Dr. Shahriar Asta's Home Page

Links to my ResearchGate and Google Scholar profiles.

I am a computer scientist with special interest in data science and machine learning. I received my BSc in computer engineering from the Computer Engineering Department of University of Isfahan (Isfahan, Iran). Following graduation, I spent few years in industry where I was employed in different roles (developer, automation expert and data base administrator). Subsequently, I joined the masters program in Computer Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) from which I graduated in 2012. There, my main research topic was robotics, signal processing and machine learning. After graduation I joined the PhD program in the Automated Scheduling, Optimisation & Planning (ASAP) research group (School of Computer Science, The University of Nottingham). My PhD Thesis  successfully passed the final examination on September of 2015 and I received my degree on December 2015.

My main research interests are :

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Robotics & Neuro-Robotics 
• Data Science (click here for a visualization of what data science means for me)
• Statistics
• Deep Learning
• Large Scale Data (Big Data)
• Combinatorial Optimization

• Graphical models in machine learning (click here for a sankey diagram of a Bayesian network)
• Image Processing and Computer Vision
• Aerospace
• Finance and Financial Engineering
• Digital Banking
• Stock Markets

Publications

• 2016
• Shahriar Asta, Daniel Karapetyan, Ahmed Kheiri, Ender Ozcan, and Andrew J. Parkes, Combining Monte-Carlo and Hyper-heuristic methods for the Multi-mode Resource-constrained Multi-project Scheduling Problem, Information Sciences.
• Ender Ozcan, John H. Drake, Cevriye Altintas, and Shahriar Asta, A Self-adaptive Multimeme Memetic Algorithm Co-evolving Utility Scores to Control Genetic Operators and Their Parameter Settings, Applied Soft Computing (pdf).
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan, A.J. Parkes, CHAMP: Creating Heuristics viA Many Parameters for Online Bin Packing, Expert Systems with Applications, doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2016.07.005 (pdf).
• Shahriar Asta, Ender Ozcan and Tim Curtois, A Tensor-Based Hyper-Heuristic for Nurse Rostering, Knowledge-Based Systems, doi:10.1016/j.knosys.2016.01.031 (pdf).
• 2015
• S. Asta and E. Ozcan, A Tensor-based Selection Hyper-heuristic for Cross-domain Heuristic Search, Information Sciences, Vol: 299c, pp: 412--432, DOI: 10.1016/j.ins.2014.12.020. (pdf).
• R. Tyasnurita, E. Ozcan, S. Asta and R. John Improving Performance of a Hyper-heuristic Using a Multilayer Perceptron for Vehicle Routing, Proceedings of the 15th Annual Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI), 7-9 Sep, Exeter, UK. (pdf).
• S. Asta and E. Ozcan, A Tensor Analysis Improved Genetic Algorithm for Online Bin Packing, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO '15), Madrid, Spain; July 2015. (pdf).
• P. Ryser-Welch and J. F. Miller and S. Asta, Generating human-readable algorithms for the Travelling Salesman Problem using Hyper-Heuristics, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation - Companion (GECCO '15), Madrid, Spain; July 2015. pp.1067-1074. (pdf)
• 2014
• S. Asta and E. Ozcan, An Apprenticeship Learning Hyper-Heuristic for Vehicle Routing in HyFlex, IEEE Symposium Series on Evolving and Autonomous Learning Systems (IEEE SSCI - EALS 2014), Orlando, Florida, USA. pp.65--72 (pdf).
• A. Yarimcam, S. Asta, E. Ozcan and A. J. Parkes, Heuristic Generation via Parameter Tuning for Online Bin Packing, IEEE Symposium Series on Evolving and Autonomous Learning Systems (IEEE SSCI - EALS 2014), Orlando, Florida, USA. pp.102--108 (pdf).
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan, and P. O. Siebers, An Investigation on Test Driven Discrete Event Simulation, Proceedings of the 7th Operational Research Society Simulation Workshop (2014). (pdf).
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan, A Tensor-based Approach to Nurse Rostering, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, E. Ozcan, E. K. Burke, B. McCollum (Eds.), ISBN: 978-0-9929984-0-0, 2014, pp. 442--445. (pdf).
• C. Altintas, S. Asta, E. Ozcan, T. Yigit, A self-generating memetic algorithm for examination timetabling, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, E. Ozcan, E. K. Burke, B. McCollum (Eds.), ISBN: 978-0-9929984-0-0, 2014. pp. 434--437. (pdf).
• T. Ercal, E. Ozcan, S. Asta, Soft Morphological Filter Optimization Using a Genetic Algorithm for Noise Elimination, UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, the 14th annual series, 2014, Bradford, England. (pdf).
• 2013
• Shahriar Asta, Ender Ozcan, Andrew J. Parkes, Batched Mode Hyper-heuristics, the 7th Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference (LION13), Catania, Italy, 2013 (pdf).
• Shahriar Asta, Ender Ozcan, Andrew J. Parkes, A. Sima Etaner-Uyar, Generalizing Hyper-heuristics via Apprenticeship Learning.EvoCOP 2013: 169-178 (pdf).
• Shahriar Asta, Ender Ozcan, Andrew J. Parkes, Dimension reduction in the search for online bin packing policies. GECCO (Companion) 2013: 65-66 (pdf).
• E. Bozkurt, S. Asta, S. Ozkul, Y. Yemez, Engin Erzin, Multimodal Analysis of Speech Prosody and Upper Body Gestures using Hidden Semi-Markov Models. In proceeding of: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, At Vancouver (pdf).
• Ender Ozcan, Shahriar Asta, Cevriye Altintas, Memetic Algorithms for Cross-domain Heuristic Search. The 13th Annual Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI) July 1, 2013 (pdf).
• Shahriar Asta, A Survey on Recent Off-Shore Wind Farm Layout Optimization Methods. Technical Report, DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4524.4486, University of Nottingham, Aug 2013 (pdf).
• Asta S, Karapetyan D, Kheiri A, Ozcan E, Parkes AJ. Combining monte-carlo and hyper-heuristic methods for the multi-mode resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem, Proceedings of the 6th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference: Theory & Applications (MISTA2013), pages 836-839.
• 2012
• S. Asta, M.S. Beratoglu and A. Capar, A boundary based feature extraction method for G-banded chromosome classification, Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference (SIU), 2012 20th , vol., no., pp.1,4, 18-20 April 2012 doi: 10.1109/SIU.2012.6204562. ( pdf).
• Serkan Ozkul, Elif Bozkurt, Shahriar Asta, Yucel Yemez, Engin Erzin, Multimodal Analysis of Upper-Body Gestures, Facial Expressions and Speech. In proceedings of 4th International Workshop on Corpora for Research on Emotion Sentiment and Social Signals of LREC. Istanbul, Turkey May 26, 2012 (pdf).
• 2011
• Shahriar Asta and Sanem Sariel-Talay. 2011, Nature-inspired optimization for biped robot locomotion and gait planning. In Proceedings of the 2011 international conference on Applications of evolutionary computation - Volume Part II (EvoApplications'11), Cecilia Di Chio, Anthony Brabazon, Gianni A. Di Caro, Rolf Drechsler, and Muddassar Farooq (Eds.), Vol. Part II. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 434-443 ( pdf).
• Shahriar Asta and Sanem Sariel-Talay. 2011, A Differential Steering System for Humanoid Robots,Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Mobile Robots ECMR 2011. Örebro, Sweden. September 7,2011 ( pdf).
• Shahriar Asta and A. Sima Etaner-Uyar, A Novel Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm. EA'11: 10th International Conference on Artificial Evolution. Angers, France October 24, 2011 ( pdf).

