IlliGAL Blogging

We've moved!

2006-10-17T16:18:00.000-05:00

We now host IlliGAL Blogging on our new website http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu. Please go there for the latest blogging from the IlliGAL lab.

Thank you.

Press Release of Genalytics Model 6.0

2006-10-09T11:46:00.000-05:00

ThomasNet reports that Genalytics released Genalytics Model 6.0, that uses genetic algorithms to identify credit risks, anticipate customer attrition, and detect probable bankruptcies:

Genalytics Model 6.0 transforms large amounts of transaction data into predictive intelligence and uses genetic algorithms to automatically search and identify key combinations of time series variables found in any dataset. By studying time series patterns, organizations can identify credit risks, anticipate customer attrition, and detect probable bankruptcies. Software also allows users to format modeling output for Java and SPSS.

Doug Newell, founder of Genalytics, gave a talk at GECCO 2005, as reported here.

John Holland in Canada

2006-09-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

Mahantesh reports that John H. Holland is visiting St. John's, Newfoundland in Canada (here). Here is a synopsis of his talk on complex adaptive systems:

The Department of Computer Science hosts the world-famous computer scientist and inventor of Genetic Algorithms (GA's), Dr. John Holland, from the University of Michigan. His talk on Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) will discuss the study of complexity, innovation, and relations between CAS and GA's. Sponsor: Computer Science.

No doubt this was the doing of Wolfgang Banzhaf, head of CS.

Embracing mistakes

2006-09-24T16:08:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is important to make mistakes, lots of them, on the way to doing something new (here).

Genetic algorithm for Ruby

2006-09-23T05:50:00.000-05:00

Rubyforge has a fairly recent posting for a package called rGenetic:

rGenetic is a genetic algorithm package for Ruby. The idea is to develop an easily customizable suite, allowing simple integration into a problem requiring genetic algorithms or evolutionary programming.

Matthew Linnell is the project administrator. See here for additional detail.

Fast GA on Freshmeat

2006-09-23T05:43:00.000-05:00

Freshmeat has a new posting for a publicly available genetic algorithm called FGA (fast genetic algorithm). The code is by Alessandro Presta and claims to be

a simple yet powerful implementation of a general genetic algorithm, and provides many types of crossover and selection procedures. The library is easy to incorporate into other applications. Further improvements include parallelization of the algorithm in multi-processor environments and general performance optimizations.

See here for more detail.

Michael Corleone and the next generation GA?

2006-09-23T05:36:00.000-05:00

Read here about what The Godfather character and the next generation of genetic algorithms have to do with one another.

Some photos from Reykjavik

2006-09-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

Following Dave's suggestion, I'm posting some photos from Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, where PPSN 2006 was held. Iceland has about the same area as Portugal but with a population of only 300.000 people, which gives the lowest population density (2.7/km^2) for a european country.
About 2/3 of the population lives in or around Reykjavik.

Since I spent most of my time at Reykjavik, I only have photos from there, but Kumara and Pier-Luca have really nice photos of some great Icelandic landscapes. I hope they post some of them.

City Hall at Tjornin lake:

Tjornin lake:

The Sun Voyager by Jon Gunnar Arnason:

Laugavegur street (downtown main street):

Hallgrimskirkja church:

Reykjavik from Hallgrimskirkja church tower:

Blue Lagoon:

Bullet train designed by GA

2006-09-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

Kazu Inaba told me this morning that the new Shinkansen has been designed in part by a genetic algorithm. A quick google search confirmed the not-so-news here on the JR Central site:

"The development of the nose shape incorporated the latest analysis method (genetic algorithm*4), used in the development of airplane wings, for the first time in railway rolling stock. In doing so, we have developed a nose shape with the optimal aerodynamic performance accommodating 300 km/h operation, while ensuring the Series 700 seating capacity and spacious interior."

A picture of the new train is shown above.

GAs and fighting androids

2006-09-15T05:52:00.000-05:00

Vaughan at mindhacks.com has a nice post about Risto Miikulainen's NERO and NEAT here. NERO is a wargaming system in which the android soldiers adapt using neural net brains evolved using genetic algorithms.

Poster Sessions @ PPSN 2006

2006-09-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

PPSN had 7 poster sessions, each with 15 posters. Below are some pictures from the poster sessions.

Poster Session #7:

Shigeyoshi Tsutsui presenting cSA: Ant Colony Optimization with Cunning Ants:

Pier-Luca Lanzi presenting Automatic Test Pattern Generation with BOA:

Dirk Thierens presenting Exploration and Exploitation Bias of Crossover and Path Relinking for Permutation Problems:

Dependency-tree EDA in C++ online

2006-09-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

Just minutes ago I put online the C++ source code of the dependency-tree estimation of distribution algorithm (dtEDA), which is one of the simpler EDAs but it can encode dependencies between problem variables in the form of a dependency tree. The code is not restricted to binary strings (unusual for my code); each symbol in the string can have an arbitrary number of values (specified by a user-defined function). The code also includes bisection for determining the optimal population size for reliable convergence, which is a useful feature for obtaining scalability plots.

