EECS Seminar - Evolutionary Methods for Real World Engineering Applications

June 29, 1:00pm - 4-201 Center for Science and Technology


Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
Seminar
Evolutionary Methods for Real World Engineering Applications

Nikhil Padhye
PhD Candidate
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary Computation (EC) is a fast growing field of research, whose applications are becoming pervasive in several streams of science and engineering. This talk will provide the background and motivation for evolutionary methods and discuss their edge over traditional approaches in real-world problem solving. Several engineering case studies are presented to demonstrate the applicability of evolutionary algorithms in (I) a variety of optimization tasks and, (II) discovery of new knowledge and principles. The key challenges encountered in such applications are also highlighted. The presentation of a unified approach towards different EA paradigms (such as Genetic Algorithms, Evolutionary Strategies, Evolutionary Programming, Particle Swarm Optimization and Differential Evolution) is shown to be helpful in identifying the key properties required to develop efficient EAs for any given tasks. The talk concludes by addressing the critical question for most practitioners, viz., “What is the best way to design an EA for a given application?”

BIO: Nikhil Padhye is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (2005-2010) with Bachelor's-Master's (Dual) degree in Mechanical Engineering. His current doctoral research is with Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing, aiming to transform the manufacturing processes in pharmaceutical industry. In prior work, he has actively pursued Evolutionary Computation (EC) for several optimization and engineering applications. He was a member of Kanpur Genetic Algorithm (KanGal) and has also worked at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany (2007) and Syracuse University (2008 and 2009). He serves as a reviewer and program committee member for several conferences and journals in Evolutionary Computation. He is currently chairing the Real World Applications Workshop at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 2012. He has about 30 academic publications in the areas of Evolutionary Computation, Engineering Design and Manufacturing Sciences, and consulting experience with major design and manufacturing firms. His past achievements include: Academic Excellence Award from IIT Kanpur, fellowships from Association for Computing Machinery, Seeger and Duerr Stifftung German Scholarship, and a fellowship from Shambhala Institute of Authentic Leadership, Canada. He is a founding member of National Leadership Foundation in India and serves on the board of IIT Kanpur Alumni Association.



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