
Genetic Algorithms Digest   Monday, December 23 1991   Volume 5 : Issue 39

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

Today's Topics:
	- bit-climbers and naive evolution
	- Cognitive Science at Birmingham
	- COG SCI 92: CALL FOR PAPERS

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

 Canadian AI Conference, Vancouver, (CFP 1/7)                 May 11-15, 1992
 COGANN, Combinations of GAs and NNs, @ IJCNN-92 (v5n31)      Jun 6,     1992
 10th National Conference on AI, San Jose, (CFP 1/15)         Jul 12-17, 1992
 FOGA-92, Foundations of Genetic Algorithms, Colorado (v5n32) Jul 26-29, 1992
 COG SCI 92, Cognitive Science Conference, Indiana, (v5n39)   Jul 29-1,  1992
 ECAI 92, 10th European Conference on AI (v5n13)              Aug  3-7,  1992
 Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, Brussels, (v5n29)      Sep 28-30, 1992

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

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From: lje@philabs.Philips.Com  (Larry Eshelman)
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 09:35:33 EST
Subject: bit-climbers and naive evolution

   Dave  Davis  (GALIST  v.  5  #37)  implicitly  dismisses   Lester
   Ingber's   and  Bruce  Rosen's    paper    comparing    simulated
   annealing  and  genetic algorithms because they rely on  the   De
   Jong  functions  (f1-f5).   Dave    cites  his bit-climbing paper
   (in ICGA-91) as support for his   claim   that   these   problems
   are   easy  for  mutation-based algorithms.   I think Dave's bit-
   climbing paper is an  important paper, and  I strongly  recommend
   it;   however,  I   do  not  think that  anything  in  that paper
   explains   why  simulated   annealing  or  naive  evolution    (a
   mutation-based   GA   without   crossover) should perform well on
   f1-f5 (and f6 and f7).

   What Dave has shown is that these problems are easy  for  a  bit-
   climber  because  the  optimal values of the variables lie on the
   midpoints of their ranges.  (Actually, this is only true  of  f1,
   f4,   f6 and f7.)  It does not follow that this also explains why
   they are easy for naive evolution (or simulated  annealing).   In
   fact, I  have  tried  naive  evolution  on  shifted  versions  of
   these  problems,  and  naive  evolution  still  does  quite  well
   relative  to  a traditional  GA,  even  though  the  shift  often
   thwarts a bit-climber.

   Although naive evolution can be viewed as a hillclimber operating
   on  bits,  it  differs  from  Davis'  bit-climber in an important
   respect:  it can take steps in the  "wrong"  direction  (i.e.,  a
   stochastic  hillclimber).  Furthermore, the probability of taking
   a step in the wrong direction is a function  of  the  performance
   values  of  the  other  members  in  the population, and so it is
   self-adjusting (in a  fashion  somewhat  analogous  to  simulated
   annealing).

   I believe that the reason most GA researchers  (unlike  Schwefel,
   et al, Fogel and Atmar) have  overlooked  the strengths  of naive
   evolution is that they have  been  using  binary  coded  function
   parameters.   The key to naive  evolution's   success (assuming a
   bit-string representation) is the use of Gray  coded  parameters,
   making search much less susceptible to Hamming cliffs.

   To avoid misunderstanding, I am NOT saying that  naive  evolution
   is   always   better than a traditional GA.  Nor do I necessarily
   disagree with Dave's points about  the  shortcomings   of   f1-f7
   or  bit-string representations.    But  I  do  believe that naive
   evolution is a much more powerful algorithm than many  people  in
   the GA community have been willing to admit.

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From: D.M.Peterson@computer-science.birmingham.ac.uk
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 91 15:10:37 GMT
Subject: Cognitive Science at Birmingham


                         University of Birmingham 

                   Graduate Studies in COGNITIVE SCIENCE 


   The Cognitive Science Research Centre at the University of Birmingham
   comprises staff from the Departments/Schools of Psychology, Computer
   Science, Philosophy and English, and supports teaching and research in
   the inter-disciplinary investigation of mind and cognition. The Centre
   offers both MSc and PhD programmes.

			   MSc in Cognitive Science 

   The MSc programme is a 12 month conversion course, including a 4 month
   supervised project. The course places a particular stress on the
   relation between biological and computational architectures.
	   Compulsory courses: AI Programming, Overview of Cognitive
   Science, Knowledge Representation Inference and Expert Systems,
   General Linguistics, Human Information Processing, Structures for Data
   and Knowledge, Philosophical Questions in Cognitive Science,
   Human-Computer Interaction, Biological and Computational
   Architectures, The Computer and the Mind, Current Issues in Cognitive
   Science.
	   Option courses: Artificial and Natural Perceptual Systems,
   Speech and Natural Language, Parallel Distributed Processing.
	   It is expected that students will have a good first degree ---
   psychology, computing, philosophy or linguistics being especially
   relevant.
	   Funding is available through SERC and HTNT. 


