Rate My Professor Alexandre Mendes

Dr Alexandre Mendes serves as a Senior Lecturer in Computing and Information Technology within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Newcastle, part of the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. He earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering, Master of Engineering (Electrical), and Bachelor in Applied Mathematics from Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil. Mendes further enhanced his teaching credentials with a Graduate Certificate in the Practice of Tertiary Teaching from the University of Newcastle in 2009. His career trajectory at the University includes roles as Research Academic in Engineering & Built Environment (2003-2007), Lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computing (2007-2011), and Senior Lecturer thereafter. He has taken on significant administrative responsibilities, such as Deputy Head of School Marketing and Outreach (2021-2023), Computer Science Program Convenor (since 2019), Head of Discipline (2013-2016), Work Integrated Learning and Outreach Coordinator (since 2016), and NUbots Deputy Team Leader (since 2011).

Mendes specializes in artificial intelligence, focusing on optimisation and deep learning sub-areas. His research applications span machine scheduling—including single, parallel, flowshop, and jobshop problems—energy distribution planning, oil transportation planning, coal chain logistics, robotics with emphasis on computer vision and deep neural networks, and data classification for medical conditions. Notable publications include 'Addressing deadlock in large-scale, complex rail networks via multi-agent deep reinforcement learning' (Expert Systems, 2025, with Bretas et al.), 'A decentralised multi-agent system for rail freight traffic management' (Annals of Operations Research, 2023), 'Performance of evolutionary wavelet neural networks in acrobot control tasks' (Neural Computing and Applications, 2020), and 'NUclear: A Loosely Coupled Software Architecture for Humanoid Robot Systems' (Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2016). As co-chief investigator, he has contributed to securing over AU$1.5 million in grants from the Australian Research Council, CSIRO, and industry partners like Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator. Mendes has supervised the completion of eight higher degree research students, including several PhDs, and currently supervises one PhD candidate, alongside receiving accolades such as the University of Newcastle's Work Integrated Learning Staff Member of the Year (2020), Pro Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence (2011), and best paper awards at international conferences in 2003 and 2012.