Evolutionary Computation, Optimization and Learning Algorithms for Data Science

A large number of engineering, science and computational problems have yet to be solved in a computationally efficient way. One of the emerging challenges is how evolving technologies grow towards autonomy and intelligent decision making. This leads to collection of large amounts of data from various sensing and measurement technologies, e.g., cameras, smart phones, health sensors, smart electricity meters, and environment sensors. Hence, it is imperative to develop efficient algorithms for generation, analysis, classification, and illustration of data. Meanwhile, data is structured purposefully through different representations, such as large-scale networks and graphs. We focus on data science as a crucial area, specifically focusing on a curse of dimensionality (CoD) which is due to the large amount of generated/sensed/collected data. This motivates researchers to think about optimization and to apply nature-inspired algorithms, such as evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to solve optimization problems. Although these algorithms look un-deterministic, they are robust enough to reach an optimal solution. Researchers do not adopt evolutionary algorithms unless they face a problem which is suffering from placement in local optimal solution, rather than global optimal solution. In this chapter, we first develop a clear and formal definition of the CoD problem, next we focus on feature extraction techniques and categories, then we provide a general overview of meta-heuristic algorithms, its terminology, and desirable properties of evolutionary algorithms

Efficiency Analysis of Swarm Intelligence and Randomization Techniques

Swarm intelligence has becoming a powerful technique in solving design and scheduling tasks. Metaheuristic algorithms are an integrated part of this paradigm, and particle swarm optimization is often viewed as an important landmark. The outstanding performance and efficiency of swarm-based algorithms inspired many new developments, though mathematical understanding of metaheuristics remains partly a mystery. In contrast to the classic deterministic algorithms, metaheuristics such as PSO always use some form of randomness, and such randomization now employs various techniques. This paper intends to review and analyze some of the convergence and efficiency associated with metaheuristics such as firefly algorithm, random walks, and L\'evy flights. We will discuss how these techniques are used and their implications for further research.Comment: 10 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1212.0220, arXiv:1208.0527, arXiv:1003.146

State-of-the-art in aerodynamic shape optimisation methods

Aerodynamic optimisation has become an indispensable component for any aerodynamic design over the past 60 years, with applications to aircraft, cars, trains, bridges, wind turbines, internal pipe flows, and cavities, among others, and is thus relevant in many facets of technology. With advancements in computational power, automated design optimisation procedures have become more competent, however, there is an ambiguity and bias throughout the literature with regards to relative performance of optimisation architectures and employed algorithms. This paper provides a well-balanced critical review of the dominant optimisation approaches that have been integrated with aerodynamic theory for the purpose of shape optimisation. A total of 229 papers, published in more than 120 journals and conference proceedings, have been classified into 6 different optimisation algorithm approaches. The material cited includes some of the most well-established authors and publications in the field of aerodynamic optimisation. This paper aims to eliminate bias toward certain algorithms by analysing the limitations, drawbacks, and the benefits of the most utilised optimisation approaches. This review provides comprehensive but straightforward insight for non-specialists and reference detailing the current state for specialist practitioners

Ant colony optimization with direct communication for the traveling salesman problem

This article is posted here with permission from IEEE - Copyright @ 2010 IEEEAnts in conventional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms use pheromone to communicate. Usually, this indirect communication leads the algorithm to a stagnation behaviour, where the ants follow the same path from early stages. This occurs because high levels of pheromone are developed, which force the ants to follow the same corresponding trails. As a result, the population gets trapped into a local optimum solution which is difficult to escape from it. In this paper, a direct communication (DC) scheme is proposed where ants are able to exchange cities with other ants that belong to their communication range. Experiments show that the DC scheme delays convergence and improves the solution quality of conventional ACO algorithms regarding the traveling salesman problem, since it guides the population towards the global optimum solution. The ACO algorithm with the proposed DC scheme has better performance, especially on large problem instances, even though it increases the computational time in comparison with a conventional ACO algorithm