At a Glance | Employment | Education | Teaching & Admin | Research & Publications| Affiliations & Research Activities | Funding, Awards and Research Students
Name: James Martin Borg BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, AFHEA
Current Employment: Lecturer in Computer Science, Aston University, UK
Years of Teaching Experience: 15 (as of 09/2023)
Published Outputs: 14 (+1 under review, +1 under construction)
h-index: 7
i10-index: 7
Citations: 128
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-6662-0849
Homepage (Institutional): https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/persons/james-borg
Research Interests: Social Learning; Cultural Evolution; Artificial Evolutionary Systems; Evolutionary Robotics; Neuroevolution; Adaptive Behavior; Sociotechnical Systems; Computational Intelligence; Open-ended Evolution; Agent-Based Models
Programming Languages: C++, Java, Python, Pop-11, Prolog, Netlogo
Please expand the sections to see Employment history
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
Please expand the sections to see Education history
"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
Teaching Reflectively in Higher Education
Award: Pass
Keele University
09/2014 - 03/2015
Advanced Computer Science
Award: Merit
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham
09/2008 – 08/2009
Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science
Award: 2:1
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham
09/2005 - 07/2008
Please expand the sections to see further details.
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
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
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
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
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
First Year Tutor: 2019 - 2022
School Disability Support Officer: 2009 - 2010
Personal Tutor: 2009 - ongoing
Placements Tutor: 2022 - ongoing
Please expand the sections to see publication details.
Also see my Publications and Outputs page.
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]
Please expand the sections for further details. For more information on my research interests and activities, and links to my other external research pages (Researchgate, Google Scholar, ...) see my Research page.
Aston University:
Department of Applied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Aston Centre for AI Research and Application (ACAIRA)
Management Committee member: 01/2023 - ongoing
Chair of Doctoral Training Centre Preparedness Group: 05/2024 - ongoing
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)
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)
EPSRC
Peer Review College
Royal Society
International Exchanges Committee Member
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
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
Research Excellence Framework (REF2028) - Internal Review Panel Member (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences)
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
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
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"
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“
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“
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”
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”
Please expand the sections for further details.
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
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
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
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)