Computational Intelligence: Synergies of Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks and Evolutionary Computing

Acknowledgements

It is necessary to thank a number of people who have helped in many ways (unknown to them) in the preparation of this book. First of all, the authors would like to thank all staff at the learning resource centre of the Magee Campus of the University of Ulster. Special thanks go to Mr Lewis Childs, who was very kind in finding the latest and rare literature from different sources across the UK. The initial material was developed and used for an MSc course at the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, University of Ulster. Useful feedback was received from many postgraduate students: Dr Neil Glackin, Dr Leo Galway, Dr Patric Gormley, Dr Michael McBride, Dr Julie Wall, Mr Brian McAlister, Mr Jai Verdhan Singh, Dr Erich Michols and Dr Faraz Hasan among them. Thanks go to Dr Tom Lunney, who as the MSc course director communicated many helpful suggestions for improving the course material. Professor Robert John, as an external examiner of the MSc course, was very encouraging in developing the material as a book. Thanks to Professor Liam Maguire, Head of the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, who was very supportive of the first author during the spring semester of 2012, allowing him to be dedicated full time to manuscript preparation.

The authors would like to thank many of their collaborators: Dr Bala Amavasai, Dr Richard Mitchell, Dr Michael O'Grady, Dr Mourad Oussalah, Dr John St. Quinton, Dr Osman Tokhi, Professor Alamgir Hossain, Professor Ali Hessami, ...