Many optimization problems in scientific computing and engineering design have multi-solution nature: there exist more than one combinations of the decision variables that can optimize the objective value. In practice, it is often required to provide diverse optimal solutions to decision makers, which offer additional opportunities such as to introduce hidden user preferences (which may hardly be characterized by mathematic formulation); to support quick alternative actions under emergency events; and to reveal the general properties of the problem. The evolutionary computation technique is particularly suitable to accomplish the multi-solution optimization task, owing to its population-based search nature, strong exploration capability, and high flexibility.
Recently, the research of multi-solution optimization has received considerable attention, mostly regarding the continuous numeric optimization domain, which is widely known as the multimodal optimization. There has also been increasing interest in some new and important topics, such as the multi-solution combinatorial optimization and the real-world applications.
This special session focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of multi-solution optimization. The basic techniques include the wide variety of evolutionary algorithms and the niching strategies. We welcome new approaches that are dedicated solve the combinatorial multi-solution optimization problems, such as the multi-solution travelling salesman problem which has a recently released benchmark dataset. Theoretical studies like fitness landscape analysis and solution number approximation are highly encouraged. In addition, we are looking for real-world applications of multi-solution optimization.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Please follow the instructions on the IEEE WCCI 2020 website to prepare your manuscript. When submitting your paper, please select the SS on Multi-Solution Optimization in the main research topics drop-down menu. All papers accepted by the special session are treated the same as regular conference papers, which will be included in the conference proceedings published by IEEE Xplore.
South China University of Technology , China
Email: gongyuejiaoATgmail.com
City University of Hong Kong (CityU), Hong Kong
Email: cssamkATcityu.edu.hk
Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Email: junzhangATieee.org
TBA