My research involves the development and use of evolutionary algorithms to search for solutions to complex problems. Typical applications cover areas as diverse as: determining collagen structure, chemotherapy scheduling, routing of midwife visits, automated production of models from data. Outside of University life, my main interests involve variations on the theme of getting wet or cold (an adaptive response to living in Scotland). In the summer I try to make the most of the ample wind and limited sunshine by indulging in windsurfing and sailing.
The main focus of my current research activity concentrates on Computational Intelligence with a particular focus on Genetic Algorithms and optimal control problems. Some examples of the application areas I am investigating are: Finding an optimal fit for collagen fibril distribution using Genetic Algorithms. Modelling the relationship between post-natal recovery and childbirth using Neural Networks. Combining Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms to automatically generate scenes for Virtual Reality environments. For more information on my research activities, please visit: SASSA Project Evolutionary Computation applied to X-ray Diffraction
Improving quality of life and swallowing function in patients with head and neck cancer: Development and feasibility of a Swallowing Intervention Pack (SIP)
PI: Professor Mary Wells
Funded by: Chief Scientist Office
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Knowledge Transfer Partnership between University of Stirling and The Royal College of Midwives
PI:
Funded by: Royal College of Midwives and Technology Strategy Board
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Interpretable decision trees to predict solution fitness
Catalano GAPI, Brownlee AEI, Cairns D & Ainslie R (2025) Interpretable decision trees to predict solution fitness. In: GECCO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 14.07.2025-18.07.2025. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456
Conference Paper (published)
Explaining a Staff Rostering Problem using Partial Solutions
Catalano GAPI, Brownlee A, Cairns D, McCall J, Fyvie M & Ainslie R (2024) Explaining a Staff Rostering Problem using Partial Solutions. In: TBC. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. AI-2024 Forty-fourth SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, 17.12.2024-19.12.2024. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Conference Paper (published)
Towards Explainable Metaheuristic: Mining Surrogate Fitness Models for Importance of Variables
Singh M, Brownlee AEI & Cairns D (2022) Towards Explainable Metaheuristic: Mining Surrogate Fitness Models for Importance of Variables. In: GECCO '22: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion. GECCO '22:, Boston, USA, 09.07.2022-13.07.2022. New York: ACM, pp. 1785-1793. https://doi.org/10.1145/3520304.3533966
Conference Paper (published)
Effective use of evolutionary computation to parameterise an epidemiological model
Mitchell R, Cairns D, Hamami D, Pollock K & Shankland C (2021) Effective use of evolutionary computation to parameterise an epidemiological model. In: Cazzaniga P, Besozzi D, Merelli I & Manzoni L (eds.) Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 12313. CIBB 2019: 16th International Conference on Computational Intelligence methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, Bergamo, Italy, 04.09.2019-06.09.2019. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63061-4_3
Conference Paper (published)
Wallace A, Brownlee AEI & Cairns D (2021) Towards explaining metaheuristic solution quality by data mining surrogate fitness models for importance of variables. In: Bramer M & Ellis R (eds.) Artificial Intelligence XXXVIII. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 13101. 41st SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI 2021, Cambridge, 14.12.2021-16.12.2021. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 58-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91100-3_5
Conference Paper (published)
Mining Markov Network Surrogates to Explain the Results of Metaheuristic Optimisation
Brownlee A, Wallace A & Cairns D (2021) Mining Markov Network Surrogates to Explain the Results of Metaheuristic Optimisation. In: Martin K, Wiratunga N & Wijekoon A (eds.) Proceedings of the SICSA eXplainable Artifical Intelligence Workshop 2021. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2894. SICSA eXplainable Artifical Intelligence Workshop 2021, Aberdeen, 01.06.2021-01.06.2021. Aachen: CEUR Workshop Proceedings, pp. 64-70. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2894/short9.pdf
Article
