An Introduction to Evolutionary Computation in Practice

Deploying Evolutionary Computation (EC) solutions to real-world problems involves a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from framing the business problems and implementing the solutions to the final deployment of the solutions to the field. However, issues related to these activities are not commonly discussed in a typical EC course curriculum. Meanwhile, although the values of applied research are acknowledged by most EC technologists, the perception seems to be very narrow: success stories boost morale and high profile applications can help to secure funding for future research and can help to attract high caliber students. In this book, we compiled papers from practitioners of EC with the following two purposes: Demonstrating applied research is essential in order for EC to remain a viable science. By applying EC techniques to important unsolved/or poorlysolved real-world problems, we can validate a proposed EC method and/or identify its weakness that restricts its applicability.