Professor XIAO Renbin from the Department of Systems Science and Engineering of AIA holds seminars on Swarm Intelligence (SI) Optimization which are mainly open to junior and senior HUST students, most of whom are from AIA. The seminars derive from Professor Xiao’s course, "Fundamentals of Complexity Science", guided by QIAN Xuesen's meta-synthesis approach. By now, the seminars have inspired a great number of students and improved their creativity. On March 28th, the work by members of the seminars, "Research on improvement of problem-oriented wolf pack algorithm", was awarded the second prize in the HUST-held University Academic Competition.
Swarm intelligence (SI) is one of the main areas China intends to boost, according to the "new generation of artificial intelligence" development plan. SI aims to solve various complex problems in the real world through metasynthetic engineering. Swarm intelligence optimization algorithms are an important research focus in SI studies. Under the guidance of Professor XIAO Renbin, Dr. WU Husheng has proposed an original swarm intelligence optimization algorithm that entails a division of labor mechanism -- the wolf pack algorithm (WPA), which has shown effectiveness in the optimization of and solution to complex problems.
Professor XIAO Renbin took this opportunity to hold seminars on WPA regularly for one year. These seminars focused on problems of optimal scheduling of ship stowage planning and the path planning of UAV anti-terrorism operations. Seminar members improved the WPA to become an interactive perception algorithm and one that can be dynamic and adaptive. These achievements were not only important in terms of academic innovation, but also in problem-solving. The new WPA could effectively solve practical problems with good results. The academic papers based on these algorithms have been accepted by multiple university journals and will be published within the year.
The swarm intelligence optimization seminars are funded by the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence" project of the “National Science and Technology Innovation 2030” plan, and it has also received support from the National College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program.
These seminars are an application of QIAN Xuesen's idea of “hall for workshop on metasynthetic engineering -- HWMSE”. Students of multiple majors from different grades and schools have worked closely and amassed their intelligence to tackle key problems and yield collective results in the seminars. At the same time, the seminars have demonstrated a new model of college students’ innovative activities, which could be an inspiration for future practices.
