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Recent Advances in Bio-Inspired Computing: Theory and Applications

This special issue of the Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS) is devoted to selected contributions from BIC-TA 2010, the annual International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications that in 2010 took place in Liverpool. As the name indicates, this conference is interdisciplinary in character and brings together scientists from a wide range of fields for brainstorming on advances in computing techniques and the humbling variety, adaptability, as well as sophistication of the nature around us for inspiration and applications based on such techniques and algorithms. Another special issue of the Natural Computing (NaCo) journal was also produced as a result of this conference and the first guest editor feels privileged and honoured for being able to produced two very high quality special issue volumes of two very highly regarded journals. Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications (BIC-TA) has established itself as one of the flagship conferences bringing together the world's leading academics and scientists from different branches of Natural Computing. and has attracted wide ranging interest amongst researchers with different backgrounds. The fifth in the series of the BIC-TA conferences was held at Liverpool and it was the privilege for the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Liverpool Hope University to play host for the BIC-TA 2010 from 8 th to 10 th September. With the growing trend in Emergent Complex Systems theme, BIC-TA 2010 saw, for the first time in the series, the inclusion of two closely related fields, namely Complex Systems, and Computational Neuroscience. BIC-TA 2010 was graced with the keynote speeches delivered by Prof. The conference series is going from strength to strength with the BIC-TA 2011 hosted at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang (Malaysia) and future 2012 and 2013 editions planned to be held at Gwalior (India) and Anhui (China), respectively.