Annual Conference (OR60), Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 11th-13th September (2018)
- Organiser of the "Optimisation and Heuristics" special session, held in conjunction with the 18th Annual UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, 5th-7th September (2018)
- Chair of the "Artificial Intelligence" track at ICCCEEE18 (International Conference on Computer, Control, Electrical and Electronics Engineering), Khartoum, Sudan, 12th-14th August (2018)
- Organiser (with Dr Rhyd Lewis and Dr Ender Ozcan) of the "Natural Computing in Scheduling and Timetabling" workshop, held in conjunction with the 14th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), Edinburgh, Scotland, 18th September (2016)
- Program Organiser (with Dr Antony Galton, Professor Ian Nabney and Professor Yaochu Jin) of the 15th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 7th-9th September (2015)
Invited Talks
- Unveiling the winning algorithm: A sequence-based selection hyper-heuristic approach to the ROADEF/EURO inventory routing challenge (May 2024), IEEE Taskforce on Evolutionary Scheduling and Combinatorial Optimisation Webinar [link] [pdf]
- RESPOND-OR project (September 2023), Lancaster University, UK. This talk was delivered during a networking event for Lancaster University academics and professional staff who have research connections in Indonesia. Honoured to have the Indonesian Education and Cultural Attaché to the UK in attendance
- Laboratory accreditations for the future economies sector - Big data and AI (August 2023), KACST, SA [letter]
- Learning heuristic selection using a hidden Markov model for inventory routing problem (February 2023), Tesco, UK
- A selection hyper-heuristic for inventory routing problem (November 2022), Webinar Wednesday Series, UK. This event is organised by the OR Society, and attended by a mixture of academics, public sector and private sector practitioners [link] [pdf] [v]
- Data science (September 2021), IEEE UofK - Student Branch, Sudan
- Constructing optimal master surgery schedules (June 2021), LUMS online workshop as part of the 15 years anniversary celebrations of our strong and successful long-term partnership with SUBS Sunway University. The goal of the workshop was to showcase staff research at LUMS and SUBS, provide a platform to share ongoing research, identify new ideas for future joint projects and encourage and strengthen research collaborations [pdf]
- Engagement showcase (December 2020), Lancaster University, England. In this session, I outlined and discussed some of my recent engagement projects, encompassing consultancy and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. I focused on the engagement process and my experience of working in this mode, rather than on the technical research substance of the projects
- Multi-stage nurse rostering problem (April 2019), New to OR conference at Aston University in Birmingham, England
- Scheduling surgical procedures (March 2019), Data Science Institute, Lancaster University, England. This talk was attended by folk from across campus including members of the Health Innovation Campus business engagement team and it was well received and prompted lots of conversation
- Artificial intelligence methods in hard computational problems (January 2018), IEEE SUSTech, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Sudan
- Software development (December 2017), National Software Centre, Sudan. The event was attended by Sudan Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and I was invited as a Panellist to discuss some of the challenges in software development [pic1] [pic2]
- Learning heuristic selection using a data science technique for inventory routing problem (November 2017), ORTEC, The Netherlands
- A matheuristic approach for scheduling surgical procedures (April 2017), IMA and OR Society Conference on Mathematics of Operational Research at Aston University in Birmingham, England
- Combinatorial optimisation methods for operational research problems (November 2016), Sudanese Researchers Foundation Webinar [v]
- A sequence-based selection hyper-heuristic utilising a hidden Markov model (October 2015), 43rd CREST Open Workshop on Hyper-heuristics for Software Engineering at UCL in London, England. This workshop was by invitation only [pic] [v]
- Combining Monte-Carlo and hyper-heuristic methods for the multi-mode resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem (October 2014), University of Exeter, England
- Multi-stage hyper-heuristics (February 2014), University of Stirling, Scotland
- An easy-to-implement hyper-heuristic for high school timetabling (November 2012), University of Nottingham, England
- A dominance based hyper-heuristic (November 2011), University of Nottingham, England
Programme Committee Memberships
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Malaga, Spain, 14th-18th July (2025)
- The 19th Learning and Intelligent Optimization Conference (LION), Prague, Czech Republic, 15th-19th June (2025)
- 25th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Trieste, Italy, 23rd-25th April (2025)
- 2025 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), Trondheim, Norway, 17th-20th March (2025)
