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Byoung-Tak Zhang

Seoul National University · Computer Science

About the Lab

Professor Byoung-Tak Zhang's research lab specializes in computational systems biology, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics, with a focus on developing advanced machine learning and evolutionary computation methods for biological data analysis. The lab pioneers novel deep learning and genetic programming frameworks to model complex biological systems such as gene regulatory networks, stress responses from ECG signals, and biochemical pathways. Key research directions include the integration of multi-omics data, the discovery of synergistic microRNAs and their target mRNAs, and the development of interpretable and parsimonious neural network architectures. The lab emphasizes data-driven, principled approaches that combine evolutionary algorithms with deep learning for robust and generalizable biological insights.

systems biologydeep learninggenetic programmingmiRNA-mRNA regulationECG signal analysis

Research Overview

Papers
472
Total Citations
6,322
Papers (5y)
66
Primary Field
Computer Science

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
66total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
152total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|238 citations·1995
Balancing Accuracy and Parsimony in Genetic Programming
Byoung‐Tak Zhang, Heinz Mühlenbein
SJR Q2Evolutionary Computation

Genetic programming is distinguished from other evolutionary algorithms in that it uses tree representations of variable size instead of linear strings of fixed length. The flexible representation scheme is very important because it allows the underlying structure of the data to be discovered automatically. One primary difficulty, however, is that the solutions may grow too big without any improvement of their generalization ability. In this article we investigate the fundamental relationship be

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
2
Article|147 citations·2007
Discovery of microRNA–mRNA modules via population-based probabilistic learning
Je‐Gun Joung, Kyu‐Baek Hwang, Jin-Wu Nam, Soo‐Jin Kim, Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q1BioinformaticsOA

MOTIVATION: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs constitute an important part of gene regulatory networks, influencing diverse biological phenomena. Elucidating closely related miRNAs and mRNAs can be an essential first step towards the discovery of their combinatorial effects on different cellular states. Here, we propose a probabilistic learning method to identify synergistic miRNAs involving regulation of their condition-specific target genes (mRNAs) from multiple information sources, i.e. computatio

Cancer ResearchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
3
Article|138 citations·2004
Solving traveling salesman problems with DNA molecules encoding numerical values
Ji Youn Lee, Soo-Yong Shin, Tai Hyun Park, Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q3Biosystems
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
4
Article|131 citations·2018
Deep ECGNet: An Optimal Deep Learning Framework for Monitoring Mental Stress Using Ultra Short-Term ECG Signals
Bosun Hwang, Jiwoo You, Thomas Vaessen, Inez Myin‐Germeys, Cheolsoo Park, Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q1Telemedicine Journal and e-Health

BACKGROUND: Stress recognition using electrocardiogram (ECG) signals requires the intractable long-term heart rate variability (HRV) parameter extraction process. This study proposes a novel deep learning framework to recognize the stressful states, the Deep ECGNet, using ultra short-term raw ECG signals without any feature engineering methods. METHODS: The Deep ECGNet was developed through various experiments and analysis of ECG waveforms. We proposed the optimal recurrent and convolutional neu

Cardiology and Cardiovascular MedicineMedicine
5
Article|116 citations·1993
Evolving Optimal Neural Networks Using Genetic Algorithms with Occam's Razor.
Byoung‐Tak Zhang, Heinz Mühlenbein
Publikationsdatenbank der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft)

S.199-220

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
6
Article|99 citations·2006
Identification of biochemical networks by S-tree based genetic programming
Dong-Yeon Cho, Kwang‐Hyun Cho, Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q1Bioinformatics

MOTIVATION: Most previous approaches to model biochemical networks have focused either on the characterization of a network structure with a number of components or on the estimation of kinetic parameters of a network with a relatively small number of components. For system-level understanding, however, we should examine both the interactions among the components and the dynamic behaviors of the components. A key obstacle to this simultaneous identification of the structure and parameters is the

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
7
Article|95 citations·1997
Evolutionary Induction of Sparse Neural Trees
Byoung‐Tak Zhang, Peter Ohm, Heinz Mühlenbein
SJR Q2Evolutionary Computation

This paper is concerned with the automatic induction of parsimonious neural networks. In contrast to other program induction situations, network induction entails parametric learning as well as structural adaptation. We present a novel representation scheme called neural trees that allows efficient learning of both network architectures and parameters by genetic search. A hybrid evolutionary method is developed for neural tree induction that combines genetic programming and the breeder genetic a

