Research

Dr. Sébastien Verel

• Home
• Research
• Teaching
• Publications
• Curriculum

Research interests

Software development

Project

Talks

Organization of events

Awards

Pictures

Key words

Ph.D. Thesis

Program committees

Journals Reviews

I am currently working at INRIA Lille Nord Europe with the DOLPHIN team.

New Slides!

• "DAMS: Distributed Adaptive Metaheuristic Selection", GECCO'11, July 14, 2011, Dublin, Ireland.
• "The Road to VEGAS: Guiding the Search over Neutral Networks", GECCO'11, July 14, 2011, Dublin, Ireland.
• On the Effect of Connectedness for Biobjective Multiple and Long Path Problems, Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION5), January 20, 2011, Roma, Italy.
• Analyzing the Effect of Objective Correlation on the Efficient Set of MNK-Landscapes, Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION5), January 19, 2011, Roma, Italy.

See more talks here.

Some of my research interests

• Complex Systems: where some "global" properties of the system comes from a large number of "local" interactions
• Adaptive metaheuristics: design and study methods to control the parameters of metaheuristics (State-based Evolutionary Algorithm)
• Theory of metaheuristics, and evolutionary computation: study of the fitness landscapes of combinatorial problems specialy multiobjective and neutral ones
• Cognitive science: Design of cognitive models considering together eyes tracking and EEG signal
• Cellular Genetic Algorithm: Evolutionary algorithms where the population is structured by a grid or a graph

Software development

• Member of the ParadisEO development team, a software framework for the design, implementation and analysis of metaheuristics.
• Development of the module on local search algorithms ParadisEO-MO in collaboration with J. Humeaux and A. Liefooghe.
• Development of the tools for fitness landscapes analysis in ParadisEO-MO in collaboration with J. Humeaux and A. Liefooghe.

New version 1.3 beta of ParadisEO is available. ParadisEO is a C++ white-box object-oriented framework dedicated to the reusable design of metaheuristics: Portable (Windows, Unix and MacOS), Parallel and distributed architectures (MPI), Grids (Globus, Condor-G/MW):

• Download,
• Documentation,
• tutorials,
• Slides of the new version of MO on single solution-based metaheuristics.
• Slides of the fitness landscapes analysis in the new version of MO.

• MoCOlib is a benchmark library for the Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization.
• MoCOlib is a sourceforge project under under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• Instances of the Multiobjective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives (rhoMNK-landscapes) are available.
• Instance generator of the Multiobjective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives (rhoMNK-landscapes) is available.
• Multiobjective fitness functions (C, C++, java, paradiseo framework) of the Multiobjective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives (rhoMNK-landscapes) are available.

Source code related to publication

• Source code to extract the local optima network of the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). Available here zip. Written in C++. Related to the works:
  
  • Daolio F., Tomassini M., Verel S., Ochoa G. Communities of Minima in Local Optima Networks of Combinatorial Spaces In Journal: Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, vol. , , p. 1300 - 1308, 2011.
  • Daolio F., Verel S., Ochoa G., Tomassini M. Local Optima Networks of the Quadratic Assignment Problem In proceeding of IEEE world conference on computational intelligence (WCCI), p. 3145 - 3152, 2010-07-18, 2010.
  
  

top

National Projects

• Member of the project (ANR) "GAZE and EEG" on the joint treatment of synchronized EEG and eye movements to monitor the spatiotemporal analysis and modeling of neuronal activities.
  Work on the modelization task with T. Baccino, B. Lemaire, and M. Clergue.
  • 2009-2011: ANR-Prog. Blanc (NT09_511856): GAZE and EEG : Traitements conjoints synchronisés de signaux EEG et de suivi de mouvements oculaires pour l'analyse spatiotemporelle et modélisation d'activités neuronales. Responsable: A. Guérin-Dugué (Université de Grenoble).
  
  
  
• Project (2011) supported by the GRD Operational Research (RO) of INS2I institute (CNRS):
  
  • Set-based Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization; Partners DOLPHIN team of the Université Lille 1 / INRIA, and LERIA of the université Angers, France.

top

Talks

Some of my talks from seminars and conferences:

• "DAMS: Distributed Adaptive Metaheuristic Selection", GECCO'11, July 14, 2011, Dublin, Ireland.
• "The Road to VEGAS: Guiding the Search over Neutral Networks", GECCO'11, July 14, 2011, Dublin, Ireland.
• On the Effect of Connectedness for Biobjective Multiple and Long Path Problems, Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION5), January 20, 2011, Roma, Italy.
• Analyzing the Effect of Objective Correlation on the Efficient Set of MNK-Landscapes, Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION5), January 19, 2011, Roma, Italy.
• Pareto set structure of the MNK-Landscapes with correlated objectives, 21eme Journées Évolutionnaires Trimestrielles, January 14, 2011, Paris.
• "State-based Evolutionary Algorithm", Selfstar Workshop at PPSN conference, September 11, 2010, Krakow, Poland.
• "Population-based Fitness Landscapes", Dagstuhl seminar on Theory of Evolutionary Algorithms, September 9, 2010, Warden, Deutchland.
• "Fitness Landscapes and graphs: Multimodularity, ruggedness and Neutrality", Tutorial at WCCI 2010, July 18, 2010, Barcelona, Spain.
• "Set-base Multiobjective Fitness Landscapes: definition and properties", ThRaSH'2010 workshop, The 4th workshop on Theory of Randomized Search Heuristics, Mar 25th, 2010, Paris, Fr.
• "Fitness Landscapes and Local Optima Network", invited talk, LERIA University of Angers, