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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/R64742/01
Title: A Rigorious Investigation into Estimation of Distribution Algorithms
Principal Investigator: Zhang, Professor Q
Other Investigators:
Tsang, Professor E Ford, Dr J
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Computer Sci and Electronic Engineering
Organisation: University of Essex
Scheme: Fast Stream
Starts: 28 March 2002 Ends: 27 September 2003 Value (£): 61,942
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Artificial Intelligence
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Information Technologies
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Population-based algorithms using estimation of distribution, often called estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs), have been recongnized as a major paradigm in evolutionary computation. Some EDA-like algorithms have achieved state-of-the-art performace in applications. However, most of the existing EDA-like algorithms have been developed based on an ad-hoc basis. Both theory and implementation in this area are far from complete. This project will work towards establishing a sound theory for characterizing and explaining EDA-like algorithms. We will extend our previous results and seek to obtain global convergence conditions for the factorized distribution algorithm and ant-colony optimization algorithms. With a better understanding of the working mechanisms of EDA-like algorithms, we will embed experimental design methods in EDA to develop more powerful and statistically sound search and optimization algorithms. We will also exploit the potential benefits of combining EDA-like algorithms with GLS (Guided Local Search). We will propose to use continuous optimization problems and quadratic assignment problems as our test problems.
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Organisation Website: http://www.sx.ac.uk