Optimising efficacy of antibiotics against systemic infection by varying dosage quantities and times
Hoyle A, Cairns D, Paterson I, McMillan S, Ochoa G & Desbois AP (2020) Optimising efficacy of antibiotics against systemic infection by varying dosage quantities and times. PLoS Computational Biology, 16 (8), Art. No.: e1008037. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008037
Article
Cowie J, Boa S, King E, Wells M & Cairns D (2018) Electronic Swallowing Intervention Package to Support Swallowing Function in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer: Development and Feasibility Study. JMIR Formative Research, 2 (2), Art. No.: e15. https://doi.org/10.2196/formative.9703
Conference Paper (published)
Multifractality and Dimensional Determinism in Local Optima Networks
Thomson S, Verel S, Ochoa G, Veerapen N & Cairns D (2018) Multifractality and Dimensional Determinism in Local Optima Networks. In: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2018. 2018 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2018), Kyoto, Japan, 15.07.2018-19.07.2018. New York: ACM, pp. 371-378. http://gecco-2018.sigevo.org; https://doi.org/10.1145/3205455.3205472
Conference Paper (published)
Exploring Fitness and Edit Distance of Mutated Python Programs
Haraldsson S, Woodward J, Brownlee A & Cairns D (2017) Exploring Fitness and Edit Distance of Mutated Python Programs. In: McDermott J, Castelli M, Sekanina L, Haasdijk E & García-Sánchez P (eds.) Genetic Programming: 20th European Conference, EuroGP 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 19-21, 2017, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10196. EuroGP 2017: Genetic Programming, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 19.04.2017-21.04.2017. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55696-3_2
Conference Paper (published)
A Targeted Estimation of Distribution Algorithm Compared to Traditional Methods in Feature Selection
Neumann G & Cairns D (2016) A Targeted Estimation of Distribution Algorithm Compared to Traditional Methods in Feature Selection. In: Madani K, Dourado A, Rosa A, Filipe J & Kacprzyk J (eds.) Computational Intelligence: Revised and Selected Papers of the International Joint Conference, IJCCI 2013, Vilamoura, Portugal, September 20-22, 2013. Studies in Computational Intelligence, 613. 5th International Joint Conference on Computational Intellegience, IJCCI 2013, Vilamoura, Portugal, 20.09.2013-22.09.2013. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 83-103. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-23392-5_5; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23392-5_5
Conference Paper (published)
Revisiting Planarity in Position-Based Routing for Wireless Networks
Cairns D, Fayed M & Mouftah HT (2013) Revisiting Planarity in Position-Based Routing for Wireless Networks. In: Zheng J, Mitton N, Li J & Lorenz P (eds.) Ad Hoc Networks: 4th International ICST Conference, ADHOCNETS 2012, Paris, France, October 16-17, 2012, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 111. 4th International ICST Conference, ADHOCNETS 2012, Paris, France, 16.10.2012-17.10.2012. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 87-102. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-36958-2_7#; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36958-2_7
Conference Paper (published)
Towards position-based routing for mobile environments
Cairns D & Fayed M (2012) Towards position-based routing for mobile environments. In: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on mobile systems, applications, and services. MobiSys, 12. MobiSys'12 The 10th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, Low Wood Bay, Lake District, UK, 25.06.2012-29.06.2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 523-524. https://doi.org/10.1145/2307636.2307715; https://doi.org/10.1145/2307636.2307715
Conference Paper (published)
Evolving Bio-PEPA process algebra models using genetic programming
Marco D, Shankland C & Cairns D (2012) Evolving Bio-PEPA process algebra models using genetic programming. In: Proc. of the 14th International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO). GECCO, 14. Fourteenth International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation conference (GECCO) 2012, Philadelphia, USA, 07.07.2012-11.07.2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 177-184. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2330163.2330189; https://doi.org/10.1145/2330163.2330189
Conference Paper (published)
