EvoStar | |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Genre | Conference |
Begins | April 20, 2025 |
Ends | April 23, 2025 |
Frequency | Annually |
Years active | 26 |
Inaugurated | 1998 |
Most recent | 2024 |
Previous event | 2023 |
Next event | 2025 |
Area | Europe |
Organised by | SPECIES |
Website | www |
EvoStar, or Evo*, is an international scientific event devoted to evolutionary computation held in Europe. Its structure has evolved over time and it currently comprises four conferences: EuroGP the annual conference on Genetic Programming, EvoApplications, the International Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoCOP, European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation, and EvoMUSART, the International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design. According to a 2016 study [1] EvoApplications is a Q1 conference, while EuroGP and EvoCOP are both Q2. In 2021, EuroGP, EvoApplications and EvoCOP obtained a CORE rank B. [2]
Other conferences in the area include the ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) and the bi-annual Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN).
Originally run under the name of EvoWorkshops, the event was an outcome of EvoNet, the Network of Excellence in Evolutionary Computing, [3] funded by the European Commission under the Information Societies Technology Programme, FP5-IST. EvoNet was coordinated by Terry Fogarty and managed by Jennifer Willies, both at Edinburgh Napier University at the time, and had more than 100 participating nodes. After EvoNet funding ended, support was provided by Edinburgh Napier University to help EvoStar to continue over the years. In 2014 the SPECIES [4] Society was set up to provide an appropriate legal structure for future organisation and support of the EvoStar conferences. SPECIES support of EvoStar became effective in 2017, with Edinburgh Napier University taking a sponsoring role.
The first edition was held in Paris in 1998. Subsequent editions took place in Göteborg (1999), Edinburgh (2000), Lake Como (2001), Kinsale (2002), Essex (2003), Coimbra (2004), Lausanne (2005), Budapest (2006), Valencia (2007, first edition under the name EvoStar [5] ), Napoli (2008), Tübingen (2009), Istanbul (2010), Torino (2011), Málaga (2012), Vienna (2013), Granada (2014), Copenhagen (2015), Porto (2016), Amsterdam (2017), Parma (2018) and Leipzig (2019). In 2020, Evostar was to be held in Seville, Spain, but due to COVID-19 pandemic, it was finally held as an online conference. In 2021 Evostar was expected to be held in Seville, but was again held as an online conference. In 2022 Evostar was held in Madrid, Spain, as a hybrid event (in person and online). It was followed in 2023 by Brno in the Czech Republic, and in 2024 by Aberystwyth, both again in person and via the Internet. In 2025 EvoStar will take place in Trieste.
The 27th edition took place during 3-5 April and was held in Aberystwyth but also online (Zoom).
EuroGP: Bing Xue, Mario Giacobini, Luca Manzoni. EvoCOP: Thomas Stützle and Markus Wagner. EvoMusArt: Colin Johnson, Sérgio Rebelo and Iria Santos. EvoApplications: Stephen Smith, João Correia and Christian Cintrano. For the third time there was a joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning (EML) between EuroGP and EvoApps: Penousal Machado and Mengjie Zhang.
There were two keynotes: Jon Timmis, vice chancellor of Aberystwyth University, presented "Evolution, immunity and robots: An interdisciplinary adventure", on his research inspired by the immune system and natural swarms. The conference was closed by Sabine Hauert "Evolving swarms across scales: from nanomedicine to city logistics". Between these two invited plenary talks, Marc Schoenauer moderated a plenary "Coffee" with Dario Floreano and Hod Lipson, joint winners of this year's Julian Francis Miller award.
The 26th edition took place during 12-14 April and was held mostly in Brno but also online (Zoom and YouTube).
EuroGP: Gisele Pappa, Mario Giacobini, Zdenek Vasicek. EvoCOP: Leslie Pérez Cáceres, Thomas Stützle. EvoMusArt: Colin Johnson, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández, Sérgio M. Rebelo. EvoApplications: João Correia, Stephen Smith, Raneem Qaddoura.
For the second time there was a joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning between EuroGP and EvoApps, Wolfgang Banzhaf and Penousal Machado.
