UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

    COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM


		presents

       "Engineering the Evolution 
           of Complex Agents" *


		speaker:

             Dr. Tim Taylor
        Institute of Perception, 
          Action and Behaviour
         University of Edinburgh 


	 12 March 2003 (Wednesday)

	  Lecture Theatre E351
	    Hatfield Campus
		3 - 4 pm


 Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.


	Everyone is Welcome to Attend
	    [Space Permitting]

* Lecture sponsored by the EPSRC Network on Evolvability in Biological
  and Software Systems (GR/N23158/01)

Abstract:

For more than half a century people have tried to engineer
software evolutionary systems which are capable of ongoing
innovation and the evolution of complex agents. These attempts
have met with limited success. In this talk, I will briefly
review some of the seminal examples of this endeavour (including
von Neumann's self-reproducing automata, Ray's platform of
self-reproducing computer programs - Tierra, and Sims' evolved
virtual creatures), and identify aspects of each system that
inhibit evolvability.   This will lead onto a discussion of how 
to design an improved evolutionary system that could overcome some
of these problems and exhibit improved evolvability.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium Abstracts
On-line: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq/