Evolutionary Computation Digest - Tuesday, 26 January 2016, Volume 30: Issue 2 SUBMISSION ADDRESS: [log in to unmask] NEW LIST ARCHIVE: http://listserv.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=EC-DIGEST-L (UN)SUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS: at the bottom of this email ******************************************************************************** Today's Topics: Announcements --- - Book: "Behavioral Program Synthesis with Genetic Programming" (by Krzysztof Krawiec) - PhD Studentships - University of Nottingham - 2 year PostDoc position in Evolutionary Robotics available CFPs (with submission deadline) ---- - 31 January: CEC/WCCI 2016 Extended Deadline - 31 January: CEC/WCCI Special Sessions - 01 February: Bioinspired Optimization Methods and their Applications (BIOMA 2016) - 03 February (Abstracts 27 Jan): GECCO 2016 - 03 February (Abstracts: 27 Jan): A new track at GECCO: Complex Systems - 03 February (Abstracts: 27 Jan): GECCO Genetic Programming Track - 15 February: Extended Deadline for International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics (HM 2016)—includes special sessions - 19 February: ICML Tutorial Proposals - 02 March: Tenth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2016) - 20 March: ICAC Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems - 18 April: ECML-PKDD Tutorial and Workshop Proposals - 01 June: "Humies" Call for Entries: Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic and Evolutionary Computation ******************************************************************************** CALENDAR OF EC-RELATED ACTIVITIES: 23–27 May, 2016, Chicago, IL: 19th International Workshop on Nature Inspired Distributed Computing (NDISC) 08–10 June, 2016, Plymouth, UK: 10th International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics 20–24 July, 2016, Denver, Colorado: 2016 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 25–29 July, 2016, Vancouver, Canada: 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC—held as part of WCCI 2016) 17–21 September, 2016, Edinburgh, Scotland: 14th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN) ******************************************************************************** Sender: Krzysztof Krawiec <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Book: "Behavioral Program Synthesis with Genetic Programming" Dear all, I'm glad to announce that my book "Behavioral Program Synthesis with Genetic Programming" has been just published: http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319275635 My goal was to present within a coherent framework the behavioral GP, the semantic GP and related recent and not-so-recent developments in GP. I hope that some of you will find it a worthwhile read. Please find the back-cover text below. Best regards, Krzysztof (Chris) Krawiec ---- Genetic programming (GP) is a popular heuristic methodology of program synthesis with origins in evolutionary computation. In this generate-and-test approach, candidate programs are iteratively produced and evaluated. The latter involves running programs on tests, where they exhibit complex behaviors reflected in changes of variables, registers, or memory. That behavior not only ultimately determines program output, but may also reveal its `hidden qualities' and important characteristics of the considered synthesis problem. However, the conventional GP is oblivious to most of that information and usually cares only about the number of tests passed by a program. This `evaluation bottleneck' leaves search algorithm underinformed about the actual and potential qualities of candidate programs. This book proposes behavioral program synthesis, a conceptual framework that opens GP to detailed information on program behavior in order to make program synthesis more efficient. Several existing and novel mechanisms subscribing to that perspective to varying extent are presented and discussed, including implicit fitness sharing, semantic GP, co-solvability, trace convergence analysis, pattern-guided program synthesis, and behavioral archives of subprograms. The framework involves several concepts that are new to GP, including execution record, combined trace, and search driver, a generalization of objective function. Empirical evidence gathered in several presented experiments clearly demonstrates the usefulness of behavioral approach. The book contains also an extensive discussion of implications of the behavioral perspective for program synthesis and beyond. ******************************************************************************** Sender: Per Kristian Lehre <[log in to unmask]> Subject: PhD Studentships - University of Nottingham PhD Studentships - Theoretical Analysis of Evolutionary Processes Applications are invited for PhD studentships funded by the School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham. Studentships are available from October 2016 for a period of three years and include a stipend of £14,057 per year and tuition fees, and are available to students of any nationality. Applicants are expected to have a first-class Masters or Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related discipline, and must obtain support from a potential supervisor. I will support strong applicants interested in the following topic. Evolutionary algorithms and other randomised search heuristics have been successfully applied to various industrial optimisation domains. However, the theoretical understanding of these methods has been limited. Recently, there has been significant progress in analysing the runtime (also called optimisation time) of randomised search heuristics using rigorous techniques from probability theory and theoretical computer science including analysis of randomised algorithm. Results about the runtime give insights into how the behaviour of a randomised search heuristic depends on its parameter-settings and on the characteristics of the underlying optimisation problem. The successful candidate(s) will contribute to this exciting research