Brian J. Ross
Professor and Chair
Dept of Computer Science
Brock University
1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way
St Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1

Office: J319
Office hours: --
bross@brocku.ca
www.cosc.brocku.ca/~bross/

Education

Publications
Bio-Inspired Computational Intelligence Group. (BICIG)

I am not accepting new graduate students.
There are no internship, visiting researcher, or post-doctoral opportunities.

Research interests

Computational intelligence: genetic programming, evolutionary computation, multi-objective optimization, feature reduction
Evolutionary design: computational aesthetics, 2D image generation, 3D modelling, architecture, energy efficiency
Applications in computational biology, stochastic process algebra

Research description

My research areas are computational intelligence, evolutionary computation, and genetic programming. My students and I are active in evolutionary design research, and the new fields of computational aesthetics and creativity. One research project explored the evolution of image filters, which attempt to duplicate a target colour palette. We incorporated Dr Bill Ralph's mathematical model of aesthetics, with the goal of evolving visually pleasing images. We extended this research to incorporate ideas from work in non-photorealistic rendering. We also explored evolutionary design and 3D modeling, where topics include architecture, floor plan design, illumination of interior spaces, generalized 3D model generation using aesthetic evaluation, and energy efficiency. Other research has investigated the use of EC for communicating agents in game domains, procedural textures for 3D surfaces, shape characterization using deep learning, 2D power spectra, and vector graphics.

I am also interested in the automatic synthesis of bio-networks encoded in stochastic process algebra, as well as higher-level bio-network modeling languages such as logical gene gates and PIM. The goal is to automatically synthesize bio-networks that could generate given time-course data, for example, changing protein levels over time. This research needs to consider the evaluation of often noisy time-course data, which is best characterized by statistical analyses. The research also makes use of high-dimensional multi-objective strategies, as well as grammatical modeling of target languages for genetic programming.

To support my research, I developed a Prolog-based genetic programming system called DCTG-GP (Definite Clause Translation Grammar for Genetic Programming). DCTG-GP lets the user define their target language using a logical CFG. This environment permits the languages grammar, semantics and constraints to be unified together.

Please see the BICIG web page for more information.

Research Gallery

Biomodeling and Genetic Programming (Janine Imada)	Using Evolution and Deep Learning to Generate Diverse Intelligent Agents (Marshall Joseph)	Diversifying Emergent Behaviours with Age-Layered MAP-Elites (Andrew Pozzuoli)
Distributed MAP-Elites and its Application in Evolutionary Design (Derek Hon)	Strategies for Evolving Diverse and Effective Behaviours in Pursuit Domains (Tyler Cowan)	Managing Diversity and Many Objectives in Evolutionary Design (Sheikh Faishal Basher)
Mixed Media in Evolutionary Art (Jordan Maslen)	Evolving Passive Solar Buildings Using Multi-Behavioural Diversity Search Strategies (Umme Salma)	Neural Network Guided Evolution of L-system Plants (Xuhao (Eric) Chen)
Objective Reduction in Many-Objective Optimization Problems (Arpi Sen Gupta)	Deep Learning and Evolutionary Art (Fazle Tanjil)	Image Evolution Using 2D Power Spectra (Michael Gircys)
Non-Photorealistic Rendering with Cartesian Genetic Programming using GPUs (Illya Bakurov)	Evolved Communication Strategies and Emergent Behaviour of Multi-Agents in Pursuit Domains (Gina Grossi)	Statistical Image Analysis for Image Evolution (Elham Salimi)
Feature Selection Using Age-Layered Genetic Programming (Anthony Awuley)	Interior Illumination Design Using Genetic Programming (Kelly Moylan)	Online Texture Classification Using GPU-based Genetic Programming (Mehran Maghoumi)
Passive Solar Building Design Using Genetic Programming (Mahdi Oraei)	Genetic Programming for Non-Photorealistic Rendering (Maryam Baniasadi)	Particle Swarms and Aesthetic Virtual Photography (William Barry)
Enabling and Measuring Complexity in Evolved Architecture (Adrian Harrington)	Aesthetic 3D Model Evolution (Steve Bergen)	Evolution of Floor Plans (Robert Flack)
Evolving Conceptual Building Architectures (Corrado Coia)	JNetic Textures (Steven Bergen)	Evolving 2D vectorized images (Steven Bergen)
Evolving 2D image filters (Craig Neufeld, Bill Ralph)	Evolving 2D textures using a model of aesthetics (Bill Ralph, Hai Zong)	Evolving 3D procedural textures (Adam Hewgill)
	DCTG-GP: Logic grammars and GP (Brian Ross)