PhD Studentship in Design of an optimisation algorithm using courtship concepts to overcome challenges in logistics applications.

Business operations managers regularly face various logistical combinatorial problems, including fleet management, human resources planning and facility location selection. In the literature, these problems are known to be NP-hard, which means that there is no exact algorithm to solve them in polynomial time. Meta-heuristics have emerged as popular solving strategies as they do not investigate the entire space of possible solutions but navigate in a tactical manner through particular subsets in order to find a near-optimal solution. While not guaranteeing optimality, they provide good solutions within short computational times. The majority of meta-heuristic strategies have been inspired by natural science areas such as Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ for Genetic Algorithms or bird flocking behaviour for Particle Swarm optimisation.

The project aims to develop a new analogy which is based on courtship strategies in nature. The goal is to translate behavioural strategies, which are following different objectives, into an algorithm that can generate potential good solutions in a complex logistics problem environment. The new design should strongly focus on the applicability in practice, for example, by reducing algorithm-specific parameters in order to facilitate the algorithmic calibration which is proven to be a challenge for any practitioner using meta-heuristics.
The concept is planned to be validated in a range of logistics applications.

Enquiries relating to the topic should be directed to: Dr. Jana Ries ([Email Address Removed]) or Dr. Alessio Ishizaka ([Email Address Removed]). This full-time studentship is open to Home/EU students and is located in Portsmouth Business School. Potential applicants are advised to examine our Research Degree Pages at http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/faculties/portsmouthbusinessschool/researchdegrees/ prior to applying.

Applicants will have a good first degree (minimum 2.1 or equivalent) and ideally a Masters (or equivalent) in a relevant subject area.

Applications should include:
• a full CV including personal details, qualifications, educational history and, where applicable, any employment or other experience relevant to the application
• contact details for TWO referees able to comment on your academic performance
• a statement of 1,000 (words) outlining your proposed project, identifying the objectives of the research and discussing how the work will build on or challenge existing research in the above field.

Application Deadline: Friday 30 March 2012, Start date 1 October 2012.


Applications should be sent to: Melanie Lang, Postgraduate Centre, University of Portsmouth, Richmond Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth, PO1 3DE (applications can be submitted electronically via: [Email Address Removed])

All applications will be acknowledged within 24hrs.