Machine Learning For Evolution Strategies

This book introduces numerous algorithmic hybridizations between both worlds that show how machine learning can improve and support evolution strategies. The set of methods comprises covariance matrix estimation, meta-modeling of fitness and constraint functions, dimensionality reduction for search and visualization of high-dimensional optimization processes, and clustering-based niching. After giving an introduction to evolution strategies and machine learning, the book builds the bridge between both worlds with an algorithmic and experimental perspective. Experiments mostly employ a (1+1)-ES and are implemented in Python using the machine learning library scikit-learn. The examples are conducted on typical benchmark problems illustrating algorithmic concepts and their experimental behavior. The book closes with a discussion of related lines of research.

This book, written by leading international researchers of evolutionary approaches to machine learning, explores various ways evolution can address machine learning problems and improve current methods of machine learning. Topics in this book are organized into five parts. The first part introduces some fundamental concepts and overviews of evolutionary approaches to the three different classes of learning employed in machine learning. The second addresses the use of evolutionary computation as a machine learning technique describing methodologic improvements for evolutionary clustering, classification, regression, and ensemble learning. The third part explores the connection between evolution and neural networks, in particular the connection to deep learning, generative and adversarial models as well as the exciting potential of evolution with large language models. The fourth part focuses on the use of evolutionary computation for supporting machine learning methods. This includes methodological developments for evolutionary data preparation, model parametrization, design, and validation. The final part covers several chapters on applications in medicine, robotics, science, finance, and other disciplines. Readers find reviews of application areas and can discover large-scale, real-world applications of evolutionary machine learning to a variety of problem domains. This book will serve as an essential reference for researchers, postgraduate students, practitioners in industry and all those interested in evolutionary approaches to machine learning.

Evolutionary algorithms, such as evolution strategies, genetic algorithms, or evolutionary programming, have found broad acceptance in the last ten years. In contrast to its broad propagation, theoretical analysis in this subject has not progressed as much. This monograph provides the framework and the first steps toward the theoretical analysis of Evolution Strategies (ES). The main emphasis is deriving a qualitative understanding of why and how these ES algorithms work.

This Third Edition provides the latest tools and techniques that enable computers to learn The Third Edition of this internationally acclaimed publication provides the latest theory and techniques for using simulated evolution to achieve machine intelligence. As a leading advocate for evolutionary computation, the author has successfully challenged the traditional notion of artificial intelligence, which essentially programs human knowledge fact by fact, but does not have the capacity to learn or adapt as evolutionary computation does. Readers gain an understanding of the history of evolutionary computation, which provides a foundation for the author's thorough presentation of the latest theories shaping current research. Balancing theory with practice, the author provides readers with the skills they need to apply evolutionary algorithms that can solve many of today's intransigent problems by adapting to new challenges and learning from experience. Several examples are provided that demonstrate how these evolutionary algorithms learn to solve problems. In particular, the author provides a detailed example of how an algorithm is used to evolve strategies for playing chess and checkers. As readers progress through the publication, they gain an increasing appreciation and understanding of the relationship between learning and intelligence. Readers familiar with the previous editions will discover much new and revised material that brings the publication thoroughly up to date with the latest research, including the latest theories and empirical properties of evolutionary computation. The Third Edition also features new knowledge-building aids. Readers will find a host of new and revised examples. New questions at the end of each chapter enable readers to test their knowledge. Intriguing assignments that prepare readers to manage challenges in industry and research have been added to the end of each chapter as well. This is a must-have reference for professionals in computer and electrical engineering; it provides them with the very latest techniques and applications in machine intelligence. With its question sets and assignments, the publication is also recommended as a graduate-level textbook.

This book provides a collection of fourty articles containing new material on both theoretical aspects of Evolutionary Computing (EC), and demonstrating the usefulness/success of it for various kinds of large-scale real world problems. Around 23 articles deal with various theoretical aspects of EC and 17 articles demonstrate the success of EC methodologies. These articles are written by leading experts of the field from different countries all over the world.

