This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 766186. EU Flag

Who we are

Learning to Optimise

ECOLE, is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) for early stage researchers (ESRs) coordinated by the University of Birmingham. It is based on novel synergies between nature inspired optimisation and machine learning. The training programme will be targeted at the automotive industry, but the skill set of the early-stage researchers (ESRs) will be equally valuable to other fast-moving, innovative industries. This four year programme will yield a new generation of high achieving, early stage researchers who will be provided with the transferable skills necessary for thriving careers in emerging and rapidly developing industrial areas.

Research aim

The research aims of ECOLE include shortening the product cycle, reducing the resource consumption during the complete process and creating more balanced and innovative products. Instead of just developing technologies to solve a given optimisation problem, it will take a bold step forward and propose to optimise automatically across problems. Referring to knowledge, skill, and practice derived from problem solving processes in time, the experience of optimising one product or process will be learned and transferred automatically to solve other optimisation problems.