Phil Husbands (born 27 June, 1961) is a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

at the English

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, situated next to the

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

village of

Falmer Falmer is a small village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England, lying between Brighton and Lewes, approximately five miles (8 km) north-east of the former. It is also the site of Brighton & Hove Albion's Falmer ...

, within the city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

. He is head of the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems group and co-director of the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR). Husbands is also one of the founders of the field of

evolutionary robotics Evolutionary robotics is an embodied approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in which robots are automatically designed using Darwinian principles of natural selection. The design of a robot, or a subsystem of a robot such as a neural controller, ...

. His research interests are in long-term investigations of artificial evolution of

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

s for

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

s, with emphasis on: * visually guided robots acting in the real world * theoretical and practical development of advanced

evolutionary algorithm In computational intelligence (CI), an evolutionary algorithm (EA) is a subset of evolutionary computation, a generic population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm. An EA uses mechanisms inspired by biological evolution, such as reproduct ...

s for hard engineering and design optimisation problems * development of biologically inspired artificial neural networks incorporating diffusible modulators * computational

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

* computer manipulation of sound and image * history and philosophy of AI *

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

. Husbands has edited several books, including coediting ''The Mechanical Mind in History'' (

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

; 2008; ) as well as author of numerous scientific articles. With neuroscientist Michael O'Shea he introduced the idea of GasNets artificial neural networks that use diffusing virtual gases as modulators. These are inspired by

nitric oxide Nitric oxide (nitrogen oxide or nitrogen monoxide) is a colorless gas with the formula . It is one of the principal oxides of nitrogen. Nitric oxide is a free radical: it has an unpaired electron, which is sometimes denoted by a dot in its che ...

(NO) volume signalling in real brains. The Sussex team has also done pioneering work on detailed computational modelling of nitric oxide diffusion in the nervous system.

External links

*
Phil Husbands

Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR)

* ttps://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16021544.800-gas-on-the-brain.html New Scientist article on Husbands' and O'Shea's introduction of the idea of GasNets
Books by Phil Husbands in Google Book Search
Place of birth missing (living people) 1961 births 20th-century scholars 21st-century scholars Academics of the University of Sussex Artificial intelligence researchers English computer scientists English book editors Living people Researchers of artificial life {{England-scientist-stub

See also

External links