Genetic Algorithms Digest Thursday, April 24, 1997 Volume 11 : Issue 13 - Do NOT send email or reply to gadistr@aic.nrl.navy.mil (GA List Moderator) - Send submissions (articles) to GA-List@AIC.NRL.NAVY.MIL - Send administrative (subscribe, unsubscribe, change of address, etc.,) requests to GA-List-Request@AIC.NRL.NAVY.MIL ****************************************************************************** - You can access back issues, GA code, conference announcements, etc., either through the WWW at URL http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/galist/ or through anonymous ftp at ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil [132.250.84.25] in /pub/galist. ****************************************************************************** Today's Topics: - Information required about GA for Variable selection (Re: v11n12) - PhD thesis on coevolution available - Forthcoming Book - Special issue of Adaptive Behavior on Environment Structure now out - Clarify about Tournament Selection - PhD Studentship in Intelligent Systems for Automated Fraud Detection - Ph. D. Dissertation - Hydroinformatics 98 - Call for Papers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CALENDAR OF GA-RELATED ACTIVITIES: (with GA-List issue reference) KES97 Knowledge-Based Intel Electronic Systems,Australia(v10n48)May 21-23, 97 Wrkshp on Nonlinear Dynamics and Adaptive System,Vienna (v11n11)May 21-23, 97 EAs: Theory to Applications Wrkshp, Marseille, France (v11n12) Jun 19-20, 97 ISMB97 Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology,Greece(v10n42) Jun 21-25, 97 WSC2 Online World Conf on Soft Computing, on the Internet(v11n2)Jun 23-27, 97 MENDEL97 Intl Mendel Conference on GAs, etc, Brno, Czech (v11n3)Jun 25-27, 97 GP97 Genetic Programming Conference, Stanford, CA (v10n45) Jul 13-16, 97 ICGA97 Intl Conf on Genetic Algorithms, East Lansing MI(v10n35) Jul 19-23, 97 MIC97 Metaheuristic Intl Conf, Sophia-Antipolis France (v10n47) Jul 21-24, 97 ECAL97 4th European Conf on Artificial Life, England (v10n36) Jul 28-31, 97 3NWGA 3rd Nordic Workshop on GAs, Helsinki, Finland (v10n43) Aug 18-20, 97 PATAT97 Intl Conf on Automated Timetabling, Toronto (v11n6) Aug 20-22, 97 IJCAI97 Workshop on Evolvable Systems, Nagoya, Japan (v11n5,6) Aug 23, 97 IMACS97 Scientific Comp, Modelling & App Math, Germany (v10n42) Aug 24-29, 97 IMACS97 Evolutionary Computation, Berlin, Germany (v10n45) Aug 24-29, 97 SNAC97 School on Natural Computation, Turku, Finland (v11n12) Aug 25-29, 97 BCEC97 Bio-Computing and Emergent Computation, Sweden (v10n44) Sep 1-2, 97 GALESIA97 Conf on GAs in Engineering Systems, Glasgow UK (v10n36) Sep 2-4, 97 EUROMICRO97 Euromicro Wrkshp on Comp Intel, Hungary (v10n47) Sep 3-4, 97 EUFIT97 Intelligent Techniques & Soft Computing, Aachen (v10n41) Sep 8-12, 97 SOCO97 Intl ICSC Symposium on Soft Computing, France (v10n40) Sep 17-19, 97 EA97 Evolution Artificielle, EMA-EERIE, Nimes, France (v11n10), Oct 21-24, 97 Evol Computation for Industrial Applications,New Zealand (v11n3)Nov 24-28, 97 EuroGen97 Short course GAs & ESs / Comp Sci & Eng (v11n5) Nov 28 - Dec 5, 97 ACDM98 Adaptive Comp in Design & Manufacture, Plymouth (v11n3) Apr 21-23, 98 ISORA98 Learning Cyclic Control/Behavior in Robots,Alaska(v11n8)May 10-14, 98 HIC98 Intl Conf on Hydroinformatics, Copenhagen, Denmark(v11n13)Aug 24-26, 98 ICES98 Intl Conf on Evolvable Systems, Lausanne, Switz (v11n11) Sep 24-26, 98 http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/galist/info/conferences/CONFERENCES.html has more information on the above conference activities. Send announcements of other activities to GA-List@aic.nrl.navy.mil. ------------------------------ From: peter@ai.iit.nrc.ca (Peter Turney) Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 08:46:11 -0400 Subject: Information required about GA for Variable selection (Re: v11n12) Dear Pedro: > Usually we use classical methods (Stewise regression, Partial Least > Squares) but I am starting now a research using Neural Networks. > > One of the most important problems is the selection of the inputs > variables: there are a lots of them and very correlated. > > I would like to contact researches who are working on utilization of > GA in order to select these variables or related subjects. I maintain a bibliography on feature selection, with links to many of the authors and papers: http://ai.iit.nrc.ca/bibliographies/feature-selection.html A few of the papers deal with genetic algorithms applied to feature selection. Additional references are welcome. Best wishes, Peter. http://ai.iit.nrc.ca/II_public/turney.html ------------------------------ From: Mitchell Potter Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 11:41:28 -0400 Subject: PhD thesis on coevolution available The following Ph.D. thesis by Mitchell A. Potter is now available online: The