A BRICS Mini-Course
September 14, 16, 21 and 23, 1998
Lectures by
Zbigniew Michalewicz
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
During the last three decades there has been a growing interest in algorithms which rely on analogies to natural processes. The emergence of massively parallel computers made these algorithms of practical interest. The best known algorithms in this class include evolutionary programming, genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, simulated annealing, classifier systems, and neural networks.
During this minicourse we discuss a subclass of these algorithms - those which are based on the principle of evolution (survival of the fittest). In such algorithms a population of individuals (potential solutions) undergoes a sequence of unary (mutation type) and higher order (crossover type) transformations. These individuals strive for survival: a selection scheme, biased towards fitter individuals, selects the next generation. After some number of generations, the program converges - the best individual represents near-optimum solution. A common term, recently accepted, refers to such techniques as ``evolutionary computation'' methods.
Evolutionary computation methods include many different techniques like genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, classifier systems, learning systems, and many others. This course will provide some information on the basic issues connected with these techniques; in particular, we would discuss:
Zbigniew Michalewicz is Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He completed his MSc degree at Technical University of Warsaw in 1974 and he received PhD degree from Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, in 1981. His current researcher interests are in the field of evolutionary computation. He has published several books, including a monograph (3 editions), and over 120 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings. He was the general chairman of the First IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computation held in Orlando, June 1994. He was invited speaker of many international conferences. He was/is a member of 40 various program committees of international conferences during the last 3 years and a current member of the editorial board of 8 international journals. He is also one of the Editors-in-Chief of Handbook of Evolutionary Computation and the chairman of the IEEE Technical Committee on Evolutionary Computation.