
Genetic Algorithms Digest   Tuesday, June 4 1991   Volume 5 : Issue 12

 - Send submissions to GA-List@AIC.NRL.NAVY.MIL
 - Send administrative requests to GA-List-Request@AIC.NRL.NAVY.MIL

Today's Topics:
	- ICGA-91 workshop: biological influences in problem solving with GAs
	- Proceedings of Foundations Workshop now out.
 	- Dissertation:  Vehicle Routing with TW using GA's

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CALENDAR OF GA-RELATED ACTIVITIES: (with GA-List issue reference)

4th Intl. Conference on Genetic Algorithms (v5n9)            Jul 13-16, 1991
AAAI 91, National Conference on AI, Anaheim, CA              Jul 14-19, 1991
EUROPEAN SUMMER SCHOOL on MACHINE LEARNING (v5n7)            Jul 22-31, 1991
Genetic Algorithm Course, Stanford (v5n11)                   Jul 22-26, 1991
IJCAI 91, International Joint Conference on AI, Sydney, AU   Aug 25-30, 1991
First European Conference on Artificial Life (v5n8)          Dec 11-13, 1991

(Send announcements of other activities to GA-List@aic.nrl.navy.mil)

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From: Alan C. Schultz (schultz@aic.nrl.navy.mil)
Date: May 20, 1991
Subject: ICGA-91 Workshop: Biological influences in problem solving with GAs

   This purpose of this workshop is to bring together GA researchers who are
   interested in improving the GA's performance in problem solving with
   mechanisms that are analogical to, or inspired by biological mechanisms.

   Areas of interest include:

   Niche formation and Speciation

	   Crowding Factors

	   Sharing Functions

	   Mating Restrictions

   Diploidy and Dominance

   Overlapping Generations

   Performance of Individual (Super-being) VS Performance of Society

   Competition VS Cooperation

   Context Sensitive Evaluation
	   i.e. evaluating all individuals in the population together, such
	   that any individual's performance is affected by others.


   If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please contact
   Alan C. Schultz at schultz@aic.nrl.navy.mil as soon as possible.

--------------------------------

From: rawlins@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Gregory J. E. Rawlins)
Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 13:45:04 EST
Subject: Proceedings of Foundations Workshop now out.

    Here is the ordering information and the list of papers in the proceedings
    of the foundations workshop last summer. My sincere thanks to the many
    people who made it possible,
	    gregory.

    _______________________________________________________
    Description:

    The first workshop on the foundations of genetic algorithms and classifier
    systems (FOGA/CS-90) was held July 15-18, 1990 on the Bloomington campus
    of Indiana University. The workshop was the first specifically intended
    solely to discuss the theoretical foundations of genetic algorithms and
    classifier systems.

    The workshop was attended by researchers from academia, government
    laboratories, and industry, who met for four days to hammer out the
    foundations of a field that is rapidly growing in importance both in
    machine learning and in non-linear optimization. Sixty participants from
    the United States, England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, Canada, and Israel
    argued over their research papers on foundational issues including
    selection and convergence, coding and representation, problem hardness,
    deception, classifier system design, variation and recombination,
    parallelization, and population divergence. This book is a collection of
    the refereed form of some of those papers. Its purpose is to make a record
    of the workshop, to provide a repository of the basic ideas of the field,
    and to be a source of further questions with suggestions about appropriate
    directions.

    Progress was made on many fronts: among other advances, papers in this
    volume improve bounds on GA convergence; present a new, and practical,
    parallel implementation of GAs as a general AI search strategy; give a new
    and deeper understanding of what GAs are really processing as they
    operate; link GAs to other probabilistic search techniques like
    neuromorphic networks; study population dynamics (albeit for infinite
    populations); refine our understanding of coding and its effects; and
    improve our understanding of the problem of GA deception and its
    detection. To make this book more widely useful a brief presentation of my
    view of genetic algorithms follows.

    The twenty student participants at the workshop benefited in part from a
    grant from the International Society for Genetic Algorithms and aid from
    the Department of Computer Science, Bloomington, Indiana University.  I
    thank both organizations for making the workshop possible.

    FOGA 90 would not have been possible without the kind support of many
    people who gave generously of their time, wisdom, and encouragement. I
    thank Dave Goldberg and Ken De Jong who were instrumental in getting this
    book off the ground. I also thank H. G. Cobb, Yuval Davidor, Larry
    Eshelman, John Grefenstette, John Holland, Dave Schaffer, Alan Schultz,
    Bill Spears, Dirk Van Gucht, and Darrell Whitley. I thank you.  Finally, I
    thank Bruce Spatz, my editor at Morgan Kaufmann, who made these
    proceedings possible.

    _______________________________________________________

    FOUNDATIONS OF GENETIC ALGORITHMS
    Edited by Gregory Rawlins (Indiana University)

    ISBN 1-55860-170-8         $45.95 U.S./Canada  $50.55 Int'l
    approx 450 pages

    Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc
    _______________________________________________________

    Ordering Information:

	 Shipping is available at cost, plus a nominal handling fee:
	 In the U.S. and Canada, please add $3.50 for the first book
	 and $2.50 for each additional for surface shipping; for
	 surface shipments to all other areas, please add $6.50 for the
	 first book and $3.50 for each additional book.  Air shipment
	 available outside North America for $45.00 on the first book,
	 and $25.00 on each additional book.  

	 American Express, Master Card, Visa and personal checks drawn
	 on US banks are accepted.

