Bradley Alexander

Research Interests

Artificial Intelligence Neural, Evolutionary and Fuzzy Computation Water Resources Engineering

Bradley Alexander

School of Computer Science and Information Technology

College of Engineering and Information Technology

I'm a senior lecturer and Director of Teaching in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide. My teaching interests are algorithms, algorithmic problem solving, and research skills. I have a strong interest in teaching practices that encourage students to refine their own ideas and skills and to investigate problems that are relevant to their own interests.My research interests are in using computational search to explore design spaces and build models, including evolutionary art, water distribution networks, discovering geoscience models and software design. I'm interested in the use of automated search to help improve functional and non-functional aspects of program behaviour. Particularly program and energy bugs.An up-to-date record of my work (including recent pre-prints and workshop papers) can be found at: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=-9PWueoAAAAJ

Research Interests

My research interests are in using computational search to explore design spaces, including evolutionary art, water distribution networks, discovering geoscience models and software design. I'm interested in the use of automated search to help improve functional and non-functional aspects of program behaviour. Particularly program and energy bugs.

Date Position Institution name
1996 - ongoing Senior Lecturer University of Adelaide

Date Institution name Country Title
2006 University of Adelaide, Adelaide Australia PhD
2006 University of Adelaide Australia Grad. Cert. Higher Education
1990 University of Western Australia Australia BSC (Hons)
1988 University of Western Australia Australia BSC

Date Title Institution Country
Graduate Certificate in Higher Education University of Adelaide Australia

Year Citation
2025 Minaei, A., Zecchin, A. C., Hajibabaei, M., Mitrovic, D., van Laarhoven, K., Vertommen, I., . . . Sitzenfrei, R. (2025). Efficient resizing and topological optimization of real-world water distribution networks in a multi-criteria decision-making framework. Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 40(24), 3875-3893.
DOI
2023 Zhang, C., Alexander, B. J., Stephens, M. L., Lambert, M. F., & Gong, J. (2023). A convolutional neural network for pipe crack and leak detection in smart water network. Structural Health Monitoring: an international journal, 22(1), 232-244.
DOI Scopus35 WoS34
2022 Bohorquez Arevalo, J., Lambert, M. F., Alexander, B., Simpson, A. R., & Abbott, D. (2022). Stochastic Resonance Enhancement for Leak Detection in Pipelines Using Fluid Transients and Convolutional Neural Networks. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 148(3), 04022001-1-04022001-15.
DOI Scopus32 WoS30
2021 Bohorquez, J., Simpson, A. R., Lambert, M. F., & Alexander, B. (2021). Merging Fluid Transient Waves and Artificial Neural Networks for Burst Detection and Identification in Pipelines. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 147(1), 1-14.
DOI Scopus31 WoS31
2021 Neumann, A., Alexander, B., & Neumann, F. (2021). Evolutionary Image Transition and Painting Using Random Walks. Evolutionary Computation, 28(4), 643-675.
DOI
2021 Neshat, M., Nezhad, M. M., Abbasnejad, E., Mirjalili, S., Tjernberg, L. B., Astiaso Garcia, D., . . . Wagner, M. (2021). A deep learning-based evolutionary model for short-term wind speed forecasting: A case study of the Lillgrund offshore wind farm. Energy Conversion and Management, 236, 1-25.
DOI Scopus191 WoS164
2021 Neshat, M., Nezhad, M. M., Abbasnejad, E., Mirjalili, S., Groppi, D., Heydari, A., . . . Wagner, M. (2021). Wind turbine power output prediction using a new hybrid neuro-evolutionary method. Energy, 229, 120617-1-120617-24.
DOI Scopus100 WoS86
2020 Neshat, M., Sergiienko, N. Y., Amini, E., Nezhad, M. M., Garcia, D. A., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2020). A new bi-level optimisation framework for optimising a multi-modewave energy converter design: A case study for the marettimo island, mediterranean sea. Energies, 13(20), 5498.
DOI Scopus27 WoS24
2020 Bohorquez, J., Alexander, B., Simpson, A. R., & Lambert, M. F. (2020). Leak Detection and Topology Identification in Pipelines Using Fluid Transients and Artificial Neural Networks. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 146(6), 1-11.
DOI Scopus96 WoS85
2020 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2020). A hybrid cooperative co-evolution algorithm framework for optimising power take offand placements of wave energy converters. Information Sciences, 534, 218-244.
DOI Scopus59 WoS46
2020 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., Sergiienko, N. Y., & Wagner, M. (2020). New insights into position optimization of wave energy converters using hybrid local search. Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 59, 100744-1-100744-18.
DOI Scopus33 WoS25
2020 Neumann, A., Alexander, B., & Neumann, F. (2020). Evolutionary Image Transition and Painting Using Random Walks. Evolutionary Computation, 28(4), 643-675.
DOI Scopus12 WoS9
2019 Qiu, M., Simpson, A. R., Elhay, S., & Alexander, B. (2019). Bridge-Block Partitioning Algorithm for Speeding Up Analysis of Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 145(9), 15 pages.
DOI Scopus4 WoS4
2019 Qiu, M., Elhay, S., Simpson, A., & Alexander, B. (2019). Benchmarking study of water distribution system solution methods. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 145(2), 13 pages.
DOI Scopus6 WoS5
2019 Conway, D., Alexander, B., King, M., Heinson, G., & Kee, Y. (2019). Inverting magnetotelluric responses in a three-dimensional earth using fast forward approximations based on artificial neural networks. Computers and Geosciences, 127, 44-52.
DOI Scopus50 WoS41
2019 Qiu, M., Alexander, B., Simpson, A., & Elhay, S. (2019). A software tool for assessing the performance of and implementing water distribution system solution methods. Environmental Modelling and Software, 112, 52-69.
DOI Scopus2 WoS1
2014 Simpson, A., Elhay, S., & Alexander, B. (2014). Forest-core partitioning algorithm for speeding up analysis of water distribution systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 140(4), 435-443.
DOI Scopus21 WoS17
2014 Elhay, S., Simpson, A., Deuerlein, J., Alexander, B., & Schilders, W. (2014). Reformulated co-tree flows method competitive with the global gradient algorithm for solving water distribution system equations. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 140(12), 04014040-1-04014040-10.
DOI Scopus41 WoS37

