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The Nature Inspired Computation and Applications Laboratory (NICAL) is affiliated with the School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). It was the first research laboratory in China devoted to the theory and applications of natural computation, being set up in December 2003. Its mission is to be one of the leading research centres in the world in nature inspired computation and applications.

Natural computation is the study of computational systems that are inspired and/or borrow ideas from natural systems, including biological, ecological, physical, chemical, economical and social systems. Within NICAL, we have active research programmes in evolutionary computation, co-evolutionary problem solving, complex adaptive systems, neural computation, artificial immune systems, evolvable hardware, swarm intelligence, artificial endocrine systems, and various hybrid systems (e.g., quantum evolutionary algoriothms). Our application domains cover a wide range of problems in optmisation, engineering design, data analysis and data mining.

NICAL has extensive links with leading international research centres, such as CERCIA, and regularly hosts international workshops, conferences and individual visitors. If you are interested in visiting us, please get in touch.

News: NICAL will host The 2010 International Workshop on Nature Inspired Computation and Applications (IWNICA'10), October 23-27, Hefei, Anhui, China.