about
Phil Husbands
After a BSc in Physics from Manchester University (1982), I worked in mathematical modelling and as a maths and physics teacher. Following an MSc in Information Systems Engineering from South Bank Poly (1985), I developed AI-based diagnostic systems for British Gas at their engineering research station. From there I was recruited by Edinburgh University as a research assistant on an AI in engineering project. While at Edinburgh (86-89) I also did a PhD on coevolutionary genetic algorithms applied to generalised planning and scheduling. In 1989 I came to Sussex as a lecturer in AI in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (COGS). With colleagues in COGS I co-founded the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems group (EASy) in 1992 and served as head until 2013. In 1996 Michael O’Shea (Neuroscience) and I co-founded the cross-school Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) which we jointly directed until 2012. In 1996 I co-founded the highly successful EASy MSc. In 2001 I became Professor of Computer Science and AI.
I was Director of Graduate Studies in COGS (and then Informatics) 1999-2009, and Director of Research in Informatics 2009-2011.
Since 2014 I have been Research Professor of AI in the Department of Informatics.
My research interest are broad, but focus around adaptive systems, both artificial and biological.