The main advantage of using dtEDA instead of more complex EDAs, such as BOA or ECGA, is that dtEDA uses simpler models and it should thus be faster. The disadvantage is that the models are restricted and the user won't get good scalability if the dependencies cannot be effectively encoded as dependency trees (and more complex structures are needed).

The main advantage of using dtEDA instead of simpler EDAs, such as PBIL or UMDA, is that dtEDA is capable of encoding dependencies between the variables and it does not assume that the variables contribute to the objective function independently. The disadvantage is that learning dependency trees is still slower than using the simple univariate distributions where the structure is fixed.

The code is heavily commented and documented (by hand and using Doxygen automatic documentation generation system). I hope you find it useful.

Downloads from MEDAL:

Biothing: GAs and generative architecture

2006-09-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

Omnithing has a nice post on biothing, a " transdisciplinary laboratory which research focuses on generative potential of physical and artificial computational systems for design.” Read more about biothing here.

PR at The Entrepreneurial Engineer

2006-09-13T15:21:00.000-05:00

Some public relations tips on press releases in the web world can be found over at TEE (here).

Flash: GECCO-2007 in London

2006-09-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO)-2007) will be held in London, England, 14-18 July 2007 at University College of London. Keep an eye on the conference web site here for details as they become available.

GP/GA startup gets $2.5M round for electronics design tools

2006-09-12T08:11:00.000-05:00

Ann Steffora Mutschlerof EDN reports (here) that Solido Design Automation received a$2.5 million round of funding from noted genetic-programming expert John Koza, complexity guru Doyne Farmer, and others. The article does not disclose the nature of the tools used in Solido's systems, but company CTO Trent McConaghy has worked with genetic programming and multiobjective GAs in the past.

Linkage

2006-09-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

I've been remiss by not linking to sites that link to us. Codeprof (Try {Teach} Catch {Mistakes}) links to IlliGAL Blogging and his latest post wonders why info text books are so bad (here).

Tutorials Day at PPSN 2006

2006-09-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today’s schedule at PPSN included several tutorial talks. I had the opportunity to attend to Darrell Whitley’s tutorial, who gave a very good talk on practical guidelines for using evolutionary algorithms. Next, I went to the tutorial talk about the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), given by Nikolaus Hansen. I found the talk particularly interesting given the close connection with estimation of distribution algorithms.

A penguin goes to college

2006-09-10T17:14:00.000-05:00

Over the past months, I have departed from the usual genetic algorithms theme of this blog to report on my elder son's search for a college (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and here). The long march of the penguin through childhood is over (see here to see a sample of the penguin's writing and here for a comic sample), and tomorrow he leaves the nest and goes off to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and the Public Affairs Residential College to seek his fame and fortune.

As an engineer, I'm supposed to be a dispassionate observer and designer, but as a father penguin, I must confess that I will miss this bird. Before leaving he penned a new cartoon for NU, something having to do with a baby wildcat and a penguin. Keep an eye on The Daily Northwestern for his byline.

Live from Reykjavik @ PPSN 2006

2006-09-09T18:19:00.000-05:00

Although I arrived late in the morning at Reykjavik I was able to attend the afternoon session of the Workshop on Empirical Methods for the Analysis of Algorithms, organized by Luis Paquete, Marco Chiarandini, and Dario Basso.

The talks raised interesting questions about the empirical comparison of metaheuristics, given the increasing number of new (and not so novel) algorithms proposed in the literature, day to day.
The workshop proceedings will be soon available here.

Tomorrow we will have several tutorial talks.

TEE press release gets picked up

2006-09-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

here.

The Entrepreneurial Engineer is available

2006-09-01T14:43:00.000-05:00

My new book is out and available. See here for more information.

Download Kandid

2006-08-28T13:04:00.000-05:00

Physics-envy passes along a link to Kandid, an interactive genetic algorithm that evolves art in response to user evaluations. Go here to download.

Hello to GE 531 students

2006-08-24T16:46:00.000-05:00

This entry is merely to say hello to those new GE 531 students (Genetic Algorithms) who are taking the course with me in class and online.

The first lecture is in the can, and the course is up an running. Still time to register for those interested.

EuroGP, Evo*, and Michael O'Neill

2006-08-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

Michael O'Neill writes to help plug next year's EuroGP and Evo* Conferences and Workshops:

We are drumming up some interest for EuroGP 2007 at the moment, and of course the two other associated conferences (EvoCOP and EvoBIO) and EvoWorkshops. It would be great if perhaps you might consider highlighting the events on your groups Blog?