area, which lies at the interface between probability theory and theoretical computer science. The aim is to develop theory that aids in predicting and controlling the behaviour of evolutionary processes, both natural processes as well as evolutionary algorithms. The topic is mathematically challenging and requires an excellent degree in mathematics or computer science. In particular, the candidate should have a strong background in probability theory, discrete mathematics, and/or theoretical computer science. The research will be carried out in the context of the EU-funded project Speed of Adaptation in Population Genetics and Evolutionary Computation (SAGE) which brings together researchers from population genetics and evolutionary computation. The studentship is locally associated with the Automated Scheduling, OptimisAtion and Planning (ASAP) research group, one of the Research Groups within the School of Computer Science at Nottingham. For more information, please send me an email, or see http://nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/SCI1498 -- Dr. Per Kristian Lehre Assistant Professor in School of Computer Science University of Nottingham Nottingham NG8 1BB United Kingdom +44 (0)115 846 8376 [log in to unmask] http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~pkl http://www.project-sage.eu ******************************************************************************** Sender: Evert Haasdijk <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [jobs] 2 year PostDoc position in Evolutionary Robotics available The Computational Intelligence group at VU University Amsterdam is seeking a PostDoc researcher for the H2020 EU research project DREAM ( http://www.robotsthatdream.eu/). DREAM aims to incorporate sleep and dream-like processes within cognitive architectures. This enables an individual robot or groups of robots to consolidate their experience into more useful and generic formats, thus improving their future ability to learn and adapt. Our focus within this project is to develop methods that allow robots to exchange knowledge and/or experiences to enable joint learning. More information about this position at: http://bit.ly/1ZfnjDG ******************************************************************************** Sender: IEEE WCCI 2016 <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Update 5: 2016 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (IEEE WCCI 2016) -------------------------------~*******~-------------------------------- Extended Paper Submission Deadline: 31st January 2016 (FINAL) -------------------------------~*******~-------------------------------- The paper submission deadline for IEEE WCCI 2016 has been extended till 31st January 2016, 24:00 EST (FINAL). Please submit your paper atwww.wcci2016.org For further information, please contact: [log in to unmask] or visit: http://www.wcci2016.org/sponsors.php For more information on the Congress, please visit: www.wcci2016.org ******************************************************************************** Sender: EC-Digest Editor Subject: CEC/WCCI Special Sessions The EC Digest received updates from the following special sessions, to be held as part of the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI 2016) and/or the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2016). All paper submission deadlines have been extended to 31 January, 2016. Special Session on Computational Intelligence in Marketing and Social Sciences Sender: Patrick Siarry <[log in to unmask]> URL: http://www.wcci2016.org/submission.php (please select "Computational Intelligence in Marketing and Social Sciences" as the main research topic) Special Session on "Evolutionary Computation for Music, Art, and Creativity" Sender: Francisco Chavez de la O <[log in to unmask]> URL: http://cilab.cs.ccu.edu.tw/ci-tf/ECMAC2016.html Special Session on "Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments" (ECiDUE) Sender: Michalis Mavrovouniotis <[log in to unmask]> URL: http://www.tech.dmu.ac.uk/~mmavrovouniotis/ECiDUE16/ ******************************************************************************** Sender: BIOMA <[log in to unmask]> Subject: REMINDER - BIOMA 2016 submission deadline approaching BIOMA 2016 The 7th International Conference on Bioinspired Optimization Methods and their Applications 18-20 May 2016 Bled, Slovenia Paper submission deadline 1 February 2016 http://bioma.ijs.si/conference/2016/ We wish to kindly remind you that the submission deadline for the BIOMA 2016 conference is approaching. You, your coworkers and colleagues working in the field are therefore encouraged to submit papers on recent research to BIOMA 2016. ******************************************************************************** Sender: Per Kristian Lehre <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [GECCO CFP] CFP: 2016 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2016) ** Call for Papers ** 2016 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2016) July 20-24, 2016, Denver, Colorado, USA http://gecco-2016.sigevo.org/ The GECCO 2016 Program Committee invites the submission of technical papers describing your best work in genetic and evolutionary computation. Abstracts need to be submitted by January 27, 2016. Full papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of February 3, 2016. Important Dates: Abstract Deadline: January 27, 2016 Submission of Full Papers: February 3, 2016 Conference: 20-24 July, 2016 ******************************************************************************** Sender: Risto Miikkulainen <[log in to unmask]> Subject: A new track at GECCO: Complex Systems GECCO 2016 will feature a new track this year called "CS - Complex Systems," which combines and replaces the previous "Artificial Life/Robotics/Evolvable Hardware" and "Generative and Developmental Systems" tracks. The track description and important dates are below. -- Terry Soule and Risto Miikkulainen CS Track Chairs Complex Systems Track (CS) 2016 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2016) July 