Syllabus for CS/IT 803
Topics in CS/IT: Evolutionary Computation
De Jong
Fall 2006
Prerequisites: CS 782 or permission of the instructor.
This course will serve as an introduction to and comprehensive
survey of the rapidly growing field of evolutionary computation.
The course will cover in some detail the main paradigms, including
genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, and evolutionary
programming. These basic evolutionary algorithms will be studied
both empirically and theoretically, and their usefulness relative
to other more traditional algorithms will be analyzed for a variety
of problem domains.
Text book: Evolutionary Computation: A Unified Approach
K. De Jong, MIT Press 2006
There will be regular homework assignments, primarily computational
and will involve programming.
A final term project will be required.
Planned list of topics:
1. Evolutionary Computation:
- general introduction, overview
2. Canonical Evolutionary Algorithms:
- genetic algorithms (Holland)
- evolution strategies (Rechenberg)
- evolutionary programming (Fogel)
3. A Unified View of Evolutionary Algorithms
4. Problem Solving Paradigms
- survey of applications involving search, optimization and
machine learning
5. Formal Models and Comparative Analysis
- survey of EA theory
6. Recent Developments and Future Directions
