Wanru (Kelly) Gao

Wanru (Kelly) Gao serves as a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide, where she has established herself as an expert in evolutionary algorithms and combinatorial optimization. Her research focuses on evolutionary diversity optimization, theoretical analysis of heuristic search methods, and runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in combinatorial optimization problems, contributing significantly to understanding how evolutionary algorithms can be used to generate diverse sets of high-quality solutions. As an educator, she teaches both introductory computer science courses and advanced topics in algorithms and evolutionary computation. Her research has been presented at major conferences in the field, including the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), where she has contributed to advancing the understanding of evolutionary diversity optimization for combinatorial problems. Through her work at Adelaide's School of Computer Science, she continues to explore novel approaches to diversity maximization in evolutionary algorithms while maintaining her commitment to computer science education.