I'm happy to put in the plug. The EuroGP wiki is here and the general Evo* website is here. The conferences are 11-13 April 2007 in Valencia, Spain. Tough duty.

Michael also notes his move to University College Dublin (tough duty) and the creation of the Natural Computing Research and Applications Group therein (see here). Please join me in wishing him the best of luck with this venture.

Meddling in Indian affairs

2006-08-22T13:53:00.000-05:00

See my comments on the current problems in hiring and retaining faculty at the IITs in India here.

My original reply was a little longer:

Indeed, the faculty manpower shortage in India would be harmful to international collaborations. Collaboration takes time, both in visits broad and in working at a distance. Increased teaching loads would reduce the ability of Indian faculty to collaborate effectively with international colleagues. At a time of increased globalization and international cooperation, this would be a step backward.

Worse, however, is the idea that faculty shortages will be countered with exactly that act guaranteed to lead to even more shortages. An evil demonic figure desiring to destroy this crown jewel of India's educational system could do no better than to increase faculty teaching loads. Young Indian researchers finishing PhDs in the US and elsewhere have options to work
in other countries or in the private sector; they know the score internationally when it comes to teaching loads, research funding, and graduate student quality. Why would they choose to return to their home country when government and university adminstrators are signaling a decline in the status of research?

India has had great success of late by paying better attention to free markets,at least in its private sector. Markets for faculty talent also respond to supply and demand. If India wants to attract faculty for the IIT system it needs to pay competitively, provide named and endowed professorships, increase the pool and quality of graduate student talent through competitive fellowships and research support, and generally improve the condition of its professoriate. Such enhancements are not cheap, and new methods of public and private funding must be sought, but eating the seed corn of India's national strength in science and technology is a fairly sure prescription for decline in a sector of growth, promise, and pride.

Take genetic algorithms with Goldberg

2006-08-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

My genetic algorithms class, GE 531, is available for students on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (see here) and for students off campus who would like to take it on line (see here).

This semester, I will record the online lectures again for the first time since 2000, and the new lectures will incorporate innovations in the teaching sequence as well as new examples in the parade of applications. These modifications will form the basis for the rewrite of my 1989 book, Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning.

Fish Story

2006-08-10T15:01:00.000-05:00

It seems that GA rule learning is being used (somehow) in saving the Mexican Trout. Who knew?

Hutter prize for lossless compression of human knowledge

2006-08-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

In COLT mailing list, I've just read about the Hutter Prize for Lossless Compression of Human Knowledge. From the original post:

The Hutter Prize challenges researchers to demonstrate their programs are intelligent by finding simpler ways of representing human knowledge within computer programs. The researcher that can produce the smallest program that outputs a selected large sample of Wikipedia wins money. Moreover, progressively smaller such programs win incrementally more money. The formula for winnings is modeled after the M-Prize or Methuselah Mouse Prize, which awards money to longevity researchers for progress in keeping mice alive the longest.

The purse for the Hutter Prize was initially underwritten with a 50,000 Euro commitment to the prize fund by Marcus Hutter of the Swiss Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence, affiliated with the University of Lugano and The University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland.

For more details about the prize, click here.

Calumny halted at IB

2006-07-31T09:47:00.000-05:00

I was recently forced to start moderating comments on this blog. Attacks of blog spam were stopped largely by requiring word verification (captchas), but offensive, ad hominem attacks have persisted to the point where all comments by non-members will be moderated before they are posted.

In general, comments will be posted (1) if they are relevant to the post they comment upon and (2) if they avoid slurring the author of the post and others in the community. IlliGAL Blogging has a point of view, and we welcome comments from those who disagree with us; controversial comments are the spice of blogging life, and the dialectic of online discourse can be enlightening. Having said this, we see no need to host comments that gratuitiously cast aspersions.

Of course, those who wish to continue their name-calling ways may choose to do so in the relative obscurity of their own blogs, but the pages of this blog are now closed to that type of comment.

EDAs and cross-entropy methods

2006-07-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

Estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs)---also known as probabilistic model-building genetic algorithms (PMBGAs) and iterated density estimation algorithms (IDEAs)---are population-based optimization methods that use probabilistic modeling to guide the search for the optimum. In other words, we may say that EDAs replace standard variation operators of genetic and evolutionary algorithms by building and sampling a probabilistic model of promising solutions found so far. EDAs date back to 1994 when Shumeet Baluja proposed PBIL algorithm, and as most of us already know, since then the field has made a significant progress.

A similar approach has been taken in 1997 by Reuven Rubinstein, who proposed the cross-entropy method to provide an efficient tool for rare-event simulation and optimization. Just like EDAs, CE proceeds by generating samples of points from a probabilistic model and then updating the probabilistic model to better fit high-quality points in the generated sample. For me the most important question is: what can we learn from each other?

