Lecturer in Computer Science

• School of Computer Science and Digital Technologies

• Aston University

• 01/2022 – ongoing

Lecturer in Evolutionary Systems

• School of Computing and Mathematics

• Keele University

• 01/2018 – 01/2022

Teaching Fellow (Full Time)

• School of Computing and Mathematics

• Keele University

• 09/2016 – 01/2018

Teaching Fellow (Part Time)

• School of Computing and Mathematics

• Keele University

• 09/2009 – 09/2016

Sessional Teacher

• School of Computing and Mathematics

• Keele University

• 01/2022 – 03/2022

Demonstrator/ Teaching Assistant

• School of Computer Science

• University of Birmingham

• 09/2008 – 07/2009

PhD

• "The emergence and utility of social behaviour and social learning in artificial evolutionary systems"

• School of Computing and Mathematics

• Keele University

• 11/2009 – 03/2018

• https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4533 [Also Read Here]

Postgraduate Award

• Teaching Reflectively in Higher Education

• Award: Pass

• Keele University

• 09/2014 - 03/2015

MSc

• Advanced Computer Science

• Award: Merit

• School of Computer Science

• University of Birmingham

• 09/2008 – 08/2009

Bsc(Hons)

• Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science

• Award: 2:1

• School of Computer Science

• University of Birmingham 

• 09/2005 - 07/2008

HFEQ Level 4 (1st Year)

• • Object Oriented Programming: 2024 - 2025 

  • Communication, Confidence and Competence: 2021 - 2022

  • Cybercrime: 2010 - 2017, 2018 - 2022

  • Natural Computation: 2016 - 2017

  • Programming II: Data Structures and Algorithms: 2015 - 2016

  • Programming I: Programming Fundamentals: 2011 - 2012

  • Information Systems and Interaction: 2011 - 2014

  • Introduction to Information Systems: 2010 - 2011

  • Human Computer Interaction: 2009 - 2011

HEFQ Level 5 (2nd Year)

• • Computational and Artificial Intelligence I: 2019 - 2022

  • Individual Study Topic in Computer Science: 2019 - 2020

  • Computational Intelligence I:  2016 - 2019

  • Advanced Programming Practices: 2012 - 2014

HFEQ Level 6 (3rd Year)

• • UG Projects (module teaching): 2011 - 2019

  • UG Projects (supervision): 2011 - ongoing

  • Security Governance, Risk Management and Policy: 2022 - 2023

  • Cybercrime, Cyber Law & Privacy:
    2023 - ongoing

  • Multi-Agent Systems:
    2023 - ongoing

Level 7 (4th Year/MSc)

• • Research Methods and Professional Practice: 2024 - 2025

  • Deep Learning: 2022 - ongoing

  • Research and Consultancy Skills: 2017 - 2018

  • Collaborative Application Development: 2016 - 2017

  • MSc Projects (supervision): 2011 - ongoing

  • MSc Projects (module teaching): 2011 - 2013

Administration

• • Programme Director - BSc Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: 2024 - ongoing

  • Aston University, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Board of Studies: 2024 - ongoing

  • Aston Centre for AI Research and Applications (ACAIRA) Management Committee Member: 2023 - ongoing  

  • Placements Coordinator (Computer Science):
    2023 - 2024

  • Computing at Schools Community Hub Leader: 2021 - 2022

  • School Sustainability Committee Member: 2020 - 2022

  • Faculty of Natural Sciences Ethics Committee Member: 2018 - 2022

  • School Education Committee Member: 2018 - 2022

  • School Academic Conduct Officer: 2018 - 2022

  • Student Voice Committee Convener: 2017 - 2022

  • Departmental Seminar Organiser: 2015 - 2018

  • Departmental Examinations Officer: 2016 - 2017

  • Green Impact Team Member: 2014 - 2016

  • International Study Centre (Study Group International) Link Tutor: 2011 - 2014

  • School Learning and Teaching Committee Member: 2011 - 2014

Pastoral

• • First Year Tutor: 2019 - 2022

  • School Disability Support Officer: 2009 - 2010

  • Personal Tutor: 2009 - ongoing

  • Placements Tutor: 2022 - ongoing

• Borg JM and Lewis P (under construction). The Tower of Adaptivity: Seeking Interdisciplinary Clarity in the Study of Adaptive Systems. TBC