This time there were three keynotes: Marek Vacha "Gregor Mendel: a story beyond peas" and Evelyne Lutton "Exploring the Interplay of Cooperation and Competition in evolutionary computation". This year they were joined by Susan Stepney, the winner of the Julian Francis Miller award.
Posters were on site and on line via Gather Town.
The 25th edition took place on 20-22 April and was held in Madrid and online (Zoom and YouTube).
EuroGP: Eric Medvet, Gisele Pappa, Bing Xue. EvoCOP: Leslie Pérez Cáceres, Sébastien Verel. EvoMusArt: Tiago Martins, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández, Sérgio M. Rebelo. EvoApplications: Juan Luis Jiménez Laredo, J. Ignacio Hidalgo, Kehinde Oluwatoyin Babaagba. For the first time joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning between EuroGP and EvoApps, Wolfgang Banzhaf and Penousal Machado. As usual there were two keynotes: Gabriela Ochoa "Illuminating search spaces" on YouTube and Pedro Larrañaga "Estimation of Distribution Algorithms in Machine Learning" on YouTube
Posters were on site and on line via Gather Town.
The 24th edition took place on 7–9 April and was held as an online event. Many of the online presentations were recorded and are available via the organisers' "SPECIES Society" YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/SPECIESSociety/featured channel.
EuroGP: Ting Hu, Nuno Lourenço, Eric Medvet. EvoApps: Pedro Castillo, Juanlu Jiménez-Laredo. EvoCOP: Christine Zarges, Sébastien Verel. EvoMUSART: Juan Romero, Tiago Martins, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández.
Late-breaking Abstracts: A.M. Mora, A.I. Esparcia-Alcázar https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.11804
The 23rd edition took place on 15–17 April and was for the first time in history held as an online event. Sessions were available via videoconferencing for registered participants, who could remotely present their work and interact during question time. Conference program chairs were Ting Hu and Nuno Lourenço for EuroGP, Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Luís Paquete and Christine Zarges for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Juan Romero for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator, João Correia was Publicity Chair and Francisco Chicano was Electronic Media Chair. Invited speakers were José Antonio Lozano (talk on The Essence of Combinatorial Optimization Problems, video available on [6] ) and Roberto Serra (Dynamically Critical Networks [7] )
The 22nd edition took place from 24 to 26 April in the premises of Leipzig University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig, with Hendrik Richter as local chair. Conference program chairs were Lukas Sekanina and Ting Hu for EuroGP, Paul Kaufmann and Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Luís Paquete for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 98 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 22 conference sessions plus a general poster session The opening invited speaker was Risto Miikkulainen (on Creative AI through Evolutionary Computation) while Manja Marz gave the closing keynote (on RNA evolution with long read sequencing methods).
The 2018 edition took place on April 4–6 in the premises of the Università degli Studi di Parma in Parma, with Stefano Cagnoni as local chair. Conference program chairs were Mauro Castelli and Lukas Sekanina for EuroGP, Kevin Sim and Paul Kaufmann for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP and Juan Romero and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Coordinators were Jennifer Willies and Anna Esparcia-Alcázar and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 116 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 24 conference sessions plus a general poster session. The opening invited speaker was Una-May O'Reilly (whose talk versed on adversarial dynamics), while Penousal Machado delivered the closing keynote (on evolution art and sex).
The 20th edition took place on 19–21 April in De Bazel in Amsterdam (Netherlands) with Evert Haasdijk and Jacqueline Heinerman serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were James McDermott and Mauro Castelli for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP; João Correia and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Lukáš Sekanina, Antonios Liapis, and Kevin Sim served as Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Kenneth De Jong (EC: Past, Present and Future) and Arthur Kordon (Evolutionary Computation in Industry: A Realistic Overview). A total of 210 papers were presented: 108 in EvoApplications, 34 in EuroGP, 39 in EvoCOP, and 29 in EvoMUSART.
The 19th edition took place between March 30 and April 1 in Seminário de Vilar Rua Arcediago Van Zeller in Porto (Portugal) with Penousal Machado and Ernesto Costa serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Malcolm Heywood and James McDermott for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Mauro Castelli, João Correia, and Paolo Burelli were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Richard Forsyth (The evolution of BEAGLE: Confessions of a mongrel rule-breeder) and Kenneth Sörensen (Metaphors in metaheuristics - a symptom of a deeper ailment?). A total of 218 papers were presented: 113 in EvoApplications, 36 in EuroGP, 44 in EvoCOP, and 25 in EvoMUSART.