Even more genetic art

2006-07-27T08:08:00.000-05:00

Jon McCormack has samples of his work on GEC-based art on his web page. Those who have looked at the first issues of SIGEVOlution (ACM SIGEVO newsletter) may notice that Jon was the one who supplied artwork for the cover.

More genetic art

2006-07-25T15:45:00.000-05:00

IlliGAL Blogging reader and blogger Harold Skolnick (AKA www.physics-envy.blogspot.com) writes to show us some of his genetic algorithm art (see here). Also check out his photos (also here and here), drawings, paintings, and his blog.

MEDAL gathering: Post-event thoughts

2006-07-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

MEDAL gathering on evolutionary computation is now over. I think that the speaker lineup was great, and the speakers have done an excellent job at presenting their recent results and new ideas; we should soon have PDFs of most presentations online at the event's web site. I was happy to meet a number of friends, some of whom had to drive for hours or even take several flights to get here. Overall, I think that the event was a success and I thank all our speakers and other participants for that. Soon we will put online a gallery of photos from the event, the list of participants, and, as I said earlier, PDFs of the presentations.

Mark Jakiela on open collaborative design of tangible artifacts

2006-07-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

The last talk of MEDAL gathering is by Mark Jakiela and he is talking about open collaborative design of tangible artifacts and the role that evolutionary algorithms can play.

Shigeyoshi Tsutsui on EDAs for permutation problems

2006-07-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

Shigeyoshi Tsustui is giving a talk on comaprison between probabilistic model building genetic algorithms with edge histogram vs. node histogram in permutation domain.

Moshe Looks on substructural learning in genetic programming

2006-07-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

Moshe Looks talked about estimation of distribution algorithms for learning substructures in genetic programming.

Medal Gathering: Representations and heuristics in GP

2006-07-24T13:59:00.001-05:00

Cezary Janikow is now presenting about representations and heuristics in GP.

Little models and big results

2006-07-24T13:59:00.000-05:00

Dave Goldberg gave a very nice talk on the power of "little" models. Below is a slide in which he recalls about first meeting Martin.

MEDAL gathering: Kumara Sastry on efficiency enhancement of EDAs

2006-07-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

Kumara Sastry is talking on efficiency enhancement techniques in estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs).

MEDAL gathering: Kenneth Turvey on XCS in dynamic enviornments

2006-07-24T10:15:00.000-05:00

Kenneth Turvey, a MEDAL member is talking about XCS in dynamic environments.

MEDAL gathering: Current and planned projects at MEDAL

2006-07-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

Martin Pelikan is talking on the current and planned projects at the Missouri estimation of distribution laboratory (MEDAL).

Getting ready for MEDAL gathering

2006-07-23T14:43:00.000-05:00

I just arrived at Martin's place after 3 hours drive from Champaign. Martin Pelikan and Shigeyoshi Tsutsui are getting their presentations ready for MEDAL gathering tomorrow.

Recent visits by country

2006-07-20T14:02:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest stats of IlliGAL Blogging visitors by country:

United States, 140
Germany, 29
Canada, 15
United Kingdom, 13
Italy, 10
Netherlands, 7
Austria, 7
Japan, 7
Portugal, 7
Poland, 6

Canada beating our the UK is a bit of a surprise, and Poland would be a surprise, but Polish is one of two languages that Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning has been translated into (see here). The other is French.

Linkorama

2006-07-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since I've acknowledged those who link to us. Thanks to www.robsyvertsen.org, www.togelius.blogspot.com/, http://philosophyofengineering.blogspot.com/, http://www.deepmarket.com/, http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/, and http://physics-envy.blogspot.com/ for the recent links.

Slurrier blogs GECCO

2006-07-20T13:06:00.000-05:00

Bill Tozier (AKA The Notional Slurry, AKA The Slurrier) blogs about GECCO-2006 here.

Discovery of cis-regulatory elements with a genetic algorithm

2006-07-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

here.

Discovery of cancer protocols with a genetic algorithm

2006-07-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

here.

Knowing.net blogs the Humies

2006-07-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

here.

Epictetus rides again

2006-07-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

at TEE (here).

CEC part of WCCI in Vancouver

2006-07-19T17:40:00.000-05:00

IEEE's big genetic algorithms conference (CEC) is going on now as part of the World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Vancouver, British Columbia (see here). WCCI always attracts a big crowd, and they have a large panel of plenary speakers in neural nets, fuzzy systems, and GAs.

