Surrogate modeling in the evolutionary optimization of catalytic materials
Martin Holeňa, David Linke, Lukáš Bajer · 2012
The search for best performing catalysts leads to high-dimensional optimization tasks. They are by far most frequently tackled using evolutionary algorithms, usually implemented in systems developed specifically for the area of catalysis. Their fitness functions are black-box functions with costly and time-consuming empirical evaluation. This suggests to apply surrogate modeling. The paper points out three difficulties challenging the application of surrogate modeling to catalysts optimization: mixed-variables optimization, assessing the suitability of different models, and scalarization of multiple objectives. It then provides examples of how those challenges are tackled in real-world catalysts optimization tasks. The examples are based on results obtained in three such tasks using one of the leading specific evolutionary optimization systems for catalysis.