Alden Wright, Ph.D.
Position
Professor and Chair of Computer Science, University of Montana-Missoula
Ph.D
Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, 1969
BA/BS
A. B. in Mathematics, Dartmouth College, 1964
CV
Webpage
Current Research
Evolutionary computation is the broad area of computer science that takes its inspiration from natural evolution. Genetic algorithms are search and optimization techniques based on simulated evolution. I am interested in applying mathematical techniques to understand evolutionary computation, including the behavior of genetic algorithms. I have collaborated with Michael Vose and Jon Rowe on dynamical systems and Markov chain models of genetic algorithms. We also have results on the relationship between group actions on the search space and mutation and crossover operators. Estimation-of-distribution algorithms are another class of promising evolutionary-computation based optimization algorithms. I have proposed an estimation-of-distribution algorithm and I am interested in furthering our understanding of these algorithms. I am interested in the relationship between evolutionary computation and biology, and in the use of evolutionary computation to better understand both artificial and natural evolution.
Recent Publications
Estimation of Distribution Algorithm Based on Linkage Discovery and Factorization by Alden H. Wright and S.V.P.M.Sandeep Pulavarty, Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), edited by H. G. Beyer et al, ACM Press, 2005, pp. 695-703.
Coarse graining selection and mutation, by Jonathan E. Rowe, Michael D. Vose, and Alden H. Wright, Foundations of Genetic Algorithms, 8th International Workshop, FOGA 2005, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan. Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3469. Edited by A. H. Wright, M. D. Vose, K. A. De Jong, L. M. Schmitt.
Efficient Linkage Discovery by Limited Probing (with Robert Heckendorn), Evolutionary Computation vol. 12, no. 4, 2004, pp. 517-545.
State aggregation and population dynamics in linear systems (with Jonathan E. Rowe and Michael D. Vose), Artificial Life vol. 11, no. 4, 2005, pp. 473-492.
Bistability in a Gene Pool GA with Mutation (with Jonathan E. Rowe, Christopher R. Stephens, and Ricardo Poli) FOGA 7 (Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 7), Morgan Kaufmann, 2003 pages 63-80
