Sheridan Houghten

Professor
Department of Computer Science
Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario
Canada
phone: 905 688 5550 ext 4526
fax: 905 688 3255
shoughten@brocku.ca
 

Education

B.Sc. (Mathematics and Science College), Concordia University, 1991
Master of Computer Science, Concordia University, 1993
Ph.D. (Computer Science), Concordia University, 1999

Teaching

Research

My research interests include combinatorial optimization, computational intelligence, and algorithms (in the general sense). My research is directed at various application areas including bioinformatics, graphs, and coding theory. My research group develops computational techniques, algorithms, and tools for the modelling and analysis of biological and biomedical data, especially in the form of graphs or networks. My profile on ResearchGate is here.

In line with my research interests, I am a member (and past chair) of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Technical Committee. I currently serve on the IEEE CIS Strategic Planning Committee (interim chair, also chairing the Core Values Working Group). I fill, or have filled, many other related roles in IEEE CIS, including on the IEEE CIS Task Force on Ethical and Social Implications of Computational Intelligence, and on the IEEE CIS Conference Committee (chairing the Conference Competitions Subcommittee).

Prospective Students: I am actively seeking students interested in any of the above topics, although please note that positions are very limited. If you are a student considering completing a PhD, Master's or an undergraduate research project, then as a first step please complete this form. If you are applying for graduate studies then you should also ensure that you list my name on the list of potential supervisors during the application process. I welcome and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds. Students should be motivated and comfortable with mathematics (primarily discrete mathematics). Since it can be very difficult to evaluate applications, you should provide as much information as possible about your interests - for example, you might describe projects which you have already undertaken or in which you are interested. Please also see my FAQ.

I work closely with my students and ensure that all research students have the opportunity to publish their work in journals or conference proceedings. You may also wish to look at the list of projects completed by some of my past and present students.

Online tables and data:

Some of my papers consider the problem of establishing bounds on the number of codewords in optimal edit-metric codes and insertion-deletion correcting codes. Tables on these bounds are maintained at the following locations: Edit Metric Codes and Insertion-Deletion Correcting Codes.

Some of my papers consider the problem of graph compression. One of the application areas involves compression of graphs for games. The data can be found at the following location: Game Graphs

Recent Papers

The following is a list of recent publications (2020-present only). Click here to see a full list of papers, technical reports and theses, including those recently submitted.

O.M. Beigi, L.R. Nobrega, S. Houghten, A. Alves Pereira and A. de Oliveira Andrade, Freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease: Classification using computational intelligence, Biosystems 232:105006, 2023.

J. Sargant, M. Dube and S. Houghten, All Lockdowns are not Equal: Reducing Epidemic Impact through Evolutionary Computation, Biosystems 230:104935, 2023.

E. Rutkowski, S. Houghten and J.A. Brown, A Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for the Compression of Weighted Graphs, Applied Soft Computing 144:110486, 2023.

M. Dube, K. Olenic and S. Houghten, What Drives Evolution of Self-Driving Automata?, 2023 Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, 6 pages (to appear).

K. Olenic and S. Houghten, Dungeons, Dragons, and Data Breaches: Analyzing AI Attacks on Various Network Configurations, 2023 International Conference on Wireless, Intelligent, and Distributed Environment for Communication (WIDECOM), 16 pages (to appear).

M. Dube, J. Sargant, S. Houghten and S. Graether, From Bits to Bases: Evolving a Versatile Construct for Biological Sequence and Network Data, 2023 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 9 pages, 2023.

M. Dube, J. Sargant and S. Houghten, Comparison of Representations to Evolve Weighted Contact Networks with Epidemic Properties, 2023 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2023.

F. Yasmeen, M. Dube and S. Houghten, Severity v. Spread: Evolving Networks and Epidemic Dynamics, 2023 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, short paper (2 pages), 2023.

M. Dube and S. Houghten, Evaluation of Frameworks for Epidemic Variants and Infectivity using an Evolutionary Algorithm, 2022 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 9 pages, 2022.

J. Sargant, M. Dube and S. Houghten, Evolving Lockdown Strategies to Minimize Infections in an Epidemic, 2022 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2022.