Design and Analysis of a Computational Model of Cooperative Coevolution Downloading instructions are available from: http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~mpotter/dissertation.html ABSTRACT As evolutionary algorithms are applied to the solution of increasingly complex systems, explicit notions of modularity must be introduced to provide reasonable opportunities for solutions to evolve in the form of interacting coadapted subcomponents. The difficulty comes in finding computational extensions to our current evolutionary paradigms in which such subcomponents ``emerge'' rather than being hand designed. At issue is how to identify and represent such subcomponents, provide an environment in which they can interact and coadapt, and apportion credit to them for their contributions to the problem-solving activity such that their evolution proceeds without human involvement. We begin by describing a computational model of cooperative coevolution that includes the explicit notion of modularity needed to provide reasonable opportunities for solutions to evolve in the form of interacting coadapted subcomponents. In this novel approach, subcomponents are represented as genetically isolated species and evolved in parallel. Individuals from each species temporarily enter into collaborations with members of the other species and are rewarded based on the success of the collaborations in solving objective functions. Next, we perform a sensitivity analysis on a number of characteristics of decomposable problems likely to have an impact on the effectiveness of the coevolutionary model. Through focused experimentation using tunable test problems chosen specifically to measure the effect of these characteristics, we provide insight into their influence and how any exposed difficulties may be overcome. This is followed by a study of the basic problem-decomposition capability of the model. We show, within the context of a relatively simple environment, that evolutionary pressure can provide the needed stimulus for the emergence of an appropriate number of subcomponents that cover multiple niches, are evolved to an appropriate level of generality, and can adapt to a changing environment. We also perform two case studies in emergent decomposition on complex problems from the domains of artificial neural networks and concept learning. These case studies validate the ability of the model to handle problems only decomposable into subtasks with complex and difficult to understand interdependencies. ------------------------------ From: "Dipankar Dasgupta (Faculty)" Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 17:02:48 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Forthcoming Book Hi everybody, The following book which will be available soon. Title: EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS IN ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS EDITED BY: Dipankar Dasgupta and Zbigniew Michalewicz Publisher : Springer-Verlag (In Press) ISBN: 3-540-62021-4 This book is concerned with applications of Evolutionary Algorithms and associated strategies in engineering. It will be useful for engineers, designers, developers, and researchers in any scientific discipline interested in applications of evolutionary algorithms. The book consists of five parts (total 552 pages) and each part contains 6 to 8 chapters. The topics are chosen to emphasize important application areas in different fields of engineering: Part I: Introduction Part II: Architectural and Civil Engineering Part III: Computer Science and Engineering Part IV: Electrical, Control and Signal Processing Part V: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Details of the book (Table of Contents) is available from the homepage: http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~dasgupta/ea-book.html TO appear May 1997. Thanks, Dipankar Dasgupta, Ph.D The University of Memphis Computer Science Mathematical Science Dept. Tel: (901) 678-4147 Memphis, TN 38152. Fax: (901) 678-2480 dasgupta@mathsci.msci.memphis.edu ------------------------------ From: ptodd@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de Date: Mon, 21 Apr 97 11:49:30 +0200 Subject: Special issue of Adaptive Behavior on Environment Structure now out The special double-issue of Adaptive Behavior (MIT Press; vol. 4:3-4) on environment structure and behavior is now out. It explores some of the ways in which particular spatial and temporal environment structures can affect the evolution of particular behaviors in the organisms in those environments. Most of the papers use evolutionary simulations to study the effect of environmental parameters on the behavioral repetoires of simple artificial organisms. The table of contents is listed below; abstracts can be obtained via the journal's website at: http://www-mitpress.mit.edu:80/jrnls-catalog/adaptive-behavior/adaptive-abstracts/adap4-3.html Table of contents for Adaptive Behavior 4:3-4 Special issue on environment structure and behavior Peter M. Todd (special issue editor): Introduction Jim H. Belanger and Mark A. Willis: Adaptive control of odor-guided locomotion: Behavioral flexibility as an antidote to environmental unpredictability Christophe Le Page and Philippe Cury How spatial heterogeneity influences population dynamics: Simulations in SEALAB Jeffrey A. Fletcher, Martin Zwick, and Mark A. Bedau Dependence of adaptability on environmental structure in a simple evolutionary model Filippo Menczer and Richard K. Belew From complex environments to complex behaviors Peter M. Todd and Holly A. Yanco Environmental effects of minimal behaviors in the minimat world David Kirsh Adapting the environment instead of oneself Peter Godfrey-Smith Precis of "Complexity and the function of mind in nature Daniel W. McShea Unpredictability! and the function of mind in nature Susan Oyama The ins and outs of nature and mind Mark A. Bedau The extent to which organisms construct their environments Richard K. Belew Developments across the internalist/externalist dichotomy Peter Godfrey-Smith Replies to four critics Peter Todd Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition Email: ptodd@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de WWW: http://www.mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de/~ptodd ------------------------------ From: "Dr. San Myint" Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 18:05:56 +0000 Subject: Clarify about Tournament Selection Dear Collegues, I would like to clarify on the tournament selection and my question is: "Whether tournament selection is related with GA or ES ?" So, please help me to clarify for that with some references if it is possible. You can send the comments and clarification to me directly. My email address is san@siit.tu.ac.th Thank in anticipation. with regards, san myint ------------------------------ From: PBent1ey@aol.com Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 13:04:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: PhD Studentship in Intelligent Systems for Automated Fraud Detection Applications are sought for a PhD student to work on a new EPSRC funded project on the use of Intelligent Systems (Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy logic) for detecting patterns of fraudulent activity in financial transactions. Applicants should have a good first or Masters degree in Computer Science, Physics or a Mathematical science. Excellent C++ skills are essential. The value of the PhD grant is #6,720. Applicants must be an EU national. Please send 3 copies of your CV to: Marion Sutcliffe, Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street London WC1E 6BT or e-mail: vacancy@cs.ucl.ac.uk For informal discussions about the position, e-mail: PBent1ey@aol.com UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON Department of Computer Science "working toward equal opportunity" ------------------------------ From: Ibrahim Alharkan Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 20:33:06 -0400 Subject: Ph. D. Dissertation This is to announce a Ph.D. Dissertation with the following title: "On MERGING SEQUENCING AND SCHEDULING THEORY WITH GENETIC ALGORITHMS TO SOLVE STOCHASTIC JOB SHOPS" by IBRAHIM AL-HARKAN, School of Industrial Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. 73019. Abstract: The standard genetic algorithm has been modified to address the job shop problem by constraining the genes in the chromosomes during the genetic operators implementations to match general theoretical sequencing constraints. When comparing the deterministic constrained and unconstrained genetic algorithms to minimize makespan, the constrained algorithm improved the average percentage errors by 27.44%. Also, when the deterministic constrained and unconstrained genetic algorithms to minimize total tardiness were compared, the constrained algorithm improved the average percentage errors by 248.77%. The stochastic job shop problem was solved using two genetic algorithms. The first was a stochastic constrained genetic algorithm to minimize total tardiness and to evaluate chromosomes using probability Gantt charting. The second was a stochastic constrained genetic algorithm to minimize total tardiness and to evaluate chromosomes using simulation. In these two algorithms, the fitness function was altered to a utility function defined as follows: Probability {total tardiness of a chromosome £ target total tardiness}. When comparing the two chromosome evaluation methods, the probability Gantt charting deviated from the true mean for both the makespan and the average flow time by 3% and 1.7% respectively. Also, all averages estimated for both