- The 2024 International Conference on Decision Aid Sciences and Applications (DASA), Applied Science University in Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain, 11th-12th December (2024)
- 18th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), Hagenberg, Austria, 14th-18th September (2024)
- 23rd Annual UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), Ulster University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2nd-4th September (2024)
- 14th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT), Copenhagen, Denmark, 27th-30th August (2024)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Melbourne, Australia, 14th-18th July (2024)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Yokohama, Japan, 30th June - 5th July (2024)
- 24th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom, 3rd-5th April (2024)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Lisbon, Portugal, 15th-19th July (2023)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Chicago, USA, 1st-5th July (2023)
- 23rd European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Brno, Czech Republic, 12th-14th April (2023)
- 14th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications (ECTA), Valletta, Malta, 24th-26th October (2022)
- 17th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), Dortmund, Germany, 10th-14th September (2022)
- 21st UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, 7th-9th September (2022)
- 13th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT), Leuven, Belgium, 30th August - 2nd September (2022)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Padua, Italy, 18th-23rd July (2022)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Boston, USA, 9th-13th July (2022)
- 22nd European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Seville, Spain, 20th-22nd April (2022)
- 11th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Vienna, Austria, 3rd-5th February (2022)
- 13th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications (ECTA), Valletta, Malta, 25th-27th October (2021)
- 20th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Wales, 8th-10th September (2021)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Lille, France, 10th-14th July (2021)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Krakow, Poland, 28th June - 1st July (2021)
- 21st European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Seville, Spain, 7th-9th April (2021)
- 10th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Online Streaming, 4th-6th February (2021)
- 12th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications (ECTA), Budapest, Hungary, 2nd-4th November (2020)
- 16th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), Leiden, The Netherlands, 5th-9th September (2020)
- 13th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT), Bruges, Belgium, 25th-28th August (2020)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Glasgow, Scotland, 19th-24th July (2020)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Cancun, Mexico, 8th-12th July (2020)
- 20th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Seville, Spain, 15th-17th April (2020)
- 9th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Valletta, Malta, 22nd-24th February (2020)
- 11th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications (ECTA), Vienna, Austria, 17th-19th September (2019)
- 19th Annual UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK, 4th-6th September (2019)
- The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Prague, Czech Republic, 13th-17th July (2019)
- IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BigData Congress), Milan, Italy, 8th-13th July (2019)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Wellington, New Zealand, 10th-13th June (2019)
- 19th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Leipzig, Germany, 24th-26th April (2019)
- 8th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Prague, Czech Republic, 19th-21st February (2019)
- 10th International Joint Conference on Computational Intelligence (IJCCI), Seville, Spain, 18th-20th September (2018)
- 18th Annual UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, 5th-7th September (2018)
- 12th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT), Vienna, Austria, 28th-31st August (2018)
- International Conference on Computer, Control, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICCCEEE), Khartoum, Sudan, 12th-14th August (2018)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 8th-13th July (2018)
- IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BigData Congress), San Francisco, USA, 2nd-7th July (2018)
- 18th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Parma, Italy, 4th-6th April (2018)
- 7th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 24th-26th January (2018)
- 9th International Joint Conference on Computational Intelligence (IJCCI), Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 1st-3rd November (2017)
- IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Donostia - San Sebastian, Spain, 5th-8th June (2017)
- 17th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCOP), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 19th-21st April (2017)
