Welcome from the CIS President

CIS – The Professional Home

Happy New Year, Fellow CIS-ers!

I am deeply honored to serve as the President of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) for 2024-2025. I could not even imagine that I would become the President of our Society when I joined IEEE at the 1998 World Congress on Computational Intelligence. I would take this opportunity to thank our predecessors, in particular Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier and Jim Keller for their trust, guidance and support.

Our Society, formerly the IEEE Neural Network Council, is the only Society within the IEEE that dedicates itself to computational Intelligence (CI), basically another name of artificial intelligence (AI). CIS has maintained stability through the difficult times of AI and have achieved a healthy growth in the past years, mainly due to the dedicated and enthusiastic leadership of the Executive Committee of the Society, including the President, the past president or president-elect, and the seven Vice presidents, and all our members and volunteers.

Photo of Pablo A Estevez, CIS President 2016-2017 (left), Jim Keller, CIS President 2022-2023 (center) and Yaochu Jin, CIS President 2024-2025 (right) at IEEE CAI 2023 in Santa Clara, California

In the years to come, we have both challenges and opportunities. CI/AI techniques have undergone many breakthroughs in recent years, making an increasingly significant impact on almost all areas of science, technology, and the human society. On the contrary, our world has become much uncertain and polarized compared to twenty years ago, and some CI/AI techniques such as generative models are so powerful that they have caused growing concerns. How to grasp the opportunities while handling uncertainty in such a dynamic and multi-objective environment? As the new President of the Society in the coming two years, I have the following missions to achieve:

First, we must consolidate the strong position of CIS in the research community. Our Society currently has over eight thousand members, and we will do everything to let them feel at home with our Society in their research life. To achieve this, we need to provide richer services to, and communicate more transparently with our members. We will stick to our core values of diversity, equity and inclusive. The Society is proud of the high reputation of our flagship journals, including the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, and we must work hard to maintain the top quality of the papers published in our journals. To this end, we have already decided to introduce the double-anonymous peer review process to make sure that the review of all papers submitted to our journals is fair, rigorous and yet constructive. Out of the same reason, we will limit the paper acceptance rate of our main conferences, including International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IEEE Conferences on Fuzzy Systems, and IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. Since the Society’s smooth operation relies mainly on the volunteer service of our members, it is also important to recognize their contributions.

Second, we make every effort to identify new growth opportunities. Vast opportunities for growing the Society can be explored. Presently, researchers from many regions such as mid-Africa, South Asia and South America remain underrepresented in the Society. Preliminary attempts have been made, owing to great efforts of our colleagues working on the Breaking Boundaries initiative. At the IEEE AFRICOM 2023 held in September in Nairobi, Kenia, Anna Wilbik and I myself organized an IEEE CIS Awareness Session, presenting the structure of the Society and the service it offers, including webinars, distinguish lecture program and mentoring programs. We will also explore possible collaborations with regional and local professional organizations closely related to our Society to involve more researchers, in particular junior researchers. In addition, we will try to attract researchers from related research areas such as computational neural science, brain science, and artificial life to promote interdisciplinary research and diversify the society.

Finally, we work together on shaping the future. We will continue to engage ourselves in shaping the future, not only the future of our Society, but also the future of the entire human society. Apart from our technical leadership in CI/AI, we will seek to create larger economical and societal impact by working more closely with industry and government. The Society has recently established a Vice President for Industry and Government Activities, demonstrating that we put a lot of values on promoting applications of CI/AI techniques, and we will continue to do so in the future. We must also continue our focus on education and outreach, inspiring the next generation of computational intelligence researchers and practitioners. We will expand our mentorship programs and provide richer resources to support students and early-career professionals across the world. Finally, we will take more social responsibility by nurturing and advancing green, accountable and trustworthy CI/AI techniques. The Society has most recently set up a new Technical Committee on Ethical, Legal, Social, Environmental and Human Dimensions of AI/CI (SHIELD). And we CIS-ers are also particularly skilled at developing bio-inspired intelligence techniques, which may lead to more energy-efficient and scalable artificial general intelligence models compared to the current dominating large language models.

