Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!enews.sgi.com!hammer.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!server3.netnews.ja.net!server4.netnews.ja.net!fafnir.cf.ac.uk!scmdb From: David.Beasley@cs.cf.ac.uk (David Beasley) Newsgroups: comp.ai.genetic,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: FAQ: comp.ai.genetic part 4/6 (A Guide to Frequently Asked Questions) Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.ai.genetic Date: 11 Apr 2001 20:23:45 GMT Organization: Posted through the Joint Cardiff Computing Service, Wales, UK Lines: 1686 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: 25 May 2001 20:22:54 GMT Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: thrall.cs.cf.ac.uk X-Trace: fafnir.cf.ac.uk 987020625 29649 131.251.42.22 (11 Apr 2001 20:23:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@cf.ac.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 11 Apr 2001 20:23:45 GMT Summary: This is part 4 of a entitled "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary Computation". A periodically published list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about Evolutionary Algorithms, Life and Everything. It should be read by anyone who whishes to post to the comp.ai.genetic newsgroup, preferably *before* posting. Originator: scmdb@thrall.cs.cf.ac.uk Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.ai.genetic:21406 comp.answers:44995 news.answers:205231 Archive-name: ai-faq/genetic/part4 Last-Modified: 4/12/01 Issue: 9.1 Important note: Do NOT send email to the cs.cf.ac.uk address above: it will be ignored. Corrections and other correspondence should be sent to david.beasley@iee.org TABLE OF CONTENTS OF PART 4 Q10: What introductory material on EAs is there? Q10.1: Suitable background reading for beginners? Q10.2: Textbooks on EC? Q10.3: The Classics? Q10.4: Introductory Journal Articles? Q10.5: Introductory Technical Reports? Q10.6: Not-quite-so-introductory Literature? Q10.7: Biological Background Readings? Q10.8: On-line bibliography collections? Q10.9: Videos? Q10.10: CD-ROMs? Q10.11: How do I get a copy of a dissertation? Q11: What EC related journals and magazines are there? Q12: What are the important conferences/proceedings on EC? Q13: What Evolutionary Computation Associations exist? Q14: What Technical Reports are available? Q15: What information is available over the net? Q15.1: What digests are there? Q15.2: What mailing lists are there? Q15.3: What online information repositories are there? Q15.4: What relevant newsgroups and FAQs are there? Q15.5: What about all these Internet Services? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Q10: What introductory material on EAs is there? There are many sources of introductory material on evolutionary algorithms: background books (see Q10.1), textbooks (see Q10.2), classical works (see Q10.3), journal articles (see Q10.4), technical reports (see Q10.5), more advanced literature (see Q10.6), biological background reading (see Q10.7), bibliography collections (see Q10.8), videos (see Q10.9) and CD-ROMs (Q10.10). Information on how to get dissertations is also given below (see Q10.11). Conference proceedings (see Q12) are also a good source of up-to-date (and sometimes introductory) material. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.1: Suitable background reading for beginners? These books give a "flavor" of what the subject is about. Dawkins, R. (1976, 1989 2nd ed) "The Selfish Gene", Oxford: Oxford University Press. [The 2nd edition includes two new chapters] Dawkins, R. (1982) "The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as a Unit of Selection", Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dawkins, R. (1986) "The Blind Watchmaker", New York: W.W. Norton. Fogel, D. (1998) "Evolutionary Computation: The Fossil Record," IEEE Press. Chronicles the history of simulated evolution from the early 1950s. http://www.natural-selection.com/people/dbf.html Gonick, L. (1983) "The Cartoon Guide to Computer Science", New York: Barnes & Noble. [eds note: features an interesting chapter on Charles Babbage in conjunction with "horse racing forecasting", if you want to use EAs to fullfill this task, better read this section first] Gonick, L. (1983) "The Cartoon Guide to Genetics", New York: Barnes & Noble. Regis, E. (1987) "Who got Einstein's Office? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study", Reading, MA: Addison Wesley [eds note: chapters 5, 10 and 12] Levy, S. (1992) "Artificial Life: The Quest for a new Creation", New York, NY: Pantheon. [LEVY92]: [eds note: read this and you will have the urge to work in this field] Sigmund, K. (1993) "Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour", Oxford: Univ. Press. 252 pp. Hard/Softcover avail. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.2: Textbooks on EC? These books go into the "nuts and bolts" of EC. Goldberg, D.E. (1989) "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning",Addison-Wesley. [GOLD89]: (Probably the most widely referenced book in the field!) Davis, L. (ed) (1991) "Handbook of Genetic Algorithms", Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY. [DAVIS91]: Michalewicz, Z. (1992) Genetic algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs", Springer-Verlag, New York, NY. [MICHALE92]: Also second, extended edition (1994) with index. [MICHALE94]: Koza, J.R. (1992), Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by means of Natural Selection", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [KOZA92]: Langdon, W.B. (1998), Genetic Programming and Data Structures Hingham, MA: Kluwer. [LANG98]: http://www.wkap.nl/book.htm/0-7923-8135-1 Fogel, Lawrence (1999), Intelligence through Simulated Evolution: Forty Years of Evolutionary Programming , Wiley. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.3: The Classics? Mostly older works which have helped to shape the field. Charles Darwin (1859), "The Origin of Species", London: John Murray. (Penguin Classics, London, 1985; New American Library, Mentor Paperback) Box, G.E.P. (1957) "Evolutionary operation: a method of increasing industrial productivity", Applied Statistics, 6, 81-101. Fraser, A.S. (1957) "Simulation of genetic systems by automatic digital computers", Australian Journal of Biological Sciences, 10, 484-491. Friedman, G.J. (1959) "Digital simulation of an evolutionary process", General Systems Yearbook, 4:171-184. Bremermann, H.J. (1962) "Optimization through evolution and recombination". In M.C. Yovits, et al, (eds) Self-Organizing Systems. Washington, DC: Spartan Books. Holland, J.H. (1962) "Outline for a logical theory of adaptive systems", JACM, 3, 297-314. Samuel, A.L. (1963) "Some Studies in Machine Learning using the Game of Checkers", in Computers and Thought, E.A. Feigenbaum and J. Feldman (eds), New York: McGraw-Hill. Walter, W.G. (1963) "The Living Brain", New York: W.W. Norton. Fogel, L.J., Owens, A.J. & Walsh, M.J. (1966) "Artificial Intelligence through Simulated Evolution", New York: Wiley. [Fogel66]: Rosen, R. (1967) "Optimality Principles in Biology", London: Butterworths. Rechenberg, I. (1973, 1993 2nd edn) "Evolutionsstrategie: Optimierung technischer Systeme nach Prinzipien der biologischen Evolution", Stuttgart: Fromman-Holzboog. (Evolution Strategy: Optimization of technical systems by means of biological evolution) Holland, J.H. (1975) "Adaptation in natural and artificial systems", Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. [HOLLAND75]: 2nd edn. (1992) [HOLLAND92]: De Jong, K.A. (1975) "An analysis of the behavior of a class of genetic adaptive systems", Doctoral thesis, Dept. of Computer and Communication Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Schwefel, H.-P. (1977) "Numerische Optimierung von Computer-Modellen mittels der Evolutionsstrategie", Basel: Birkhaeuser. Schwefel, H.-P. (1981) "Numerical Optimization of Computer Models", Chichester: Wiley. [eds note: English translation of the previous entry; a reworked edition is currently in preparation for 1994] Axelrod, R. (1984) "The evolution of cooperation", NY: Basic Books. Cramer, N.L. (1985) "A Representation for the Adaptive Generation of Simple Sequential Programs" [ICGA85], 183-187. Baeck, T., Hoffmeister, F. & Schwefel, H.-P. (1991) "A Survey of Evolution Strategies" [ICGA91], 2-9. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.4: Introductory Journal Articles? Baeck, T. & Schwefel, H.-P. (1993) "An Overview of Evolutionary Algorithms for Parameter Optimization", Evolutionary Computation, 1(1), 1-23. Baeck, T., Rudolph, G. & Schwefel, H.-P. (1993) "Evolutionary Programming and Evolution Strategies: Similarities and Differences", [EP93], 11-22. Baeck, T., Hammel, U. and Schwefel, H.-P. (1997) "Evolutionary computation: Comments on the history and current state," IEEE Trans. Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 1:1, pp. 3-17 Beasley, D., Bull, D.R., & Martin, R.R. (1993) "An Overview of Genetic Algortihms: Part 1, Fundamentals", University Computing, 15(2) 58-69. Available by ftp from ENCORE (See Q15.3) in file: GA/papers/over93.ps.gz or from ralph.cs.cf.ac.uk/pub/papers/GAs/ga_overview1.ps Beasley, D., Bull, D.R., & Martin, R.R. (1993) "An Overview of Genetic Algortihms: Part 2, Research Topics", University Computing, 15(4) 170-181. Available by ftp from ENCORE (See Q15.3) in file: GA/papers/over93-2.ps.gz or from ralph.cs.cf.ac.uk/pub/papers/GAs/ga_overview2.ps Brooks, R.A. (1991) "Intelligence without Reason", MIT AI Memo No. 1293. Appeared in "Computer's and Thought", IJCAI-91. Dawkins, R. (1987) "The Evolution of Evolvability", [ALIFEI], 201-220. Fogel, D.B. (1994) "An introduction to simulated evolutionary optimization," IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, Vol. 5:1, pp. 3-14. Goldberg, D.E. (1986) "The Genetic Algorithm: Who, How, and What Next?". In Kumpati S. Narenda, ed., Adaptive and Learning Systems, Plenum, New York, NY. Goldberg, D. (1994), "Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms Come of Age", Communications of the ACM, 37(3), 113--119. Hillis, W.D. (1987) "The Connection Machine", Scientific American, 255(6). Hillis, W.D. (1992) "Massively Parallel Computing" Daedalus, winter, 121(1), 1-29. [HILLIS92]: Holland, J.H. (1989) "Using Classifier Systems to Study Adaptive Nonlinear Networks". In: Lectures in the Science of Complexity, SFI Studies in the Science of Complexity, D. Stein, (ed), Addison Wesley. Holland, J.H. (1992) "Genetic Algorithms", Scientific American, 267(1), 66-72. Holland, J.H. (1992) "Complex Adaptive Systems" Daedalus, winter, 121(1), 17-30. Mitchell, M. & Forrest S. (1993) "Genetic Algorithms and Artificial Life", Artificial Life, 1(1). Also avail. as SFI Working Paper 31-11-072. Sims, K. (1991) "Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics", Computer Graphics, 25(4), 319-328 Sipper, M (1996) "A Brief Introduction to Genetic Algorithms", unpublished guide, available from http://lslwww.epfl.ch/~moshes/ga.html Spears, W.M., DeJong, K.A., Baeck, T., Fogel, D. & de Garis, H. (1993) "An Overview of Evolutionary Computation", [ECML93], 442-459. Peter Wayner (1991), "Genetic Algorithms: Programming takes a valuable tip from nature", BYTE, January, 361--368. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.5: Introductory Technical Reports? See also Q14 for other technical Ficek, Rhona (1990) "Genetic Algorithms", Dept. of Computer Science and Operations Research, North Dakota State University. An introductory report, available from: http://www.atm.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/Dienst/UI/2.0/Describe/ncstrl.ndsu_cs%2fNDSU- CS-TR-90-51 Hoffmeister, F. & Baeck, T. (1990, 1992) "Genetic Algorithms and Evolution Strategies: Similarities and Differences", University of Dortmund, Dept. of CS, SyS-1/92. Available by ftp from lumpi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de: Serrada, Anselmo Perez (1996) "Una introducci'on a la Computaci'on Evolutiva". An introduction to EC in Spanish. Available from ENCORE (see Q15.3) in file EA/papers/intro-spanish.ps.gz with an overview in EA/papers/intro-spanish.leeme . Whitley, D. (1993) "A Genetic Algorithm Tutorial", Colorado State University, Dept. of CS, TR CS-93-103. Available by ftp from ftp.cs.colostate.edu/pub/public_html/TechReports/1993/tr-103.ps.Z or from http://www.cs.colostate.edu - follow the link to Technical Reports. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.6: Not-quite-so-introductory Literature? Bock, P. (1993) "The Emergence of Artificial Cognition: An Introduction to Collective Learning", Singapore: World Scientific. Davis, L. (ed) (1987) "Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing", available from Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., 340 Pine St, San Francisco, CA 94104, (415-392-2665). Davidor, Y. (1991) "Genetic Algorithms and Robotics", Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 9-810202172. Forrest, S. (ed) (1990) "Emergent Computation. Self-Organizing, Collective, and Cooperative Phenomena in Natural and Artificial Computing Networks", [FORREST90]:, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Special issue of Physica D.) Hillis, W.D. (1990) "Co-Evolving Parasites Improve Simulated Evolution as an Optimization procedure", [ALIFEII], 313-324. Holland, J.H., Holyoak, K.J., Nisbett, R.E. & Thagard, P.R. (1986) "Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Holland, J.H. (1992) "Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books, (2nd edn). Hard: ISBN 0-262-08213-6. Soft: ISBN 0-262-58111-6. Serra, R. & Zanarini, G. (1990) "Complex Systems and Cognitive Processes", New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. Stender, J. (ed.). (1993) "Parallel Genetic Algorithms", IOS Publishing. [Cites just about everything in the parallel GA field. -- John Koza] Rujan, P. (1988) "Searching for optimal configurations by simulated tunneling", Zeitschrift der Physik B", Vol.73, 391-416. Rudolph, G. (1994) "Convergence Analysis of Canonical Genetic Algorithms", IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, Special issue on EP. Available by ftp from ENCORE (See Q15.3) in file: GA/papers/canon94.ps.gz Fogel, D. (1995), "Evolutionary Computation: Toward a New Philosophy of Machine Intelligence", Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press. ISBN 0-7803-1048-0. Schwefel, H-P. (1995) "Evolution and Optimum Seeking", New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-57148-2 ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.7: Biological Background Readings? Adams, D. with Carwardine M. (1990) "Last Chance to see...", London: Heinemann. [David Corne: I strongly suggest you read this. Its a report on visits to various parts of the world to see endangered species. It is remarkably and wonderfully funny and illuminating. It would actually be a good reference to have in any bit of the FAQ to do with genetic diversity and/or the lack of it, or the remarkable kinds of adaptations that can occur for the strangest reasons.] Cairns-Smith, A.G. (1985) "Seven Clues to the Origin of Life", Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Fisher, R.A. (1958) "The Genetic Theory of Natural Selection", New York: Dover. Futuyma, D.J. (1986) "Evolutionary Biology", Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc. [eds note: the bibliography of this book is truly a treasure chest] Lewin, B. (1993) "Genes IV". Lewontin, R.C. (1974) "The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change", New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Maynard Smith, J. (1972) "On Evolution", Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press. Maynard Smith, J. (1978) "Optimization Theory in Evolution", Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9:31-56. Maynard Smith, J. (1982) "Evolution and the Theory of Games", Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Maynard Smith, J. (1989) "The Problems of Biology", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Maynard Smith, J. (1989) "Evolutionary Genetics", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Mayr, E. (1963) "Animal Species and Evolution", Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. Mayr, E. (1982) "The Groth of Biological Thought", Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. Ridley, M. (1985) "The Problems of Evolution", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Tort, P. Ed. (1996) "Dictionary of Darwinism and of Evolution", Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France. Produced by a team of 150 international experts over a period of 10 years. Contains a vast amount of information about what Darwinism is and (perhaps more importantly) is not. Further information from http://www.planete.net/~ptort/darwin/evolengl.html (in various languages). Watson, J.D. (1966) "Molecular Biology of the Gene", Menlo Park: Benjamin. Watson, J.D., Hopkins, N.H., Roberts, J.W., Steitz, J.A. & Weiner, A.M. (1987) "Molecular Biology of the Gene (4th edn)", Menlo Park: Benjamin. Williams, G.C. (1966) "Adaptation and Natural Selection", Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. Wright, S. (1932) "The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding and selection in evolution", in: Proc. of the 6th Int'l Congress on Genetics I, 356. There is a *lot* of interesting material on biology and evolution in the talk.origins newsgroup repository, available by FTP. The index of files, available from ics.uci.edu/pub/origins/Index , lists what's there, and includes files on Darwinism, definition of evolution, introduction to evolutionary biology, a list of important FAQ files, speciation, and genetic drift. ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.8: On-line bibliography collections? The Big One Jarmo Alander has compiled probably the biggest EC bibliography around. It has 2500 entries, and is available in postscript form by ftp from: garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/research/2500GArefs.ps.gz and also from ENCORE (see Q15.3) in file refs/2500GArefs.ps.gz Please send any additions or corrections to The same directory on ENCORE also contains some other bibliography collections. Combinations of GAs and NNs Dave Schaffer has compiled a bibliograpy on combinations of GAs and neural networks. About 150 entries, available in Bib format from ENCORE (See Q15.3) in file refs/cogann.bib.gz Jochen Ruhland has also compiled a bibliography on this topic. Some papers deal only with neural networks, some only with genetic algorithms. About 300 references altogether. Some include an abstract. Available from: ftp.neuro.informatik.uni-kassel.de/pub/NeuralNets/ in We_and_our_work/papers/diplom.1.bib.gz There are plans to expand this bibliography from time to time; the sequels will have names diplom.2.bib.gz, etc. Bibliography at IlliGAL A bibliography on Genetic Algorithms compiled by David E. Goldberg, Kelsey Milman, and Christina Tidd is available as IlliGAL Report No 92008 (see Q14), via ftp from: gal4.ge.uiuc.edu/pub/papers/IlliGALs/92008part1.ps.Z and 92008part2.ps.Z GAPHD Bibliography Collection Martyn Amos has assembled a collection of bibliographies from various sources, tidied up the entries and removed duplicates. The collections are as follows: Alife.bib.gz - General Artificial Life ICGA-93.bib.gz - Proc. International Conference on GAs (1993) chaos.bib.gz - Chaos theory ga+nn.bib.gz - GAs and neural networks ga.bib.gz - General GA references ga2.bib.gz - General GA references parallelGA.bib.gz - Parallel GAs theory.bib.gz - Theoretical computer science (bias towards graph theory, stochasic modelling and pobability theory) misc.bib.gz - Miscellaneous topics (eg. Internet) There are about 6200 references in total, although the biggest file by far is theory.bib, which is not directly related to EC. The references are in BibTeX format. The files are available by FTP from ftp.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/pub/gaphd/Bibliographies/ or by WWW from http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~martyn/ga.html Genetic Programming Bibliography A collection of Genetic Programming references (and other tools) is maintained by Bill Langdon and is available via anonymous ftp from cs.ucl.ac.uk/genetic/biblio/ Evolutionary Models in the Social Sciences Edmund Chattoe has set up a bibliography on Evolutionary Models In Economics and the Social Sciences. The latest copy of the EMSS bibliography and some accompanying notes can be found at http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ec/emssbib.html GAs and Economics Bernard Manderick has compiled a bibliography on the use of GAs in economics, and this was published in GA-Digest, v7n4 (with some followup comments in v7n5 & v7n7). This can be retrieved by FTP from ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/digests/v7n4 (see Q15.1). GAs in Control Carlos Fonseca has compiled a bibliography of about 50 references on GAs in Control, and it was published in GA-Digest, v7n18. This can be retrieved by FTP from ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/digests/v7n18 (see Q15.1). Learning Classifier Systems The Learning Classifier Systems Bibliography is the largest LCS bibliography there is. Currently about 600 entries. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~tyk/lcs/ Parallel GAs A parallel GA bibliography is available via ftp from: unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/parallel/faqs/parallel-genetic-algorithms Andreas Uhl has also compiled a parallel GA bibliography with about 80 entries. It is available by WWW in: http://www.mat.sbg.ac.at/~uhl/GA.html Genetic Programming John Koza has compiled an annotated bibliography on GP, and about 60 references were published in GA- Digest, v7n30. This can be retrieved by FTP from ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/digests/v7n30 or from ENCORE (See Q15.3) in file refs/gp-ref.gz GAs and protein folding Melanie Mitchell has compiled a bibliography of about 40 references on this topic, and it was published in GA-Digest, v7n33. This can be retrieved by FTP from ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/digests/v7n33 (see Q15.1). GAs in Image Processing and Computer Vision Kyeongmo Park has compiled a bibliography of about 20 references on this topic, and it was published in GA-Digest, v8n10. This can be retrieved by FTP from ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/digests/v8n10 (see Q15.1). GAs in telecommunications and data networks Bhaskar Krishnamachari has compiled the following bibliographies: The application of genetic algorithms to telecommunication systems: a bibliography http://www.ee.cornell.edu/~bhaskar/gacomm-bib.html The application of genetic algorithms to the design and optimization of data networks: a bibliography http://www.ee.cornell.edu/~bhaskar/ganet-bib.html Masters and PhD theses Richard K. Belew has collected information on approximately 2600 Masters and Ph.D. theses, nominally in the area of AI. The entire list (about 170KB) is available for anonymous FTP at: ftp.cs.ucsd.edu/pub/rik/aigen.rpt Questions, suggestions, additions etc. to . ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.9: Videos? Fogel, D.B. (1997) "An Introduction to Evolutionary Computation," for ordering contact Sims, K. (1990) "Panspermia", ACM SIGGRAPH Video Review. Ordering information from http://www.siggraph.org/publications/video- review/SVR.html Langton, C.G. (ed) (1992) "Artificial Life II Video Proceedings" The Advanced Book Program of the Santa Fe Institute: Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-55492-5. [ALIFEII- V]: Koza, J.R. & Rice, J.P. (1992) "Genetic Programming: The Movie", Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. See GP-faq for an order form. (see Q15) The Santa Fe Institute has produced a thirteen minute promotional video, which includes a five minute segment discussing the Tierra research project, illustrated with a very high quality animation produced by the Anti Gravity Workshop in Santa Monica, CA. To obtain the video, contact the Santa Fe Institute at: 1660 Old Pecos Trail, Suite A, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (Tel: 505-984-8800, Fax: 505-982-0565, Net: ) or contact Linda Feferman: or <0005851689@mcimail.com> ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.10: CD-ROMs? PTF for AI by CMU Carnegie Mellon University is establishing an Artificial Intelligence Repository to contain public domain and freely distributable software, publications, and other materials of interest to AI researchers, educators, and students. The AI Repository will be accessible by anonymous FTP and Andrew File System (AFS) without charge (See Q15.3). The contents of the repository will also be published by Prime Time Freeware as an inexpensive mixed-media (Book/CD-ROM) publication. For your information, here is a precis of the CD-ROM: PTF for AI is a periodic collection of AI-related source code and documentation. PTF for AI in no way modifies the legal restrictions on any package it includes. The first issue (1-1; Summer, 1993) consisted of an ISO-9660 CD-ROM bound into a ~100 page book. It contained ~600 MB of gzipped archives (2+ GB uncompressed and unpacked). Cost: $60 US. For more information contact: Mark Kantrowitz, Archivist, CMU AI Repository, Editor, PTF for AI. Net: , Tel: +1 412-268-2582, Fax: +1 412-681-5739. AI CD-ROM by NCC Network Cybernetics Corporation has released a new CD-ROM title, the AI CD-ROM Revision 3 (ISBN 1-886376-01-8). This is the newest version of an annually updated collection of artificial intelligence programming and research tools. This ISO-9660 format CD-ROM contains thousands of programs, source code collections, tutorials, research papers, Internet journals, and other resources. Previous versions of the AI CD-ROM are currently in use as teaching aids for AI-related University courses, as research aids to computer scientists, and as a source of advanced computer programming tools for application program developers around the world. The AI CD-ROM contains thousands of up to date files covering a wide range of topics including: Fuzzy Logic, Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, Expert Systems, Robotics, Machine Vision, Natural Language, Prolog, Lisp, Embedded AI, Virtual Reality, Cellular Automata, Chaos, Fractals, and more. The disc is divided into topical subdirectories and each directory contains an index file with descriptive listings of the contents. The AI CD-ROM has received good reviews in many magazines including Byte (Jerry Pournelle, March '93) and IEEE Computer (J. Zalewski, July '93), CD-ROM Professional and others. The CD-ROM has a list price of $89.00. For people wanting to see a complete listing of the CD's contents, FTP to ftp.ncc.com:/ and get the file AICD3.ZIP. The file is also available from the Compuserve AIEXPERT forum, and the NCC dial-up BBS at 214-258-1832. Also check out the WWW site at: http://www.ncc.com/cdroms/ai/index.html Enquiries to: Network Cybernetics Corporation, 4201 Wingren Road, Suite 202, Irving, TX 75062-2763, USA ------------------------------ Subject: Q10.11: How do I get a copy of a dissertation? All US American dissertations are available from: UMI Dissertation Information Service, University Microfilms International, A Bell & Howell Information Company, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA. Tel.: 800-521-0600, or +1 (313) 761-4700 ------------------------------ Subject: Q11: What EC related journals and magazines are there? 