Marco D, Scott E, Cairns D, Graham A, Allen JE, Mahajan SM & Shankland C (2012) Investigating co-infection dynamics through evolution of Bio-PEPA model parameters: a combined process algebra and evolutionary computing approach. In: Gilbert D & Heiner M (eds.) Computational Methods in Systems Biology: 10th International Conference, CMSB 2012, London, UK, October 3-5, 2012. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 7605. The 10th Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB 2012, London, UK, 03.10.2012-05.10.2012. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 227-246. http://sites.brunel.ac.uk/cmsb2012; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33636-2_14
Conference Paper (published)
Targeted EDA Adapted for a Routing Problem with Variable Length Chromosomes
Neumann G & Cairns D (2012) Targeted EDA Adapted for a Routing Problem with Variable Length Chromosomes. In: Li X (ed.) Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC). 2012 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Brisbane, Australia, 10.06.2012-15.06.2012. Brisbane, Australia: IEEE, pp. 334-341. https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2012.6256531
Conference Paper (published)
Introducing intervention targeting into estimation of distribution algorithms
Neumann G & Cairns D (2012) Introducing intervention targeting into estimation of distribution algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing. SAC, 12. SAC '12 The 27th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Riva del Garda (Trento), Italy, 26.03.2012-30.03.2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM Press, pp. 220-225. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2245276.2245320; https://doi.org/10.1145/2245276.2245320
Conference Paper (published)
Optimisation of Process Algebra Models Using Evolutionary Computation
Marco D, Cairns D & Shankland C (2011) Optimisation of Process Algebra Models Using Evolutionary Computation. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2011. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, Singapore, 05.06.2011-08.06.2011. Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 1296-1301. https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2011.5949765
Technical Report
An Analysis of Planarity in Face-Routing
Fayed M, Cairns D & Mouftah HT (2010) An Analysis of Planarity in Face-Routing. Technical Report, CSM-184. Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling.
Website Content
Soil Analysis Support System for Archaeology (SASSA)
Davidson D, Wilson C, Pollard E, Cairns D, Cowie J & Blunn M (2009) Soil Analysis Support System for Archaeology (SASSA). 2009. www.sassa.org.uk.
Book Chapter
An Adjectival Interface for Procedural Content Generation
Hultquist C, Gain J & Cairns D (2009) An Adjectival Interface for Procedural Content Generation. In: Plemenos D & Miaoulis G (eds.) Intelligent Computer Graphics 2009. Studies in Computational Intelligence, Volume 240. Berlin: Springer, pp. 143-165. http://www.springer.com/engineering/computational+intelligence+and+complexity/book/978-3-642-03451-0; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03452-7_8
Article
A Mobile Knowledge Management and Decision Support Tool for Soil Analysis
Cowie J, Cairns D, Blunn M, Wilson C, Pollard E & Davidson D (2009) A Mobile Knowledge Management and Decision Support Tool for Soil Analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 29 (5), pp. 397-406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.02.004
Conference Paper (published)
Optimisation and Fitness Modelling of Bio-control in Mushroom Farming Using a Markov Network EDA
Brownlee A, Wu Y, McCall J, Godley PM, Cairns D & Cowie J (2008) Optimisation and Fitness Modelling of Bio-control in Mushroom Farming Using a Markov Network EDA. In: Keijzer M (ed.) Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation, (GECCO-2008). Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2008, Atlanta, Georgia, 12.07.2008-16.07.2008. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 465-466. https://doi.org/10.1145/1389095.1389180
Conference Paper (published)
The Effects of Mutation and Directed Intervention Crossover When Applied to Scheduling Chemotherapy
Godley PM, Cairns D, Cowie J, McCall J & Swingler K (2008) The Effects of Mutation and Directed Intervention Crossover When Applied to Scheduling Chemotherapy. In: Keijzer M (ed.) Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation (GECCO). ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 2008, Atlanta, Georgia, 12.07.2008-16.07.2008. New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 1105-1106. http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1389095&type=proceeding&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=47644191&CFTOKEN=12932833; https://doi.org/10.1145/1389095.1389300
Conference Paper (published)