To achieve the above missions, we need the help of our CIS members. Strong and continuous support from all our members, including readers who are not yet our members, is vital for the Society. Together, we have the potential to drive positive changes in the world through the advancement of CI/AI. By fostering collaborations, embracing new opportunities, and nurturing the talents of future leaders, we will shape a brighter future for CIS and the entire human society, despite the unprecedented uncertainty we are facing.

I look forward to working with you to accomplish the above missions. I strongly encourage you all to take some time to explore http://cis.ieee.org and see CIS as the home of your professional life. Do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] for any thoughts, questions and suggestions.

Wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024!

Yaochu Jin, CIS President 2024-2025
Westlake University, Hangzhou, China

She is an IEEE Life Fellow, an International Fuzzy Systems Association fellow, an Honorary Member of the European Association for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT) and a fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA). She was appointed as Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE CIS for the period 2014-2016. She received the 2012 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Meritorious Service Award, the 2017 EUSFLAT Scientific Excellence Award, the 2018 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Fuzzy Systems Pioneer Award, the 2019 Outstanding Volunteer Award of the IEEE France Section and the IEEE 2024 Frank Rosenblatt award.

Her present research interests include approximate and similarity-based reasoning, as well as the application of fuzzy logic and machine learning techniques to decision-making, data mining, risk forecasting, information retrieval, user modelling, sensorial and emotional information processing, management of information quality and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence. 

Read full bio here. 

Do you know any uniquely qualified CIS Senior Member who deserves elevation to the IEEE Fellow grade? Please, do not hesitate to nominate them!  The Fellow Portal - Electronic Fellow Nomination System is open for the IEEE Fellow Class of 2025.  The nomination deadline is 7 February 2024. Click here for more information.

Learn more about the IEEE Fellow nomination and evaluation process by attending the upcoming webinar: 

Am I Qualified to be Considered for an IEEE Fellow?

IEEE WCCI 2024

IEEE WCCI is the world's largest technical event on computational intelligence, featuring the three flagship conferences of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) under one roof: The International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE) and the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC).

Paper submission deadline: 15 January 2024 

Visit WCCI2024.org for more information. 

IEEE CoG 2024

The annual IEEE Conference on Games (IEEE CoG) aims to be a leading venue for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and novel approaches to bring innovation in and through games. Games are a great domain to study and develop novel ideas in design, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, psychology, education, sociology, and creativity, as well as their applications in real-world problems. IEEE CoG 2024 will take place at Politecnico di Milano, which is located in Milan, Italy.

The call for Competition, Workshop, and Tutorial Proposals is now available.

Submission deadline: 21 January 2024

Paper submission deadline: 1 March 2024

2024 IEEE CAI

The second edition of the IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IEEE CAI) will take place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, from 25 to 27 June 2024. The Organising Committee invites paper submissions from industry and academia. The conference will feature industry plenary speakers, an exhibition, and panels to discuss contemporary topics in AI that impact industry and the society.

Visit IEEE CAI 2024 for more information.

IEEE EAIS 2024

The 2024 IEEE Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (IEEE EAIS 2024) will be held in Madrid, located at the heart of Iberian Peninsula, is one of the most vibrant cities in Spain and its capital from 23 - 24 May 2024.

IEEE EAIS 2024 is seeking original papers from Researchers from industry, academia, and government organizations. The papers will be published on IEEE Xplore Digital Library. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions for possible inclusion in a special issue of the Journal of Evolving Systems (Springer).

Paper Submission Deadline: 22 January 2024

Visit IEEE EAIS 2024 for more information.

IEEE CIS sponsors and co-sponsors a number of conferences across the globe.

VIEW FULL SCHEDULE

Meet a CIS Member

Meet: Hemant Kumar Singh & 2023 CIS travel grants subcommittee chair

What is your title, and place of work? (or Technical Field of Research)?

Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra, Australia

How long have you been a member of CIS and what was the reason you chose to join IEEE CIS?

I have been a member of CIS for about 13 years. I joined initially as a research student to avail discounts on conference registration. Gradually I discovered and appreciated its other benefits as an academic, including access to periodicals, opportunities to work with other CIS researchers and contribute to the field through various committee roles.

What Computational Intelligence Society committee do you serve?