1. Dedicated EC Journals: Evolutionary Computation Published quarterly by: MIT Press Journals, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1399, USA. Tel: (617) 253-2889, Fax: (617) 258-6779, Along with the explosive growth of the computing industry has come the need to design systems capable of functioning in complex, changing ENVIRONMENTs. Considerable effort is underway to explore alternative approaches to designing more robust computer systems capable of learning from and adapting to the environment in which they operate. One broad class of such techniques takes its inspiration from natural systems with particular emphasis on evolutionary models of computation such as GAs, ESs. CFS, and EP. Until now, information on these techniques has been widely spread over numerous disciplines, conferences, and journals. [eds note: The editorial board reads like a who-is-who in EC.] For paper e-mail submission, use one of the following addresses: o America: John Grefenstette o Europe: Heinz Muehlenbein o Asia: Hiroaki Kitano o Ed-in-chief: Ken De Jong Please note, that submissions should be sent to one of the sub- editors. Grefenstette and Kitano accept LaTeX or PostScript submissions. BioSystems Journal of Biological and Information Processing Sciences, Elsevier Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1527, 1000 BM Amsterdam, The Netherlands. BioSystems encourages experimental, computational, and theoretical articles that link biology, evolutionary thinking, and the information processing sciences. The link areas form a circle that encompasses the fundamental nature of biological information processing, computational modeling of complex biological systems, evolutionary models of computation, the application of biological principles to the design of novel computing systems, and the use of biomolecular materials to synthesize artificial systems that capture essential principles of natural biological information processing. Topics: Molecular EVOLUTION: Self-organizing and self-replicating systems, Origin and evolution of the genetic mechanism; Biological Information Processing: Molecular recognition, Cellular control, Neuromuscular computing, Biological adaptability, Molecular computing technologies; EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMS: Stochastic EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMs, Evolutionary OPTIMIZATION, SIMULATION of genetic and ecological systems, Applications (neural nets, machine learning, robotics)) IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation The IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation will publish archival journal quality original papers in EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION and related areas, with particular emphasis on the practical application of the techniques to solving real problems in industry, medicine, and other disciplines. Specific techniques include but are not limited to EVOLUTION STRATEGIEs, EVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMMING, GENETIC ALGORITHMs, and associated methods of GENETIC PROGRAMMING and CLASSIFIER SYSTEMs. Papers emphasizing mathematical results should ideally seek to put these results in the context of algorithm design, however purely theoretical papers will be considered. Other papers in the areas of cultural algorithms, ARTIFICIAL LIFE, molecular computing, evolvable hardware, and the use of simulated evolution to gain a better understanding of naturally evolved systems are also encouraged. Papers must conform to IEEE standard submission guidelines which are available in IEEE transactions (for example, see the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks or the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems). Those wanting to receive an author's information booklet from the IEEE can request this at . Six (6) hard copies of the manuscript should be sent to: David B. Fogel, Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, c/o Natural Selection, Inc., 3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct., Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. The editor-in-chief will be pleased to comment on the suitability of other submissions at the request of the authors. Further questions can be directed to . The transactions will appear quarterly. 2. Related Journals: Complex Systems Published by: Complex Systems Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 6149, Champaign, IL 61821-8149, USA. Complex Systems devotes to the rapid publication of research on the science, mathematics, and engineering of systems with simple components but complex overall behavior. Try finger(1) on for additional info. Machine Learning Published by: Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 358, Accord Station, Hingham, MA 02018-0358 USA. Machine Learning is an international forum for research on computational approaches to learning. The journal publishes articles reporting substantive research results on a wide range of learning methods applied to a variety of task domains. The ideal paper will make a theoretical contribution supported by a computer implementation. The journal has published many key papers in learning theory, reinforcement learning, and decision tree methods. The journal regularly publishes special issues devoted to GAs and CFS as well. Adaptive Behavior Published quarterly by: MIT Press Journals, details above. Broadly, behavior is adaptive if it deals successfully with changes circumstances. For example, when surprised, a hungry --but environmentally informed-- mouse may dart for cover rather than another piece of cheese. Similarly, a tripped-up ROBOT [eds note: not necessarily built by Sirius Cybernetics Corp.] could get back on its feet and accomplish a moonrock-finding mission if it had learned to cope with unanticipated lunar potholes. Adaptive Behavior thus takes an approach complementary to traditional AI. Now basic abilities that allow animals to survive, or robots to perform their mission in unpredictable ENVIRONMENTs, will be studied in preference to more elaborate and human-specific abilities. The journal also aims to investigate which new insights into intelligence and cognition can be achieved by explicitly taking into account the environment feedback --mediated by behavior-- that an animal or a robot receives, instead of studying components of intelligence in isolation. Topics: INDIVIDUAL and Collective Behavior. Neural Correlates of Behavior. Perception and Motor Control. Motivation and Emotion. Action SELECTION and Behavioral Sequences. Internal World Models. Ontogeny, Learning, and EVOLUTION. Characterization of environments. Artificial Life Published quarterly by: MIT Press Journals, details above. Artificial Life is intended to be the primary forum for the dissemination of scientific and engineering research in the field of ARTIFICIAL LIFE. It will report on synthetic biological work being carried out in any and all media, from the familiar "wetware" of organic chemistry, through the inorganic "hardware" of mobile robots, all the way to the virtual "software" residing inside computers. Research topics ranging from the fabrication of self-replicating molecules to the study of evolving POPULATIONs of computer programs will be included. There will also be occasional issues devoted to special topics, such as L-Systems, GENETIC ALGORITHMs, in-vitro evolution of molecules, artificial cells, computer viruses, and many social and philosophical issues arising from the attempt to synthesize life artificially. [eds note: The editorial board reads like a who-is-who in ALIFE] Evolutionary Economics Published quarterly by: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Service Center Secaucus, 44 Hartz Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094, USA. Tel: (201) 348-4033, Fax: (201) 348-4505. Evolutionary Economics aims to provide an international forum for a new approach to economics. Following the tradition of Joseph A. Schlumpeter, it is designed to focus on original research with an evolutionary conception of the economy. The journal will publish articles with strong emphasis on dynamics, changing structures (including technologies, institutions, beliefs, imitation, etc.). It favors interdisciplinary analysis and is devoted to theoretical, methodological and applied work. Research areas include: industrial dynamics; multi-sectoral and cross-country studies of productivity; innovations and new technologies; dynamic competition and structural change in a national and international context; causes and effects of technological, political and social changes; cyclic processes in economic evolution; the role of governments in a dynamic world; modeling complex dynamic economic systems; application of concepts, such as self-organization, bifurcation, and chaos theory to economics; evolutionary games. ------------------------------ Subject: Q12: What are the important conferences/proceedings on EC? 1. Dedicated EC Conferences: GECCO: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Major