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Application Keynote Lecture

Prof. Bob John (Director, Centre for Computational Intelligence, De Montfort University)

Type-2 Fuzzy Logic in Decision Support

Abstract

This talk will provide an overview of Bob's research in type-2 fuzzy logic and its application in Decision Support.

Type-2 fuzzy sets are fuzzy-fuzzy sets - that is, where the fuzzy set has membership grades that are themselves fuzzy sets, rather than numbers in [0,1]. Fuzzy sets (type-1) have had significant success in control applications but by their very definition are not particularly 'fuzzy' and struggle in applications that attempt to mimic human reasoning in decision support systems. Introduced in 1975, type-2 fuzzy logic really started to grow in the late '90s led by Bob and Jerry Mendel. In the intervening period the number of type-2 papers and researchers has grown considerably. This talk will introduce the audience to type-2 fuzzy logic and provide a brief history.

Bob will describe practical application of his work in decision support, such as the aggregation of uncertain information, supply chain modelling and medical diagnosis.

Bob John is currently Professor of Computational Intelligence, Director of the Centre for Computational Intelligence (CCI) and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Technology at De Montfort University. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and Fellow of the British Computer Society. Bob leads the CCI which has 14 academic staff, 28 PhD students and funding from EPSRC, TSB, KTP etcProf. John has published over 140 articles in fuzzy logic of which the vast majority are on the theoretical foundations and applications of type-2 fuzzy logic. His work has produced many fundamental results that have opened the field to new research enabling a broadening of scope and application. Prof. John has two papers amongst the top 1% most cited papers on the ISI Web of Science and has an h-index of 22. He has had over £1.5m of funding from a diverse range of sources including grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Technology Strategy Boards, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the Royal Society.