Session:

TUT - Tutorials

Title:

EAs for Combinatorial Optimization

Authors:

Peter Ross

Abstract:

Many people have used evolutionary algorithms to try to find ever-better ways of solving a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems. This tutorial explains a range of non-evolutionary and evolutionary techniques, including some recent developments, and looks at whether evolutionary methods have been particularly sucessful. In short, the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no; examples are drawn from areas such as constraint satisfaction and vehicle routing. The tutorial introduces some developing ideas and directions for further research.

The tutorial is intended for people with an interest in solving practical combinatorial optimization problems who want to find out what evolutionary algorithms might contribute.