IlliGAL Blogging

Genetic programmer, Lee Spector of Hampshire College, has an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe in which he talks about evolving quantum algorithms and intelligent design.

MarkN has an interesting comment on business ethics versus engineering ethics, suggesting from personal experience that the former is more problematic than the latter. He also suggests possible causes for the observed difference:

I often wonder what it is about business education versus engineering education that turns out such diametrically opposed (on average) world views. Or are there a set of personality characteristics that defines both education preferences and ethical behavior preferences?

I wonder whether there is data to support MarkN's basic assertion. If his assertion is true, the notions that education and personality differences might help explain the difference sound plausible. Also, could it be that the role of businesspeople places them in environments richer in potential conflicts of interest and ethical dilemmas than engineers. Moreover, could it be that the potential rewards from ethical misconduct are greater for the businessperson. Either way, some straightforward reasoning shows how these factors might explain MarkN's observation.

Assume a probability p of successful ethical response to an ethical dilemma. Assuming a constant p across the population. If businesspeople face more dilemmas, then they will have a greater expected number of violations.

Assume that the probability p is not constant. Instead assume that success in facing an ethical dilemma is a decreasing function of the magnitude of reward available for an ethical violation. In an environment with a constant number of opportunities for ethical misdeeds, but where the engineer faces less reward than the businessperson for his or her misconduct, the business community will be observed to have a higher per capita incidence of misconduct.

Perhaps, in this light, MarkN's comment is not so surprising. In the future, as engineers become more entrepreneurial, as I believe they are becoming, we can probably expect greater opportunities and rewards for ethical misconduct to make it harder for engineers to choose to do the right thing.

The Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology has chosen the article "Genetic programming for multitimescale modeling" (Sastry et al., 2005, Physical Review B 72, 085438) for the 8/29/05 edition under the subheading of surface and interface properties. The article is the product of NSF and AFOSR research in using genetic programming and genetic algorithms to bridge calculations at different timescales. The work is part of IlliGAL blogger Kumara Sastry's PhD dissertation research. Kumara is jointly advised by Duane Johnson (MatSE) and Dave Goldberg (General Engineering).

here. The first post has a short layperson's description of genetic algorithms.

A white paper out of USC outlines the creation of an adaptive gaming environment using L-systems and genetic algorithms. Its not clear how much of this working yet, and its not clear how much of this is new. Although commercial coders don't usually reveal their underlying technique, certainly projects like Spore use techniques at least as effective as those outlined here. Nonetheless, looking under the hood is valuable, and if nothing else, the author has chosen a name that captures bloggers' attention. (via occult design)

The long-awaited [:-)] rewrite of my 1995 book, Life Skills and Leadership for Engineers, is nearing completion and a short course covering the same material will soon be available (see here). The book, now entitled The Entrepreneurial Engineer, has undergone major revision, including major additions to the chapters on writing, engagement, teamwork, and leadership. New chapters have been added on ethics and technology opportunity assessment. Stay tuned for further announcements.

Classes began yesterday at the University of Illinois, and I'm teaching my genetic algorithms course again after a one year layoff due to my sabbatical. The course is now numbered GE 531 and the web site is here. The course may be taken online for UIUC credit and Laura Miller (arriola@uiuc.edu or phone: 1-800-252-1360 x36634) can provide registration information. As of this morning, we have 30 on-campus students and 10 online students signed up for the course.

I'm in St. Louis at a review meeting for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) program in Optimization and Discrete Mathematics. The program may be clicked off this page. In the morning we went to Scott AFB and visited the Air Mobility Command HQ and specifically the Tanker Airlift Command Center. Pretty cool stuff, but if I tell you about it, I have to kill you. For genetic algorithm fans, I ran into Darrell Whitley and David Van Veldhuizen (co-author of one of the most popular books on multiobjective GAs)

IlliGAL Blogging's Paul Winward posted about Optimatics, an Australian firm that uses GAs to optimize water distribution networks. Old time IlliGALers will recall that one of Optimatics principals, Dr. Angus Simpson, was an IlliGAL visitor back in 1993. At the time, Angus studied the use of advanced GAs in water distribution system design, and Optimatics was started shortly after Simpson returned to Adelaide following his Urbana adventure. Angus and I were students together at the University of Michigan, and Ben Wylie advised both of our theses. My own work in water distribution network analysis and design goes back to my four-year stint at Stoner Associates in Carlise, Pennsylvania. At the time Mike Stoner was a lone entrepreneur with a suite of four analysis codes in a new building in the middle of a corn field. Today, Stoner is called Advantica, and the company serves gas and water clients around the globe.

Pensive Pondering is a new blog and the first few posts comment on the De Jong's writing on GAFO (GAs as function optimizers) and Wolpert and Macready's writing on the no free lunch theorem. I've always been a card-carrying member of the field's optimist wing and have almost always found writing about what GAs aren't or can't do (1) trivially true and (2) uninteresting. For me the existence proof of nature's evolved and complex bounty has suggested that what genetic algorithms can do is much more interesting than what they can't. Thus, I believe we should (1) not spend one nanosecond worrying about the NFL limits and (2) not use GAFO and DeJong's thinking as an excuse NOT to explore the limits of how fast and effective GAs can be made. The book The Design of Innovation is my answer to the pessimistic wing of the field and subsequent research continues to tell us how we're just scratching the surface on our understanding of what genetic algorithms can be designed to do.

BitKrafted posts about the Chalmers University's Humanoid Project in which layers of genetic algorithms and genetic programming are used as the intelligent core of a full-size humanoid robot. More information is available at the project web page here.

The Goldberg family returned this weekend from a two-week vacation in Douglas on Michigan's west coast. Douglas is adjacent to Saugatuck, an artsie community with quaint shops, galleries, and access to Lake Michigan down the Kalamazoo River. Between going to the beach, sailing, kayaking, biking, attending lovely summer theatre productions of Urinetown and Honky Tonk Highway at Mason Street Warehouse or traveling to Grand Rapids to go to a Whitecaps minor league ball game, the John Ball Zoo, and the Meijer Gardens, we had a blast, and I think I'm ready to return to the grind of the mind and the slog of the blog. I thank those IlliGAL Bloggers who picked up the slack to bring you the latest in genetic algorithms and evolutionary computation during my little break.

I run into another interesting article browsing the net this summer. The Mexican philosopher Manuel DeLanda wrote it. His article explores the connections between different kinds of thinking paradigms (intensive, topological, and population ones, to mention a few) and genetic algorithms when applied to architecture.

Browsing the net this summer I run in to an interesting paper by John Middendorf about curvilinear design in architecture. Genetic algorithms play an interesting role in it. Such algorithms help in curvilinear designs such as Frank Gehry’s designs.