Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
Ruibin Bai is a professor and Head of the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is the founding director of Ningbo Digital Port Technologies Key Lab. In 2016, he founded Artificial Intelligence and Optimisation (AIOP) Group to promote deeper collaborations between Computational Intelligence (CI), Machine Learning (ML) and Operations Research (OR) communities. He has published over 100 academic papers. His main contributions to Operations Research include novel MIP modelling and math-heuristics for mixed integer service network design (through publications in Information Sciences, EJOR), improved uncertainty handling in stochastic programming via re-coursing
(Transportation Research Part B, Computer & OR), and evolutionary based branch and pricing for real-life full truckload transportation (Transportation Part B, EJOR). His main contributions to CI and ML community include deep reinforcement learning and evolutionary learning based hyper-heuristic methods for online combinatorial optimisation (through publications in IEEE TEVC, EJOR, ESWA, AAAI, IJCAI), advancing the performance, generalisation and scalability of search based hyper-heuristic methods and their capability in addressing complex real-life opitmisation problems. Over the past 10-15 years, he has been promoting real-world CI and OR applications and has made some noticeable achievements. The learning based hyper-heuristics and related software systems have been commercialised in Ningbo Port and PingAn Good Doctor, significantly improved the efficiency and productivity of the concerned systems and helped both companies make millions of saving in costs. His work also received high profile recognition from industry, including ``Huawei Spark Award'' in 2022 and the ``Best Technology Innovation Award'' from the 4th China Industrial Internet Contest in 2022. He is an IEEE senior member and has extensive experience in journal and conference reviews and editorship in both CI, ML and OR domains.
Research Interests
- Evolutionary Algorithm, Hyper-heuristics
- Deep Reinforcement Learning, Representation Learning
- Combinatorial Optimisation, Integer Programming, Modelling
- Scheduling, Routing, Service Network Design
- Smart Transportation and Logistics, Digital Port, Digital Twin
Professional Information
- Founding Head (2016-present), Artificial Intelligence and Optimisation (ASAP) Group, UNNC.
- Founding Director (2019-present), Ningbo Digital Port Technologies Key Lab, Ningbo Science & Technology Bureau, Ningbo, China.
- AE (2021-present), European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, Main areas: transportation, integer programming, learning based optimisation.
- AE (2017-present), Networks, Wiley. Main areas: graph based algorithm, transportation network optimisation.
- Panel Reviewer (2020-2024), MOST Key Projects for Smart Transportation.
- Committee Chair (2018-2024), Software and AI, Ningbo Municipal Key Technology Innovation.
- Guest Editor (2020-2022), International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis, Theme: Analytics and Machine Learning in Scheduling and Routing Research.
- Symposium Chair (2016-2018), IEEE SSCI in Scheduling and Network Design.
- Conference Chair (2019), 8th Multidisciplinary International Symposium: Theory and Applications, MISTA2019, 12-15 December 2019, Ningbo China.
- CI related reviews: TEVC, TETCI, TAI, ESWA, INS, ASOC, TII,WCCI/CEC/SSCI/GECCO
- ML related reviews: TNNLS, TKDE, AAAI, IJCAI, NEUCOM
- OR related reviews: EJOR, C&OR, CIE, TR Part B/C/E, TS
Teaching
I have taught a great number of UG courses (mostly core CS courses) with very good feedback, including
- AE2AIM: Artificial Intelligence Methods. (2017-present)
- AE2OSC: Operating System and Concurrency (2015-2017)
- AE3IDS/J: Individual Dissertation Single/Joint Honours (2014-2017)
- AE1PRG: Programming (2014-2015)
- AE1IMO: Introduction to Modelling and Optimisation (2014-2015)
- AE1DBS: Database Systems (2007-2015)
- AE1CSA: Computer System Architectures (2007-2013)
- AE1UST: Unix Software and Tools (2007-2008)
I am currently supevising a team of over 10 PhD students with exciting projects in my core areas of research expertise. In the past, I have supervised 12 PhD students to full completion.
Person Types
- Staff
Fingerprint
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Development and application of robot scheduling system for hospital logistics group based on digital life
1/09/23 → 31/08/25
Project: Government Funded Projects › Vertical-Ningbo Municipal Government Funded Projects
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Research on digital twin based key technologies for multi-AGV scheduling and cooperation in complex systems
Bai, R. (PI), Ren, J. (CoI), Yao, Y. (CoI) & Ullah, F. (CoI)
1/04/23 → 31/03/26
Project: Government Funded Projects › Vertical-Ningbo Municipal Government Funded Projects
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Ningbo Key Laboratory of Digital Port Technologies
Bai, R. (PI), Chong, A. (CoI), Ren, J. (CoI) & Dong, N. (CoI)
8/03/23 → …
Project: Government Funded Projects › Vertical-Ningbo Municipal Government Funded Projects
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Model and Data Driven Hyper-Heuristics for Combinatorial Optimization and Their Applications in Port Operation Integrated Scheduling
Bai, R. (PI)
1/01/21 → 31/12/24
Project: Government Funded Projects › Vertical-National Government Funded Projects
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Research and Applications of Search with Evolutionary Ruin and Stochastic Rebuild
Bai, R. (CoI)
Project: Government Funded Projects › Vertical-Ningbo Municipal Government Funded Projects
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Advancing container port traffic simulation: a data-driven machine learning approach in sparse data environments
Chen, X., Qu, R., Dong, J., Dong, H. & Bai, R., 1 Sept 2024, In: Applied Soft Computing Journal. 112190.Research output: Journal Publication › Article › peer-review
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A hierarchical cooperative genetic programming for complex piecewise symbolic regression
Chen, X., Yi, W., Bai, R., Qu, R. & Jin, Y., 2024, 2024 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2024 - Proceedings. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., (2024 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2024 - Proceedings).Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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A Max-Relevance-Min-Divergence criterion for data discretization with applications on naive Bayes
Wang, S., Ren, J., Bai, R., Yao, Y. & Jiang, X., May 2024, In: Pattern Recognition. 149, 110236.Research output: Journal Publication › Article › peer-review
Open Access6 Citations (Scopus) -
A pattern-based algorithm with fuzzy logic bin selector for online bin packing problem
Lin, B., Li, J., Cui, T., Jin, H., Bai, R., Qu, R. & Garibaldi, J., 1 Sept 2024, In: Expert Systems with Applications. 249, part AResearch output: Journal Publication › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
A two-stage plan-and-allocate algorithm for operation room scheduling problem with uncertainties
Zhang, H., Bai, R., Li, J. & Jin, C., 2024, 2024 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, FUZZ-IEEE 2024 - Proceedings. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., (IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems).Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
Prizes
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Fourth China Industrial Internet Competition Beijing Division Award - Third Prize
Zhu, J. (Recipient), Zhang, H. (Recipient), Zhou, Y. (Recipient), Bai, R. (Recipient) & Ren, J. (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Other distinction
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