Invited Talks, Streams and Tutorials

• S.Asta, E. Ozcan, Data Science and Heuristic Optimisation, special session organiser (with Ender Ozcan) at UKCI 2015
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan, A.J. Parkes. Cretaing Heuristics viA Many Parameters : CHAMP. (IFORS 2014, 13-18 July 2014, Barcelona, Spain)
• D. Karapetyan, S. Asta, A. Kheiri, E. Ozcan, and A.J. Parkes. Competition winning hybrid heuristic for an extension of the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem. (IFORS 2014, 13-18 July 2014, Barcelona, Spain)
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan. Tensor Analysis of Interactions between Hyper-Heuristic Components. (OR56 Conference, 9 - 11 September 2014 at Royal Holloway, University of London)
• S. Asta, E. Ozcan. Cross-domain Heuristic Search Using a Tensor-based Hyper-heuristic. (Seminar KU-Leuven, May 2014)
• S. Asta, NATCOR practical session on hyper-heuristics (2014).

Teaching

• Certificates
• A Practical Look at Core Teaching Skills.
• Teaching Induction for Postgraduate Research Students and Research Staff.
• Lecturing for Learning.
• Experience
• Tutor in G51MFC Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (100 hours - Fall 2014)
• Tutor in G51MCS Mathematics for Computer Scientists (~ 10 hours - 2013)
• Tutor in EPSRC - NATCOR practical session on hyper-heuristics (1 day session - 2014)
• Lab Demonstrator in G51IMO Introduction to Modelling and Optimisation (~20 hours - Spring 2015)
• Lab Demonstrator in G52GUI Graphical User Interfaces (~20 hours - Spring 2015)
• Lab Demonstrator in G54PRG G52CPP C++ Programming (~20 hours - Spring 2015)
• Lab Demonstrator in G54PRG Programming - Python (~ 25 hours - Fall 2014)
• Lab Demonstrator in G54PRG Programming - Python (~ 35 hours - 2013)
• Lab Demonstrator in G51FSE Foundations of Software Engineering (~ 30 hours - 2013)