Research

This page describes my research projects and the corresponding publications.

Machine Learning and Optimisation

We use variational autoencoders to learn representations for better search spaces in optimisation.

Peter J. Bentley, Soo Ling Lim, Paolo Arcaini and Fuyuki Ishikawa (2023). Using a Variational Autoencoder to Learn Valid Search Spaces of Safely Monitored Autonomous Robots for Last-Mile Delivery. ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'23), pp. 1303–1311.
Peter J. Bentley, Soo Ling Lim, Adam Gaier and Linh Tran (2022). Evolving Through the Looking Glass: Learning Improved Search Spaces with Variational Autoencoders. 17th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN XVII), pp. 371–384.
Peter J. Bentley, Soo Ling Lim, Adam Gaier and Linh Tran (2022). COIL: Constrained Optimization in Learned Latent Space. Learning Representations for Valid Solutions. ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'22) Companion, pp. 1870–1877.

Computational Modelling of Human Personalities in Teamwork

We use agent-based modelling to understand how individuals with difference personalities work together as a team to solve problems. We use genetic algorithms to optimise the best teams and understand personality combinations that are effective for different tasks.

Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, Randall S. Peterson, Xiaoran Hu, and JoEllyn Prouty McLaren (2023). Kill Chaos with Kindness: Agreeableness Improves Team Performance Under Uncertainty. Collective Intelligence, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/26339137231158584
Siyuan Guo, Soo Ling Lim, and Peter J. Bentley (2020). Teams Frightened of Failure Fail More: Modelling Reward Sensitivity in Teamwork. The 2020 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (IEEE SSCI).
Soo Ling Lim, Yi Kuo and Peter J. Bentley (2020). Constraint Handling in Genotype to Phenotype Mapping and Genetic Operators for Project Staffing. In Proceedings of ACM GECCO conference, Cancun, Mexico, July 2020 (GECCO'20 Companion).
Nandi Schoots, Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2019). Investigating Conformity by Personality Type. 2019 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB), Newcastle, UK.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2019). All in Good Team: Optimising Team Personalities for Different Dynamic Problems and Task Types. The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE), Newcastle, UK, pp. 153-160.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2019). Diversity Improves Teamwork: Optimising Teams using a Genetic Algorithm. 2019 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), Wellington, New Zealand, pp. 2848-2855.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2018). Coping with Uncertainty: Modelling Personality when Collaborating on Noisy Problems. The 2018 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2018), Tokyo, Japan, pp. 566-573.

As part of this project, we also organised annual workshops at the Artificial Life Conference (ALIFE).

Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2024). 2024 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB'24).
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2023). 2023 Special Session on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB'23).
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2022). 2022 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB'22).
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2021). 2021 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB'21).
Katarzyna Kozdon, Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2020). 2020 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB'20).
Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, JoEllyn Prouty McLaren and Randall S. Peterson (2019). 2019 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB), Newcastle, UK.

We are also guest editors of the Artificial Life Journal Special Issue on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour and have been invited to write a review paper on the topic for WIREs Cognitive Science.

Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2023). The Agent-based Modelling for Human Behaviour Special Issue. Artificial Life: 29 (1), pp. 1-2. MIT press.
Peter J. Bentley and Soo Ling Lim (2022). From evolutionary ecosystem simulations to computational models of human behavior. WIREs Cognitive Science, e1622, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1622.

Social Networks, Stakeholder Identification and Analysis

I study online social networks and develop novel methods to identify stakeholders, analyse them and also understand their needs. I apply the methods to real-world projects and develop tool support for the methods.

Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2022). Opinion amplification causes extreme polarization in social networks. Nature Scientific Reports, 12:18131, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22856-z.
Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, and Fuyuki Ishikawa (2020). Reaching the Unreachable: A Method for Early Stage Software Startups to Reach Inaccessible Stakeholders within Large Corporations. The 28th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE@Next! Track (RE'20).
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2017). Using PseudoGravity to Attract People: An Automated Approach to Engaging a Target Audience using Twitter. IEEE Future Technologies Conference (FTC), Vancouver, Canada, pp. 515-524.
Soo Ling Lim, Daniela Damian, Fuyuki Ishikawa, and Anthony Finkelstein (2013). Using Web 2.0 for stakeholder analysis: StakeSource and its application in ten industrial projects. Managing Requirements Knowledge. Editors: Walid Maalej and Anil Kumar Thurimella. Springer Computer Science Editorial, pp. 221-242.
Soo Ling Lim, and Anthony Finkelstein (2012). StakeRare: using social networks and collaborative filtering for large-scale requirements elicitation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol 38 issue 3, pp. 707-735.
Soo Ling Lim (2011). The forgotten keystone of requirements engineering. Requirements Quarterly, issue 57, pp. 10-12.
Soo Ling Lim, Daniela Damian, and Anthony Finkelstein (2011). StakeSource2.0: using social networks of stakeholders to identify and prioritise requirements. In Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2011, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 1022-1024.
Fabiano Dalpiaz, Amit K. Chopra, and Soo Ling Lim (2011). The first International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Social Computing (RESC 2011), 19th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), Trento, Italy, pp. 1.
Soo Ling Lim (2010). Social Networks and Collaborative Filtering for Large-Scale Requirements Elicitation. PhD Thesis. School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Soo Ling Lim, Daniele Quercia, and Anthony Finkelstein (2010). StakeNet: using social networks to analyse the stakeholders of large-scale software projects. In Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE (1), Cape Town, South Africa, pp. 295-304. [13.7% acceptance rate]
Soo Ling Lim, Daniele Quercia, and Anthony Finkelstein (2010). StakeSource: harnessing the power of crowdsourcing and social networks in stakeholder analysis. In Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE (2), Cape Town, South Africa, pp. 239-242.

Computational Modelling of Mobile App Stores

I used agent-based modelling to understand user and app developer behaviours in the Apple App Store. This work has been featured in New Scientist. I also collected a very large and international dataset of mobile app user behaviour.

Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, and Fuyuki Ishikawa (2016). The Effects of Developer Dynamics on Fitness in an Evolutionary Ecosystem Model of the App Store. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (TEVC). vol 20 issue 4, pp. 529-545.
Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, Natalie Kanakam, Fuyuki Ishikawa, and Shinichi Honiden (2015). Investigating Country Differences in Mobile App User Behavior and Challenges for Software Engineering. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), vol 41 issue 1, pp. 40-64.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2013). Investigating App Store Ranking Algorithms using a Simulation of Mobile App Ecosystems. 13th IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC), Cancun, Mexico, pp. 2672-2679.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2012). App epidemics: modelling the effects of publicity in a mobile app ecosystem. 13th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 13), Michigan, USA, pp. 202-209.
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2012). How to be a successful app developer: lessons from the simulation of an app ecosystem. ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO’12), Philadelphia, USA, pp. 129-136. [ New Scientist | ACM SIGEVOlution ]
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley (2012). From natural to artificial ecosystems. Frontiers of Natural Computing. Editors: Michael Lones, Andy Tyrrell, Susan Stepney and Leo Caves, pp. 15.

