CAP 5512 Evolutionary Computation

Spring 2007

by Ivan Garibay, University of Central Florida, January 16, 2007.

The students final projects for this class have been published as a CS technical Report:

  • Garibay I.(Editor) (2007). "Student Papers, Evolutionary Computation Class, Sprint 2007". Technical Report Number CS-TR-07-11, SEECS, University of Central Florida.

    Skip to Lecture Notes (topics covered, distributed material, homeworks, deadlines, etc.)
    Skip to Important Dates
    Student presentations schedule (last updated: Feb 19, 2007)

    • •  Instructor: Dr. Ivan Garibay, UT 556, 407-882-1163, igaribay@cs.ucf.edu (please include CAP5512 on the subject line of all emailed correspondence)

    •  Prerequisites: Graduate standing or instructor permission. No knowledge of biology or evolutionary search is assumed. Computer programming ability in some language is necessary for the projects.

    •  Class Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:30 PM – 5:45 PM

    •  Class Location: BA 0212

    •  Final Exam Period: April 26, 4:00 PM – 6:50 PM

    •  Office Hours: Before or after classes and by appointment at the UCF Office of Research and Commercialization, 12201 Research Parkway, Suite 501, Orlando, FL 32826 (UCF Research Park, University Towers Building). Map.

    •  Textbook: Evolutionary Computation: A Unified Approach, Kenneth A. De Jong, ISBN-10:0-262-04194-4; ISBN-13: 978-0-262-04194-2

    Objectives and Structure

    This course has two main objectives:

    1. To teach the subject matter of evolutionary computation with emphasis on discussing theoretical foundations, applications, and current active areas of research. Evolutionary Computation (EC) is a stochastic search method based on evolutionary biology. EC has been successfully applied to a variety of problem domains such as optimization and learning. This course will provide the students with the knowledge to implement EC algorithms, discuss trade-off between variations of EC algorithms, and discuss issues related to the application of EC algorithms to a particular problem.
    2. To provide experience with the research process
      Students will be ask to read, review, present and discuss papers from scholarly publications. Two homeworks will provide experience to implement and/or use evolutionary algorithms and apply them to practical problems. The students will be asked to work throughout the course in a student-selected final class project. This project must be proposed, implemented, written-up as a paper, presented to the class, and peer reviewed by other students. In this way, the students will gain experience in the complete research cycle.

    This course will be structured as follows:

    1. Two papers will be assigned each week. You will be asked to read the papers and write a one page summary/critique/comparison of the papers each week. These summaries will made up 15% of your final grade. Late summaries will not be accepted. You may drop two summaries.
    2. Each week two students will be asked to present the papers for that week to the class in an oral presentation. This presentation will include summarizing the paper and leading a discussion on the paper topic. These presentations will made up 20% of your final grade.
    3. You will have two homework projects during the first half of the course. All programming can be done in any programming language. These homeworks will be worth 25% of your final grade.
    4. Throughout the class you will work on a final research project. Before the middle of the course each student proposes an individual project. The proposed ideas are discussed in one or more individual meetings and one particular project is agreed upon between the instructor and the student. During the second half of the course, the student carries out the agreed project. The student writes up his/her work in a 8 to 10 pages paper (in the style of a conference paper). Towards the end of the semester all students will be ask to present their project to the class. The project due date, students must bring three extra copies of their project to be distributed to other three students to be anonymously peer reviewed. The last day of classes all students must bring their written reviews. Your final project grade will be partially based on the peer reviews of your work and the reviews that you write about other students projects. All projects will be compiled into a class book and published as an EECS Technical Report and also in the class website. Copies of this book will be distributed to all students. This final research project is worth 40% of your final grade.

    Important Dates

    Lecture Notes

    Lecture 1, January 9, 2007

    Lecture 2, January 11, 2007

    Lecture 3, January 16, 2007

    Lecture 4, January 18, 2007

    Lecture 5, January 23, 2007

    Lecture 6, January 25, 2007

    Lecture 7, January 30, 2007

    Lecture 8, February 1, 2007

    Lecture 9, February 6, 2007

    Lecture 10, February 8, 2007

    Lecture 11, February 13, 2007

    Lecture 12, February 15, 2007

    Lecture 13, February 20, 2007

    Lecture 14, February 22, 2007