• Brooks N, Powers ST and Borg JM (under review). Promoting Social Behaviour in Reducing Peak Electricity Consumption Using Multi-Agent Systems. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems. ACM

• Borg JM, Buskell A, Kapitany R, Powers ST, Reindl E and Tennie C. (early access). Evolved open-endedness in cultural evolution: A new dimension in open-ended evolution research. Artificial Life. MIT Press. https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.13050

• Grove M, Timbrell L, Jolley B, Polack F and Borg JM. (2022). The importance of noise colour in simulations of evolutionary systems. Artificial Life, vol. 27 (3–4), pp.164-182. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00354

• Borg JM and Channon A. (2021). The effect of social information use without learning on the evolution of social behavior. Artificial Life, vol. 26(4), pp.431-454. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00328 

• Marriott C, Borg JM, Andras P, Smaldino PE. (2018). Social Learning and Cultural Evolution in Artificial Life. Artificial Life, vol. 24(1), pp.5-9. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00250

• Grove M, Borg JM and Polack F. (2020). Coloured noise time series as appropriate models for environmental variation in artificial evolutionary systems. Proceedings of ALIFE 2020: The 2020 Conference on Artificial Life. (pp. 292-299) MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00284 (awarded Best Paper)

• Brooks N, Powers ST and Borg JM. (2020). A mechanism to promote social behaviour in household load balancing. Proceedings of ALIFE 2020: The 2020 Conference on Artificial Life. (pp. 95-103) MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00290

• Borg JM and Channon A. (2017). Evolutionary Adaptation to Social Information Use Without Learning. Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EVOAPPLICATIONS 2017, PT I (vol. 10199, pp. 837-852). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55849-3_54

• Jolley BP, Borg JM, Channon A. (2016). Analysis of Social Learning Strategies When Discovering and Maintaining Behaviours Inaccessible to Incremental Genetic Evolution. From Animals to Animats 14 (vol. 9825, pp. 293-304). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43488-9_26

• Borg J and Channon AD. (2012). Testing the Variability Selection Hypothesis: The Adoption of Social Learning in Increasingly Variable Environments. In: ALIFE 13: The 13th Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. (pp. 317-314). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-31050-5-ch042

• Borg JM, Channon A, Day C. (2011). Discovering and maintaining behaviours inaccessible to incremental genetic evolution through transcription errors and cultural transmission. In: ECAL 2011: Proceeding of the Eleventh European Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. (pp. 101-108). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/978-0-262-29714-1-ch019 [Read Here]

• Borg JM and Powers ST. (2021). Evolved Open-Endedness in Cultural Evolution. OEE4: The Fourth Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution. http://workshops.alife.org/oee4/papers/borg-oee4-camera-ready.pdf [Read Here]

• Borg JM, Jolley BP, Channon A. (2016). Social Learning Strategies: Who you learn from affects how new behaviours are discovered. The First International Workshop of Social Learning and Cultural Evolution. Cancun, Mexico. http://www.climbinggiants.com/slace/program/SLaCE-2016_paper_5.pdf [Read Here]

Work Affiliations

• Aston University:

  • College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

  • School of Computer Science and Digital Technologies

  • Department of Applied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

  • Aston Lab for Intelligent Collectives Engineering (ALICE)

  • Aston Autonomous Robotics and Perception (ARP) Laboratory

  • Aston Centre for AI Research and Application (ACAIRA)

    • Management Committee member: 01/2023 - ongoing

    • Chair of Doctoral Training Centre Preparedness Group: 05/2024 - ongoing

External Organisation Affiliations (Academic)

• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College

• Member of the Royal Society International Exchanges Panel

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

• Member of the International Society for Artificial Life (ISAL)

• Member of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB)

• Member of the Cultural Evolution Society (CES)

• Associate Member of the Linnean Society of London (LS)

• Professional Member of the British Computer Society (BCS)

• Professional Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Former External Organisation Affiliations (Academic)

• Leader of Computing at School (CAS) Stoke Secondary Community (until 2022)

• Member of the Cambridge Higher Education Panel (until 2022)