Year Citation
2021 Haraldsson, S., Brownlee, A., Woodward, J. R., Wagner, M., & Alexander, B. (2021). Genetic improvement: Taking real-world source code and improving it using genetic programming. In GECCO 2021 Companion - Proceedings of the 2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (pp. 786-817). New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery.
DOI
2020 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., Sergiienko, N. Y., & Wagner, M. (2020). Optimisation of large wave farms using a multi-strategy evolutionary framework. In Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'20) Vol. abs/2003.09594 (pp. 1150-1158). New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
DOI Scopus26 WoS23
2020 Bokhari, M. A., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2020). Towards rigorous validation of energy optimisation experiments. In Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'20) Vol. abs/2004.04500 (pp. 1232-1240). New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
DOI Scopus9 WoS2
2020 Bokhari, M. A., Wagner, M., & Alexander, B. (2020). Genetic improvement of software efficiency: the curse of fitness estimation. In C. A. C. Coello (Ed.), GECCO'20: Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (pp. 1926-1927). online: ACM.
DOI Scopus1
2020 Sergiienko, N. Y., Neshat, M., Silva, L. S. P. D., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2020). Design optimisation of a multi-mode wave energy converter. In Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering (OMAE 2020) Vol. 9 (pp. 1-11). Online: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
DOI Scopus19 WoS3
2019 Bokhari, M. A., Weng, L., Wagner, M., & Alexander, B. (2019). Mind the gap - A distributed framework for enabling energy optimisation on modern smart-phones in the presence of noise, drift, and statistical insignificance. In 2019 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2019 - Proceedings (pp. 1330-1337). online: IEEE.
DOI Scopus11 WoS7
2019 Alexander, B., Hin, D., Neumann, A., & Ull-Karim, S. (2019). Evolving Pictures in Image Transition Space. In T. Gedeon, K. W. Wong, & M. Lee (Eds.), Neural Information Processing. ICONIP 2019 Vol. 11953 (pp. 679-690). Sydney, NSW, Aust: Springer.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2019 Brownlee, A. E. I., Petke, J., Alexander, B., Barr, E. T., Wagner, M., & White, D. R. (2019). Gin: Genetic improvement research made easy. In GECCO 2019: Proceedings of the 2019 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (pp. 985-993). New York: ACM.
DOI Scopus39 WoS31
2019 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., Sergiienko, N., & Wagner, M. (2019). A hybrid evolutionary algorithm framework for optimising power take off and placements of wave energy converters. In GECCO '19 Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Vol. abs/1904.07043 (pp. 1293-1301). New York: ACM.
DOI Scopus19 WoS16
2019 Petke, J., Alexander, B., Barr, E. T., Brownlee, A. E. I., Wagner, M., & White, D. R. (2019). A survey of genetic improvement search spaces. In GECCO '19 Companion - Proceedings of the 2019 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (pp. 1715-1721). online: Association for Computing Machinery.
DOI Scopus31 WoS24
2019 Bokhari, M. A., Wagner, M., & Alexander, B. (2019). The quest for non-functional property optimisation in heterogeneous and fragmented ecosystems: A distributed approach. In GECCO 2019 Companion - Proceedings of the 2019 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (pp. 1705-1706). online: ACM.
DOI Scopus1 WoS2
2019 Neshat, M., Abbasnejad, E., Shi, Q., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2019). Adaptive neuro-surrogate-based optimisation method for wave energy converters placement optimisation. In T. Gedeon, K. W. Wong, & M. Lee (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP 2019), as published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Neural Information Processing Proceedings, Part II) Vol. 11954 (pp. 353-366). Switzerland: Springer Nature.
DOI Scopus26 WoS21
2018 Bokhari, M. A., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2018). In-vivo and offline optimisation of energy use in the presence of small energy signals: case study on a popular Android library. In MobiQuitous '18 Proceedings of the 15th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (pp. 207-215). New York City, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
DOI Scopus18 WoS17
2018 Izu, M., & Alexander, B. (2018). Using unstructured practice plus reflection to develop programming/problem-solving fluency. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Computing Education Conference (pp. 25-34). online: ACM.
DOI Scopus9
2018 Neumann, A., Pyromallis, C., & Alexander, B. (2018). Evolution of Images with Diversity and Constraints Using a Generative Adversarial Network. In L. Cheng, A. C. -S. Leung, & S. Ozawa (Eds.), Neural Information Processing - 25th International Conference, ICONIP 2018, Siem Reap, Cambodia, December 13-16, 2018, Proceedings, Part VI Vol. 11306 (pp. 452-465). Siem Reap, Cambodia: Springer.
