Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms

Evolutionary algorithms are becoming increasingly attractive across various disciplines, such as operations research, computer science, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, social science and economics.

The reader is introduced to a range of applications, as Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms demonstrates how to model real world problems, how to encode and decode individuals, and how to design effective search operators according to the chromosome structures with examples of constraint optimization, multiobjective optimization, combinatorial optimization, and supervised/unsupervised learning. This emphasis on practical applications will benefit all students, whether they choose to continue their academic career or to enter a particular industry.

Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms is intended as a textbook or self-study material for both advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Additional features such as recommended further reading and ideas for research projects combine to form an accessible and interesting pedagogical approach to this widely used discipline.

The Decision Engineering series focuses on the foundations and applications of tools and techniques related to decision engineering, and identifies their relevance in `engineering' decisions. The series provides an aid to practising professionals and applied researchers in the development of tools for informed operational and business decision making, within industry, by utilising distributed organisational knowledge.

Xinjie Yu is an associate professor of the department of electrical engineering at Tsinghua University. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2001. Then he served as a lecturer at Tsinghua University until 2005 and was promoted to the position of associate professor; a role he has held ever since. He was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and at the Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems of Waseda University in 2008 and 2009 separately. Dr Yu's research interests include evolutionary computation (especially genetic algorithms, evolution strategy, multimodal optimization, and multiobjective optimization) and its applications in various aspects of electrical engineering, power electronics, wireless energy transferring, etc.Mitsuo Gen is a visiting scientist at the Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute (FLSI), Iizuka, Japan, which he joined in August 2009 after retiring from his position as a professor in the Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems, Waseda University; a role he had held since April 2003. He received a PhD in Engineering from Kogakuin University in 1974 and a PhD in Informatics from Kyoto University in 2006. He worked at Ashikaga Institute of Technology for several years: as a lecturer during the period 1974–1980, an associate professor during the period 1980–1987, and as a professor during the period 1987–2003. He was a visiting associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1981–1982, and a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley from 1999-2000, at POSTECH in Fall 2008 and at the Asian Institute of Technology in Spring 2009. His research interests include genetic and evolutionary algorithms, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, and their applications to scheduling, network design, logistics systems, etc. He has authored several books, such as Genetic Algorithms and Engineering Design, (1997), Genetic Algorithms and Engineering Optimization, (2000) with Dr. R. Cheng, and Network Models and Optimization: Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm Approach, Springer, London (2008) with Dr. R. Cheng and Dr. L. Lin. He has edited Intelligent and Evolutionary Systems, Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol. 187, Springer, Heidelberg (2009) with Dr. M. Gen et al., and has published more than 200 international journal papers. His books and papers have been cited more than 5000 times by researchers throughout the world.