Bio-control in Mushroom Farming Using a Markov Network EDA
Wu Y, McCall J, Godley PM, Brownlee A & Cairns D (2008) Bio-control in Mushroom Farming Using a Markov Network EDA. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2008. CEC 2008. (IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence). IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2008, CEC 2008, (IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence), Hong Kong, 01.06.2008-06.06.2008. Hoboken, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 2991-2996. https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2008.4631201
Conference Paper (published)
Fitness Directed Intervention Crossover Approaches Applied to Bio-Scheduling Problems
Godley PM, Cairns D, Cowie J & McCall J (2008) Fitness Directed Intervention Crossover Approaches Applied to Bio-Scheduling Problems. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 2008. CIBCB '08. 2008 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Sun Valley, Idaho, 15.09.2008-17.09.2008. Hoboken NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 120-127. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4669529; https://doi.org/10.1109/CIBCB.2008.4675768
Conference Paper (published)
Optimisation of cancer chemotherapy schedules using directed intervention crossover approaches
Godley PM, Cowie J, Cairns D, McCall J & Howie C (2008) Optimisation of cancer chemotherapy schedules using directed intervention crossover approaches. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2008. CEC 2008. (IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence). IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2008, CEC 2008, Hong Kong, 01.06.2008-06.06.2008. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), pp. 2532-2537. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/opac?punumber=4625778; https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2008.4631138
Book Chapter
Mobile decision making and knowledge management: supporting geoarchaelogists in the field
Blunn M, Cowie J, Cairns D, Wilson C & Davidson D (2007) Mobile decision making and knowledge management: supporting geoarchaelogists in the field. In: Cardoso J, Cordeiro J & Filipe J (eds.) ICEIS 2007 - Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems Volume AIDSS June 12-16, 2007, Funchal, Portugal. ICEIS - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems conference series. Denmark: Interaction Design Foundation, pp. 57-62. http://www.interaction-design.org/references/conferences/iceis_2007_-_proceedings_of_the_ninth_international_conference_on_enterprise_information_systems_volume_aidss.html
Conference Paper (published)
Directed intervention crossover applied to bio-control scheduling
Godley PM, Cairns D & Cowie J (2007) Directed intervention crossover applied to bio-control scheduling. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2007. CEC 2007.. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2007. CEC 2007., Singapore, 25.09.2007-28.09.2007. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, pp. 638 -645. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=4424531; https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC.2007.4424531
Conference Paper (published)
Maximising the Efficiency of Bio-control Applications Utilising Genetic Algorithms
Godley PM, Cairns D & Cowie J (2007) Maximising the Efficiency of Bio-control Applications Utilising Genetic Algorithms. In: Parker C, Skerrat S, Park C & Shields J (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Conference of European Federation of IT in Agriculture (EFITA). 6th Biennial Conference of the European Federation of IT in Agriculture (EFITA/WCCA' 07), 2007, Glasgow, 02.07.2007-05.07.2007, pp. 638-645.
Conference Paper (published)
Novel Genetic Algorithm Crossover Approaches for Time-series Problems
Godley PM, Cowie J & Cairns D (2007) Novel Genetic Algorithm Crossover Approaches for Time-series Problems. In: Ridge E, Stutzle R, Birattari M & Hoos H (eds.) SLS-DS 2007: Doctoral Symposium on Engineering Stochastic Local Search Algorithms. IRIDIA - Technical Report Series, TR/IRIDIA/2007-014. SLS-DS 2007: Doctoral Symposium on Engineering Stochastic Local Search Algorithms, Brussels, Belgium, 06.09.2007-08.09.2007. Brussels, Belgium: IRIDIA, pp. 47-51. http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/IridiaTrSeries/link/IridiaTr2007-014.pdf
Article
The variability in type I collagen helical pitch is reflected in the D periodic fibrillar structure
Cameron GJ, Cairns D & Wess TJ (2007) The variability in type I collagen helical pitch is reflected in the D periodic fibrillar structure. Journal of Molecular Biology, 372 (4), pp. 1097-1107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2007.05.076
