Giovanni Squillero, Politecnico di Torino
I think that Evolutionary Computation is loosing momentum, perhaps overshadowed by all the Machine Learning successes, perhaps for endemic reasons. However, I also believe that there is still plenty of industrial applications, exciting results, and that, in general, EC may be synergistic with the new, more fashionable techniques.
I think that SPECIES should try to show how nowadays EC can be practically exploited, and how it can still provide theoretical insights in many areas. I would try to make successes and potentialities more visible among industrial partners, showing how EC could complement other techniques. I would also try to show how the EC background is still essential in many Computational Intelligence paradigms, such as Multi-Agent Systems.
Bio: I’m using evolutionary techniques since graduation, in 1996, and I’m attending Evo events since Goteborg, in 1999. My research activity is in strict contact with industries, mostly CAD, and about two years ago I co-founded a company that exploits ML and EC to predict antibiotic resistance in bacteria.