The NICOG research group focuses on solving real-world problems using machine learning and optimisation techniques that take analogies from nature such as genetic algorithms and neural networks. The current focus areas of the group included: Evolutionary Computation Hyper-heuristics Automated design of machine learning and search techniques Deep Learning Neurevolution Some of the application areas that we are working in include: Operations research - scheduling, packing and logistics problem. Health -disease diagnoses from images and quantitive data. Agriculture - identification of species, identification and prediction of diseases. Broadcasting - optimization, classification and prediction problems. Education - intelligent tutoring systems, learning analytics, learning tools, automated assessment. Natural Language Processing