![Aric Fowler BSc (Hons)](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/4702?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Aric Fowler
(he/they)
BSc (Hons)
Teaching Associate and PhD student
Overview
I am a boulderer, mountain biker, and metalhead, known by some as Pengu. My PhD research is about Eurovision - you can read more about this on the Research tab. I enjoy teaching and plan to become a lecturer after completing my PhD.
Research
My research involves watching Eurovision and complaining about it.
If it takes so long to read out each jury vote individually, what can we do to improve the entertainment? Since the votes are known in advance, we could feasibly re-order the jury votes such that there is a narrative throughout the round - one candidate might take the lead, then be subverted by a surprise underdog. Such narratives can be found using combinatorial optimisation, and since the votes are fixed in advance (we are only permuting the order in which they are read out), we do not affect the outcome.
Teaching
I am a Teaching Associate in COMSC, primarily focusing on the mathematical and theoretical modules. I also supervise student projects relating to metaheuristic search and multi-objective optimisation.
Biography
I became a Teaching Associate at cardiff university in January 2022 and started my PhD in optimisation and social choice shortly after. I am actively working towards FHEA accreditation.
I have roots in forensic science (Foster & Freeman Ltd.) and cyber security (Logically Secure Ltd.)
Research themes
Specialisms
- Optimisation
- Computational complexity and computability
- Computational Social Choice