Next Meeting: Wadham College, Oxford Meeting : Emergent Behaviour
Tue 3 Jul 2001 - Wed 4 Jul 2001

About

What is NCAF?

The Natural Computing Applications Forum (NCAF) is an independent, non-profit making organisation which offers natural computing practitioners the opportunity to meet and share expertise in a friendly environment.

Established in 1993, NCAF hosts low cost meetings for people from Commerce, Industry and Academia to exchange ideas and experience in the field of Natural Computing, Predictive Analytics, Big Data, Internet of Everything (IoE),  Data Security and Data Mining, Machine Learning and Advanced Statistical Analysis.

Since 1993, NCAF has hosted over 45 meetings  (including themed symposia) across UK universities.

Benefits of attending NCAF meetings:

1. Low cost event that is organised at various University locations in an informal/friendly environment. To keep costs low, the invited speakers volunteer their time and money to give a presentation.

2. Invited lectures/tutorials in addition to presentations given by academics, industrialists and students. NCAF meetings provide friendly environment that promotes interaction with peers.

Want to host a NCAF meeting?

Are you interested in hosting a NCAF meeting in your own University with a theme of your choice? NCAF aims to run its meetings at breakeven costs. However, organisers don’t risk making a loss. Depending on your proposal, NCAF can provide you administrative support for the meeting and also guarantee minimum expenses required for catering and room bookings (even though many Universities support meetings with a free room hire) so that you can focus on arranging speakers and delivering a good quality and low cost meeting. Interested in organising our future meeting? Send your proposal to enquiries [at] ncaf.org.uk

NCAF’s Mission Statement

To promote widespread exploitation of natural computing technology by:

  • providing a focus for natural computing practitioners
  • disseminating information on all aspects of natural computing
  • encouraging close co-operation between industrialists and academics

What is NCAF? Former Chairman [1996-2000] Peter Cowley explains …

  • NCAF is just what its title suggests and a little bit more. It is a forum where interested industrialists, academics and business people can share their experiences of natural computing.
  • It is suitable for people new to the field who want to know how computational intelligence techniques may affect us and our businesses – most meetings have a tutorial and a workshop on some aspect of soft computing. There are ample opportunities to meet and have informal discussions with technology providers and more importantly with other customers, so we can quickly put ourselves in the position of being informed customers.
  • It is suitable for experts – it provides a platform for in depth presentations on new methods and applications. At an EPSRC workshop looking at Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities and Threats to neural computing, NCAF was cited by some of the UK’s leading academics as a unique resource available to UK researchers. It sets the UK apart from the rest of Europe and the US in the opportunity it offers to meet other academics in a non-point scoring environment, and also as an effective match making agency.
  • It is suitable for small companies – whether involved in software supply, sensors, process control or consultancy, NCAF offers unparalleled access to staff from large companies and to leading academics – a source of advice and contacts not normally accessible.
  • NCAF offers a little bit more than a forum for discussion about neural networks. The remit of NCAF includes all techniques that move computer applications into areas which previously needed knowledge, judgement or scarce human resources. This includes Genetic Algorithms, Fuzzy Logic, Bayesian Belief Networks, Intelligent Agents and much more.