• Evolutionary Systems Research Group - Keele University (until 2022)

Grant and Fellowship Reviewing

• EPSRC 

  • Peer Review College

• Royal Society

  • International Exchanges Committee Member

Programme Committee Memberships

• Artificial Life conference 2025, Kyoto, Japan

• The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), 2024, Melbourne, Australia/Hybrid

• Artificial Life conference 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark/Hybrid

• The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), 2023, Lisbon, Portugal/Hybrid

• Artificial Life conference 2023, Sapporo, Japan/Hybrid

• Artificial Life conference, 2022, Trento, Italy/Virtual

• Artificial Life conference, 2021, Prague, Czech Republic/Virtual

• Artificial Life conference, 2020, Montreal, Canada/Virtual

• Artificial Life conference, 2019, Newcastle, UK

• Artificial Life conference, 2018, Tokyo, Japan

• European Conference on Artificial Life, 2017, Lyon, France

• Artificial Life XV conference, 2016, Cancun, Mexico

Reviewer Activity and Editorships

• Adaptive Behavior Journal - Reviewer

• ACM Transactions on Autonomous & Adaptive Systems - Reviewer

• AI & Society Journal - Reviewer

• Artificial Life Journal - Reviewer

• Cognitive Systems Research Journal - Guest Editor

• Future Generation Computer Systems - Reviewer

• IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Reviewer

• Journal of Artificial General Intelligence - Reviewer 

• Journal of Computational Social Sciences - Reviewer

Internal Reviewing:

• Research Excellence Framework (REF2028) - Internal Review Panel Member (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences)

Other

• External Examiner (PhD) - University of Bristol

  • 2023 

  • Student: Hugo Israel Alcaraz Herrera

  • Thesis Title: "Studies on Complex Representations for Evolutionary Computation and Mitigation Techniques for Pathologies Observed in Coevolutionary Computation"

  • PhD Advisor: Dr John Cartlidge, University of Bristol

• External Examiner (PhD) - King's College London

  • 2023 

  • Student: Yan Sun

  • Thesis Title: "Understanding the Impacts of Flash Crashes in a Market under Asymmetric Information with Agent-based Modelling"

  • PhD Advisors: Prof. Peter McBurney, King's College London;  Dr. Frederik Mallmann-Trenn, King's College London

• External Examiner (PhD) - King's College London

  • 2023

  • Student: Yuanzi Zhu

  • Thesis Title: "Exploring Country-Specific Globalisation Strategies via Agent-based Modelling"

  • PhD Advisor: Prof. Carmine Ventre, King's College London

• External Examiner (PhD) - Aston University

  • 2021

  • Student: Chloe Barnes

  • Thesis Title: "Interference and Volatility in Evolutionary Agent-Based Systems"

  • PhD Advisor: Dr Peter Lewis, Aston University

• External Examiner (MRes) - University of Birmingham

  • 2021

  • Student: Zimin Liang

  • Project Title: “Use Agent-Based Simulation to Investigate the Impact of Social Learning Between Communities”

  • MRes Advisor: Dr Per Kristian Lehre, University of Birmingham

• Internal Examiner (PhD - Progression)

  • 2021

  • Student: Jamila Osman

  • Project Title: “An  Investigation  of  how Artificial Intelligence can be taught in the British Secondary Curriculum”

  • PhD Advisors: Dr Ed de Quincey, Keele University; Dr Sandra Woolley, Keele University.

• External Examiner (MSc) - University of Cape Town

  • 2019

  • Student: Chien-Lun (Allen) Huang

  • Project Title: “Neuro-Evolution Search Methodologies for Collective Self-Driving Vehicles”

  • MSc Advisor: Dr Geoff Nitschke, University of Cape Town

Workshop and Event Organisation

• Cultural Evolution Online

  • Discord Group, 2020 - ongoing

• Social Learning and Cultural Evolution Workshop (SLaCE)

  • Fifth International Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution - Artificial Life conference, 2021, Prague, Czech Republic (virtual)

  • Fourth International Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution - Artificial Life conference, 2019, Newcastle, UK

  • Second International Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution - European Conference on Artificial Life, 2017, Lyon, France

  • First International Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution - Artificial Life XV conference, 2016, Cancun, Mexico