- 6th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Porto, Portugal, 23rd-25th February (2017)
- 15th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 7th-9th September (2015)
Journal Article Reviewing
- ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization (ACM)
- Annals of Operations Research (Springer)
- Applied Mathematical Modelling (Elsevier)
- Applied Sciences (MDPI)
- Computers & Industrial Engineering (Elsevier)
- Computers & Operations Research (Elsevier)
- European Journal of Operational Research (Elsevier)
- Evolutionary Computation (MIT Press)
- Future Generation Computer Systems (Elsevier)
- IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine (IEEE)
- IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence (IEEE)
- Information (MDPI)
- Journal of Computational Science (Elsevier)
- Journal of Energy Storage (Elsevier)
- Journal of Heuristics (Springer)
- Journal of Scheduling (Springer)
- Operations Research Forum (Springer)
- Optimization (Taylor & Francis)
- Optimization and Engineering (Springer)
- PeerJ Computer Science (PeerJ)
- SN Computer Science (Springer)
- Socio-Economic Planning Sciences (Elsevier)
- TOP (Springer)
- University of Khartoum Engineering Journal (UofKEJ)
Edited Books
- Keynote Editor of the OR Society Annual Conference (OR60), Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 11th-13th September 2018
(Ahmed Kheiri, editor, OR60: The OR Society Annual Conference. ISBN: 978-0-903440-64-6. OR Society)
Editorial Roles
External Examiner
- External Assessor for the promotion of academic staff for University of Plymouth, UK (2021)
Public Communication
- I have been invited to give my views on what the requirements, functions and features of the Travel Time Reporting Tool should be. The tool has been developed by the Chief Analyst Division at National Highways who are looking to make more granular historic journey time information publicly available (May, 2022)
- I have provided expert support to the Open Innovation Team of the Cabinet Office on the use of geospatial data in the transportation sector. The Open Innovation Team are working on behalf of the Geospatial Commission, who are interested in consulting external experts on a range of themes related to the collection, dissemination and use of geospatial data. This work will build on the recent publication of the National Geospatial Strategy, which commits the Commission to publishing new guidelines for the ethical use of location data and technology. The report they produced as a result of the interviews was sent on to the client team at the Geospatial Commission, and is now informing the work they are doing in this area [letter] (August, 2020)
- The policy paper can be found here
- My research on inventory routing problem was featured on Impact Magazine from the Operational Research Society [pic] (Published on Nov 25, 2016)
International Research Reviewing
- I was invited by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID) of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile to serve as a reviewer for a research proposal, and I have completed the review (2023) [certificate]
- I was invited by the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) to act as a reviewer for a research proposal, and I have already completed the review for the proposal (2023) [certificate]
- Reviewed several research proposals under the "Research Incentive Fund" at Zayed University (2023)
Other Esteem Indicators
- As part of a Welsh Government networking grant led by Christine Zarges at Aberystwyth University, I was invited to participate in a one-day networking meeting in Cardiff. The networking project was inspired by the recently established COST Action CA22137. Our discussions focused on establishing a similar UK-wide network to bridge the gap between academia, industry, and policymakers. This initiative aims to advance and apply randomised optimisation heuristics across various domains (2024) [pic]
- Invited to participate in a research retreat organised by the newly formed Geospatial Data Science Group at the Data Science Institute (DSI). The retreat brought together academics engaged in the creation, visualisation, or analysis of spatial data. The event aimed to identify strengths, synergies, and new opportunities for research through exciting new interdisciplinary collaborations (2024)
Administration Duties & Memberships at Lancaster University
During my time at Lancaster University, I undertook several administrative duties.
- (2022/2023 - 2023/2024) Dissertation Modules Convenor (MSc BA and LSCM) (~120 students): Projects allocations, masterclasses and related co-ordination
- (2022 - 2024) Co-Leader of the Fundamentals Theme of the Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous systems (LIRA) Research Centre
- (2020 - 2024) Member of the Department's "Engagement" Strategic Team and "Optimisation" Academic Discipline Team. In 2022 (Nov), I have given a good practice presentation on KTP at one of the engagement strategic team meetings. In 2023 (Nov), I contributed to a repository of good practice cases, showcasing successful departmental engagement. My work was featured as a case study, focusing on the impactful Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project with Optrak.