Systems of Systems Engineering

Cornelius Ncube and Soo Ling Lim (2018). On Systems of Systems Engineering: a Requirements Engineering Perspective and Research Agenda. 26th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'18), Banff, Canada, pp. 112-123.
Huseyin Dogan, Cornelius Ncube, Soo Ling Lim, Michael Henshaw, Carys Siemieniuch, Murray Sinclair, Vishal Barot, Sharon Henson, Mo Jamshidi and Dan DeLaurentis (2013). Economic and Societal Significance of the Systems of Systems Research Agenda. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (IEEE SMC 2013). pp. 1715-1720.
Cornelius Ncube, Soo Ling Lim, and Huseyin Dogan (2013). Requirements Specification for a European Union – United States Systems of Systems Engineering Strategic Research Agenda. Complex Systems Design & Management (CSD&M) 2013.
Cornelius Ncube, Soo Ling Lim, and Huseyin Dogan (2013). Identifying Top Challenges for International Research on Requirements Engineering for Systems of Systems Engineering. 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, pp. 342-344.
Soo Ling Lim and Cornelius Ncube (2013). Social Networks and Crowdsourcing for Stakeholder Analysis in System of Systems Projects. 8th IEEE System of Systems Engineering Conference (IEEE SoSE), Maui, Hawaii, pp. 13-18.
S.A. Henson, M.J.D. Henshaw, V. Barot, C.E. Siemieniuch, M.A. Sinclair, H. Dogan, S.L. Lim, C. Ncube, M. Jamshidi, D. DeLaurentis (2013). Towards a Systems of Systems Engineering EU Strategic Research Agenda. 8th IEEE System of Systems Engineering Conference (IEEE SoSE), Maui, Hawaii, pp. 99-104.
Michael Henshaw, Carys Siemieniuch, Murray Sinclair, Sharon Henson, Vishal Barot, Mo Jamshidi, Dan Delaurentis, Cornelius Ncube, Soo Ling Lim and Huseyin Dogan (2013). Systems of Systems Engineering: A research Imperative. IEEE International Conference on System Science and Engineering (IEEE ICSSE). pp. 389-394.

Human Computer Interaction

Peter J. Bentley and Soo Ling Lim (2017). Fault Tolerant Fusion of Office Sensor Data using Cartesian Genetic Programming. IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 1-8.
Peter J. Bentley, Alexander Kurashov, and Soo Ling Lim (2016). Higher Order Cognition using Computers: Learning Abstract Concepts with Recursive Graph-based Self Organizing Map. 15th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 2016), Cancun, Mexico, pp. 398-405.
Min Aung, Aneesha Singh, Soo Ling Lim, Amanda Williams, Paul Watson and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (2013). Automatic Recognition of Protective Behaviour in Chronic Pain Rehabilitation. Ubiquitous games and gamifiction for promoting behavior change and wellbeing workshop (Ubigames4health@CHI Italy). pp. 25-28.
Hane Aung, Bernardino Romera-Paredes, Aneesha Singh, Soo Ling Lim, Natalie Kanakam, Amanda Williams, Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (2013). Getting rid of pain-related behaviour to improve social and self perception: a technology-based perspective. 14th International Workshop on Image and Audio Analysis for Multimedia Interactive Services (WIAMIS). pp. 1-4.
Suzanne Hutson, Soo Ling Lim, Peter J. Bentley, Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze, and Ann Bowling (2011). Investigating the suitability of social robots for the wellbeing of the elderly. International Conference of the HUMAINE Association on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2011), pp. 578-587.

Search-based Software Engineering

Yuanyuan Zhang, Mark Harman, and Soo Ling Lim (2013). Search based optimization of requirements interaction management. Information and Software Technology, vol 55 issue 1, pp. 126-152.
Soo Ling Lim, Mark Harman, and Angelo Susi (2013). Using genetic algorithms to search for key stakeholders in large-scale software projects. Aligning Enterprise, System, and Software Architectures. Editors: Ivan Mistrík, Antony Tang, Rami Bahsoon, and Judith A. Stafford, pp. 118-134.
Soo Ling Lim, and Peter J. Bentley (2011). Evolving relationships between social networks and stakeholder involvement in software projects. ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO’11), Dublin, Ireland, pp. 1899-1906.

Requirements Change Management

Soo Ling Lim, and Anthony Finkelstein (2011). Anticipating change in requirements engineering, Relating Software Requirements and Architectures. Chapter 3. Editors: Paris Avgeriou, John Grundy, Jon G. Hall, Patricia Lago, and Ivan Mistrík. pp. 17-34. Springer-Verlag Computer Science Editorial.
Soo Ling Lim, Eric Platon and Karl Cox (2008). Synthesis of actor dependency and business motivation for service requirements engineering, IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), Turku, Finland, pp. 649-652.
Soo Ling Lim, Fuyuki Ishikawa, Eric Platon, and Karl Cox (2008). Towards agile service-oriented business systems: a directive-oriented pattern analysis approach, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing. IEEE SCC (2), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 231-238.