Dr. Barry McCollum

My main professional academic interest is investigating how Intellectual Property developed through leading edge research can be exploited within an industrial setting. Commercialisation of research and technology transfer are key aspects of this interest and represent areas I am keen to promote within an enterprise and entrepreneurial agenda.

In particular, I am interested in the complex fields of optimization, scheduling and timetabling. Related real world environments encompass many characteristics which continue to challenge researchers, users and software providers alike.

The Scheduling and Optimisation Team within the Knowledge and Data Enginering Research Group at Queen’s University of Belfast combines the important aspects and provides the opportunity to understand, educate and improve the link between research and industry.

I acted as chair of the Second International Timetabling Competition. The aim of this initiative is to encourage researchers from different backgrounds to apply new and exciting techniques to real world problems within the timetabling arena.

I act as co-chair of MISTA and PATAT series of conferences. Both Conferences aim to promote research and practice within the areas of real world scheduling and timetabling.