1999 Syposium for Applied Computing (ACM SAC'99)
Tutorial
An Introduction to Genetic Programming (GP)
Thomas D. Haynes, Wichita State University
1:30 - 4:30PM
Abstract
GP is a machine learning technique for the automatic induction of computer
programs. The premise is that natural evolution can be applied to
programs, which are represented as parse trees, and are commonly referred
to as chromosomes. An initial population of programs is randomly generated
from a domain specific alphabet and evaluated within that domain. The
evaluation function determines the "fitness" of a chromosome, i.e., how
well the program represents a solution to the given problem. A new
population of programs is generated, with the parents being selected
proportionate to their evaluated fitness. The parents exchange sub-trees
in a crossover operation. The resultant children are then evaluated and
the cycle continues until either a solution is found or a preset number of
generations pass. My goal is to present the basics of artificial
evolution, outline how to select both an alphabet and an evaluation
function, and to illustrate this process with examples.
The Presenter
Thomas Haynes is an Assistant Professor at Wichita State University. He
received his PhD in Computer Science in 1998 from the University of Tulsa.
His dissertation, "Collective Adaptation: The Sharing of Building Blocks",
investigated cooperation between chromosomes in a genetic programming
system. He also received a MS in Computer Science in 1994 from TU and his
thesis combined genetic programming with multiagent learning. He is the
author of 18 technical publications in the field of genetic programming.
In 1997, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of
Missouri, St. Louis.