MEDAL gathering on evolutionary computation

2006-07-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announce that MEDAL Gathering on Evolutionary Computation is going to take place next Monday, July/24/2006 at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. The primary purpose of this even is to celebrate the creation of the Missouri Estimation of Distribution Algorithms Laboratory (MEDAL), hear a number of cool presentations, discuss interesting challenges in research and applications of evolutionary computation and machine learning, and have a free lunch (yes, I've heard about the no-free-lunch theorem, too many times in fact). The presentations will include the following:

Martin Pelikan
Quo Vadis MEDAL: Current and Planned Projects at MEDAL
Kenneth P. Turvey
XCS in Dynamic Environments
Kumara Sastry
Efficiency Enhancement of Estimation of Distribution Algorithms
David E. Goldberg
Little Models, Big Results
Cezary Janikow
Representations and Heuristics in GP
Moshe Looks
Towards Competent Genetic Programming - What are the Missing Ingredients?
Shigeyoshi Tsutsui
cAS: Ant Colony Optimization with Cunning Ants
Mark Jakiela

For more details about the event, please visit its web page. I'll try to provide the live-blogging service at the event, but I may just summarize it afterwards.

Journal of Natural ComputingSpecial Issue on Learning Classifier Systems

2006-07-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

Guest Editors
Larry Bull, University of the West of England, U.K.
Pier Luca Lanzi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Call for Papers
Learning Classifier Systems were conceived almost 30 years ago by John Holland, the father of genetic algorithms. Since then a number of models have been developed to bring Holland's innovative ideas to real world applications. Submissions of original unpublished works are invited that investigate in different ways the state of research in Learning Classifier Systems.

Schedule:

Submission September, 30th, 2006
Notification December, 15th, 2006
Camera ready February, 15th, 2006

Submissions and enquiries should be sent to lanzi@elet.polimi.it.

Sastry, Lanzi, and Goldberg among paper winners

2006-07-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

It was just announced that lab members Kumara Sastry, Pier Luca Lanzi, and Dave Goldberg were among the best paper winners at GECCO-2006.

APECS Conference in planning

2006-07-12T11:20:00.000-05:00

Erik Goodman announced that planning is underway for a conference called the Asia-Pacific Evolutionary Computation Conference (APECS?). Plans are for a 400 person conference with 1/4 international attendance in October 2008.

Conference report 2006 and 2007

2006-07-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

Mike Catallico (2006 chair) has asked for help in soliciting student travel grants from the government and industry. Student travel is dependent on these donations. 509 attendees came to the conference.

Hod Lipson (2007 chair) reports that the organization is moving GECCO to Europe (probably London, probably July 2007). There are big plans to have big name keynote speakers and an open Humie Exhibition.

Publications update

2006-07-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

Wolfgang Banzhaf, editor of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, reports that the journal is in its seventh year and going strong by recent measures of downloads.

Marc Schoenauer, editor of Evolutionary Computation, reports that MIT Press is looking at the subscription number reduction with some concern. Marc reports progress in reducing the delay between submission and publication.

SIGEVO bylaws

2006-07-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

Erik Goodman is explaining that the executive board will be expanded from 15 to 18, that elections will be held every other year (from every year), and that the first election will elect 9 people to the board. Subsequently, 6 members will be elected at each election. Una-May O'Reilly is heading a nominating committee. A chair, vice-chair, secretary, and treasurer will be elected every two years by the executive board.

Erik has just surprised Pier Luca Lanzi by calling him to the podium. The 3rd issue will come out in September and will be devoted to a GECCO wrap-up.

Status of SIGEVO

2006-07-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

Erik Goodman is reporting on the status of SIGEVO (www.acm.org/sigevo). In fall 2004, the ISGEC board approved transition to SIG status and on January 1, 2005, SIGEVO started life as a transitional SIG for its first year of operation. On June 15, 2006, ACM approved SIGEVO as a regular SIG.

There are currently 506 members, and we have now had two editions of our newsletter SIGEVOlution (Pier Luca Lanzi, editor and IlliGAL affilliate). 2006 marks the 21st year of genetic algorithms conferences (going back to the first ICGA in 1985 at MIT).

Erik just awarded a placque to Mike Cattalico (GECCO-2006 chair) and is thanking the cast of thousands that made GECCO possible.

2006 Humie winners announced

2006-07-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

The Human Competitive Results competition (see here) results were announced at ACM SIGEVO's GECCO-2006.

