School of Computer Science

MRes Natural Computation - 2018

Final Award MRes
Programme TitleNatural Computation
School/DepartmentSchool of Computer Science
Banner Code9048
Length of Programme1 years
Total Credits180
UCAS CodeNone
Awarding InstitutionThe University of Birmingham
QAA Benchmarking GroupsComputing

Educational Aims Of Programme

  • Meet the increasing need from industry for graduates equipped with a knowledge of natural computation techniques.
  • Provide a solid foundation in natural computation for graduates to pursue a research and development career in industry or to pursue further studies (e.g. PhD).
  • Give up-to-date coverage of current topics in natural computation (such as evolutionary algorithms, co-evolution, evolutionary design, nature-inspired optimisation techniques, evolutionary games, novel learning algorithms, artificial neural networks, the theory of natural computation).

Programme Outcomes and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategies

Knowledge and Understanding

  • The ideas and concepts underlying a variety of natural computation techniques.
  • The strength and weakness of natural computation techniques and the similarities and differences between these techniques and other existing techniques.
  • Applications of these techniques to solve large and complex problems in industry.

Skills & Other Attributes

  • Given a real-world problem, identify whether natural computation techniques are likely to provide a good solution and then select appropriate techniques from those available.
  • Derive efficient solutions to appropriate non-trivial problems using natural computation techniques alone or in combination with other techniques and implement these solutions using both 'off the shelf' software and software they themselves write.
  • By the end of the programme, carry out original research and development (e.g. in industry or for a subsequent PhD) with limited supervision, both in the field of natural computation and in allied fields
  • Use appropriate methods for literature searching and information retrieval
  • Know and apply a variety of research methods, including experimental design and the analysis of data

Transferable Skills

Footnotes