The 18th edition took place between 08 and 10 April in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen (Denmark) with Paolo Burelli and Sebastian Risi serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Penousal Machado and Malcolm Heywood for EuroGP; Gabriela Ochoa and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Adrián Carballal for EvoMUSART; Antonio Mora for EvoApplications. Giovanni Squillero, João Correia, and James McDermott were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (Open-Source Baby Robots for Science, Education and Art) and Paulien Hogeweg (Non-random random mutations: Evolution of Genotype-Phenoptype mapping). A total of 133 papers were presented: 73 in EvoApplications, 18 in EuroGP, 19 in EvoCOP, and 23 in EvoMUSART.
EvoStar 2012 took place in Málaga (Spain), in the premises of the School of Computer Science and Telecommunications (Spanish: ETSI Informática y Telecomunicaciones) of the University of Málaga, 11–13 April. This edition was locally chaired by Carlos Cotta, and comprised five conferences, namely EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoMUSART, EvoApplications (which in turn comprised 11 tracks), and EvoBIO, as well as a novel event termed EvoTransfer, oriented to present prospects for practical applications to an audience composed of company representatives. The global conference programme was composed of 144 articles, [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] arranged in 42 sessions, plus two plenary talks by Dario Floreano (on bio-inspired flying robots) and by Marco Tomassini (on evolutionary game theory). During the conference gala dinner held in St. Katherine's Castle Castillo de Santa Catalina, Günther R. Raidl received the 2012 Award for Outstanding Contribution to EC in Europe for his championing role in evolutionary combinatorial optimization.
EvoStar 2011 took place in Turin (Italy), in the premises of the Molecular Biotechnology Center of the University of Turin, 27–29 April. This edition was locally chaired by Mario Giacobini, and comprised four conferences, namely EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoBio, EvoApplications (which in turn comprised 13 tracks). The global conference programme was composed of 157 articles (29 in EuroGP, [13] 22 in EvoCOP, [14] 19 in EvoBio [15] and 87 in EvoApplication [16] [17] ), plus two plenary talks by Craig Reynolds (computer graphics) (on Goal-oriented texture synthesis) and by Jean-Pierre Changeux (on Models of the brain: from genes to consciousness).
EvoStar 2010 took place in Istanbul (Turkey), in the premises of the ITU Suleyman Demirel Cultural Center of the Istanbul Technical University, 7–9 April. The conference was locally chaired by Şima Uyar. Stephen Dignum served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, a series of 11 EvoWorkshops and EvoPhD, the Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation. Invited plenary speakers were Kevin Warwick, Jens Gottlieb and Günther Raidl.
The 2008 edition of EvoStar took place in Naples (Italy), in the premises of the Centro Congressi Federico II of the University of Naples Federico II, 26–28 March. The conference was locally chaired by Ivanoe De Falco, Antonio Della Cioppa and Ernesto Tarantino. Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, and a series of 8 EvoWorkshops. Invited plenary speaker were Hans-Paul Schwefel and Stefano Nolfi.
The first edition under the umbrella name EvoStar took place in Valencia (Spain) in the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), with Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar as local chair, Leonardo Vanneschi as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO and the series of EvoWorkshops. Marc Ebner and Michael O'Neill were co-chairs of EuroGP, with Anikó Ekárt as Publication chair; Carlos Cotta and Jano van Hemert were co-chairs of EvoCOP; Elena Marchiori, Jason H Moore and Jagath C. Rajapakse were co-chairs of EvoBIO and Mario Giacobini was coordinator of EvoWorkshops, which consisted of seven workshops: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoIASP, EvoINTERACTION, EvoMUSART, EvoSTOC and EvoTRANSLOG. A total of 163 papers were presented: 35 in EuroGP, 21 in EvoCOP, 28 in EvoBIO and 79 in EvoWorkshops. Invited speakers were Ricard Solé, Alan Bundy and Chris Adami.
The areas covered include both theoretical aspects and applications of evolutionary computation, in particular genetic programming, and hybridization with other metaheuristics.
