Professor Andy J Keane MSc, PhD, DSc, CEng, FRINA, FIMechE, FREng
Professor of Computational Engineering, Director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Computational Engineering
Professor Andy J Keane is Professor of Computational Engineering within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
I have been at Southampton as a Professor since January 1996, before which I was at Oxford University as a Lecturer in Structural Dynamics and Fellow of Pembroke College. Prior to this I was at Brunel University where I carried out my PhD research. Before this I worked in the concept design division of the U.K. Ministry of Defence Warship Design Agency.
I am a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The CEDG's aim is to provide a focus for the Faculty's activities in the area of computational modelling of engineering systems. Its work is based on the use of powerful parallel and clustered computational facilities drawing on the experience and hardware of the University in this area. The primary activity of the group is to develop and exploit models of engineering systems using powerful computational facilities, i.e., based on models that could not be dealt with by standard desk-top type workstations.
The researchers of the CEDG are investigating a number of techniques in the design and optimization of engineering systems. Prof Keane's contributions to this software has been built up into a sophisticated design exploration system called OPTIONS which allows the rapid comparison of various methods on new design tasks. This tool provides many search methods, both evolutionary and classical, design of experiment methods and response surface construction techniques.
Studentships
We often have a number of fully funded PhD studentships tenable by UK, EU or overseas studentships. These pay full fees and living expenses. If you would like to apply for one please complete and return the forms that may be found from Postgraduate applications web page. Please state that you would like to join the Computational Engineering and Design Group and that you are seeking a full studentship. Please also indicate the area of study you would like to engage in and any particular research interests and we will then assess your application and match it to our staff profile.
Job Vacancies
We sometimes need new research staff for particular projects. These are always advertised at www.jobs.ac.uk when available, please check that site before contacting us directly.
Personal Research interests
My own personal research interests lie in three main areas:
Most recently, I have started researching geometrical deep learning which lies at the intersection of neural and convolution deep learning methods and advanced, voxel based, geometrical definition systems. New tools in this area will support physics assisted learning schemes when applied to engineering artefacts. Our aim is to more simply account for manufacturing variation and in-service degradation of aerospace components.
I am currently engaged on a significant effort in computational engineering which is focussed on the use and development of optimization methods in design. This work involves the construction of a design search and optimization problem solving environment. It is paying particular attention to so called `modern' approaches. These include simulated annealing and genetic algorithm methods. This work is being supported by grants from the UK E.P.S.R.C., Airbus, Rolls-Royce and the UK Ministry of Defence (DSTL). A recent award from the Microsoft has allowed the purchase of a 500 core super computer running the Windows Compute Cluster Edition of Server 2010. I have also collaborated with various other companies such as Jaguar Cars, Qinetiq and EADS Astrium (formerly Matra Marconi Space) on topics in this area. Current developments are addressing the use of case based reasoning, knowledge based systems and expert systems to provide intelligent interfaces to such tools so as to make them more readily usable by practising engineers. We are also working on Grid enabled tools to allow remote and distributed use of the methods we are developing.
My doctoral research was in statistical energy analysis and further development of this research by myself and those working with me has been carried out in collaboration with the Royal Aerospace Establishment, Farnborough and the I.S.V.R. at Southampton University. These studies looked at problems which are characterized by geometric periodicity, such as the `plated and stiffened' designs found in many marine and aerospace structures. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of mode localization which may enable such structures to be built with inherent vibration isolation characteristics without the need for expensive visco-elastic coatings, etc. This work is continuing and is currently looking at the statistical variations found in vibration prediction methods and the design of structures with enhanced noise performance using optimization and rapid prototyping methods. Structures showing marked noise isolation capabilities have been designed and built using these ideas and further work is in hand on large scale model satellite structures which also include active vibration control.
Traditionally automated design optimisation methods use the results from computational simulations to drive an improvement in a design. However, the expense of such simulations can considerably restrict the scope of an optimisation. An alternative is to mix expensive and cheap simulations within a single design optimisation to improve performance.
Traditionally computer aided design (CAD) models represent only geometric information, however, by embedding intelligence and knowledge within the CAD environment the process of design can be streamlined and accelerated.
In this project the feasibility of using active and passive means of vibration control in aerospace structures is investigated. In particular, attention has been focused on controlling vibration transmission through light weight satellite structures at medium frequencies. The structure under test is a 4.5 meter long satellite boom consisting of 10 identical bays with equilateral triangular cross sections. This structure is typical of those that might be used in space telescopes, space stations or synthetic aperture radar systems. Such a structure is typically used to support sensitive instruments in precise alignments spaced tens of metres apart. While a great deal of work has been done on this problem at low frequencies, relatively little has been achieved to date at medium frequencies (here taken to be between 150 Hz and 250 Hz). Nonetheless, this is of importance to new space missions.
Voutchkov, I., & Keane, A. J. (2010). Multi-objective optimization using surrogates. In Y. Tenne, & C. K. Goh (Eds.), Computational intelligence in optimization (Computational Intelligence in Optimization). Springer Verlag.
Keane, A. J. (2010). Surrogate-based optimization. In R. Blockley, & W. Shyy (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering John Wiley & Sons.
Bearpark, K., & Keane, A. J. (2004). The use of collective memory in genetic programming. In Y. Jin (Ed.), Knowledge Incorporation in Evolutionary Computation (pp. 15-36). (Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing; No. 167). Springer.
Robinson, G., El-Beltagy, M., & Keane, A. (1999). Optimization in mechanical design. In P. J. Bentley (Ed.), Evolutionary Design by Computers (pp. 147-166). Morgan Kaufmann (Elsevier).
El-Beltagy, M. A., & Keane, A. J. (1998). Optimisation for multilevel problems: a comparison of various algorithms. In I. C. Parmee (Ed.), Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture: the Integration of Evolutionary and Adaptive Computing Technologies with Product/System Design and Realisation (pp. 111-120). Springer.
Beshara, M., Chohan, G. Y., Keane, A. J., & Price, W. G. (1997). Statistical energy analysis of nonconservatively coupled systems. In A. J. Keane, & W. G. Price (Eds.), Statistical Energy Analysis: An Overview, with Applications in Structural Dynamics (pp. 113-139). Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, X., Toal, D. J. J., Bressloff, N. W., Keane, A. J., Witham, F., Gregory, J., Stow, S., Goddard, C., Zedda, M., & Rodgers, M. (2014). Prometheus: a geometry-centric optimisation system for combustor design. Paper presented at ASME Turbo Expo 2014: Turbine Technical Conference and Exposition, Germany.
Gorissen, D., Quaranta, E., Ferraro, M., Scanlan, J., Keane, A., & Takeda, K. (2012). Architecting a decision environment for complex design evaluation. 1-7. Paper presented at 53rd AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, United States.
Parr, J., Forrester, A. I. J., Keane, A. J., & Holden, C. M. E. (2012). Handling constraints in surrogate-based optimization. Paper presented at 53rd AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, United States.
Ferraro, M., Gorissen, D., Scanlan, J., Keane, A., Quaranta, E., Schumann, B., Van Schaik, J., & Bolinches I Gisbert, M. (2012). Toward value-driven design of a small, low-cost UAV. Paper presented at 53rd AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, United States.
Van Schaik, J., Scanlan, J., Keane, A., & Gorissen, D. (2011). Improving design rationale capture during embodiment design. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (pp. 436-445). Technical University of Denmark.
Voutchkov, I., & Keane, A. J. (2011). Multiobjective optimization using kriging for industrial applications. In M. Hadjiski, K. Boshnakov, & I. Batchkova (Eds.), Proceedings of Anniversary Scientific Conference: 40 Years Department of Industrial Automation (pp. 107-110). University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy.
Nasuf, A., Bhaskar, A., & Keane, A. J. (2009). Shape exploration for structural efficiency. In C. Sansour (Ed.), Proceedings of the 17th UK Conference on Computational Mechanics (pp. 315-318). Association of Computational Mechanics.
Tadjouddine, M., Forth, S. A., & Keane, A. J. (2006). Adjoint differentiation of a structural dynamics solver. In M. Bücker, G. Corliss, P. Hovland, U. Naumann, & B. Norris (Eds.), Automatic Differentiation: Applications, Theory, and Implementations (pp. 309-319). (Lecture Notes in Computational Science & Engineering; Vol. 50). Springer.
Kumar, A., Keane, A. J., Nair, P. B., & Shahpar, S. (2006). Robust design of compressor blades against manufacturing variations. In Proceedings of the 2006 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information In Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE 2006) American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Rao, A. R., Keane, A. J., & Scanlan, J. P. (2005). A cost based methodology for design optimization. In Proceedings of the ASME 2005 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (pp. 1-10). American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Sóbester, A., & Keane, A. J. (2005). Classifier systems can reduce conceptual design cycle time. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovation and Integration in Aerospace Sciences (pp. 1-9). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Hoyle, N., Bressloff, N. W., & Keane, A. J. (2005). Design optimization of an engine air intake. 1254-1258. Paper presented at Third MIT Conference on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics.