I’ve served in a few roles over the last few years:

• During 2022-23, I was the CIS travel and participation grants subcommittee chair, which is part of the CIS Membership Activities Committee.
• During 2021-23, I was the chair of the CIS Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chapter.
• During 2018-23, I was the chair/vice chair for CIS task force on evolutionary bilevel optimization.

What have you learned from your experience and how has it helped you professionally?

Working in various CIS roles have helped me understand some of the structural and operational aspects of the organization. It has also helped me work closely with some of the senior academics and professionals in the field and form lasting collaborations. Working in large teams as part of the global initiatives has made me appreciate diversity of working/leadership styles of various individuals. Last but not the least, it has provided me opportunities to mentor early career researchers in the field, both academically and professionally.

What has been the most fun/rewarding thing about being a volunteer for the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society? What have you enjoyed the most?

As part of CIS conference travel and participation grants subcommittee role, it has been rewarding to manage support to students and researchers from developing countries. The funding has made a difference for many researchers by enabling them to attend in-person (or online during pandemic) conference and interact directly with the experts and colleagues in the field. I encourage the eligible students, academics, and early industry career researchers to keep a look out for the travel grants information on the CIS sponsored conferences they plan to attend. General information regarding the grants is available on the webpage IEEE CIS Conference Participation and Travel Grants; while the information regarding grants offered for a specific conference and corresponding deadlines etc. are made available on the conference website before its paper decision notification date.

Other than above, as part of the CIS ACT Chapter Chair role, I have enjoyed interacting closely with the invited distinguished researchers who deliver seminars/workshops and engage in stimulating discussions with the local researchers.

Tell us something about you that we don't know.

While I have been in the organizing committees of many conferences in different roles over past few years, I have never been a General chair of one. That is set to change in March 2025, when we host the International Conference on Evolutionary Multi-criterion Optimization (EMO 2025), to be held in Canberra, Australia. You (probably) learnt it here first! More information about the conference will be advertised online soon through various channels, and I cordially invite all colleagues working in the area to consider joining!

The IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence is pleased to announce that the journal will adopt a Double-Anonymous Review Policy beginning in January 2024. Submissions will also be through the IEEE Author Portal.

Authors are advised to anonymise their submissions by avoiding any information that reveals the identity of authors. Reviewers will no longer see the name or affiliation of authors. Reviewers will no longer get bcc’d on decision emails to authors.

Please direct any query to the editorial office at [email protected]

2024 IEEE CIS Student Grand Competition on Computational Intelligence in Biomedicine and Healthcare

We welcome participants to present computational intelligence solutions for core issues in smart medicine, smart healthcare, and smart hospital including but not limited to personalized, predictive, preventive, and participatory medicine and healthcare solutions. In the preliminary contest, the judge committee will select 10 teams based on the uploaded proposals. In the final contest, the selected teams need to physically or virtually attend the 2024 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI) in Japan for real-time demonstration and presentation of their systems.

Prize per team:

• 1st Place Award: US$1,500 + Certificate
• 2nd Place Award: US$1,000 + Certificate
• 3rd Place Award: US$600 + Certificate
• Honorable Mention: Certificate

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/cishackathon

Submission Due: Extended to 31 January 2024

Preliminary Contest: 15 March 2024

Final Contest: 30 June 2024

2024 Graduate Student Research Grants: Call for Applications

The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) funds scholarships for deserving undergraduate, graduate and PhD students who need financial support to carry out their research during an academic break period. The primary intent of these scholarships is to cover the expenses related to a visit to another university, institute, or research agency for collaboration with an identified researcher in the field of interest of the applicant. Funds can be used to cover travel expenses as well as certain living expenses (such as housing). The field of interest of applicants is open but should be connected with an identifiable component of the CIS (neural networks, fuzzy systems, or evolutionary computation).

The deadline for submission of 15 March 2024. More information on the scheme can be found on the Graduate Student Research Grants webpage.

