TITLE: Niching in Evolution Strategies in Theory and Practice

PRESENTER: Ofer M. Shir, http://www.liacs.nl/~oshir/, oshir@liacs.nl

AFFILIATION:Natural Computing Group, Leiden University, The Netherlands, http://www.liacs.nl

DATE: Friday 15th December 2006

TIME: 12:00:00

PLACE: CSE Seminar Room, Level 1, K17

ABSTRACT:

Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), popular search methods for solving
search and optimization problems, are known for successful and fast
location of single optimal solutions. However, many complex search
problems require the location and maintenance of multiple solutions.
Niching methods, the extension of EAs to address this problem,
have been investigated up to date mainly within the field of
Genetic Algorithms (GAs), and were limited to low dimensions.
In this talk the basis for niching methods within Evolution
Strategies (ES), the canonical optimization framework for real-valued
high-dimensional problems, will be introduced. Niching algorithms
will be presented and analyzed with respect to an experimental setup
of optimization tasks, with emphasis on high-dimensions.
Finally, the application of ES-niching to a challenging real-life
high-dimensional optimization problem, namely Femtosecond Laser
Pulse Shaping, will be discussed.

BIOGRAPHY OF SPEAKER:

Ofer M. Shir is a PhD Student in Natural Computing Group at Leiden
University, The Netherlands. Ofer is a member of the Leiden Center
for Natural Computing. He is taking part in the joint project with
Amolf-Amsterdam "An evolutionary approach to many-parameter physics".
Ofer has received an MSc in Theoretical Computer Science from Leiden
Institute of Advanced Computer Science in 2004 and a BSc in Physics
and Computer Science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
in 2003.

Seminar information is also available at
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/db/ai/seminars/list/index.html

Host:

Dror Ben-Naim

Seminar Convenor:

Van Hai Ho