Biography

I am Associate Professor in Computational Intelligence in the School of Computing at the University of Portsmouth. I am also Visiting Professor in Control Theory in the English Faculty of Engineering at the Technical University of Sofia. I have been Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Technology at the University of Portsmouth. I have a PhD in Cybernetics and a DSc in Artificial Intelligence – both from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. I have been a recipient of a national award for best young researcher from the Bulgarian Union of Scientists. I have been Humboldt Guest Researcher at the Universities of Duisburg and Wuppertal in Germany. I have also been EU Visiting Researcher at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

My research interests are in the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods as well as their application for modelling and simulation of complex systems and networks. I have guest edited several special issues of journals and books with conference proceeding published by IEEE and Springer. I have authored 5 research monographs and more than 20 book chapters published by Springer. I have also authored more than 150 articles and papers in a wide range of peer-reviewed specialised journals and international conferences including IEEE journals and conferences. I have presented more than 20 invited lectures and tutorials at international scientific events including IEEE, EPSRC and NATO Conferences and Summer Schools on Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Systems, Neural Networks, Intelligent Systems, Computational Intelligence, Cybernetics and Complexity Science. I have been actively involved as PhD Supervisor and PhD Examiner. I have also been Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on research projects funded by NATO, EU, EPSRC and Innovate UK.

I am Editorial Board Member for the IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, the Elsevier Journal of Fuzzy Sets and Systems and the Springer International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems. I am also Reviewer for several journals including IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems as well as Assessor for several research councils including the Australian Research Council. I am currently Member of the Soft Computing Technical Committee of the IEEE Society of Systems, Man and Cybernetics as well as Member of the Emergent Technologies Technical Commitee and the Outstanding Paper Award Committee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. I am also Member of the IEEE Working Group on Explainable Artificial Intelligence and the IEEE Task Force on Explainable Fuzzy Systems as well as Member of the NATO Research Task Group on Reinforcement Learning and the NATO Exploratory Team on Explainable Artificial Intelligence.

Research interests

• Development of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods using fuzzy systems, neural networks and evolutionary algorithms
• Validation of these methods for management, modelling, simulation and control of complex systems and networks characterised by nonlinearity, uncertainty, dimensionality and connectivity
• Application of these methods in areas such as public security (in collaboration with NATO), financial forecasting, medical diagnosis and environmental modelling and their evalution in terms of feasibility, accuracy, efficiency and transparency