Ali Naqvi
Ali Naqvi

PhD Student

About Me

I’m a first-year PhD student in Computer Science at McMaster University, co-supervised by Stephen Kelly and Reuven Dukas. My research explores how animal-like behaviour emerges and evolves in artificial living systems. I’m especially interested in the evolutionary origins of biological complexity and how it manifests across levels of organization, from microbes like E. coli to multicellular organisms.

Before starting the PhD, I completed my MSc at McMaster. Outside the lab, you’ll find me reading, watching films, or playing the violin.

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Interests
  • Evolutionary Computation
  • Artificial Life
  • Bio-Inspired Computing
Education

  • MSc in Computer Science

    McMaster University

  • BCS(H) in Computer Science

    University of Windsor

Publications

  1. Naqvi, A., Djavaherpour, T., Vacher, Q., & Kelly, S. (August 2025). Integrating Neuroplasticity into Genetic Programming Agents for Adaptive Decision Making. 2025 Conference on Artificial Life. (Status: Accepted as Full Paper)

  2. Djavaherpour, T., Naqvi, A., Vacher, Q., Norouziani, F., & Kelly, S. (August 2025). Genetic Encoding and Shared Knowledge in Reinforcement Learning with Structured Memory. 2025 Conference on Artificial Life. (Status: Accepted as Full Paper)

  3. Vacher, Q., Kelly, S., Naqvi, A., Beuve, N., Djavaherpour, T., Dardaillon, M., & Desnos, K. (January 2025). The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. (Status: Accepted as Full Paper)

  4. Djavaherpour, T., Naqvi, A., Zhuang, E., & Kelly, S. (June 2024). Genetic Programming Theory & Practice XXI. (Status: Accepted as Book Chapter)

  5. Djavaherpour, T., Naqvi, A., & Kelly, S. (July 2024). 16th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications. (Status: Accepted to Conference)

  6. Naqvi, A., & Kelly, S. (June 2024). 2024 Conference on Artificial Life. (Status: Accepted as Workshop Paper)