• Workshop on Evolution of Human Behaviour

  • Artificial Life conference, 2019, Newcastle, UK  

• Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Social learning, Communication, Language and Culture in Natural and Artificial Agents (EVOSLACE)

  • Artificial Life conference, 2018, Tokyo, Japan

• 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution

  • Keele University,  UK, 2017

Invited Talks and Participation

• Royal Society Discussion Meeting: The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines

  • The Royal Society, London, 14 - 15 March 2022

  • Nature: Accepted Poster

  • Poster Title: "Beyond Cumulative Culture: Evolved Open-Endedness in Real and Artificial Cultural Evolutionary Systems"

  • Poster

• OEE4: The Fourth Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution

  • Prague, Czech Republic (virtual), 19 - 23 July 2021

  • Nature: Accepted Talk

  • Talk Title:  “Evolved Open-Endedness in Cultural Evolution“

  • Extended Abstract

• Cultural Evolution Society Conference

  • Sapporo, Japan (virtual), 9 - 11 June 2021

  • Nature: Accepted Talk

  • Talk Title: “Insights from Artificial Life: Measuring and Classifying Open-Ended Evolutionary Dynamics“

  • Recording, Slides and Abstract

• York Cross-disciplinary Centre for Systems Analysis Seminar Series

  • University of York (virtual), 18 March 2021

  • Nature: Invited Talk

  • Talk Title: “Coloured noise and the evolution of environmental tolerance in artificial evolutionary systems

  • Recording, Slides and Abstract

• 3rd Trusting Intelligence Machines (TIM) Workshop 

  • Schloss Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 26 -29 May 2020

  • Nature: Invited Participation

• 2nd Trusting Intelligence Machines (TIM) Workshop 

  • Schloss Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 27 -29 May 2019

  • Nature: Invited Participation (unable to attend)

• Workshop on Evolution and Dynamics of Institutions 2019

  • Edinburgh Napier University, UK, 20 - 22 May 2019

  • Nature: Invited Talk

  • Talk Title: “Evolutionary adaptation to social information use without learning”

• The First International Workshop of Social Learning and Cultural Evolution.

  • Cancun, Mexico, 2016

  • Nature: Accepted Talk

  • Talk Title: “Social Learning Strategies: Who you learn from affects how new behaviours are discovered”

  • Extended Abstract

• Research Centre for Environment, Physical Sciences, and Mathematics (EPSAM) Festival 2012

  • Keele University, UK, 2012

  • Nature: Invited Talk

  • Talk Title: “Social Learning and Cultural Evolution in Artificial Evolutionary Systems”

Funding Awarded

• Keele University, Research Development Funding - £3100

  • With: Dr Matt Grove, University of Liverpool

  • For: Support for development of interdisciplinary research project with Dr Matt Grove, University of Liverpool

  • Project: “The effect of scaling coloured noise time series on modeling population persistence and extinction.”

• Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ILAS Fellowship - £5000

  • With: Prof Fiona Polack, Keele University; Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University.

  • For: Institute Fellowship for Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University

  • Project Title: “A socio-technical systems approach to balancing energy consumption on smart energy networks”

• Satellite Workshop Grant, International Society of Artificial Life, 2019 - £1000

  • With: Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University; Cedric Perret, Edinburgh Napier University; Dr The Anh Han, Teesside University; Prof Tom Lenaerts, Université Libre de Bruxelles

  • Workshop Title: “Evolution of Human Behaviour: Using Theory to Address Societal Challenges”

• Satellite Workshop Grant, International Society of Artificial Life, 2019 - £1000

  • With: Prof Peter Andras, Keele University; Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University; Dr Chris Marriott, University of Washington

  • Workshop Title: “The Fourth Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution”

• Workshop Grant, Cultural Evolution Society, 2019 - $1000 (£775)

  • With: Prof Peter Andras, Keele University; Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University; Dr Chris Marriott, University of Washington

  • For: Workshop Title: “The Fourth Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution”

• Interdisciplinary Research Workshop Funding, Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS), Keele University, 2017 - £2000

  • With: Prof Peter Andras, Keele University; Dr Alex Thornton, University of Exeter; Dr Evert Haasdijk, VU Amsterdam; Dr Matt Grove, University of Liverpool; Dr Alastair Channon, Keele University.