This book delivers the state of the art in deep learning (DL) methods hybridized with evolutionary computation (EC). Over the last decade, DL has dramatically reformed many domains: computer vision, speech recognition, healthcare, and automatic game playing, to mention only a few. All DL models, using different architectures and algorithms, utilize multiple processing layers for extracting a hierarchy of abstractions of data. Their remarkable successes notwithstanding, these powerful models are facing many challenges, and this book presents the collaborative efforts by researchers in EC to solve some of the problems in DL. EC comprises optimization techniques that are useful when problems are complex or poorly understood, or insufficient information about the problem domain is available. This family of algorithms has proven effective in solving problems with challenging characteristics such as non-convexity, non-linearity, noise, and irregularity, which dampen the performance of most classic optimization schemes. Furthermore, EC has been extensively and successfully applied in artificial neural network (ANN) research —from parameter estimation to structure optimization. Consequently, EC researchers are enthusiastic about applying their arsenal for the design and optimization of deep neural networks (DNN). This book brings together the recent progress in DL research where the focus is particularly on three sub-domains that integrate EC with DL: (1) EC for hyper-parameter optimization in DNN; (2) EC for DNN architecture design; and (3) Deep neuroevolution. The book also presents interesting applications of DL with EC in real-world problems, e.g., malware classification and object detection. Additionally, it covers recent applications of EC in DL, e.g. generative adversarial networks (GAN) training and adversarial attacks. The book aims to prompt and facilitate the research in DL with EC both in theory and in practice.

This volume contains selected papers presented at the Second Asia-Paci c C- ference on Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL’98), from 24 to 27 Nov- ber 1998, in Canberra, Australia. SEAL’98 received a total of 92 submissions (67 papers for the regular sessions and 25 for the applications sessions). All papers were reviewed by three independent reviewers. After review, 62 papers were - cepted for oral presentation and 13 for poster presentation. Some of the accepted papers were selected for inclusion in this volume. SEAL’98 also featured a fully refereed special session on Evolutionary Computation in Power Engineering - ganised by Professor Kit Po Wong and Dr Loi Lei Lai. Two of the ve accepted papers are included in this volume. The papers included in these proceedings cover a wide range of topics in simulated evolution and learning, from self-adaptation to dynamic modelling, from reinforcement learning to agent systems, from evolutionary games to e- lutionary economics, and from novel theoretical results to successful applications, among others. SEAL’98 attracted 94 participants from 14 di erent countries, namely A- tralia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, South Korea, New Z- land, Portugal, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and the USA. It had three distinguished international scientists as keynote speakers, giving talks on natural computation (Hans-Paul Schwefel), reinforcement learning (Richard Sutton), and novel m- els in evolutionary design (John Gero). More information about SEAL’98 is still available at http://www.cs.adfa.edu.au/conference/seal98/.

Evolutionary computation is the study of computational systems which use ideas and get inspiration from natural evolution and adaptation. This book is devoted to the theory and application of evolutionary computation. It is a self-contained volume which covers both introductory material and selected advanced topics. The book can roughly be divided into two major parts: the introductory one and the one on selected advanced topics. Each part consists of several chapters which present an in-depth discussion of selected topics. A strong connection is established between evolutionary algorithms and traditional search algorithms. This connection enables us to incorporate ideas in more established fields into evolutionary algorithms. The book is aimed at a wide range of readers. It does not require previous exposure to the field since introductory material is included. It will be of interest to anyone who is interested in adaptive optimization and learning. People in computer science, artificial intelligence, operations research, and various engineering fields will find it particularly interesting. Contents:Introduction (X Yao)Evolutionary Computation in Behavior Engineering (M Colombetti & M Dorigo)A General Method for Incremental Self-Improvement and Multi-Agent Learning (J Schmidhuber)Teacher: A Genetics-Based System for Learning and for Generalizing Heuristics (B W Wah & A Ieumwananonthachai)Automatic Discovery of Protein Motifs Using Genetic Programming (J R Koza & D Andre)The Role of Self Organization in Evolutionary Computations (A C Tsoi & J Shaw)Virus-Evolutionary Genetic Algorithm and Its Application to Traveling Salesman Problem (T Fukuda et al.)Hybrid Evolutionary Optimization Algorithm for Constrained Problems (J-H Kim & H Myung)CAM-BRAIN — The Evolutionary Engineering of a Billion Neuron Artificial Brain (H de Garis)An Evolutionary Approach to the N-Player Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game (X Yao & Darwen) Readership: Graduate students, practitioners and researchers in engineering and electronics and computer science. keywords:Genetic Algorithms;Evolutionary Computation;Evolutionary Algorithms;Genetic Programming;Evolutionary Robotics;Global Optimization;Evolutionary Games;Global Optimization;Machine Learning;Artificial Intelligence