This book presents the latest trends and developments in multimodal optimization and niching techniques. Most existing optimization methods are designed for locating a single global solution. However, in real-world settings, many problems are "multimodal" by nature, i.e., multiple satisfactory solutions exist. It may be desirable to locate several such solutions before deciding which one to use. Multimodal optimization has been the subject of intense study in the field of population-based meta-heuristic algorithms, e.g., evolutionary algorithms (EAs), for the past few decades. These multimodal optimization techniques are commonly referred to as "niching" methods, because of the nature-inspired "niching" effect that is induced to the solution population targeting at multiple optima. Many niching methods have been developed in the EA community. Some classic examples include crowding, fitness sharing, clearing, derating, restricted tournament selection, speciation, etc. Nevertheless, applying these niching methods to real-world multimodal problems often encounters significant challenges. To facilitate the advance of niching methods in facing these challenges, this edited book highlights the latest developments in niching methods. The included chapters touch on algorithmic improvements and developments, representation, and visualization issues, as well as new research directions, such as preference incorporation in decision making and new application areas. This edited book is a first of this kind specifically on the topic of niching techniques. This book will serve as a valuable reference book both for researchers and practitioners. Although chapters are written in a mutually independent way, Chapter 1 will help novice readers get an overview of the field. It describes the development of the field and its current state and provides a comparative analysis of the IEEE CEC and ACM GECCO niching competitions of recent years, followed by a collection of open research questions and possible research directions that may be tackled in the future.

In operations research and computer science it is common practice to evaluate the performance of optimization algorithms on the basis of computational results, and the experimental approach should follow accepted principles that guarantee the reliability and reproducibility of results. However, computational experiments differ from those in other sciences, and the last decade has seen considerable methodological research devoted to understanding the particular features of such experiments and assessing the related statistical methods.

This book consists of methodological contributions on different scenarios of experimental analysis. The first part overviews the main issues in the experimental analysis of algorithms, and discusses the experimental cycle of algorithm development; the second part treats the characterization by means of statistical distributions of algorithm performance in terms of solution quality, runtime and other measures; and the third part collects advanced methods from experimental design for configuring and tuning algorithms on a specific class of instances with the goal of using the least amount of experimentation. The contributor list includes leading scientists in algorithm design, statistical design, optimization and heuristics, and most chapters provide theoretical background and are enriched with case studies.

This book is written for researchers and practitioners in operations research and computer science who wish to improve the experimental assessment of optimization algorithms and, consequently, their design.

This two-volume set LNCS 12269 and LNCS 12270 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 99 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 268 submissions. The topics cover classical subjects such as automated algorithm selection and configuration; Bayesian- and surrogate-assisted optimization; benchmarking and performance measures; combinatorial optimization; connection between nature-inspired optimization and artificial intelligence; genetic and evolutionary algorithms; genetic programming; landscape analysis; multiobjective optimization; real-world applications; reinforcement learning; and theoretical aspects of nature-inspired optimization.

This book offers the first comprehensive taxonomy for multimodal optimization algorithms, work with its root in topics such as niching, parallel evolutionary algorithms, and global optimization. The author explains niching in evolutionary algorithms and its benefits; he examines their suitability for use as diagnostic tools for experimental analysis, especially for detecting problem (type) properties; and he measures and compares the performances of niching and canonical EAs using different benchmark test problem sets. His work consolidates the recent successes in this domain, presenting and explaining use cases, algorithms, and performance measures, with a focus throughout on the goals of the optimization processes and a deep understanding of the algorithms used. The book will be useful for researchers and practitioners in the area of computational intelligence, particularly those engaged with heuristic search, multimodal optimization, evolutionary computing, and experimental analysis.

In operations research and computer science it is common practice to evaluate the performance of optimization algorithms on the basis of computational results, and the experimental approach should follow accepted principles that guarantee the reliability and reproducibility of results. However, computational experiments differ from those in other sciences, and the last decade has seen considerable methodological research devoted to understanding the particular features of such experiments and assessing the related statistical methods. This book consists of methodological contributions on different scenarios of experimental analysis. The first part overviews the main issues in the experimental analysis of algorithms, and discusses the experimental cycle of algorithm development; the second part treats the characterization by means of statistical distributions of algorithm performance in terms of solution quality, runtime and other measures; and the third part collects advanced methods from experimental design for configuring and tuning algorithms on a specific class of instances with the goal of using the least amount of experimentation. The contributor list includes leading scientists in algorithm design, statistical design, optimization and heuristics, and most chapters provide theoretical background and are enriched with case studies. This book is written for researchers and practitioners in operations research and computer science who wish to improve the experimental assessment of optimization algorithms and, consequently, their design.

Evolutionary Computation (EC) techniques are e?cient, nature-inspired me- ods based on the principles of natural evolution and genetics. Due to their - ciency and simple underlying principles, these methods can be used for a diverse rangeofactivitiesincludingproblemsolving,optimization,machinelearningand pattern recognition. A large and continuously increasing number of researchers and professionals make use of EC techniques in various application domains. This volume presents a careful selection of relevant EC examples combined with a thorough examination of the techniques used in EC. The papers in the volume illustrate the current state of the art in the application of EC and should help and inspire researchers and professionals to develop e?cient EC methods for design and problem solving. All papers in this book were presented during EvoApplications 2010, which included a range of events on application-oriented aspects of EC. Since 1998, EvoApplications - formerly known as EvoWorkshops- has provided a unique opportunity for EC researchers to meet and discuss application aspects of EC and has been an important link between EC research and its application in a variety of domains. During these 12 years, new events have arisen, some have disappeared,whileothershavematuredtobecomeconferencesoftheirown,such as EuroGP in 2000, EvoCOP in 2004, and EvoBIO in 2007. And from this year, EvoApplications has become a conference as well.

This book presents the latest trends and developments in multimodal optimization and niching techniques. Most existing optimization methods are designed for locating a single global solution. However, in real-world settings, many problems are "multimodal" by nature, i.e., multiple satisfactory solutions exist. It may be desirable to locate several such solutions before deciding which one to use. Multimodal optimization has been the subject of intense study in the field of population-based meta-heuristic algorithms, e.g., evolutionary algorithms (EAs), for the past few decades. These multimodal optimization techniques are commonly referred to as "niching" methods, because of the nature-inspired "niching" effect that is induced to the solution population targeting at multiple optima. Many niching methods have been developed in the EA community. Some classic examples include crowding, fitness sharing, clearing, derating, restricted tournament selection, speciation, etc. Nevertheless, applying these niching methods to real-world multimodal problems often encounters significant challenges. To facilitate the advance of niching methods in facing these challenges, this edited book highlights the latest developments in niching methods. The included chapters touch on algorithmic improvements and developments, representation, and visualization issues, as well as new research directions, such as preference incorporation in decision making and new application areas. This edited book is a first of this kind specifically on the topic of niching techniques. This book will serve as a valuable reference book both for researchers and practitioners. Although chapters are written in a mutually independent way, Chapter 1 will help novice readers get an overview of the field. It describes the development of the field and its current state and provides a comparative analysis of the IEEE CEC and ACM GECCO niching competitions of recent years, followed by a collection of open research questions and possible research directions that may be tackled in the future.

Chapters "Identifying Political Sentiments on YouTube: A Systematic Comparison regarding the Accuracy of Recurrent Neural Network and Machine Learning Models", "Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results" and "Students Assessing Digital News and Misinformation" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This two-volume set LNCS 12269 and LNCS 12270 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 99 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 268 submissions. The topics cover classical subjects such as automated algorithm selection and configuration; Bayesian- and surrogate-assisted optimization; benchmarking and performance measures; combinatorial optimization; connection between nature-inspired optimization and artificial intelligence; genetic and evolutionary algorithms; genetic programming; landscape analysis; multiobjective optimization; real-world applications; reinforcement learning; and theoretical aspects of nature-inspired optimization.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First Multidisciplinary International Symposium, MISDOOM 2019, held in Hamburg, Germany, in February/March 2019. The 14 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 21 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: human computer interaction and disinformation, automation and disinformation, media and disinformation.