• IEEE TAI Special Issue on AI-Enabled Security at the Edge (31 January 2024)
  
• IEEE TOG Special Issue on Computer Vision and Games (31 January 2024)
• IEEE TFS Special Issue on Advances in Fuzzy Deep Learning Algorithms for Biomedical Data (extended to 28 February 2024)
• IEEE TFS Special Issue on Deep Neuro-Fuzzy Approaches for Intelligent Big Data Processing (extended to 30 March 2024)
• IEEE TEVC Special Issue on Machine Learning Assisted Evolutionary Computation (1 April 2024)
  

RoCaSH2: An Effective Route Clustering and Search Heuristic for Large-Scale Multi-Depot Capacitated Arc Routing Problem

The Multi-Depot Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (MDCARP) is an important combinatorial optimization problem with wide applications in logistics. Large Scale MDCARP (LSMDCARP) often occurs in the real world, as the problem size (e.g., number of edges/tasks) is usually very large in practice. It is challenging to solve LSMDCARP due to the large search space and complex interactions among the depots and the tasks. Divide-and-conquer strategies have shown success in solving large-scale problems by decomposing the problem into smaller sub-problems to be solved separately. Read more

IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, November 2023

Quantifying Prediction Uncertainty in Regression Using Random Fuzzy Sets: The ENNreg Model

In this article, we introduce a neural network model for regression in which prediction uncertainty is quantified by Gaussian random fuzzy numbers (GRFNs), a newly introduced family of random fuzzy subsets of the real line that generalizes both Gaussian random variables and Gaussian possibility distributions. The output GRFN is constructed by combining GRFNs induced by prototypes using a combination operator that generalizes Dempster's rule of evidence theory. Read more

IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, October 2023

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Air Combat at DARPA's AlphaDogfight Trials

Significant performance milestones in reinforcement learning have been achieved in recent years, with autonomous agents demonstrating super-human performance across a wide variety of tasks. Before these algorithms can be extensively deployed in real-world defense applications, a greater level of trust must first be achieved. ADT was an important step toward developing the trust necessary to operationalize these algorithms, by demonstrating their effectiveness on a foundational yet relevant problem in a high-fidelity simulation environment. Read more

IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, December 2023

Topic Integrated Opinion-Based Drug Recommendation With Transformers

Information from online platforms is vast, with health related data remaining largely unexplored for the purpose of developing a sentiment-based recommendation model. Though state-of-the-art models such as transformers are being researched in this domain, the model configuration has not been diligently investigated, particularly for deriving quality input for sentiment classification by inlaying contextual embeddings and significant sequence segments. A topic modeling and transformer-based model ( topicT-AttNN ) with LSTM and attention mechanism is proposed in this study for classifying sentiments from drug reviews on three aspects and overall opinion. Read more

IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, December 2023

HyperColor: A HyperNetwork Approach for Synthesizing Autocolored 3-D Models for Game Scenes Population

Designing a 3-D game scene is a tedious task that often requires a substantial amount of work. Typically, this task involves the synthesis and coloring of 3-D models within the scene. To lessen this workload, we can apply machine learning to automate some aspects of the game scene development. Earlier research has already tackled automated generation of the game scene background with machine learning. However, model autocoloring remains an underexplored problem. The automatic coloring of a 3-D model is a challenging task, especially when dealing with the digital representation of a colorful, multipart object. In such a case, we have to “understand” the object's composition and coloring scheme of each part.  Read more

IEEE Transactions on Games, December 2023

Self-Organizing Democratized Learning: Toward Large-Scale Distributed Learning Systems

Emerging cross-device artificial intelligence (AI) applications require a transition from conventional centralized learning systems toward large-scale distributed AI systems that can collaboratively perform complex learning tasks. In this regard, democratized learning (Dem-AI) lays out a holistic philosophy with underlying principles for building large-scale distributed and democratized machine learning systems. The outlined principles are meant to study a generalization in distributed learning systems that go beyond existing mechanisms such as federated learning (FL). Read more

IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, December 2023

Enhancing Visual Coding Through Collaborative Perception

A central challenge facing the nature human–computer interaction involves understanding how neural circuits process visual perceptual information to improve the user’s operation ability under complex tasks. Visual coding models aim to explore the biological characteristics of retinal ganglion cells to provide quantitative predictions of responses to a range of visual stimuli. The existing visual coding models lack adaptability in natural and complex scenes. Therefore this article proposes an enhanced visual coding model through collaborative perception. Read more

IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, December 2023