Lafronza, L., Song, W., McAlpine, A., Astley, R. J., & Keane, A. J. (2005). Liner optimization using a hybrid finite element method. 1085-1095. Paper presented at 6th European Conference on Turbomachinery, Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics.
Jiao, Z., Wason, J., Song, W., Xu, F., Eres, M. H., Keane, A. J., & Cox, S. J. (2004). Databases, workflows and the grid in a service oriented environment. In M. Danelutto, M. Vanneschi, & D. Laforenza (Eds.), Euro-Par 2004 Parallel Processing: 10th International Euro-Par Conference, Pisa, Italy, August 31- September 3, 2004. Proceedings (pp. 972-979). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; No. 3149). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/b99409
Sobester, A., Nair, P. B., & Keane, A. J. (2004). Evolving intervening variables for response surface approximations. In Proceedings of the 10th AIAA/ISSMO multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization conference (pp. 1-12). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Holden, C. M. E., & Keane, A. J. (2004). Visualization methodologies in aircraft design. In Proceedings of the 10th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference (pp. 1-13). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Keane, A. J. (2003). Advanced aircraft wing optimization. Paper presented at Proceedings of Virtual Prototyping Today: Industrial Impact and Future Trends.
Allan, R., Baker, D., Boyd, D., Chohan, D., Cox, S., Eres, M. H., Fowler, R., Furmento, N., Giddy, J., Harmer, T., Hayes, M., Hill, N., Hillier, J., Jensen, J., Keane, A., Krznaric, M., Lee, W., McKeown, M., Mills, A., ... Watt, J. (2003). Building the e-science grid in the UK: middleware, applications and tools deployed at level 2. Paper presented at UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2003.
Eres, M. H., Pound, G., Jiao, Z., Wason, J., Xu, F., Keane, A., & Cox, S. (2003). Implementation of a grid-enabled problem solving environment in Matlab. In G. Goos, J. Hartmanis, & J. van Leeuwen (Eds.), Computational Science – ICCS 2003: International Conference Melbourne, Australia and St. Petersburg, Russia June 2-4, 2003 Proceedings (pp. 420-429). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 4, No. 2660). Springer.
Forrester, A. I. J., Bressloff, N. W., & Keane, A. J. (2003). Response surface model evolution. Paper presented at 16th AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference.
Bah, M. T., Nair, P. B., Bhaskar, A., & Keane, A. J. (2003). Stochastic component mode synthesis. Paper presented at 44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference.
Ong, Y. S., & Keane, A. J. (2002). Automated optimization system for aircraft wing design. In Proceedings of 7th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Design, Cambridge, UK, 13-17 Jul 2002 Centre for Computational Intelligence.
Hey, A. J. G., Papay, J., Keane, A. J., Cox, S. J., Monien, B. (Ed.), & Feldmann, R. (Ed.) (2002). Component based problem solving environment. In Proceedings of Euro-Par 2002. Parallel Processing : 8th International Euro-Par Conference (Vol. 2400, pp. 105-112). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 2400). Springer.
Chen, L., Shadbolt, N., Tao, F., Cox, S. J., Keane, A., Goble, C., Roberts, A., & Smart, P. (2002). Engineering knowledge for engineering grid applications. Paper presented at Euroweb 2002: The Web and the GRID: from e-science to e-business.
Cox, S. J., Chen, L., Campobasso, S., Duta, M. H., Eres, M. H., Giles, M. B., Goble, C., Jiao, Z., Keane, A. K., Pound, G. E., Roberts, A., Shadbolt, N. R., Tao, F., Wason, J. L., & Xu, F. (2002). Grid enabled optimisation and design search (GEODISE). 54-55. Paper presented at UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 1 (2002).
Cox, S. J., Boardman, R. P., Chen, L., Duta, M., Eres, M. H., Fairman, M. J., Jiao, Z., Giles, M., Goble, C. A., Pound, G. E., Keane, A. J., Scott, M., Shadbolt, N. R., Tao, F., Wason, J. L., & Xue, G. (2002). Grid services in action: grid enabled optimisation and design search. Paper presented at 11th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC-11 '02) 2002.
