Design and Applications of Hybrid Meta-Heuristic Optimization Algorithms

Dear Colleagues,

Meta-heuristic optimization methods are algorithmic metaphors based on the communication strategies of social insects, and/or natural and behavioral evolutionary strategies to solve large-scale optimization problems. Although approximate in their solution-delivery, these algorithms have gained immense popularity over the past two decades, owing to their successful applicability to seemingly unsolvable problems in diverse and un-related practical domains. The meta-heuristic algorithms work well on getting around the curse of dimensionality faced by the exact methods of optimization. However, they face the challenge of the “no-free lunch theorem”, meaning an algorithm showing superior performance on a class of problems, on average, does not perform too well in other classes of problems.

Hybridization holds the promise of robustness and flexibility, and the wider application of these bio-inspired strategies. The key lies in an aggressive diversification of the exploration, and at the same time an intensive exploitation over the search space. This Special Issue on the design and applications of hybrid meta-heuristic optimization algorithms aims to cover the theory, design, and applications of hybrid meta-heuristic algorithms. The Special Issue invites high-quality original papers in all areas of meta-heuristics computing, including but not limited to:

• Genetic algorithms;
• Memetic algorithms;
• Swarm intelligence;
• Bio-inspired algorithms;
• Nature-inspired algorithms;
• Hyper-heuristics.

Prof. Dr. Tad Gonsalves
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. AI is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• genetic algorithms
• memetic algorithms
• swarm intelligence
• bio-inspired algorithms
• nature-inspired algorithms
• hyper-heuristics