			   PhD in Cognitive Science

   For 1992 studentships are expected for PhD level research into a range
   of topics including:

   o computational modelling of emotion
   o computational modelling of cognition
   o interface design
   o computational and psychophysical approaches to vision 


			     Computing Facilities

   Students have access to ample computing facilities, including networks
   of Hewlett-Packard, Sun and Sparc workstations in the Schools of Computer
   Science and Psychology. 

				  Contact

   For further details, contact: The Admissions Tutor, Cognitive Science,
   School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, PO Box 363, Edgbaston,
   Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

   Phone:  (021) 414 3683

   Email:  cogsci@bham.ac.uk

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

From: Cognitive Science Conference 1992 <COGSCI92@ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 91 11:28:40 EST
Subject: COG SCI 92: CALL FOR PAPERS


		       CALL FOR PAPERS:
	     The Fourteenth Annual Conference of
		The Cognitive Science Society
		  July 29 -- August 1, 1992
		     Indiana University


   THE CONFERENCE:

   The Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society brings
   together researchers studying cognition in humans, animals or
   machines.  The 1992 Conference will be held at Indiana
   University.  Plenary speakers for the conference are: 

	Elizabeth Bates          John Holland
	Daniel Dennett           Richard Shiffrin
	Martha Farah             Michael Turvey
	Douglas Hofstadter 

   The Conference will also feature evening entertainments: a
   welcoming reception (Wed), banquet (Thurs), poster reception
   (Fri), and concert (Sat). 


   PAPER SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

   Paper and poster submissions are encouraged in the areas of
   cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics,
   cognitive anthropology, connectionist models, cognitive
   neuroscience, education, cognitive development, philosophical
   foundations, as well as any other area of relevance to cognitive
   science. 

   Authors should submit five (5) copies of their papers in hard
   copy form to 

   Cognitive Science 1992 Submissions
   Attn: Candace Shertzer
   Cognitive Science Program
   Psychology Building
   Indiana University
   Bloomington, IN 47405

   All accepted papers will appear in the Conference Proceedings.
   Presentation format (talk or poster) will be decided by a review
   panel, unless the author specifically requests consideration for
   only one format.  Electronic and FAX submissions cannot be
   accepted. 

   David Marr Memorial Prizes for Excellent Student Papers:

   To encourage even greater student participation in the
   Conference, papers that have a student as first author are
   eligible to compete for one of four David Marr Memorial Prizes. 
   Student-authored papers will be judged by reviewers and the
   Program Committee for excellence in research and presentation. 
   Each of the four Prizes is accompanied by a $300 honorarium. 
   The David Marr Prize is funded by an anonymous donor.

   Appearance and length:

   Papers should be a maximum of six (6) pages long (excluding cover
   page, described below), have at least 1 inch margins on all
   sides, and use no smaller than 10pt type.  Camera-ready versions
   will be required only after authors are notified of acceptance. 

   Cover page:

   Each copy of the paper must include a cover page, separate from
   the body of the paper, that includes (in order): 

   1.  Title of paper.
   2.  Full names, postal addresses, phone numbers and e-mail
       addresses (if available) of all authors. 
   3.  An abstract of no more than 200 words.
   4.  The area and subarea in which the paper should be reviewed.
   5.  Preference of presentation format: Talk or poster; talk only;
       poster only.
   6.  A note stating whether the first author is a student 
       and should therefore be considered for a Marr Prize.

   Papers submission deadline:

   Papers must be *received* by March 2, 1992.  
   Notification of acceptance or rejection will be made by April 10.
   Camera ready versions of accepted papers are due May 8.


   SYMPOSIA:

   Symposium submissions are also encouraged.  Submissions should
   specify:  1. A brief description of the topic.  2. How the
   symposium would address a broad cognitive science audience.
   3. Names of symposium organizer(s) and potential speakers and
   their topics.  4. Proposed format of symposium (e.g., all formal
   talks; brief talks plus panel discussion; open discussion; etc.).
   Symposia should be designed to last 1 hr 40 min. 

   Symposium submission deadline:

   Symposium submissions must be received by January 13, 1992, and
   should be sent as soon as possible. Note that the deadline for
   symposium submissions is earlier than for papers. 


   TRAVEL:

   By air, fly to Indianapolis (not Bloomington) where pre-arranged,
   inexpensive charter buses will take you on the 1-hour drive to
   Bloomington.  Discount airfares are available from the conference
   airline, USAir, which has flights from Europe and Canada as well
   as within the continental US.  Full details regarding travel,
   lodging and registration will be given in a subsequent
   announcement. 


   FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

   John K. Kruschke, Conference Chair
   e-mail: cogsci92@ucs.indiana.edu

   Candace Shertzer, Cognitive Science Program Secretary
   phone: (812) 855-4658
   e-mail: cshertze@silver.ucs.indiana.edu

   Cognitive Science Program
   Psychology Building
   Indiana University
   Bloomington, IN 47405

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End of Genetic Algorithms Digest
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