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
8
Article|95 citations·2008
Hypernetworks: A Molecular Evolutionary Architecture for Cognitive Learning and Memory
Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q1IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine

Recent interest in human-level intelligence suggests a rethink of the role of machine learning in computational intelligence. We argue that "without cognitive learning the goal of achieving human-level synthetic intelligence is far from completion. Here we review the principles underlying human learning and memory, and identify three of them, i.e., continuity, glocality, and compositionality, as the most fundamental to human-level machine learning. We then propose the recently-developed hypernet

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
9
Book Chapter|74 citations·2018
Multimodal Dual Attention Memory for Video Story Question Answering
Kyung-Min Kim, Seong-Ho Choi, Jin-Hwa Kim, Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q2Lecture notes in computer science
Computer Vision and Pattern RecognitionComputer Science
10
Article|59 citations·2001
Personalized web-document filtering using reinforcement learning
Byoung‐Tak Zhang, Young‐Woo Seo
SJR Q2Applied Artificial IntelligenceOA

Abstract- Document filtering is increasingly deployed in Web environments to reduce information overload of users. We formulate online information filtering as a reinforcement learning problem, i.e. TD(0). The goal is to learn user profiles that best represent his information needs and thus maximize the expected value of user relevance feedback. A method is then presented that acquires reinforcement signals automatically by estimating user’s implicit feedback from direct observations of browsing

Information SystemsComputer Science
11
Article|57 citations·1994
ACCELERATED LEARNING BY ACTIVE EXAMPLE SELECTION
Byoung‐Tak Zhang
SJR Q1International Journal of Neural Systems

Much previous work on training multilayer neural networks has attempted to speed up the backpropagation algorithm using more sophisticated weight modification rules, whereby all the given training examples are used in a random or predetermined sequence. In this paper we investigate an alternative approach in which the learning proceeds on an increasing number of selected training examples, starting with a small training set. We derive a measure of criticality of examples and present an increment

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
12
Article|50 citations·2003
A Bayesian framework for evolutionary computation
Byoung‐Tak Zhang

A Bayesian framework for evolutionary computation is presented. Given a data set for fitness evaluation the best (fittest) individual is defined as the most probable model of the data with respect to the prior knowledge on the problem domain. In each generation, Bayes theorem is used to estimate the posterior fitness of individuals from their prior fitness values. Offspring individuals are then generated by sampling from the posterior distribution combined with the transition probabilities forme

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
13
Article|47 citations·2000
Comparison of Selection Methods for Evolutionary Optimization
Byoung‐Tak Zhang

. Selection is an essential component of evolutionary algorithms, playing an important role especially in solving hard optimization problems. Most previous studies on selection have focused on more or less ideal properties based on asymptotic analysis. In this paper, we address the selection problem from a more practical point of view by considering solution quality achievable within acceptable time. The repertoire of methods we compare includes proportional selection, ranking selection, linear

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science
14
Article|46 citations·2015
Team THOR's Entry in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials 2013
Seung‐Joon Yi, Stephen G. McGill, Larry Vadakedathu, Qin He, Inyong Ha, Jeakweon Han, Hyunjong Song, Michael Rouleau, Byoung‐Tak Zhang, Dennis Hong, Mark Yim, Daniel D. Lee
SJR Q1Journal of Field Robotics

This paper describes the technical approach, hardware design, and software algorithms that have been used by Team THOR in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials 2013 competition. To overcome big hurdles such as a short development time and limited budget, we focused on forming modular components—in both hardware and software—to allow for efficient and cost‐effective parallel development. The hardware of THOR‐OP (Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot–Open Platform) consists of standardized, adva

Biomedical EngineeringEngineering
15
Article|39 citations·1994
An incremental learning algorithm that optimizes network size and sample size in one trial
Byoung‐Tak Zhang

A constructive learning algorithm is described that builds a feedforward neural network with an optimal number of hidden units to balance convergence and generalization. The method starts with a small training set and a small network, and expands the training set incrementally after training. If the training does not converge, the network grows incrementally to increase its learning capacity. This process, called selective learning with flexible neural architectures (SELF), results in a construc

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science

Research Areas

Artificial IntelligenceComputer Vision and Pattern RecognitionMolecular BiologyInformation SystemsBiomedical EngineeringPhilosophy

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