international conference held anually in North America since 1999. It is organised by ISGEC (International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation) (see http://www.isgec.org ). GECCO combines the previously separate ICGA and Genetic Programming conferences. Covers all aspects of EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION. The 2000 conference was held on July 8-12 in Las Vegas, USA. Details from http://www.genetic-algorithm.org The 1999 conference was held on July 14--17 in Orlando, Florida. Details from http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/gecco/ ICGA: International Conference on Genetic Algorithms Major international conference held in North America in odd-numbered years between 1985 and 1999. Covers all aspects of EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION. Since 1999, this conference has been combined with the annual Genetic Programming conference, and titled GECCO (see above). The 1999 conference was held on July 14--17 in Orlando, Florida. Details from http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu/gecco/ The 1997 conference was at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. Details from http://GARAGe.cps.msu.edu/icga97/index.html Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Genetic Algorithms (1985) J.J. Grefenstette (ed) [ICGA85]: and Proc. of the 2nd Int'l Conf. on Genetic Algorithms (1987) J.J. Grefenstette (ed) [ICGA87]: available from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 365 Broadway, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 07642, (800) 926-6579. Proc. of the 3rd Int'l Conf. on Genetic Algorithms (1989) J.D. Schaffer (ed) [ICGA89]: and Proc. of the 4th Int'l Conf. on Genetic Algorithms (1991) R.K. Belew and L.B. Booker (eds) [ICGA91]: and Proc. of the 5th Int'l Conf. on Genetic Algorithms (1993) S. Forrest (ed) [ICGA93]: and Proc. of the 6th Int'l Conf. on Genetic Algorithms (1995) [ICGA95]: available from Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco (415-392-2665). FOGA: Foundations of Genetic Algorithms Major international workshop focusing on theoretical aspects of EC, that's usually limited to some 50 participants and is usually held somewhere in North America. FOGA 5, however, was held in Leiden, The Netherlands on 24-26 September 1998. Details from: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/CS/ALP/foga98.html Foundations of Genetic Algorithms (1991) G.J.E. Rawlins (ed) [FOGA91]: and Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 2 (1993) L.D. Whitley [FOGA93]: available from Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco (415-392-2665). FOGA 3 took place in 1994. Enquires to: Darrell Whitley, . FOGA 4 took place from August 3-5 1996 in San Diego, California. Details from http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/galist/foga/ PPSN: Parallel Problem Solving from Nature Major international conference held in Europe in even-numbered years. Covers all aspects of problem solving inspired by natural processes. The 1998 conference was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 27 - October 1. Information from: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/CS/ALP/ppsn98.html Further information on all PPSN conferences is available from: http://LS11-www.informatik.uni-dortmund.de/PPSN/ Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, (1990) H.-P. Schwefel and R. Maenner (eds) [PPSN90]: published by Springer-Verlag, 175 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10010, (212) 460-1500. Parallel Problem Solving from Nature 2, (1992) R. Maenner and B. Manderick (eds) [PPSN92]: published by North-Holland, Elsevier Science Publishers, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, P.O. Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Parallel Problem Solving from Nature 3, (1994) Y. Davidor (ed.), [PPSN94]: PPSN96 was held in Berlin, September 1996. EP: Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming Major international annual conference held in USA. Covers all aspects of EC with emphasis on EP related research. The 1999 conference was held in conjunction with the ICEC (See below). The 1997 conference was held on April 13-16 in Indianapolis. Details from Pete Angeline . The 1996 conference was held on Feb 29-March 3. The 1995 conference was held on March 1-4. Details from David Fogel . Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming, (1992) D.B. Fogel and W. Atmar (eds), [EP92]:, and Proc. of the 2nd Annual Conf. on Evolutionary Programming, (1993) D.B. Fogel and W. Atmar (eds), [EP93]: published by the Evolutionary Programming Society, 9363 Towne Centre Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, Attn: Bill Porto, Treasurer (cf Q13). Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming, (1994) A.V. Sebald and L.J. Fogel (eds), [EP94]:, World Scientific Publishers, River Edge, NJ. CEC: Congress on Evolutionary Computation Major international conference covering all aspects of EC. Prior to 1999 it was called the IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation (ICEC). Since 1999 it has been titled the Congress on Evolutionary Computation, (CEC) and is held in conjunction with the Evolutionary Programming Conference (EP) and Genetic Algorithms in Engineering Systems: Innovations and Applications (GALESIA). It is jointly sponsored by the IEEE Neural Networks Council, the Evolutionary Programming Society (EPS), and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). The eigth conference will be held in Seoul, Korea, from 27-30 May 2001. Details from http://cec2001.kaist.ac.kr/ The seventh conference was held in San Diego, USA, from 16-19 July 2000. Details from http://pcgipseca.cee.hw.ac.uk/cec2000/main.html The sixth conference was held in Washington DC, from 6-9 July 1999. Details from http://garage.cps.msu.edu/cec99/ . The fifth conference was held in Anchorage, Alaska, USA, from May 4-9 1998. Details from http://www.arc.unm.edu/wcci-98/icec.html . The fourth was on April 14-17 1997 in Indianapolis (in conjunction with EP97). The third was on May 20-22 1996 in Nagoya, Japan, details from http://www.bioele.nuee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ICEC96/ . The second was on 29 Nov--1 Dec 1995 in Perth, Australia. Details from . The first took place in June 1994 at the World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Florida. Proceedings of the 1st IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation, (1994) D.B. Fogel (ed.) (2 Volumes). Published by IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331. Also, talks from invited speakers are published in "Computational Intelligence Imitating Life" (1994) J.M. Zurada, R.J. Marks, C.J. Robinson (eds), IEEE. Genetic Programming Since 1999, the annual Genetic Programming conference has been combined with the ICGA, to make GECCO (see above). The 1998 conference dedicated to GP was held on July 22-25 at the University of Winconsin. Details of the GP conferences can be obtained from: http://www.genetic-programming.org or from . The first conference was held on July 28--31 1996 at Stanford University, California. Details from: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~zippy/gp-96.html The third European Conference on Genetic Programming was held in Edingurgh, UK, on 15-16 April 2000. Details from http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~rmp/eebic/eurogp2000/ 2. Related Conferences: Alife: International Conference on Artificial Life Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on ARTIFICIAL LIFE, (1989) C.G. Langton (ed), Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proc. Vol. VI, [ALIFEI]: and Proc. of the 2nd Int'l Conf. on Artificial Life II, (1992) C.G. Langton, C. Taylor, J. Doyne Farmer and S. Rasmussen (eds), Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proc. Vol. X, [ALIFEII]: and Proc. of the 3rd Int'l Conf. on Artificial Life III, (1993) C.G. Langton (ed), [ALIFEIII]: published by Addison Wesley, Redwood City, CA, USA. Artificial life IV, was organized by Rodney Brooks, MIT AI Lab, and held on July 6-8, 1994. Proceedings edited by R. Brooks and P. Maes. [ALIFEIV]: ECAL: European Conference on Artificial Life Proceedings of the 1st European Conference on Artificial life, (1991) F.J. Varela and P. Bourgine (eds), [ECAL91]: and Proc. of the 2nd European Conf. on ALIFE: Self-organization and life, from simple rules to global complexity, (1993), (? eds) (? pub) [ECAL93]: published by MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. ECML: European Conference on Machine Learning Machine Learning: ECML-93, Proc. European Conf. on Machine Learning, (1993) P.B. Brazil (ed), [ECML93]: published by Springer, New York, NY, USA. ICANNGA: International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms Held every 2 years since 1993. The 1997 conference was on April 1-4 in Norwich, England. Details from http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/Research/ResGroups/MAG/ICANNGA97/ SAB: International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior From Animals to Animats. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on SIMULATION of Adaptive Behavior, (1991) [SAB90]: J.-A. Meyer and S.W. Wilson, ISBN 0-262-63138-5, and Proc. of the 2nd Int'l Conf. on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, (1993) [SAB92]:, J.-A. Meyer, H. Roitblat and S.W. Wilson (eds) and Proc. of the 3rd Int'l Conf. on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, [SAB94]:, P. Husbands, J.-A. Meyer and S.W. Wilson (eds) published by MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. SAB96 took place on September 9-13, 1996 in Cape Cod, MA USA. Details from http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/conferences/sab96 3. Pointers to upcoming Conferences: The Genetic Algorithm Digest Aka "GA-Digest" always starts with a "Calendar of GA-related Events," i.e. a list of upcoming conferences, covering the complete field of EAs (see Q15.1), available from http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/galist/ The Artificial Life Digest Aka "Alife digest" always starts with a "Calendar of Alife-related Events," that lists conferences, workshops, etc. (cf Q15) The Evolutionary Programming Digest Aka "EP-digest" doesn't list conferences explicitly, like the previously mentioned ones, but carries most CFP's; that can be looked at in the backissues folder: amazon.eng.fau.edu/pub/ep-list/digest/ (cf Q15) ------------------------------ Subject: Q13: What Evolutionary Computation Associations exist? ISGEC: International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Formed in late 1999 from the merger of the International Society for GENETIC ALGORITHMs (ISGA) and the GENETIC PROGRAMMING Conference organization. This society brings together the oldest society in the field of EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION (ISGA) as well as the two largest conferences in the field. The ISGEC should help bring a greater sense of unity, order, and inclusiveness to the growing field of genetic and evolutionary computation. The ISGEC embraces all facets of its growing field, including genetic algorithms, genetic programming, EVOLUTION STRATEGIEs, EVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMMING, CLASSIFIER SYSTEMs, evolvable hardware, and emerging areas including (but not limited to) immune system learning, DNA and molecular computing, ant OPTIMIZATION, evolutionary robotics, ECHO, Tierra, and genetic scheduling. The society and its annual GECCO conference are dynamically structured so as to continuously and automatically embrace new directions of research and new participants in the field. ISGEC is a formal membership society. Special arrangements have been negotiated to provide the two journals Evolutionary Computation and Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines to all members as part of their membership. Society members will also get a significant discount at society conferences and workshops, such as GECCO and FOGA. Information about ISGEC is available from http://www.isgec.org EvoNet EvoNet is a Europe wide network of evolutionary computing experts that supports research and facilitates the transfer of knowledge from academia to industry. EvoNet is funded by the European Union. Contact details: Website: http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/evonet/ Email: Post: EvoNet, School of Computing, Napier University, 219 Colinton Rd, Edinburgh, EH6 8RR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)131 455 4218, Fax: +44 (0)131 455 4440 EPS: Evolutionary Programming Society Membership is $40/year ($10/year for students with id) and also gives you a discounted registration at the annual conference. You can also order EP proceedings ($30/members, $45/other) from EPS. Address: Evolutionary Programming Society, 9363 Towne Centre Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, Attn: Bill Porto, Treasurer. ------------------------------ Subject: Q14: What Technical Reports are available? Technical reports are informally published, unrefereed papers giving up-to-date information on what is going on at research institutes. Many later go on to be formally published in journals or at conferences. TCGA Reports The Clearing House for Genetic Algorithms (TCGA) at the Univ. of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) distributes TCGA technical reports. A number of these are now available in compressed Postscript form via FTP from: aramis.cs.ua.edu/pub/tech-reports/ Read the file README first. Contact: Robert Elliott Smith, Department of Engineering of Mechanics, Room 210 Hardaway Hall, The University of Alabama, P.O. Box 870278, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. Tel: (205) 348-1618, , or Dr. Ron Sun IlliGAL Reports The Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory distributes IlliGAL technical reports, as well as reprints of other publications; they are available in hardcopy and can be ordered from: IlliGAL Librarian, Department of General Engineering, 117 Transportation Building, 104 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801-2996, USA. NOTE: When ordering, please include your surface mail address! IlliGAL also have an anonymous-FTP server, holding most of the existing IlliGAL reports, at: gal4.ge.uiuc.edu/pub/papers/IlliGALs/ There is also a WWW home page with a complete list, order form, and other information at: ftp://gal4.ge.uiuc.edu/illigal.home.html SyS Reports The Systems Analysis Research Group (SyS) at the University of Dortmund, maintains an experimental anonymous FTP server: lumpi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de/pub/ On lumpi you can find SyS- Reports from 1992 on. (Get "/pub/ls-Ral.Z" and look for "papers" folders, the server is sorted by EA paradigms, i.e. "/pub/GA/papers" contains papers related to GAs, etc.). A strongly recommended, and quarterly updated, report is a list of current applications of GAs, EP and ESs; get "/pub/EA/papers/ea-app.ps.gz" (SyS-2/92). Bionics Reports The Bionics and EVOLUTION Techniques Laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin maintains an anonymous FTP server: ftp- bionik.fb10.tu-berlin.de/pub/ On ftp-bionik you find reports and software, related to EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMs and Artificial Neural Networks. University College London Reports A number of GENETIC ALGORITHM reports produced by UCL are available via anonymous FTP at cs.ucl.ac.uk/genetic/papers/ Abstracts of others can be obtained via WWW at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/rns/ Other Sources of Reports Reports are also available from some of the sources listed in Q15.1, Q15.2 and Q15.3. ------------------------------ Subject: Q15: What information is available over the net? A whole lot of information is available "electronically" via the internet, accessible using e-mail or (more easily) FTP. There are electronic digests (see Q15.1), electronic mailing lists (see Q15.2), online FTP repositories (see Q15.3), and various USENET news groups (see Q15.4). ------------------------------ Subject: Q15.1: What digests are there? Digests are regulated, moderated, information sources in which many contributions are combined together before being posted out to subscribers, usually on a regular basis (eg. weekly). Mailing lists are listed in Q15.2. Genetic Algorithm Digest The GA research community exchanges news, CFP's, etc. through this (approximately weekly) digest, currently moderated by Mitchell Potter and Annie Wu (formerly by Bill Spears). The digest is also posted to the comp.ai.genetic newsgroup. o Send administrative requests to o The FTP archive: ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/ is maintained by Alan C. Schultz, and contains back issues, GA-code, conference announcements (in "/pub/galist/information/conferences") and many other things. Info in "/pub/galist/FTP". o The archive may also be accessed at http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/galist Also, links are given to many interesting sites around the World with material related to EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION. Artificial Life Digest This digest no longer appears to exist. In the past, the ALIFE research community exchanged news, CFP's, etc. through this digest, edited by Liane Gabora and Rob Collins of the ARTIFICIAL LIFE Research Group at UCLA. Administrative requests used to go to , and there was an anonymous FTP archive at: ftp.cognet.ucla.edu/pub/alife/ If anyone knows what happened to this digest, please let us know. Evolutionary Programming Digest This digest no longer appears to exist. In the past, the digest was intended to promote discussions on a wide range of technical issues in evolutionary OPTIMIZATION, as well as provide information on upcoming conferences, events, journals, special issues, and other items of interest to the EP community. Discussions on all areas of EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION were welcomed, including ARTIFICIAL LIFE, EVOLUTION STRATEGIEs, and GENETIC ALGORITHMs. The digest was meant to encourage interdisciplinary communications. The subscription address was The digest was moderated by N. Saravan of Florida Atlantic University. If anyone