Taking inspiration from self-awareness in humans, this book introduces the new notion of computational self-awareness as a fundamental concept for designing and operating computing systems. The basic ability of such self-aware computing systems is to collect information about their state and progress, learning and maintaining models containing knowledge that enables them to reason about their behaviour. Self-aware computing systems will have the ability to utilise this knowledge to effectively and autonomously adapt and explain their behaviour, in changing conditions. This book addresses these fundamental concepts from an engineering perspective, aiming at developing primitives for building systems and applications. It will be of value to researchers, professionals and graduate students in computer science and engineering.

Evolvable hardware (EHW) is based on the idea of combining a reconfigurable hardware device with genetic algorithms to execute reconfiguration autonomously. FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and PLD (Programmable Logic Devices) are typical examples of reconfigurable hardware devices, for which there is already a market worth more than USD2 Billion US dollars and growing at 23 per cent per year. An example of EHW is NASA's Space Technology 5 nanosatellites, which are scheduled to start measuring Earth's magnetosphere in late 2004. They were designed by NASA engineers using genetic algorithms and 32 Linux PCs. The computers generated small antenna-constructing programs (the genotypes) and executed them to produce designs (the phenotypes). If deployed it will be the first piece of evolved hardware ever to be launched into space.

Evolutionary computation techniques have attracted increasing att- tions in recent years for solving complex optimization problems. They are more robust than traditional methods based on formal logics or mathematical programming for many real world OR/MS problems. E- lutionary computation techniques can deal with complex optimization problems better than traditional optimization techniques. However, most papers on the application of evolutionary computation techniques to Operations Research /Management Science (OR/MS) problems have scattered around in different journals and conference proceedings. They also tend to focus on a very special and narrow topic. It is the right time that an archival book series publishes a special volume which - cludes critical reviews of the state-of-art of those evolutionary com- tation techniques which have been found particularly useful for OR/MS problems, and a collection of papers which represent the latest devel- ment in tackling various OR/MS problems by evolutionary computation techniques. This special volume of the book series on Evolutionary - timization aims at filling in this gap in the current literature. The special volume consists of invited papers written by leading - searchers in the field. All papers were peer reviewed by at least two recognised reviewers. The book covers the foundation as well as the practical side of evolutionary optimization.

This book provides a compilation on the state-of-the-art and recent advances of evolutionary computation for dynamic optimization problems. The motivation for this book arises from the fact that many real-world optimization problems and engineering systems are subject to dynamic environments, where changes occur over time. Key issues for addressing dynamic optimization problems in evolutionary computation, including fundamentals, algorithm design, theoretical analysis, and real-world applications, are presented. "Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Optimization Problems" is a valuable reference to scientists, researchers, professionals and students in the field of engineering and science, particularly in the areas of computational intelligence, nature- and bio-inspired computing, and evolutionary computation.

Taking inspiration from self-awareness in humans, this book introduces the new notion of computational self-awareness as a fundamental concept for designing and operating computing systems. The basic ability of such self-aware computing systems is to collect information about their state and progress, learning and maintaining models containing knowledge that enables them to reason about their behaviour. Self-aware computing systems will have the ability to utilise this knowledge to effectively and autonomously adapt and explain their behaviour, in changing conditions. This book addresses these fundamental concepts from an engineering perspective, aiming at developing primitives for building systems and applications. It will be of value to researchers, professionals and graduate students in computer science and engineering.

This book provides a compilation on the state-of-the-art and recent advances of evolutionary computation for dynamic optimization problems. The motivation for this book arises from the fact that many real-world optimization problems and engineering systems are subject to dynamic environments, where changes occur over time. Key issues for addressing dynamic optimization problems in evolutionary computation, including fundamentals, algorithm design, theoretical analysis, and real-world applications, are presented. "Evolutionary Computation for Dynamic Optimization Problems" is a valuable reference to scientists, researchers, professionals and students in the field of engineering and science, particularly in the areas of computational intelligence, nature- and bio-inspired computing, and evolutionary computation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning, IDEAL 2013, held in Hefei, China, in October 2013. The 76 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 130 submissions. These papers provided a valuable collection of latest research outcomes in data engineering and automated learning, from methodologies, frameworks and techniques to applications. In addition to various topics such as evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, probabilistic modelling, swarm intelligent, multi-objective optimisation, and practical applications in regression, classification, clustering, biological data processing, text processing, video analysis, including a number of special sessions on emerging topics such as adaptation and learning multi-agent systems, big data, swarm intelligence and data mining, and combining learning and optimisation in intelligent data engineering.

Evolutionary computation techniques have attracted increasing att- tions in recent years for solving complex optimization problems. They are more robust than traditional methods based on formal logics or mathematical programming for many real world OR/MS problems. E- lutionary computation techniques can deal with complex optimization problems better than traditional optimization techniques. However, most papers on the application of evolutionary computation techniques to Operations Research /Management Science (OR/MS) problems have scattered around in different journals and conference proceedings. They also tend to focus on a very special and narrow topic. It is the right time that an archival book series publishes a special volume which - cludes critical reviews of the state-of-art of those evolutionary com- tation techniques which have been found particularly useful for OR/MS problems, and a collection of papers which represent the latest devel- ment in tackling various OR/MS problems by evolutionary computation techniques. This special volume of the book series on Evolutionary - timization aims at filling in this gap in the current literature. The special volume consists of invited papers written by leading - searchers in the field. All papers were peer reviewed by at least two recognised reviewers. The book covers the foundation as well as the practical side of evolutionary optimization.