A number of competitions have been held throughout the history of EvoStar, specifically in 2010 and 2011. These have been frequently related to the evolutionary games and arts and design areas. Of particular relevance has been the Mario AI Championship [18]
The first curated evolutionary art exhibition linked to EvoStar was held in Budapest in 2006, in the ArtPool P60 space, and run under the title Process revealed. [19] Nineteen works from 8 different countries were presented, with Janis Jefferies and Tim Blackwell acting as curators.
The following year, ArtEscapes - Variations of life in the media arts was launched in Valencia in conjunction with the 2007 edition of EvoStar, and spanning 5 more weeks. [20] Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar and Paulo Urbano curated 22 works, with artists coming from 11 countries around the globe.
Proceedings of the EvoStar conferences are published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.
EuroGP - EvoAPPLICATIONS (formerly evoWorkshops)- EvoCOP -- EvoMUSART
The EvoStar Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe was established in 2006 and its first recipient was Jennifer Willies.
The full list of recipients is as follows:
2006 Jennifer Willies | 2010 Marco Tomassini | 2014 Terence C. Fogarty | 2018 Sara Silva |
2007 Wolfgang Banzhaf and Riccardo Poli | 2011 Julian Miller | 2015 Anna Esparcia-Alcazar and Leonardo Vanneschi [81] | 2019 JJ Merelo and Carlos Cotta |
2008 Bill Langdon and Marc Schoenauer | 2012 Guenther R. Raidl | 2016 Penousal Machado [82] | 2020 Gabriela Ochoa |
2009 Ernesto Costa and Stefano Cagnoni | 2013 Una-May O'Reilly and Elena Marchiori | 2017 James Foster and Gusz Eiben [83] | 2021 Conor Ryan and Juan Romero |
2022 Aniko Ekart | 2023 Mengjie Zhang | 2024 Mario Giacobini |
The EvoStar Outstanding Student Mentions were established in 2018 in order to recognise the good work of EvoStar students, who represent the future of the evolutionary computation community. Papers were selected that had obtained an overall review score greater than or equal to a given mark or that had been nominated for a Best Paper Award, and whose first author was a student registered to attend EvoStar. In 2020 a new category was added, Recent Graduates, to include authors who had carried out the work presented as students and who had graduated since the time of submission. Following these rules the Outstanding Students mentions were as follows:
In artificial intelligence, genetic programming (GP) is a technique of evolving programs, starting from a population of unfit programs, fit for a particular task by applying operations analogous to natural genetic processes to the population of programs.
In computational intelligence (CI), an evolutionary algorithm (EA) is a subset of evolutionary computation, a generic population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm. An EA uses mechanisms inspired by biological evolution, such as reproduction, mutation, recombination, and selection. Candidate solutions to the optimization problem play the role of individuals in a population, and the fitness function determines the quality of the solutions. Evolution of the population then takes place after the repeated application of the above operators.
In computer science, evolutionary computation is a family of algorithms for global optimization inspired by biological evolution, and the subfield of artificial intelligence and soft computing studying these algorithms. In technical terms, they are a family of population-based trial and error problem solvers with a metaheuristic or stochastic optimization character.
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In computer science and mathematical optimization, a metaheuristic is a higher-level procedure or heuristic designed to find, generate, tune, or select a heuristic that may provide a sufficiently good solution to an optimization problem or a machine learning problem, especially with incomplete or imperfect information or limited computation capacity. Metaheuristics sample a subset of solutions which is otherwise too large to be completely enumerated or otherwise explored. Metaheuristics may make relatively few assumptions about the optimization problem being solved and so may be usable for a variety of problems. Their use is always of interest when exact or other (approximate) methods are not available or are not expedient, either because the calculation time is too long or because, for example, the solution provided is too imprecise.
In computer programming, genetic representation is a way of presenting solutions/individuals in evolutionary computation methods. The term encompasses both the concrete data structures and data types used to realize the genetic material of the candidate solutions in the form of a genome, and the relationships between search space and problem space. In the simplest case, the search space corresponds to the problem space. The choice of problem representation is tied to the choice of genetic operators, both of which have a decisive effect on the efficiency of the optimization. Genetic representation can encode appearance, behavior, physical qualities of individuals. Difference in genetic representations is one of the major criteria drawing a line between known classes of evolutionary computation.
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