- (2021 - 2024) Mentor: I acted as a mentor for colleagues at the department to encourage them to challenge their assumptions, broaden their horizons, raise their aspirations and increase their achievements through individualised support. I have provided a sounding board offering guidance through periods of instability and career growth, helping them to manage change and ultimately empowering them to improve their self-confidence and self-awareness. Additionally, I routinely provide advice and guidance to colleagues and PhD students on how they can develop software tools to assist them in developing high quality research projects
- Member of the Security Lancaster
- Member of the Centre for Health Futures
- Member of the Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre (LIRA)
- Member of the Data Science Institute (DSI), foundations and health themes
- Member of the Optimisation and Health Systems Research Groups
- Member of the Centre for Transport and Logistics (CENTRAL)
- Member of STOR-i, an EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Statistics and Operational Research with substantial industrial engagement
- I regularly meet delegates from several companies, with the aim of creating links with our Department. In 2021, I have invited a member of ORTEC for the STORi Problem Solving Day to present their challenge to our cohort of MRes and PhD students
- (2022 - 2023) Editing the LIRA webpages. I have been given access to the CMS to edit and add content on the LIRA pages. I have undergone the required training, and passed the course which enabled me to (i) gain credit that I can use towards the Lancaster award, (ii) complete the Creation and Innovation category of the Digital Skills Certificate, and (iii) be able to request access to edit Lancaster University web pages using the CMS [badge]
- (2021 - 2023) I have re-designed the LIRA website. Several updates have been made to the member's page. Pages to advertise events and positions have been created. Several images have been updated and the themes pages have been unified as some were more detailed than others. A form has been designed and is now available on the website where people can apply for membership. People, Projects and publications are automatically pulled through from PURE. Selected projects page has been created to show the most important projects. Annual reports and newsletters pages have been created. Mailing lists have also been updated to include new members (over ~70 members)
- (2020/2021 - 2021/2022) Project Lead, Masters Programmes in Management Science (BA and LSCM, ~120 students): Overseeing project generation, in liaison with professional staff; and project allocation to students / supervisors
- (2021 - 2022) LIRA Seminar Series Organiser: The role involved: working with the LIRA Director and the Steering Committee to identify and invite notable speakers related to the LIRA themes; organising and setting the dates for the events; and sending out communications about the events. I have invited, organised and chaired 19 seminars, including speakers from NASA, DLR, ESA and from top universities in UK, Germany, Spain, USA, Italy, Sweden and Malaysia, covering a wide range of topics from AI and Data Science in Earth Observation to ML in healthcare.
- (2021) Organiser of a joint research workshop aimed to identify common research themes and build research capacity with Symbiosis (one of our strategic existing partners)
- (2020) ATP Teaching Mentor: I acted as a teaching mentor for colleagues undertaking the Associate Teacher Programme (ATP). I was helping to contextualise the learning they undertake and acting as a critical friend to help them develop their own practice. I also undertook observation of their teaching practice to authenticate that it meets the requirements of HEA Associate Fellowship
- (2020) I coordinated multiple GTAs to support the delivery and assessment of large quantitative modules (~450 students).
- (2020) Teaching coding skills: I made a proposal to develop staff training opportunities, to help raise coverage of more coding skills across the Department. This was accepted, being charged with exploring ways to develop the training programmes
- (2019) Member of the MSCI UG Review Group - to refresh BSc Business Analytics and revisit the Department's offering to LUMS. The course was revalidated to put stronger emphasis on technical skills (e.g., Python). I was central to the development of new modules (e.g., "Introduction to Business Intelligence and Analytics" module) and I have developed a detailed proposal for "Tools and Techniques for Business Analytics" module
- (2019) As a member of DSI, I have supported the making of a video to demonstrate the breadth of work in the Data Science space
Administration Duties & Memberships at the University of Manchester
Since being appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the Management Sciences Group within the Management Sciences and Marketing (MSM) Division at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), part of the Faculty of Humanities at The University of Manchester, I have undertaken a number of administration duties for the department.
Professional Duties
Membership of Professional Bodies
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of the IEEE
- Member of the ACM
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