DOI Scopus9 WoS7
2018 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., Wagner, M., & Xia, Y. (2018). A detailed comparison of meta-heuristic methods for optimising wave energy converter placements. In H. E. Aguirre, & K. Takadama (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2018 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference as published in GECCO 2018 (pp. 1318-1325). online: ACM.
DOI Scopus42 WoS35
2017 Alexander, B., Kortman, J., & Neumann, A. (2017). Evolution of artistic image variants through feature based diversity optimisation. In P. A. N. Bosman (Ed.), Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. GECCO '17 (pp. 171-178). Berlin, Germany: ACM.
DOI Scopus37 WoS32
2017 Neumann, A., Alexander, B., & Neumann, F. (2017). Evolutionary Image Transition and Painting Using Random Walks. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Music, Sound, Art and Design (EvoMUSART 2017), as published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 10198 (pp. 230-245). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
DOI Scopus18 WoS15
2017 Bokhari, M. A., Bruce, B. R., Alexander, B., & Wagner, M. (2017). Deep parameter optimisation on android smartphones for energy minimisation-a tale of woe and a proof-of-concept. In P. A. N. Bosman (Ed.), GECCO 2017 - Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (pp. 1501-1508). online: ACM.
DOI Scopus30 WoS19
2016 Neumann, A., Alexander, B., & Neumann, F. (2016). The Evolutionary Process of Image Transition in Conjunction with Box and Strip Mutation. In A. Hirose, S. Ozawa, K. Doya, K. Ikeda, M. Lee, & D. Liu (Eds.), Proceedings, Part III of the 23rd International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP 2016), as published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 9949 (pp. 261-268). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
DOI Scopus8 WoS8
2016 Alexander, B., Pyromallis, C., Lorenzetti, G., & Zacher, B. (2016). Using scaffolding with partial call-trees to improve search. In J. Handl (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature Vol. 9921 (pp. 324-334). Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom: Springer, Cham.
DOI
2014 Alexander, B., & Zacher, B. (2014). Boosting search for recursive functions using partial call-trees. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (pp. 384-393). Ljubljana, Slovenia: Springer, Cham.
DOI
2013 Ibrahim, M., & Alexander, B. (2013). Evolving decision-making functions in an autonomous robotic exploration strategy using grammatical evolution. In Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS (pp. 4340-4346). United States: IEEE.
DOI Scopus3 WoS3
2012 Ibrahim, M., & Alexander, B. (2012). Designing a navigational control system of an autonomous robot for multi-requirements planetary navigation using evolutionary approach. In Proceedings of the 12th Australian Space Science Conference (pp. 1). online.
2012 Alexander, B., Donnellan, S., Jeffries, A., Olds, T., & Sizer, N. (2012). Boosting instruction set simulator performance with parallel block optimisation and replacement. In Proceedings of the 35th Australasian Computer Science Conference, ACSC 2012 Vol. 122 (pp. 11-20). Australia: Australian Computer Society Inc.
Scopus3
2012 Alexander, B., Peacock, J., & Thiel, S. (2012). Application of evolutionary methods to 3D geoscience modelling. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation - GECCO'12 (pp. 1039-1046). New York: ACM.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2
2011 Ibrahim, M., & Alexander, B. (2011). Evolving a path planner for a multi-robot exploration system using grammatical evolution. In Proceedings of ISSNIP 2011 (pp. 590-595). USA: IEEE.
DOI Scopus3
2011 Ackling, T., Alexander, B., & Grunert, I. (2011). Evolving patches for software repair. In Proceedings of GECCO'11 (pp. 1427-1434). Ireland: ACM.
DOI
2010 Alexander, B., & Izu, M. (2010). Engaging weak programmers in problem solving. In Proceedings of IEEE EDUCON Education Engineering 2010 - The Future of Global Learning Engineering Education (pp. 997-1005). USA: IEEE.
DOI Scopus3
2009 Alexander, B., & Gratton, M. (2009). Constructing an Optimisation Phase Using Grammatical Evolution. In Proceedings of the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (pp. 395-506). USA: IEEE.
DOI
2006 Alexander, B., & Wendelborn, A. (2006). A simple programming model for new-generation hardware. In H. Detmold, K. Falkner, & D. Munro (Eds.), Proceedings of WOSSA'2006 (pp. 27-34). Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide.
2006 Alexander, B., & Wendelborn, A. (2006). Data movement optimisation in point-free form. In M. Johnson, & V. Vene (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th International AMAST Conference Vol. 4019 (pp. 21-35). Germany: Springer.
DOI
2004 Alexander, B., & Wendelborn, A. (2004). Automated transformation of BMF programs. In H. Detmold, K. Falkner, & D. Munro (Eds.), Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Object Systems and Software Architectures 2004 (pp. www 1-www 9). htp://www.cs.adelaide.edu.au/~wossa2004: The University of Adelaide.