O.M. Beigi, L.R. Nobrega, S. Houghten, A. de Oliveira Andrade and A.A. Pereira, Classification of Parkinson's Disease Patients and Effectiveness of Medication for Freezing of Gait, 2022 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2022.

T. Navikevicius, T.K. Collins and S. Houghten, GADGIT: A Toolbox for Disease Gene Identification, 2022 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, short paper (2 pages), 2022.

J. Sargant, S. Houghten and M. Dube, Evolving Weighted Contact Networks for Epidemic Modeling: the Ring and the Power, 2022 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 9 pages, 2022.

M. Dube and S. Houghten, Now I Know my Alpha, Beta, Gammas: Variants in an Epidemic Scheme, 2022 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 8 pages, 2022.

S. Houghten and S. Banik, Effective Decoders for DNA Codes, Biosystems 211: 104583, 2022.

G. Chen, J. Sargant, S. Houghten and T.K. Collins, Identification of Genes Associated with Alzheimer's Disease using Evolutionary Computation, 2021 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 9 pages, 2021.

D. Ashlock, J.A. Brown, S. Houghten and M. Makhmutov, One Moose, Two Moose, Three Fields, More?, 2021 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 7 pages, 2021.

S. Amin, S. Houghten and J. Hughes, Vaccinating a Population is a Changing Programming Problem, 2021 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 10 pages, 2021.

O.M. Beigi, M. Dube and S. Houghten, Simulating Partial Immunity in an Epidemic, 2021 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, short paper (2 pages), 2021.

V. Suaste Morales and S. Houghten, Lossy Compression of Quality Values in Sequencing Data, ACM/IEEE Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics 18, p. 1958-1969, 2021.

E. Rutkowski, J. Sargant, S. Houghten and J.A. Brown, Evaluation of Communities from Exploratory Evolutionary Compression of Weighted Graphs, 2021 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, p. 434-441, 2021.

R. Vega Jimenez, M. Dube, S. Houghten and J. Hughes, Weighting on the World to Change... an Epidemic, 2021 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, p. 450-457, 2021.

J. Hughes, W. Hannah, P. Kikkert, B. MacKenzie, W. Ashlock, S. Houghten, D. Ashlock, M. Stoodley, M. Dube, R. Brown and A. Saunders, We Are Not Pontius Pilate: Acknowledging Ethics and Policy, IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, p. 2975-2984, 2020.

J.A. Hughes, S. Houghten and J.A. Brown, Models of Parkinson's Disease Patient Gait, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics 24, p. 3103-3110, 2020.

M. Dube, S. Houghten, D. Ashlock and J. Hughes, Evolving the Curve, 2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2020.

E. Rutkowski, S. Houghten and J.A. Brown, Extracting Information from Weighted Contact Networks via Genetic Algorithms, 2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2020.

J. Hughes, M. Dube, S. Houghten and D. Ashlock, Vaccinating a Population is a Programming Problem, 2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2020.

S. Banik and S. Houghten, Effective Side Effect Machines for Decoding, 2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2020.

J. Hughes, R. Reid, S. Houghten and R. Anderson, Using Genetic Programming to Investigate a Novel Model of Resting Energy Expenditure for Bariatric Surgery Patients, 2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 8 pages, 2020.

E. Rutkowski and S. Houghten, Cryptanalysis of RSA: Integer Prime Factorization Using Genetic Algorithms, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 8 pages, 2020.

J.A. Hughes, S. Houghten and J.A. Brown, Gait Model Analysis of Parkinson's Disease Patients under Cognitive Load, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 8 pages, 2020.

M. Dube, S. Houghten and D. Ashlock, Modelling of Epidemics with Vaccination Strategies using Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 8 pages, 2020.

J.A. Brown, D. Ashlock, S. Houghten and A. Romualdo, Evolutionary Graph Compression and Diffusion Methods for City Discovery in Role Playing Games, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 8 pages, 2020.

T.K. Collins and S. Houghten, A Centrality Based Multi-Objective Approach to Disease Gene Association, BioSystems 193-194: 104133, 2020.

Miscellaneous:

I am the coach for Brock University's teams entered in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), formerly the ACM Programming Contest. If you are interested in participating, or wish to know more, contact me.

Here is the weather in St. Catharines, Ontario.

This page last modified 16th October, 2023.
All items copyright 2002-2022, Sheridan Houghten