Conference Paper (published)
Hultquist C, Gain J & Cairns D (2006) Affective scene generation. In: AFRIGRAPH '06 4th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality and Visualisation in Africa. AFRIGRAPHInternational Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa, 2006. AFRIGRAPH '06 4th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualization and Interaction in Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, 25.01.2006-27.01.2006. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 59-63. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1108600&CFID=346292698&CFTOKEN=65697882; https://doi.org/10.1145/1108590.1108600
Book Chapter
Making Decisions with Data Using Computational Intelligence within a Business Environment
Swingler K & Cairns D (2006) Making Decisions with Data Using Computational Intelligence within a Business Environment. In: Voges K & Pope N (eds.) Business applications and computational intelligence. Hershey PA and London: Idea Group, pp. 19-37. http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/making-decisions-data/6017
Article
Developing SASSA: a Soil Analysis Support System for Archaeologists
Wilson C, Davidson D, Pollard E, Cowie J, Cairns D & Blunn M (2005) Developing SASSA: a Soil Analysis Support System for Archaeologists. Internet Archaeology, (25). https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.25.4
Conference Paper (published)
Evolving an Improved Axial Structure for Fibrillar Collagen
Cairns D, Cameron GJ & Wess TJ (2005) Evolving an Improved Axial Structure for Fibrillar Collagen. In: Cantu-Paz E, Beyer H, Deb K K, Foster J, Davis L & Roy R (eds.) Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO 2005, Proceedings, volume Vol. 1. GECCO '05 The 2005 conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation, Washington DC, USA, 25.06.2005-29.06.2005. New York: ACM Press, pp. 471-472. http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2005/index.html
Article
Wess TJ & Cairns D (2005) Nanoarchitectures of the animal extracellular matrix: opportunities for synchrotron radiation studies on collagen and fibrillin. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 12 (6), pp. 751-757. https://doi.org/10.1107/S0909049505012306
Article
Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System
Marsden G & Cairns D (2004) Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System. South African Computer Journal, 32, pp. 69-78. http://search.sabinet.co.za/WebZ/AdvancedQuery?sessionid=01-56556-1434718863&termA=2004&indexA=py%3A&termB=32&indexB=so%3A&format=B&advancednumrecs=50&entitytoprecno=1&entitycurrecno=1&entitytempjds=true&dbgroup=compg&next=comp/comp_abresult.html&bad=error
Conference Paper (published)
Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System
Marsden G & Cairns D (2003) Improving the Usability of the Hierarchical File System. In: Eloff J, Englebrecht A, Kotze P & Eloff M (eds.) SAICSIT '03 Proceedings of the 2003 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology. SAICSIT '03: the 2003 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 122-129. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=954027&CFID=346292698&CFTOKEN=65697882
Book Chapter
Phase constraints on Synchronizing Oscillator Networks
Cairns D, Baddeley R & Smith L (1994) Phase constraints on Synchronizing Oscillator Networks. In: Oaksford M & Brown G (eds.) Neurodynamics and Psychology. London: Academic Press, pp. 237-254.
Conference Paper (published)
Synchronization of Integrate-and-fire Neurons with Delayed Inhibitory Lateral Connections
Smith L, Cairns D & Nischwitz A (1994) Synchronization of Integrate-and-fire Neurons with Delayed Inhibitory Lateral Connections. In: Marinaro M & Morasso P (eds.) ICANN '94: Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, Sorrento, Italy, 26-29 May 1994. The International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, ICANN '94, Sorrento, Italy, 26.05.1994-29.05.1994. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.
Conference Paper (published)
Phase constraints on synchronizing oscillator networks
Cairns D, Baddeley R & Smith L (1993) Phase constraints on synchronizing oscillator networks. In: Brown G & Oaksford M (eds.) Neurodynamics and Psychology. The Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW1), Bangor, Wales, 04.04.1992-07.04.1992. London: Academic Press, pp. 237-254.
Article
Constraints on synchronizing oscillator networks
Cairns D, Baddeley R & Smith L (1993) Constraints on synchronizing oscillator networks. Neural Computation, 5 (2), pp. 260-266. https://doi.org/10.1162/neco.1993.5.2.260