knows what happened to this digest, please let us know. ------------------------------ Subject: Q15.2: What mailing lists are there? Mailing lists are unregulated, unmoderated, information sources in which messages sent in by subscribers are posted out immediately and individually to all other subscribers. Digests are listed in Q15.1. Classifier Systems John Holmes has a classifier systems mailing list, which can be used to ask questions, announce papers, introduce yourself, etc. Mail John Holmes to subscribe. The list's address is: classifier systems mailing list Genetic Programming Mailing List The GP community uses this list as a discussion forum, news exchange and FAQ distribution channel, originally set up by John Koza and James Rice at Stanford. o Admin requests: o The archive includes a lengthy, but "mostly interesting" FAQ by James Rice on GP related subjects. The archive is at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai- repository/ai/areas/genetic/gp/faq/gp.faq (plain text) and also at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/genprog/gp2faq/gp2faq.html (converted to HTML). Tierra Mailing List Thomas Ray's Tierra is discussed elsewhere (see Q4.1); here's how to obtain Tierra electronically and get in contact with other users. o Admin requests: o Anonymous FTP archive: tierra.slhs.udel.edu/pub/ (tierra, almond, beagle, etc.) UK's Evolutionary-Computation mailing list o Admin details: GANN: Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks This list will focus on the use of EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMs (GENETIC ALGORITHMs, GENETIC PROGRAMMING and their variants) in the EXPLORATION of the design space of (artificial) neural network architectures and algorithms. The list will be semi-moderated to keep the signal to noise ratio as high as possible. (This list was formerly known as the neuro-evolution e-mail list.) o Admin requests/enquiries: gann-request@cs.iastate.edu o Subscription requests to the admin address with Subject: subscribe gattbl: Timetabling mailing list This group is for people using GAs and other techniques for exam or course scheduling for academic institutions. To subscribe, send email to . Evolutionary Models in the Social Sciences See Q10.8 for details. Genetic Algorithms in Production Scheduling The GASched list is for discussion of the use of GENETIC ALGORITHMs on Production Scheduling Problems (only). Possible subjects for the list include: GAs for job-shop scheduling theory, GAs for practical problem solving in industry, problem representation within the GA, combinatorial optimisation techniques for scheduling problems, results & effects of GA-based systems working in industry, techniques for improving performance, problem data, or any other burning issues which come into GAs for production scheduling. A full introduction can be obtained by mailing with no subject line and 'info gascheduling' in the body of the message. To subscribe to the list, email with the body of the message containing 'subscribe gascheduling YOUR NAME'. Please dont include anything else in the message, and leave the subject empty. For help on how to use the automated software, and some other commands which may be available in future, mail with 'HELP' in the body of your message, and no subject line. For non-standard administration requests, or if you are having problems with the automated address, please email: These messages will be dealt with manually, and so may take a couple of days for a response. There is also a related Web site at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~gaipp/index.html Autopoiesis There is an Autopoiesis Email List for the discussion of the theory of Autopoiesis of H. Maturana and F. Varela. Autopoiesis means self- production and concerns self-organizing systems. To join send a message containing the text: SUB AUTOPOIESIS to To see what other systems and philosophy lists exist at this site send the message: HELP instead. ------------------------------ Subject: Q15.3: What online information repositories are there? Many research institutes have online repositories of information which my be retrieved using FTP or HTTP (World Wide Web). NOTE: See also Q14 above. ENCORE ENCORE (The EvolutioNary COmputation REpository network) is a collection of FTP servers/World Wide Web sites providing a wealth of information in the area of EC, from technical reports, copies of journal articles, down to source code for various EAs. ENCORE acts as a distributor of much material generated at research institutes (and other places) which don't necessarily have their own FTP servers. Each node of Encore is referred to as an "EClair". There are numerous nodes around the world, all carrying copies of the same information. The sites may be accessed using FTP or WWW browsers. Sites offering HTTP access are the best to use if using a WWW browser. They include: o UUnet Deutschland GmbH (Germany): http://surf.de.uu.net/encore/ o The University of Granada (Spain): http://krypton.ugr.es/~encore/ o The University of Birmingham (UK) http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/Mirrors/ftp.de.uu.net/EC/clife/ o The Santa Fe Institute (USA): http://alife.santafe.edu/~joke/encore/ o The Chinese University of Hong Kong: http://www.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/EC/Welcome.html Other sites offer FTP access (slow if using WWW). If using FTP, omit the initial "ftp://" and the final "Welcome.html" in the file specification in order to access the top-level directory. The FTP sites include: o Technical University of Berlin (Germany): ftp://ftp- bionik.fb10.tu-berlin.de/pub/EC/Welcome.html o Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France): ftp://blanche.polytechnique.fr/pub/eark/EC/Welcome.html o The University of Oviedo (Spain): ftp://zeus.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/EC/Welcome.html o The Santa Fe Institute (USA): ftp://alife.santafe.edu/pub/USER- AREA/EC/Welcome.html o The California Institute of Technology (USA): ftp://ftp.krl.caltech.edu/pub/EC/Welcome.html o Wayne State University, Detroit (USA): ftp://ftp.cs.wayne.edu/pub/EC/Welcome.html o The Michigan State University, East Lansing (USA): ftp://ftp.egr.msu.edu/pub/EC/Welcome.html o The Chinese University of Hong Kong: ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/EC/Welcome.html o University of Cape Town (South Africa): ftp://ftp.uct.ac.za/pub/mirrors/EC/Welcome.html o Center of Technological Education of Parana, Curitiba (Brazil): ftp://ftp.cefetpr.br/pub/EC/Welcome.html Well worth getting is "The Navigator's Guide to ENCORE", a handbook to this service, in file: o handbook/encore.ps.gz (A4 paper) or o handbook/encore-US.ps.gz (US letter size paper). Encore is administered by Joerg Heitkoetter . The Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity (SFI) issues a recommended series: SFI Studies in the Science of Complexity, published by Addison Wesley and maintains a well-sorted FTP server with EC related material. o Admin requests: o Anonymous FTP archive: ftp.santafe.edu/pub/ Information on SUMMERSCHOOLs held by the SFI can be obtained from: Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA. The Australian National University (ANU) The Bioinformatics facility at Australian National University has set up an anonymous FTP server, that contains EC related material, maintained by David G. Green. o Admin requests: o Anonymous FTP archive: life.anu.edu.au/pub/complex_systems/alife/ o World Wide Web: The hypermedia server offers introductory tutorials, preprints and papers online. The URL for this service is http://complex.csu.edu.au/complex or link via the servers home page http://life.anu.edu.au/ LGI laboratory, Grenoble, France Research into Parallel GENETIC ALGORITHMs: papers (technical reports, conference and journal articles, theses, monographies, etc...) written by members of the SYMPA team are available by FTP from o imag.fr/pub/SYMPA/ Their adress is: SYMPA/LGI - Institut IMAG, BP 53 38041 Grenoble Cedex, FRANCE The University of Alabama, Department of Computer Science A number of papers and preprints are available in compressed Postscript form by FTP from the Univ. of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) from aramis.cs.ua.edu/pub/tech-reports/ The naming convention for files is: (author's last name).