Year Citation
2019 Neshat, M., Alexander, B., & Simpson, A. R. (2019). Covariance Matrix Adaptation Greedy Search Applied to Water Distribution System Optimization..

Competitive Grant Funding

2011/2012 Brad Alexander, DSTO Grant A112483 - Ship Design and Affordability - $175,000

2008 Brad Alexander, Fred Brown, Hossam el-Gindy, Katrina Falkner and Zbigiew Michaelwicz, Google Research Award, Developing a Problem Solving Curriculum, $40,000

2008 Fred Brown, Brad Alexander, University of Adelaide Teaching Grant, Development of a Web-Based Automatic Submission System - $40,000

 

Teaching

Teaching Leadership

I am the current director of teaching for the School of Computer Science. I have a keen interest in the development and improvement of teaching in the School. I actively mentor new staff and help coordinate and build capabilities in sessional teaching staff and help to oversee processes of course renewal and transition.  I am very interested in the development of research capability in undergraduate students and have set up and co-supevised many research projects with undergraduate students - a number of which have lead to publications. I also work at forging links between students and industry - I have been active in promoting industry projects to students and have co-supervised an number of industry projects. I am very interested in wider dissemination of our teaching and I am a co-developer of the AdelaideX Data101x MOOC. 

Current Teaching

My teaching focuses on Algorithms and Problem Solving at first and second year level. I teach into our introductory programming courses, algorithms courses, and have developed new problem solving courses at second year level. I also help to teach the core first year course for the Bachelor of Computer Science (Advanced) degree Grand Challenges - which helps students develop research capabilities and put their research into a broader societal context. I also teach our core second year Computer Systems course.

Past Teaching

I have in past years coordinated courses in Programming Paradigms, Advanced Problem Solving, Operating Systems, and Parallel Programming.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2017 - 2021 Co-Supervisor Use of Artificial Neural Networks and fluid transient waves for active and passive inspection of water pipelines Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Jessica Bohorquez Arevalo
2016 - 2021 Co-Supervisor Genetic Improvement of Software for Energy Efficiency in Noisy and Fragmented Eco-Systems Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mahmoud Abdulwahab K Bokhari
2016 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Algorithms and Machine Learning for Evolving Images Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Aneta Neumann
2016 - 2020 Principal Supervisor The Application of Nature-inspired Metaheuristic Methods for Optimizing Renewable Energy Problems and the Design of Water Distribution Networks Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mehdi Neshat
2014 - 2018 Co-Supervisor A Software Tool for Assessing the Performance of Water Distribution System Solution Methods Based on Graph Theory Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mengning Qiu
2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor An Adaptive Provenance Collection Architecture In Scientific Workflow Systems Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Mehdi Sarikhani
2010 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Evolution of High Level Motion Control for Autonomous Ground Vehicles Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mohd Faisal Ibrahim

Date Institution Department Organisation Type Country
2020 - ongoing SA Water Research Water Distribution Business and professional Australia
2019 - 2019 MEQ Pty Ltd Data Analysis Team Business and professional Australia
2017 - 2017 CSIRO On Prime - Scientific research Australia
2016 - 2017 Sentek Pty Ltd - Business and professional Australia

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