Evolvable hardware (EHW) refers to hardware whose architecture/structure and functions change dynamically and autonomously in order to improve its performance in carrying out tasks. The only single resource presenting both the fundamentals, and the latest advances in the field, this book teaches the basics of reconfigurable devices, why they are necessary and how they are designed.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning, IDEAL 2007, held in Birmingham, UK, in December 2007.

The 170 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 270 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning and information processing, data mining and information management, bioinformatics and neuroinformatics, agents and distributed systems, financial engineering and modeling, agent-based approach to service sciences, as well as neural-evolutionary fusion algorithms and their applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN 2006, held in Reykjavik, Iceland in September 2006.

The 106 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 255 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics, from evolutionary computation to swarm intelligence and from bio-inspired computing to real-world applications; they are organized in topical sections on theory, new algorithms, applications, multi-objective optimization, evolutionary learning, as well as representations, operators, and empirical evaluation.

We are proud to introduce the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN VI, held in Paris, Prance, on 18-20 September 2000. PPSN VI was organized in association with the Genetic and Evolutionary Computing Conference (GECCO'2000) and the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC'2000), reflecting the beneficial interaction between the conference activities in Europe and in the USA in the field of natural computation. Starting in 1990 in Dortmund, Germany (Proceedings, LNCS vol. 496, Sprin ger, 1991), this biannual meeting has been held in Brussels, Belgium (Procee dings, Elsevier, 1992), Jerusalem, Israel (Proceedings, LNCS vol. 866, Springer, 1994), Berlin, Germany (Proceedings, LNCS vol. 1141, Springer, 1996), and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Proceedings, LNCS vol. 1498, Springer, 1998), where it was decided that Paris would be the location of the 2000 conference with Marc Schoenauer as the general chair. The scientific content of the PPSN conference focuses on problem solving pa radigms gleaned from a natural models. Characteristic for Natural Computing is the metaphorical use of concepts, principles and mechanisms underlying natural systems, such as evolutionary processes involving mutation, recombination, and selection in natural evolution, annealing or punctuated equilibrium processes of many-particle systems in physics, growth processes in nature and economics, collective intelligence in biology, DNA-based computing in molecular chemistry, and multi-cellular behavioral processes in neural and immune networks."

This volume contains selected papers presented at the Second Asia-Paci c C- ference on Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL'98), from 24 to 27 Nov- ber 1998, in Canberra, Australia. SEAL'98 received a total of 92 submissions (67 papers for the regular sessions and 25 for the applications sessions). All papers were reviewed by three independent reviewers. After review, 62 papers were - cepted for oral presentation and 13 for poster presentation. Some of the accepted papers were selected for inclusion in this volume. SEAL'98 also featured a fully refereed special session on Evolutionary Computation in Power Engineering - ganised by Professor Kit Po Wong and Dr Loi Lei Lai. Two of the ve accepted papers are included in this volume. The papers included in these proceedings cover a wide range of topics in simulated evolution and learning, from self-adaptation to dynamic modelling, from reinforcement learning to agent systems, from evolutionary games to e- lutionary economics, and from novel theoretical results to successful applications, among others. SEAL'98 attracted 94 participants from 14 di erent countries, namely A- tralia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, South Korea, New Z- land, Portugal, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and the USA. It had three distinguished international scientists as keynote speakers, giving talks on natural computation (Hans-Paul Schwefel), reinforcement learning (Richard Sutton), and novel m- els in evolutionary design (John Gero). More information about SEAL'98 is still available at http: //www.cs.adfa.edu.au/conference/seal98/.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference documentation of the First Asia-Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning, SEAL'96, held in Taejon, Korea, in November 1996.
The 23 revised full papers were selected for inclusion in this book on the basis of 2 rounds of reviewing and improvements. Also included are invited papers by John L. Casti and Lawrence J. Fogel. The volume covers a wide range of current topics in simulated evolution and learning e.g. evolutionary optimization, evolutionary learning, artificial life, hybrid evolutionary fuzzy systems, evolutionary artificial neural networks, co-evolution, novel evolutionary approaches to computer tomography image reconstruction, power systems load flow control, and water flow control in cropped soils.

This volume contains the best carefully revised full papers selected from the presentations accepted for the AI '93 and AI '94 Workshop on Evolutionary Computation held in Australia.
The 21 papers included cover a wide range of topics in the field of evolutionary computation, from constrained function optimization to combinatorial optimization, from evolutionary programming to genetic programming, from robotic strategy learning to co-evolutionary game strategy learning. The papers reflect important recent progress in the field; more than half of the papers come from overseas.

This book presents analytic and numerical studies of magnetism in strongly correlated solid-state systems. Competing tendencies in these systems can lead to spontaneous nanoscale structures, such as stripes and checkerboards. There are three topics explored in this book. First, spin waves and magnetic excitations for well-ordered spin structures are studied by using a suitably parametrized Heisenberg model. Both site-centered and bond-centered antiphase domain walls are considered for a range of spacings between stripes and checkerboard antiphase domain walls. Second, quasi-two-dimensional spin systems are explored by using the Stochastic Series Expansion Quantum Monte Carlo method. The order-disorder phase transitions are studied for both static and dynamic bond-diluted Heisenberg spin systems. Varying the interlayer coupling, the Neel temperature and universal scalings are studied for weakly coupled Heisenberg antiferromagnetic layers consisting of coupled ladders. Third, a two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet with nearest-neighbor and four-spin ring exchange is studied, which exhibits a quantum phase transition from the Valence Bond Solid phase to Neel order.