Bronze:
Jie Yao, Nawwaf Kharma, Peter Grogono, A multi-population genetic algorithm for robust and fast ellipse detection
Gustavo Olague, Leonardo Trujillo, Using Evolution to Learn How to Perform Interest Point Detection

Silver:
Kumara Sastry, Duane D. Johnson, Alexis L. Thompson, David E. Goldberg, Todd J. Martinez, Jeff Leiding, Jane Owens
Multiobjective Genetic Algorithms for Multiscaling Excited-State Direct Dynamics in Photochemistry

Gold: Varun Aggarwal, Selçuk KILINÇ, Varun Jain, Uğur ÇAM, Catalogue of Variable Frequency and Single-Resistance-Controlled Oscillators Employing A Single Differential Difference Complementary Current Conveyor

Live blogging: SIGEVO biz meeting

2006-07-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

It's the last day of GECCO-2006 here in Seattle and I'm blogging live from the ACM SIGEVO business meeting. Chairman Erik Goodman is at the podium and we should soon hear the wrap up of this year's conference, the get a prospectus for next year's conference, and learn the winners of the best papers awards and the Humies

Pier Luca on classifier prediction based on tile coding

2006-07-11T19:20:00.000-05:00

Pier Luca Lanzi is just giving a cool talk Classifier Prediction based on Tile Coding on the best-paper LCS session.

GECCO-2006: Real-valued EDAs and EDA applications

2006-07-11T16:22:00.000-05:00

I am now sitting in the EDA session that focuses on real-valued EDAs and EDA applications. A while ago Joern Grahl finished his talk on adaptive variance scaling in IDEAs. Right now, Yunpeng Cai is explaining how to use EDAs with Boltzmann selection in real-valued applications using Kullback-Leibler divergence in model building. The session will close with John McCall's talk on using EDAs for optimizing cancer chemotherapy.

Two talks in LCS and GBML @ GECCO 2006

2006-07-11T13:13:00.000-05:00

Martin Butz is now talking on hyperellipsoidal conditions in XCS. Xavier is next who will talk about fast rule matching in LCS.

GECCO 2006: Representations in LCS

2006-07-11T12:52:00.000-05:00

James Marshall presented and interested result about evolving multiple representations in XCS. Pier Luca Lanzi is now going a an interesting new condition scheme proposed by Stewart Wilson based on convex hulls.

Kalyan Deb on practical EC practiced in academia

2006-07-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

I'm just attending Kalyan Deb's presentation Practical EC practiced in academia: How challenging has it been to me? Kalyan talks about challenges that academic researchers have to face when working on the real real-world problems with industry.

Anil Menon

2006-07-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

Once genetic algorithm researcher Anil Menon is now a writer of fiction. See an blog interview with him at Duck of Destiny (here).

Of mice, genes, and brains

2006-07-11T10:36:00.000-05:00

The 2nd keynote talk at GECCO-2006 is Mapping and Mining the Allen Brain Atlas by Dr. Mike Hawrylycz, Director of Informatics at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Gene markers are used to map gene expression in the slices of mouse brains. See www.brain-map.org for more information.

Jason Daida on symmetry breaking in GP

2006-07-10T18:43:00.000-05:00

I finished all my presentations today and now I can go attend presentations of many interesting papers this GECCO. Right now Jason Daida is presenting an interesting work on characterizing the dynamics of symmetry breaking in GP. Darrell Whitley is next and is going to talk about alternative evolutionary algorithms for evolving programs

GECCO 2006: Pier Luca Lanzi and Kumara Sastry open fire

2006-07-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

Sometimes is sunny, sometimes is rainy. Unfortunately, Pier Luca and Kumara are presenting right now at the same time, and I cannot split in two. Pier Luca is going over an interesting work on computed predictions for XCS. Kumara is presenting his work “Multiobjective genetic algorithms for multiscaling excited state direct dynamics in photochemistry”; the paper is nominated for best paper on the real-world application track, and is a must-read one.

Evolvable artificial hand

2006-07-10T01:40:00.000-05:00

This morning, I attended the session of evolvable hardware applications. One of the applications that most interested me was an evolvable artificial hand. It reads the nerve signals from one's arm and evolves the actions that one desires (like grabing, holding, etc). I think it's really cool and could be extremely useful for people who need prosthetic hands. There are also many other interesting projects going on in Higuchi's group. You can check them out here.

IWLCS 2006: In the heat of the discussion

2006-07-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

We are having a discussion session about what, where, and when next? The question that sparked the fire: "Is reinforcement learning the enemy?".

Xavier on the Extended Compact Classifier System

2006-07-09T14:15:00.000-05:00

Xavier Llora is just giving a talk on the Chi-ary Extended Compact Classifier System at the LCS workshop, where he is showing how we can incorporate linkage learning into the Pittsburgh learning classifier system using the ideas from estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs), specifically, Georges Harik's extended compact GA. Important and interesting work.

I think therefore I am (an engineer)

2006-07-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

Descartes for engineers (here).

Risto Miikkulainen's tutorial Evolving Neural Networks

2006-07-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

A while ago I came back from the Evolving Neural Networks tutorial by Risto Miikkulainen, who's done a great job at presenting important concepts, results and challenges in neuroevolution. The tutorial also included a lot of impressive demos.