Chen, L., Cox, S. J., Goble, C., Keane, A. J., Roberts, A., Shadbolt, N. R., Smart, P., & Tao, F. (2002). Knowledge Services for Distributed Service Integration. Paper presented at 1st UK e-Science all-hands meeting.
Song, W., Keane, A. J., Rees, J., Bhaskar, A., & Bagnall, S. (2002). Local shape optimisation of a firtree root using NURBS. In Proceedings of the 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Kim, S., Hall, W., & Keane, A. (2002). Natural language processing for expertise modelling in e-mail communication. In Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning - IDEAL 2002: Third International Conference, Manchester, UK, August 12-14,2002. Proceedings (pp. 161-166). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; No. 2412). Springer.
Holden, C. M. E., Davies, R., & Keane, A. J. (2002). Optimization methodologies in conceptual design. In 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Online Proceedings, 4-6 September 2002 (pp. 1-11). AIAA 2002.
Ong, Y. S., Keane, A. J., & Nair, P. B. (2002). Surrogate-assisted coevolutionary search. In L. Wang, J. C. Rajapakse, K. Fukushima, S-Y. Lee, & X. Yao (Eds.), Neural Information Processing, 2002. ICONIP '02. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on (pp. 1140-1145). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Ong, Y. S., Keane, A. J., & Nair, P. B. (2002). Surrogate-assisted co-evolutionary search. 1140-1145. Paper presented at Proceedings of the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning.
Bah, M. T., Keane, A. J., & Bhaskar, A. (2001). Effects of Uncertainty in Root Fixity on Turbine Blade Free Vibration. In K. J. Bathe (Ed.), Computational fluid and solid mechanics: Proceedings of the first MIT conference on computational fluid and solid mechanics Elsevier Science.
Nair, P. B., Choudhury, A., & Keane, A. J. (2001). Some greedy algorithms for sparse nonlinear regression. In C. E. Brodley, & A. P. Danylik (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Machine Learning (pp. 369-376). Morgan Kaufmann.
Leary, S. J., Voutchkov, I., Bhaskar, A., & Keane, A. J. (2001). The use of multifidelity approximations in engineering design. In P. J. Waltrup (Ed.), Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Air Breathing Machines American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Kim, S., Hall, W., & Keane, A. J. (2000). A hybrid user model in text categorisation. In Proceedings of KDD-2000: Sixth ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (pp. 103-104). ACM.
Wason, J. L., Cox, S. J., Keane, A. J., Allen, R. (Ed.), & Kleese, K. (Ed.) (2000). Flexible knowledge repositories for problem solving environments. 199-205. Paper presented at Data Management 2000 - Proceedings of the International Workshop on Advanced Data Storage / Management for High Performance Computing.
Nair, P. B., & Keane, A. J. (2000). New developments in computational stochastic mechanics, part 1: theory. In Proceedings of AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference and Exhibition (pp. 1-11). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Nair, P. B., & Keane, A. J. (2000). Reduced basis representation of large-scale random eigenvalue problems. In Proceedings of AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference and Exhibition (pp. 1-11). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Bearpark, K., & Keane, A. J. (2000). Short term memory in genetic programming. In I. C. Parmee (Ed.), Evolutionary Design and Manufacture: Selected Papers from ACDM '00 (pp. 309-320). Springer Verlag.
Moshrefi-Torbati, M., Keane, A. J., Elliott, S. J., Brennan, M. J., & Rogers, E. (2000). The integration of advanced active and passive structural vibration control. Paper presented at Proceedings of the First International Conference on Vibration Engineering and Technology of Machinery (VETOMAC-I), India.
Keane, A. J., & Robinson, G. M. (1999). Experiences with optimizers in design. 89. Paper presented at 14th International Symposium on Air Breathing Engines (ISABE).
Robinson, G. M., & Keane, A. J. (1998). A case for multi-level optimisation in aeronautical design. In Proceedings of the Royal Aeronautical Society Conference on Multidisciplinary Design and Optimisation (pp. 1-6). Royal Aeronautical Society.
McMillan, A. J., & Keane, A. J. (1997). Design for vibration characteristics. In M. D. Gilchrist (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Modern Practice in Stress and Vibration Analysis (pp. 317-324). Balkema.
Forrester, A. I. J., & Keane, A. J. (1970). Novel passive vibration isolators. Paper presented at ISMA International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Belgium.