	 MORGAN KAUFMANN PUBLISHERS, INC.
	 Department B9
	 2929 Campus Drive, Suite 260
	 San Mateo, CA 94403
	 USA

	 Phone: (800) 745-7323 (in North America)
	      (415) 578-9928
	 Fax: (415) 578-0672
	 email: morgan@unix.sri.com

    _______________________________________________________

    F O G A '90	First Workshop on the Foundations of
		    Genetic Algorithms & Classifier Systems

    List of authors, affiliations, and paper titles, alphabetical by first
    author.

    An Extension to the Theory of Convergence and a Proof of the Time
    Complexity of Genetic Algorithms
    Carol A. Ankenbrandt,
    Tulane University

    A Grammar-Based Genetic Algorithm
    H. James Antonisse,
    The MITRE Corporation

    Isomorphisms of Genetic Algorithms
    David L. Battle,
    University of Tennessee
    Michael D. Vose,
    University of Tennessee

    Representing Attribute-Based Concepts in a Classifier System
    Lashon B. Booker,
    The MITRE Corporation

    The Nonuniform Walsh-Schema Transform
    Clayton L. Bridges,
    Carnegie Mellon University
    David E. Goldberg,
    University of Illinois

    Epistasis Variance: A Viewpoint on GA-Hardness
    Yuval Davidor,
    The Weizmann Institute of Science

    The CHC Adaptive Search Algorithm:
    How to Have Safe Search When Engaging in Nontraditional Genetic
    Recombination
    Larry J. Eshelman,
    Philips Laboratories

    Genetic Operators for Sequencing Problems
    B. R. Fox,
    McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company
    M. B. McMahon,
    McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company

    A Comparative Analysis of Selection Schemes Used in Genetic Algorithms
    David E. Goldberg,
    University of Illinois
    Kalyanmoy Deb,
    University of Illinois

    Conditions for Implicit Parallelism
    John J. Grefenstette,
    Naval Research Laboratory

    A Hierarchical Approach to Learning the Boolean Multiplexer Function
    John R. Koza,
    Stanford University

    Deceptiveness and Genetic Algorithm Dynamics
    Gunar E. Liepins,
    Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Michael D. Vose,
    University of Tennessee

    Evolution in Time and Space---The Parallel Genetic Algorithm
    Heinz Muhlenbein,
    University of Dortmund

    Spurious Correlations and Premature Convergence in Genetic Algorithms
    J. David Schaffer,
    Philips Laboratories
    Larry J. Eshelman,
    Philips Laboratories
    Daniel Offutt,
    Philips Laboratories

    Variable Default Hierarchy Separation in a Classifier System
    Robert E. Smith,
    University of Alabama
    David E. Goldberg,
    University of Illinois

    An Analysis of Multi-Point Crossover
    William M. Spears,
    Naval Research Laboratory
    Kenneth A. De Jong,
    George Mason University

    A Study of Reproduction in Generational and Steady State Genetic Algorithms
    Gilbert Syswerda,
    Bolt, Beranek and Newman Laboratories

    Quasimorphisms or Queasymorphisms? Modeling Finite Automaton Environments
    T. H. Westerdale,
    University of London

    Fundamental Problems of Deception in Genetic Search
    L. Darrell Whitley,
    Colorado State University

    Genetic Algorithms for Real Parameter Optimization
    Alden H. Wright,
    University of Montana

--------------------------------

From: sam r. thangiah <thangiah@plains.NoDak.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 16:13:42 -0500
Subject: Dissertation:  Vehicle Routing with TW using GA's

      The following dissertation is available for a cost of $6.00 (xeroxing
      and shipping cost).  If you would like a copy of it, send a cheque or
      money order payable to Computer Science Department, NDSU, to the
      following address:

      Sam R. Thangiah,
      Computer Science Department,
      300 Minard Hall,
      North Dakota State University,
      Fargo, ND 58105.


   				ABSTRACT

      Thangiah,  Sam  Rabindranath,  Ph.  D.,   Department   of
      Computer  Science  and  Operations Research, North Dakota
      State University, May 1991.  GIDEON: A Genetic  Algorithm
      System  for  Vehicle  Routing  with  Time Windows.  Major
      Professor: Kendall E. Nygard


      In vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW),  a
      set  of  vehicles with limits on capacity and travel time
      are available to service a collection of  customers  with
      demand  and  earliest and latest time for servicing.  The
      objective is to minimize the number of vehicles servicing
      the set of customers without being tardy or exceeding the
      capacity or travel  time  of  the  vehicles.   The  VRPTW
      belongs  to  the  class  of NP-hard problems.  Due to the
      complexity  of  the  problem,  search  methods  based  on
      heuristics   are  most  promising  for  finding  feasible
      solutions  for  problems  of  practical  size.   In  this
      research  we  describe GIDEON, a genetic algorithm system
      for solving the VRPTW. GIDEON consists of two modules,  a
      global   vehicle   routing   module  and  a  local  route
      optimization module.  The global vehicle  routing  module
      uses  a  genetic  algorithm,  a global heuristic adaptive
      search method based on  population  genetics,  to  assign
      vehicles  to  customers.  The  solution obtained from the
      vehicle routing module is improved  by  the  local  route
      optimization module.  The synergy between global adaptive
      search and local optimization produce results superior to
      those obtained by competing heuristic search methods.  On
      a standard set of 56 VRPTW  problems  obtained  from  the
      literature, GIDEON, did better than the alternate methods
      on 41 of them with a average reduction 2.1% in fleet size
      and 5.5% in distance traveled.

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End of Genetic Algorithms Digest
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