Learning classifier systems for bioinformatics @ IWLCS 2006

2006-07-09T12:49:00.000-05:00

Jaume Bacardit is talking about ensemble techniques for Pittsburgh learning classifier systems, specifically applied to learning and classification problems in bioinformatics domain.

IWLCS and the Soccer World Cup Final

2006-07-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

Planning is useful. Planning sometimes works. Others, it is just a guarantee that things won’t happen that way. IWLCS timetable is one of these won’t-happen cases. The presentations are being dynamically reordered based on people's need to watch the Soccer World Cup final.

Pier Luca on computed predictions

2006-07-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

Pier Luca Lanzi is giving a nice talk about computed predictions in classisifer systems. at the LCS workshop.

Only a game

2006-07-09T11:04:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the LCS workshop at GECCO-2006 in the Renaissance Seattle Hotel in beautiful downtown Seattle. Xavier Llora is announcing program changes to allow Pier Luca Lanzi and other Italians to watch the World Cup finals between France and Italy.

Tutorial on probabilistic model building @ GECCO 2006

2006-07-08T18:16:00.000-05:00

Martin Pelikan is giving a tutorial on probabilistic model building genetic algorithms or estimation of distribution algorithms. The tutorial slides can be found here.

GECCO 2006: First pleasent surprise

2006-07-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

I had my first pleasant surprise today at GECCO. I am sitting in the Workshop on Medical Applications of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (MedGEC 2006). The workshop contains up to four different papers related to LCS and other GBML topics for medical domains. This is 4 out 6! :D

Live from Seattle its GECCO

2006-07-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

I am currently attending Franz Rothlauf's tutorial on representations in genetic and evolutionary algorithms.

Has engineering lost its mojo?

2006-07-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

See TEE here.

GECCO is less than a day away

2006-07-07T13:02:00.000-05:00

Xavier, Tian-Li, and I are at Champaign airport on our way to Seattle to attend GECCO-2006.

SIGEVOlution in the ACM Digital Library

2006-07-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

The first issue of SIGEVOlution, published in April 2006, is now available from the ACM Digital Library and can be accessed from here .

LCS and other GBML warming up for GECCO 2006

2006-07-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

The agenda for the Ninth International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems (IWLCS’2006) can be found here. The workshop is coming with a list of very interesting papers and topics. We are looking forward to another edition of the workshop crowded of new and exiting ideas. If you are in GECCO, do not let it pass by ;).

By the way, if you want to did a little further into the learning classifier systems (LCS) and other genetics-based machine learning (GBML) world, check the website of the NCSA/IlliGAL Gathering on Evolutionary Learning (NIGEL’2006). It contains the slides and videos of the talks on cutting-edge LCS and GBML research. It is just fresh out of the oven!

SIGEVOlution Volume 1, Issue 2

2006-07-05T10:05:00.000-05:00

The new issue of SIGEVOlution, the newsletter of SIGEVO, is now available for you to download.

The June 2006 issue features:

The Complex Network of EC Authors by Carlos Cotta & Juan-Julian Merelo

The Electric Sheep by Scott Draves

A Brief Survey of μGP by Massimiliano Schillaci & Ernesto Sanchez

GECCO-2006 Highlights

Events Reports

Letters

Forthcoming Papers

New Books

Calls and Calendar

The PDF can be found here. The newsletter is intended to be viewed electronically.

A philosophical summer

2006-07-03T14:58:00.000-05:00

Read about my philosophical summer of reading and viewing at TEE here.

3 IlliGAL Members or Alums vying for 2006 Humie

2006-07-03T14:07:00.000-05:00

Koza's Human Competitive Machine Intelligence Competition (The Humies) has 8 applicants vying for $10,000 in prize money (see here). Two of the entries have ties to IlliGAL. Kalyan Deb's entry (with Aravind Srinivasan) is entitled Innovization: Innovating design principles through optimization, and Kumara Sastry heads up a 7-person UIUC team concerned with Multiobjective Genetic Algorithms for Multiscaling Excited-State Direct Dynamics in Photochemistry. Best of luck to all contestants, but the judges need to understand that I have a kid going to Northwestern University next year.

SIGEVO a real ACM SIG

2006-07-03T14:04:00.000-05:00

One of the many things to be celebrated at this year's GECCO is SIGEVO receiving designation as a full-fledged SIG. The status over the last year has been as a provisional SIG, but with the publication of the newsletter, and the holding of two GECCO's under ACM supervision, the training wheels have come off.

