MEDAL Blogging

HPC wire reports on using parallel genetic algorithms for prediction of crystal structures for a variety of organic substances that are frequently used in pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and explosives. Using genetic and evolutionary algorithms for predicting structures that minimize energy is not new, but it’s always good to see practical applications of genetic algorithms. For more [...]

While browsing through some YouTube videos, I found the talk of John R. Koza on spiritual robots and evolutionary computation. Unfortunately, only audio is available so no striped shirt today. Here’s the talk:

EDN: Electronics Design, Strategy, News reports an application of the genetic algorithm to the problem of finding the optimal resistor and NTC thermistor values.

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline for paper submission to OBUPM-2008 is Wednesday, March 26, 2008.
For more details, check out our website at Optimization by Building and Using Probabilistic Models (OBUPM-2008).

GreyThumb Blog pointed out (see this post) an overview of approaches for evolving virtual creatures in simulated environments posted at Game AI for Developers. The original article can be found here.
Here’s one of the videos posted in the original article (Karl Sims, 1994), check it out, it’s fun to watch:

I just posted some code to accompany MEDAL Report No. 2008001 on NK landscapes. The code provides three main packages: (1) A generator for random problem instances of the NK landscape model, (2) a branch-and-bound complete algorithm for NK landscapes, and (3) a genetic algorithm code illustrating the use of the code in one’s own [...]

As I was browsing through various blogs, I noticed a (little older) post about the work of Dario Floreano et al. from EPFL on the use of evolutionary algorithms for evolving robots. Besides other things, what’s interesting about this work is that the study shows that some robots learn to lie by providing deceptive information [...]