IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - May 2018 - 42

Is Evolutionary
Computation Evolving
Fast Enough?
Graham Kendall
School of Computer Science,
University of Nottingham,
UK and University of Nottingham
Malaysia Campus, MALAYSIA

Image lIcensed by Ingram PublIshIng

Abstract-Evolutionary Computation (EC) has been an active
research area for over 60 years, yet its commercial/home uptake
has not been as prolific as we might have expected. By way of
comparison, technologies such as 3D printing, which was
introduced about 35 years ago, has seen much wider uptake, to
the extent that it is now available to home users and is routinely used in manufacturing. Other technologies, such as immersive reality and artificial intelligence have also seen commercial
uptake and acceptance by the general public. In this paper we
provide a brief history of EC, recognizing the significant contributions that have been made by its pioneers. We focus on
two methodologies (Genetic Programming and Hyper-heuristics), which have been proposed as being suitable for automated
software development, and question why they are not used
more widely by those outside of the academic community. We
suggest that different research strands need to be brought
together into one framework before wider uptake is possible.
We hope that this position paper will serve as a catalyst for
automated software development that is used on a daily basis
by both companies and home users.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2018.2807019
Date of publication: 10 April 2018

IEEE ComputatIonal IntEllIgEnCE magazInE | may 2018

I. Introduction

volutionary Computation (EC) has been part of the
research agenda for at least 60 years. In a typical EC
algorithm, a population of potential solutions is created and they compete for survival. The weakest (less
fit) members of the population are killed off, and the remaining members are retained and copies made, which are mutated.
This new population is then evaluated with the expectation
that the population's average fitness improves over time, along
with the best performing individual solution.
It is debatable whether EC has had the impact in the commercial sector that other technologies have had, which have seen
much more visible adoption. 3D printing is changing the way
that manufacturing is done and is also moving into the home, to
the extent that almost anybody can carry out 3D printing.
Immersive reality is on the verge of changing society, in ways
that are not totally clear yet. What is apparent is that applications
such as Pokemon Go have sparked interest into the challenges
and opportunities that immersive reality brings [1]-[5]. Ubiquitous computing is becoming more prevalent, enabling users to
access computing resources in ways that were unimaginable even
just a few years ago. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming part

Corresponding Author: Graham Kendall (Email: Graham.Kendall@nottingham.ac.uk)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - May 2018