Less than a week until GECCO in Seattle

2006-07-03T13:59:00.000-05:00

News from GECCO command is good. Registration is strong, and Saturday begins what promises to be a terrific conference. GECCO-2007 is tentatively set for July in London, the first time GECCO will leave the US. We like our lizard versus the insurance company's anyday (compare here and here)

Evolving Pathfinding Algorithms Using Genetic Programming

2006-06-27T16:58:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's main Gamasutra technical feature, Rick Strom explored the possibility of improving in-game AI by evolving pathfinding algorithms using genetic programming. More information can be found here.

MWH Soft Releases InfoWater Valve Criticality Modeling (VCM)

2006-06-22T04:27:00.000-05:00

Web wire reports that MWH Soft released "first-of-its-kind InfoWater VCM, The Ultimate Solution for Infrastructure Criticality and Vulnerability Assessment". The software contains a genetic algorithm as one of its components:

Built atop ArcGIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA) and drawing on the most advanced numerical computation and genetic algorithms optimization technologies, Infowater effortlessly reads GIS datasets; corrects network topology problems and data flaws; extracts pertinent modeling information; and automatically constructs, skeletonizes, loads, calibrates and generates optimized design, rehabilitation and pump scheduling solutions with astounding speed.

A related post can be found here.

New MEDAL technical reports

2006-06-22T03:49:00.000-05:00

The Missouri Estimation of Distribution Algorithms Laboratory (MEDAL) is pleased to announce publication of the following MEDAL technical reports:

MEDAL Report No. 2006007
Substructural Neighborhoods for Local Search in the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm
Claudio F. Lima, Martin Pelikan, Kumara Sastry, Martin Butz, David E. Goldberg, and Fernando G. Lobo (2006)
Also IlliGAL Report No. 2006021.

MEDAL Report No. 2006006
Population Sizing for Entropy-based Model Building in Genetic Algorithms
Tian-Li Yu, Kumara Sastry, David E. Goldberg, and Martin Pelikan (2006)
Also IlliGAL Report No. 2006020.

MEDAL Report No. 2006005
Order or Not: Does Parallelization of Model Building in hBOA Affect Its Scalability?
Martin Pelikan and James D. Laury, Jr. (2006)

The above and other MEDAL technical reports can be found here.

OBUPM-2006

2006-06-06T02:07:00.000-05:00

The workshop Optimization by Building and Using Probabilistic Models (OBUPM-2006) will take place at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2006) in Seattle, WA. OBUPM-2006 has been scheduled for the afternoon session of GECCO-2006 on Sunday, July 9, 2006. The workshop is organized by Peter A.N. Bosman, Joern Grahl, Kumara Sastry and Martin Pelikan.

The list of OBUPM-2006 presentations follows:

Peter A.N. Bosman
Matching Inductive Search Bias and Problem Structure in Continuous Estimation of Distribution Algorithms
Joern Grahl
Additively Decomposable Real-World Problems: General Findings and Examples from Logistics
Tian-Li Yu
Population Sizing for Entropy-based Model Building in Genetic Algorithm
Claudio Lima
Substructural Neighborhoods for Local Search in the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm
Xavier Llora
Chi-ary Extended Compact Classifier Systems: Linkage Learning in Pittsburgh LCS
Moshe Looks, Ben Goertzel
Probabilistic Model-Building for Program Learning: The Challenge and Opportunity of a Complex Representation

OBUPM-2006 is open to all GECCO-2006 attendees.

GECCO lineup looks good

2006-06-05T15:42:00.000-05:00

The preliminary schedule for the GECCO conference (Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference) is posted here and it looks like another winner. Even years are typically slow ones, but conference registration is ahead of plans and it looks as though attendance will keep pace with recent conferences. More information about registration can be found here.

Special IJCIR Issue on Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization

2006-06-03T14:09:00.000-05:00

The special issue of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence Research (IJCIR) with the focus on evolutionary multiobjective optimization is now available online here. The special issue has been edited by Marco Laumanns, Sanaz Mostaghim, Günter Rudolph, and Jürgen Teich.

More philosophy of engineering

2006-06-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

at TEE here.

Bioinformatics package uses GAs

2006-06-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

Bruker Daltonics ClinProTools 2.1 uses genetic algorithms and other techniques for biomarker panel analysis, biofluid profiling, multivariate data analysis of large sample cohorts, classical statistics and sample classification (see here):

ClinProTools 2.1 now includes many additional features for data analysis and visualization: the new proprietary Supervised Neural Network(TM) algorithm allows a third independent multiclass, multivariate analysis approach, complementing the company's existing Support Vector Machine and Modified Genetic Algorithm. Furthermore, it supports univariate peak statistics and a proprietary QuickClassifier (TM) algorithm. In addition to these supervised approaches, ClinProTools 2.1 also includes Principle Component Analysis (PCA) for unsupervised data analysis.

More information is available at the company's web site (here).

Of mice and GAs

2006-06-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

For a paper on using genetic algorithms to simulate rodent populations, see here.