the makespan and the average flow time fall within the 90% confidence interval. Furthermore, using probability Gantt charting reduced the CPU time needed by 554.9% when compared to the CPU time needed by simulation. When the results obtained by the two stochastic constrained genetic algorithms were compared, the second algorithm reduced the actual expected total tardiness, the actual worst case total tardiness, and the risk by 30.3%, 56%, and 18% respectively. Ibrahim Al-Harkan ------------------------------ From: Vladan Babovic Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 06:47:08 +0000 Subject: Hydroinformatics 98 - Call for Papers [ WMS: See http://www.dhi.dk/HIC98/Welcome.html for more info ] CALL FOR PAPERS Hydroinformatics '98 http:// www.dhi.dk/hic98/ Copenhagen, Denmark, August 24-26, 1998 This is the third international conference on Hydroinformatics organized by the International Association for Hydraulic Research (IAHR) and it is on this occasion hosted by Danish Hydraulic Institute. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES The informational revolution of the last 30 years has fundamentally altered the traditional planning, modelling and decision-making methodologies of the water-related sciences and technologies. Information technology now plays an essential role in the sustainable development of water resources and the responsible management of the aquatic environment. The general availability of sophisticated computers with ever-expanding capabilities has given rise to an increasing complexity in terms of computational ability in the storage, retrieval and manipulation of information flow. Following closely upon this, the revolution in the transport and distribution of data and knowledge over communication networks, such as the Internet, is changing our whole approach to impact assessment and decision making. Hydroinformatics is the field of study of the flow of information and its processing by knowledge as applied to the flow of fluids and all that they transport. Objectives of this conference are to expose the latest developments in hydroinformatics as well as to present the state-of-the-art applications of this technology to real-world problems. CONFERENCE TOPICS Conference topics encompass, but are not restricted to: Data Acquisition and Analysis (SCADA, remote sensing, data modelling, data management and data-base technology) Advances in Numerical Methods and Techniques (advances in 1-, 2-, and 3-D computational hydraulics, water quality and ecological modelling, data assimilation, parameter estimation and process identification) Control Techniques and Decision Support (development and application of control techniques, model based control, uncertainty handling, decision support systems, distributed impact assessment and decision making: Internet and Intranet) Experiences with standard software (case studies in coastal and estuarine processes, water resources/basin management, urban drainage systems, educational software - computer-aided learning) Emergent technologies (evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, fuzzy logic, distributed and decentralised simulation, object- and agent-orientation, data mining) TUTORIAL DAY A tutorial day will be held in conjunction to the Conference on Sunday, August 23, 1998. Evolutionary Algorithms Artificial Neural Networks Geographic Information Systems Computational Hydraulics Internet and Intranet Environmental Impact Assessment Data mining Ecological Simulations KEY-NOTE LECTURERS David Goldberg, Professor - University of Illinois, Urbanna-Champaign (USA) Graham Thompson, General Partner: Environmental Technology Group, Binnie Black & Veatch, Surrey (UK) CORRESPONDENCE Hydroinformatics '98 Danish Hydraulic Institute Agern All=E9 5, DK-2970 H=F8rsholm Denmark Phone: +45 - 45 76 95 55 Fax: +45 - 45 76 25 67 Email: HIC98@dhi.dk http://www.dhi.dk/HIC98/Welcome.html CALL FOR PAPERS Authors are invited to submit 500 word abstracts of their papers in the English language to the Organising Committee of the Conference as soon as possible and not later than September 15, 1997. The authors of high-quality abstracts will be invited to submit their full contributions before February 01, 1998. IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES September 15, 1997 Submission of Abstracts October 15, 1997 Acceptance of Abstracts February 01, 1998 Submission of Papers August 23, 1998 Tutorial Day and Welcoming of delegates August 24, 1998 Conference Dr. Vladan Babovic Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) Agern Alle 5 2970-DK Horsholm Denmark Tel. +45 45 76 95 55 (switchboard) Tel. +45 45 17 91 33 (direct dialing) Fax. +45 45 76 25 67 e-mail vmb@dhi.dk www http://www.dhi.dk ------------------------------ End of Genetic Algorithms Digest ******************************