Recent Development in Biologically Inspired Computing

Recent Developments in Biologically Inspired Computing is necessary reading for undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers interested in knowing the most recent advances in problem solving techniques inspired by nature. This book covers the most relevant areas in computational intelligence, including evolutionary algorithms, artificial neural networks, artificial immune systems and swarm systems. It also brings together novel and philosophical trends in the exciting fields of artificial life and robotics. This book has the advantage of covering a large number of computational approaches, presenting the state-of-the-art before entering into the details of specific extensions and new developments. Pseudocodes, flow charts and examples of applications are provided so as to help newcomers and mature researchers to get the point of the new approaches presented.

This field of investigation uses theoretical biological models to develop computational tools and systems. Editors DeCastro (Catholic U. of Santos) and Von Zuben (State U. of Campinas) and their contributors describe evolutionary algorithms (including evolutionary turing machines, a meta-heuristic inspired by evolution, gene expression programming, and the clonal selection principle for in silico and in vitro computing), swarm intelligence (including several papers on ant colony algorithms), artificial life and artificial creatures (including semiotic artificial creatures and strong artificial life), and information processing and cognitive systems (including controlling robots with fractal gene regulatory networks, artificial homeostasis, and continuous attractor neural networks). Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Leandro Nunes de Castro (S'96 - M'01) received the B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil, in 1996, and M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from the State University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1998 and 2001, respectively. He was a Research Associate with the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. from 2001 to 2002, and a Visiting Lecturer at the School of Computer and Electrical Engineering at Unicamp. He is currently an assistant professor at the Catholic University of Santos in Brazil and a Research Fellow at Unicamp. He has broad interest in all natural computing approaches with particular emphasis on biologically inspired computing, including artificial immune systems, artificial neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, artificial life and DNA computing. He has given a number of tutorials about natural computing, and has published over fifty research papers on the subject. Dr. de Castro is a member of the IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, INNS International Neural Network Society and the SBA Brazilian Automation Society. He has been a member of the program committee for a number of conferences and referee for several journals related to computational intelligence, such as the Soft Computing Journal, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, and IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

F.J. Von Zuben received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1991. In 1993, he received his M.Sc. degree, and in 1996, his Ph.D. degree, both in Automation from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of Campinas, SP, Brazil. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation, from the State University of Campinas, SP, Brazil. The main topics of his research are computational intelligence, with emphasis on artificial neural networks and evolutionary computation, autonomous navigation, multivariate data analysis, control and identification of dynamic systems. He coordinates open ended research projects in these topics, tracking real-world problems through interdisciplinary cooperation. He is also the author of more than 150 research papers and book chapters. Von Zuben is a member of the IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, INNS International Neural Network Society, AAAI American Association for Artificial Intelligence, SBA Brazilian Automation Society, and SBC Brazilian Computer Society. He has also been a member of the Program Committee of leading conferences and has served as referee for a number of scientific journals.