20-24, 2016, Denver, Colorado, USA http://gecco-2016.sigevo.org/ Important Dates: Abstract Deadline: January 27, 2016 Submission of Full Papers: February 3, 2016 Conference: 20-24 July, 2016 Track Description: This track invites all papers addressing the challenges of scaling evolution up to real-life complexity. This includes both the real-life complexity of biological systems, such as artificial life models and generative and developmental systems (GDS); and the real-world complexity of physical systems, such as evolutionary robotics and evolvable hardware. Artificial life studies artificial systems (software, hardware, or chemical) with properties similar to those of living systems. There are two main complementary goals: to better understand living systems and to use this understanding to build artificial systems with properties similar to those of living systems, such as behavior, adaptability, developmental or generative processes, evolvability, active perception, communication, self-organization and cognition. This track also welcomes models of problem-solving through (social) agent interaction, emergence of collective phenomena and models of the dynamics of ecological interactions in an evolutionary context. Evolutionary robotics and evolvable hardware studies the evolution of controllers, morphologies, sensors, and communication protocols that can be used to build systems that provide robust, adaptive and scalable solutions to the complexities introduced by working in real-world, physical environments. This track welcomes contributions addressing problems from control to morphology, from single robot to collective adaptive systems. Approaches to incorporating human users into the evolutionary search process are also welcome. Contributions are expected to deal explicitly with Evolutionary Computation, with experiments either in simulation or with real robots. ******************************************************************************** Sender: Krzysztof Krawiec <[log in to unmask]> Subject: GP Track at GECCO'16 The GECCO 2016 genetic programming track invites original submissions on all aspects of the evolutionary generation of computer programs or other executable structures. IMPORTANT DATES January 27 2016 Abstract submission February 3 2016 Full paper submission (hard deadline) March 20 2016 Paper acceptance notification July 20-24 2016 GECCO 2016 Conference in Denver, Colorado TRACK CHAIRS Krzysztof Krawiec, Poznan University of Technology (Poland), [log in to unmask] Zdenek Vasicek, Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic), [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************** Sender: Antonio D. Masegosa <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Extended deadline for HM 2016: 5th Feb 2016 - Save the Date! HM 2016 - 10th International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics June 8-10, 2016 - Plymouth, United Kingdom http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/ https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hm2016 [log in to unmask] **** EXTENDED deadline to 5th February 2016 **** **** PROCEEDINGS in LNCS, Springer http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/submission.html **** SPECIAL ISSUE in SOFT COMPUTING, Springer http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/call.html **** SUBMISSIONS HM 2016 includes two different types of submission: 1) *regular paper*: 15 pages maximum length in Springer LNCS format, including figures, table & references, and should report on new and unpublished work; 2) *abstract for oral/poster presentation* (no page restriction; any format): it should discuss work in progress; new research ideas; works previously published elsewhere (it is essential that a reference to the previous article is clearly cited); and all that may be relevant and fruitful for soliciting discussions at the workshop. **** SPECIAL SESSIONS ** ** special sessions deadline: 15th February 2016 ** ** “Hybrid Metaheuristics for Bioinformatics” organizers: Laetitia Jourdan and Julia Handl ** “Hybrid Metaheuristics for Dynamic Environments” organizers: Amir Nakib and Antonio Masegosa ** “Engineering Applications of Hybrid Metaheuristics” organizer: Alessandro Di Nuovo, Graziella Figueredo ** “Hybrid metaheuristics in Operational Research” organizer: Djamila Ouelhadj and Mario Pavone more special sessions will be announced! http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/special-sessions.html ******************************************************************************** Sender: Jingrui He <[log in to unmask]> Subject: ICML 2016 Call for Tutorials Call for Tutorials *The 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning <http://icml.cc/2016/>* Tutorial proposal deadline: *February 19, 2016* The ICML 2016 Organizing Committee invites proposals for tutorials to be given on June 19, 2016, immediately preceding the main conference. We welcome proposals for tutorials on either core machine learning topics or topics of emerging importance for machine learning. We will consider tutorials on any topic if the proposal makes a strong argument that such a tutorial serves an important function for the ICML community. Tutorials should be of interest to a substantial part of the ICML audience and represent a sufficiently mature area of research or practice. ******************************************************************************** Sender: Carlo Pinciroli <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [3rd CFP] ANTS 2016: Tenth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence ANTS 2016 Tenth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence September 7-9, 2016. Brussels, Belgium Call for papers prepared on October 5, 2015 More details and up-to-date information at http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ants2016 Relevant Research Areas ======================= ANTS 2016 solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm intelligence. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are: Behavioral models of social insects or other animal societies that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches. Empirical and theoretical research in swarm intelligence. Application of swarm intelligence methods, such as ant colony optimization or particle swarm optimization, to real-world problems. Theoretical and experimental research in swarm robotics systems. Important Dates =============== Submission deadline March 2, 2016 Notification of acceptance May 4, 2016 Camera ready copy May 18, 2016 Conference September 7-9, 2016 ******************************************************************************** Sender: Giacomo Cabri <[log in to unmask]> Subject: CfP 2nd Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems (DAS) at ICAC 2016 The 2nd Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems (DAS), colocated at the 13th IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC) Practitioners and researchers are therefore invited to submit interesting contributions both in theoretical work and real world applications so to create a fruitful discussion regarding the presented challenges and the following related topics: Models and Methods for designing DAS Distributed learning and experience sharing among agents Advances in Multi-Agent System coordination Formal methods and languages for distributed adaptive systems Modelling distributed adaptive systems Collectivism in distributed adaptive systems Optimization in distributed adaptive systems Framework and design patterns for distributed adaptive systems Bio-inspired and evolutionary approaches to distributed adaptive systems Tools and simulation software for distributed adaptive systems Case studies and real world applications. Mechanisms and Patterns for decentralized decision making and control Industrial best practices and case studies Surveys and Comparative studies in distributed adaptive systems Important dates Paper Submission March 20, 2016 Notification April 30, 2016 Camera Ready May 8, 2016 Workshop date July 19, 2016 Author Kit/Submission Instructions can be found at: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html The submission of paper can be done by EasyChair at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dasicac2016 ******************************************************************************** Sender: Olana Missura <[log in to unmask]> Subject: ECMLPKDD 2016 Tutorials and Workshops Call ECML-PKDD 2016 Tutorials and Workshops Call http://www.ecmlpkdd2016.org/ The ECML-PKDD 2016 Organizing Committee invites proposals for half-day tutorials, combined tutorials and workshops, and full-day workshops in established and emerging topics in machine learning and data mining. Tutorial proposal deadline Monday, April 18, 2016 Workshop proposal deadline Monday, April 18, 2016 For paper submission, reviewing and final revisions, please consider the following deadlines: Workshop paper submission deadline Monday, July 4, 2016 In case you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Workshop and Tutorial Chairs (Matthijs van Leeuwen, Fabrizio Costa, Albrecht Zimmermann) at [log in to unmask] We are looking forward to your proposals. ******************************************************************************** Sender: Per Kristian Lehre <[log in to unmask]> Subject: CFE: Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Call For Entries for 13th Annual (2016) "Humies" Awards for Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic and Evolutionary Computation www.human-competitive.org To be Held at Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) July 20-24, 2016 (Wednesday-Sunday) Denver, Colorado http://gecco-2016.sigevo.org/ http://www.human-competitive.org Entries are hereby solicited for awards totaling $10,000 for human-competitive results that have been produced by any form of genetic and evolutionary computation (including, but not limited to genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolution strategies, evolutionary programming, learning classifier systems, grammatical evolution, gene expression programming, differential evolution, etc.) and that have been published in the open literature between the deadline for the previous competition and the deadline for the current competition. The competition will be held as part of the 2016 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO) conference. See http://gecco-2016.sigevo.org/ IMPORTANT DATES: Monday June 1, 2016 Deadline for entries (consisting of one TEXT file and one or more PDF files). Send entries to koza at human-competitive dot org Monday June 22, 2016 Finalists will be notified by e-mail Thursday July 6, 2016 Finalists must submit their presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, PDF) for posting on the competition web site. Send presentations to koza at human-competitive dot org July 20-24,2016 (Wednesday-Sunday) The GECCO conference Wednesday July 20, 2016 (TENTATIVE) Presentations before judging committee at public session of the GECCO conference Sunday July 24, 2015 (TENTATIVE) Announcement of awards at plenary session of the GECCO conference Additional information is at www.human-competitive.org ******************************************************************************** (UN)SUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS: - Send submissions (articles) to [log in to unmask] DO NOT send submissions to the [log in to unmask] address. - To subscribe send email to [log in to unmask] containing the following text in the body of the message: subscribe ec-digest-l <Your Name (up to 4 words)> - To unsubscribe send email to [log in to unmask] containing the following text in the body of the message: unsubscribe ec-digest-l - To change your email address, simply unsubscribe the old address and subscribe the new one. - Send other administrative requests to [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************** End of Evolutionary Computation Digest ********************************************************************************