
Genetic Algorithms Digest   Wednesday, April 5 1991   Volume 5 : Issue 8

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

Today's Topics:
	
	*** Special Issue ***
	ICGA-91 Status Report

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

AISB 91, Leeds, UK (v5n5)                                    Apr 16-19, 1991
4th Intl. Conference on Genetic Algorithms (v4n17)           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
IJCAI 91, International Joint Conference on AI, Sydney, AU   Aug 25-30, 1991

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

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From: booker@starbase.MITRE.ORG (Lashon Booker)
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 91 16:13:00 EST
Subject: ICGA-91 Status Report

  Dear Colleagues,

       The final decisions about ICGA-91 papers have been made, so this
  is a good time to give everyone a summary of where we stand. A total
  of 159 papers were submitted to ICGA-91 and we accepted 78 (~ 49%).
  This compares with the approximately 95 papers submitted to ICGA-89,
  of which 60 were accepted. The relatively lower acceptance rate this
  year can be attributed to several factors. The most important factor
  was that the committee was less inclined than before to accept papers
  describing very preliminary work or papers requiring major revisions.

       Once again, our conference will have significant international
  participation. Of the 78 papers accepted, 24 had a non-U.S. first
  author (~ 30%). For those who care about such things, here's a count
  of the number of papers selected based on the first author's nationality:

	  Belgium	3
	  Canada	2
	  France	2
	  Germany	4
	  Israel	2
	  Italy		2
	  Japan		2
	  Mexico	1
	  U.K.		6
	  U.S.		54

  It is especially pleasing that papers representing the Evolutionsstrategie
  point of view will be presented at ICGA-91. We hope this helps to
  promote a more extensive dialog between the GA and ES communities.

       The ICGA-91 conference format will be significantly different from,
  and we believe better than, the format of previous conferences. One of the
  frequent complaints many of us heard after ICGA-89 was that there was not
  enough opportunity for meaningful discussion and interaction. This problem
  threatened to become worse for ICGA-91 given a growth in attendance and an
  increase in the number of new ideas and results (especially in GA theory)
  that we all need to talk about. Consequently, we decided to deemphasize
  the "lecture mode" constraints of plenary sessions in favor of promoting
  more lively interactions in small groups. We hope to achieve this
  objective with a format emphasizing poster sessions and informal
  workshops.

       The default forum for presenting papers at ICGA-91 will be poster
  sessions. There will be a 90 minute poster session scheduled before each
  of three lunch breaks (see tentative schedule below). Since the lunch
  area will be adjacent to the poster area, there is the potential for up
  to two and a half hours of small group discussions/debates per poster
  session. This should promote considerable interaction between authors
  and those interested in their work. Moreover it promises to be a more
  relaxing and enjoyable way to assimilate a large amount of information.
  We are considering at least one afternoon poster session to help minimize
  the number of papers presented in the same session. The afternoon time slot
  will also allow discussion to continue beyond the allotted time.

       The informal workshops are another idea for increasing the amount of
  discussion at ICGA-91. Time has been set aside for special interest groups
  to discuss selected topics in depth, present preliminary results,
  exchange notes on work in progress, etc. The workshops also provide a
  forum where those whose papers were not accepted for ICGA-91 can present
  their ideas to the rest of the community. The workshops are intended to be
  informal but not completely spontaneous. Several workshop topics and
  chairpersons have already been identified. We hope that more will be
  organized soon. A separate announcement containing details about ICGA-91
  workshops will be posted on GA-List.

       The committee selected 15 papers to be presented in plenary sessions.
  Papers were chosen for plenary presentation for any of several reasons:
  they were representative of papers on a given topic, they were thought
  to be of special interest to a large segment of the community, they were
  deemed especially original in some respect, etc. Our goal in making these
  selections was to provide an overview of current research activities that
  might help "prime the pump" for the poster session and workshop discussions.
  It is especially important to note that the plenary/poster distinction
  says nothing about the relative quality of the papers. Excellent work has
  deliberately been allocated to *both* the poster and plenary sessions.

       Here is a *TENTATIVE* layout of the conference program:

	     Sat	     Sun	   Mon	         Tues         Wed

AM 1:	  Tutorials	  Plenary 1	 Plenary 3      Plenary 5   Workshops
AM 2:	  Tutorials       Poster 1       Poster 2       Poster 3    (if needed)
          Lunch           Lunch	         Lunch	        Lunch
PM 1:	  Invited Talks   Plenary 2      Plenary 4      Panel
PM 2:	  Invited Talks   Workshops      [Posters or    Bus. Mtg.
                                          Workshops]
Evening:  Social Mixer	  Workshops      Banquet        Workshops
                                                        (if needed)

  Let me emphasize that this is *VERY PRELIMINARY AND LIKELY TO CHANGE*, but
  it makes the point about what we're trying to achieve. Note that on
  Saturday there will be tutorials and invited talks. Three tutorials will
  be offered this year: A 3 hr introduction to the field, given concurrently
  with two 90 minute tutorials - one on advanced GA theory and one on modern
  biology as it relates to GAs. This year's invited talks illustrate the
  breadth of issues related to GAs. John Holland will talk about Echo, an
  ecological model he devised to study the properties of distributed systems
  with adaptive components. Marcus Feldman, the renowned mathematical
  geneticist, will discuss GAs as they relate to *real* mathematical
  genetics.  John Miller of the Santa Fe Institute will talk about exciting
  developments in economic theory and how GA/Classifier ideas can have a
  major impact on future directions. William Wimsatt, a philsopher of
  biology at the University of Chicago will be discussing "Developmental
  constraints on evolution."

     In summary, ICGA-91 promises to be an exciting event! I hope to see
  you there!

  Lashon

  P.S. Questions/comments about the ICGA-91 program can be directed to me
  (booker@mitre.org) or to Rik Belew (rik@cs.ucsd.edu)

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End of Genetic Algorithms Digest
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