  • Workshop Title: “1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution”

• Andrew Robertson Travel Bursary, Keele University, 2016 - £500

  • For: Attendance of Artificial Life 2016 Conference, 2016, Cancun, Mexico

• Student Bursary Award, HEIRACTIC, 2015 - £500

  • For: Attendance of European Conference on Artificial Life, 2015, York, UK

Total Funding: £13,875 

In Preparation/ Under Review

• John Templeton Foundation Grant

  • Title: “Forecasting Faith: Machine Learning & Agent-Based Models for the Cultural Evolution of Religion and Spiritual Beliefs”

  • Role: Co-Primary Investigator

  • Status: Under Review - Second Round

  • Value: £430,451

Unsuccessful

2024

• John Templeton Foundation Grant

  • Title: "Open-Ended Evolutionary Systems"

  • With: Alastair Channon, Keele University; Tim Taylor; Independent Researcher

  • Role: Primary Investigator

  • Status: Unsuccessful

  • Value: £412,340

• NIH - R01 Grant

  • Title: "Using lab-in-the-loop machine learning to model alphavirus neuroinvasion "

  • With: Naomi Forrester-Soto, Keele University (PI); Shannan Rossi, University of Texas; Felipe Campelo, Aston University

  • Role: Co-I 

  • Status: Unsuccessful

  • Value: $3,101,194

2023

• UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training

  • Title: "UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in FAIRness and social good (FAIR)"

  • With: Aniko Ekart, Ulysses Bernardet, Andrew Schofield, Lucy Bastin, Pavel Albores, Tony Dodd, Jo Lumsden, ... all Aston University

  • Status: Unsuccessful at External Stage

  • Value: £2,000,000+

• Leverhulme Doctoral Fellowships

  • Title: "Leverhulme Adaptive Systems Doctoral Training Programme "

  • With: Aniko Ekart, Jo Lumsden, Andrew Schofield, Shereen Fouad, Lucy Bastin, Chloe Barnes, Adam Stanton, Tim Meese, ... all Aston University

  • Role: Co-I

  • Status: Unsuccessful at Internal Stage

  • Value: £1,500,000+

2022

• EPSRC Grant (EP/W025116/1)

  • Title: "Co-creating Fair Digital Societies" 

  • With: Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier (PI); Neil Urquhart - Edinburgh Napier; Zhong Fan, Keele University; Masi Noor, Keele University; Jaiqi Ge, University of Leeds; Josie McCulloch, University of Leeds.

  • Role: Co-I (Keele University Lead)

  • Status: Unsuccessful

  • Value: £505,270.01

• Templeton Trust: "Explaining Atheism" Project

  • Title: "The Social Learning of Unbelief in Childhood"

  • With: Rohan Kapitany, Keele University; Emily Burdett, University of Nottingham

  • Role: Consultant

  • Status: Unsuccessful

  • Value: £123,538 

• Wellcome Discovery Award

  • Title: "Capturing Chaos: A more inclusive model of arbovirus transmission and risk "

  • With: Naomi Forrester-Soto, Keele University (PI); Eric Fevre, University of Liverpool; Joshua Onyango, Harper & Keele Veterinary School; Felipe Campelo, Aston University

  • Role: Co-I

  • Status: Unsuccessful

  • Value: £3,000,000 +

Best Paper at the 2020 Conference on Artificial Life 

• • Coloured noise time series as appropriate models for environmental variation in artificial evolutionary systems. (with Matt Grove and Fiona Polack) https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00284

Hugh Charterton

• PhD Topic: Social Learning in Neuroevolutionary Systems

• Co Supervisors: Prof Aniko Ekart; Aston University

• Start Date: January 2025

Nathan Brooks

• • PhD Title: “Responsible social policy formation within complex socio-technical systems with heterogeneous social substructures”

  • Co Supervisor: Dr Alastair Channon, Keele University; Dr Simon Powers, Edinburgh Napier University

  • Examiners: Prof. Jeremy Pitt, Imperial College London; Dr Charles Day, Keele University

  • Start Date: September 2019

  • Completed: May 2024 (pending corrections)