(journal name).ps . Maintained by Dr. Ron Sun CMU Artificial Intelligence Repository Holds more than a gigabyte of software, publications, and other materials of interest to AI researchers, educators, students, and practitioners. The AI Programming Languages and the AI Software Packages sections of the repository can be accessed in the lang/ and areas/ subdirectories. Other directories, which are in varying states of completion, are events/ and pubs/ (Publications, including technical reports, books, mail/news archives). The AI Programming Languages section includes directories for Common Lisp, Prolog, Scheme, Smalltalk, and other AI-related programming languages. The AI Software Packages section includes subdirectories for: alife/ (ARTIFICIAL LIFE), anneal/ (Simulated Annealing), genetic/ (GENETIC ALGORITHMs etc., including benchmarks and test problems) and many more. The AI Repository is accessible by FTP at: ftp.cs.cmu.edu/user/ai/ (Be sure to read the files 0.doc and readme.txt in this directory) and by WWW at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/repository.html It is also available on CD-ROM (See Q10.10). The MSU Genetic Algorithms Research and Applications Group (GARAGe) GARAGe has a number of interesting projects, both in terms of GA and GP fundamental research and in GA/GP applications including: parallelization of GAs/GPs; multiple POPULATION topologies and interchange methodologies; scheduling applications, including sponsored research on job-floor scheduling; design applications, including sponsored research on composite material design; configuration applications, particularly physics applications of optimal molecule configurations for particular systems like C60 (buckyballs) and others. Information on GARAGe research projects is available by WWW at the URL: http://GARAGe.cps.msu.edu School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex The Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems Group in COGS does a significant amount of research in the area of GAs and Neural Networks and modeling the process of biological development. For purposes of artificial EVOLUTION, many at COGS see this as the major issue to be tackled. For general info about the group, consult the WWW server at: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/lab/adapt/index.html The Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence The Navy Center for Applied Research in ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (NCARAI) is conducting basic research in the analysis of GAs and other EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMs. GAs are being applied to the learning of strategies and behaviors for autonomous vehicles, and for adaptively testing complex systems such as vehicle controllers. You will find description of projects, researchers, and downloadable papers at URL http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/ in addition to other information. The GA-digest and the GENETIC ALGORITHMs Archive are maintained at NCARAI. See Q15.1, "Genetic Algorithms Digest", for more information. Case Western Reserve University A WWW home page is available for the CWRU Autonomous Agents Research Group at: http://yuggoth.ces.cwru.edu/ The group, led by Randall Beer, conducts interdisciplinary research in the departments of Computer Engineering and Science, Biology, Mechanical Engineering, and Systems Engineering. This research includes work in EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMs, mobile robotics, and computational biology. The aim is to study the mechanisms that can produce adaptive behavior in animals and ROBOTs. Currently available are Postscript versions of a number of our research papers (in particular, those related to mobile robotics, evolving recurrent neural networks, and computational models of development), an HTML version of a paper on computational development which appeared in ALIFE IV, and images of the robots used in our research. Comments to Genetic Algorithms Group, George Mason University Members of the research group are working on a variety of projects including GA theory, coevolutionary algorithms, decentralized GAs, representation issues, evolutionary microeconomics, the application of GAs to molecular biology, and GA-based machine learning. There is an online publications list that contains links to PostScript copies of many of their published papers. A WWW home page is available at: http://www.cs.gmu.edu/research/gag/ The Complexity and Artificial-Life Research Concept Includes a whole load of information on the topics of complexity, artificial-life, GAs, NNs, cellular automata, nonlinear science, fractals, self-organisation, evolution, and more. Visit: http://www.calresco.force9.co.uk ------------------------------ Subject: Q15.4: What relevant newsgroups and FAQs are there? Besides the obvious comp.ai.genetic there exist some other newsgroups that sometimes carry EC related topics: o comp.ai (FAQ in news.answers , comp.answers ) o comp.ai.digest o comp.ai.fuzzy (FAQ in news.answers , comp.answers ) o comp.ai.jair.announce (FAQ in news.answers , comp.answers ) o comp.ai.jair.papers (PostScript papers of the Journal of AI Research, published by Morgan Kaufmann ) [eds note: this is the first journal that's completely published on USENET first, and later in paper form; read the jair-faq, that's posted to the announcement group to find out how to submit your papers, get JAIR papers by FTP, Gopher or e-mail, etc.] o comp.ai.neural-nets (FAQ in news.answers , comp.answers ) o comp.robotics (FAQ in news.answers , comp.answers ) o comp.theory.cell-automata (FAQ in http://alife.santafe.edu/alife/topics/cas/ca-faq/ca-faq.html ) o comp.theory.dynamic-sys (no FAQ) o comp.theory.self-org-sys (no FAQ) o sci.bio.evolution (no FAQ as such, but there is an archive of interesting material, accessible via WWW at http://www.cqs.washington.edu/~evolution ) o sci.math.num-analysis (some FAQs in news.answers , comp.answers ) o sci.op-research (some FAQs in news.answers , comp.answers ) o talk.origins (discusses origins of life, EVOLUTION, etc. FTP repository index at ics.uci.edu/pub/origins/Index -- see Q10.7 for more details.) ------------------------------ Subject: Q15.5: What about all these Internet Services? The Internet supports a variety of on-line services, and a number of tools are available to enable people to make good use of these, including: telnet, FTP, gopher, veronica, archie, Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), and the World-Wide Web (WWW). Information about using Internet is available from a number of sources, many accesible on-line, via email or FTP. For example, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) publishes two guides for novices on all the Internet has to offer, by Adam Gaffin and Joerg Heitkoetter (see below). These are avaiable over the net. To receive a short guide to using anonymous FTP, send e-mail with the text "help" to . If you dont have FTP access, you can retrieve documents using the FTP-by-email service. The "ftpmail" service is installed on several sites to allow transmission of FTPable files from almost anywhere. To get the PostScript version of this FAQ from ENCORE, (See Q15.3) for example, send a message to (for example) containing the lines: reply connect alife.santafe.edu get pub/USER-AREA/EC/FAQ/hhgtec.ps.gz quit where is e.g. foo@bar.edu FTPmail sites available are listed below. Use one that is near you for best performance. (USA) (Europe) or to Documents from the archive at can be retrieved similarly by sending email to , containing a message such as: send usenet/news.answers/index send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part1 quit References Kehoe, B.P. (1992) "Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide to the Internet", 2nd Edition (July). Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 112 pages. The 1st Edition, (February) is available in PostScript format via anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.widener.edu: and many other Internet archives. Krol, E. (1992) "The Whole Internet: Catalog & User's Guide". O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA. 376 pages. LaQuey, T. and J.C. Ryer (1992) "The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking". Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA. 208 pages. Smith, Una R. (1993) "A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources." USENET sci.answers FTP and e-mail from many archives, eg. rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/sci.answers/biology/guide/part? Gaffin, A. (1994) "Everybody's Guide to the Internet." Published by the EFF and MIT Press. $14.95. ISBN 9-780262-67105-7. This book is available in ASCII by sending e-mail to ; you'll receive the book split into several pieces; for a more elaborate version of the guide see the following entry. Gaffin, A. with Heitkoetter, J. (1994) "EFF's (Extended) Guide to the Internet: A round trip through Global Networks, Life in Cyberspace, and Everything...", aka `eegtti.texi'. This is available from ftp.eff.org/pub/Net_info/Net_Guide/Other_versions/ (Texinfo, ASCII, HTML, DVI and PostScript). A README file gives more information. The hypertext (HTML) version can be browsed at: http://surf.de.uu.net/bookland/inet/joke/eegtti/eegtti.html Or see http://www.eff.org/ The EARN Association (May 1993) "A Guide to Network Resource Tools", available via e-mail from , by sending the message "get nettools ps" (PostScript) or "get nettools memo" (plain text). ------------------------------ Copyright (c) 1993-2000 by J. Heitkoetter and D. Beasley, all rights reserved. This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or BBS as long as it is posted in its entirety and includes this copyright statement. This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain. This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author. End of ai-faq/genetic/part4 *************************** --