Synergies between Evolutionary and Neural Computation
Christian Igel, Bernhard Sendhoff · 2005
Abstract. Evolutionary and neural computation share the same philosophy to use biological information processing for the solution of technical problems. Besides this important but rather abstract common foundation, there have also been many successful combinations of both methods for solving problems as applied as the design of turbomachinery components. In this paper, we will introduce evolutionary algorithms primarily for a “neural ” audience and demonstrate their usefulness for neural computation. Furthermore, we will introduce a list of some more recent trends in combining evolutionary and neural computation, that will show that synergies between the two fields go beyond the typically quoted example of topology optimisation of neural networks. We strive to increase the awareness for these trends in the neural computation community and spark some interest in one or the other of the shown directions. 1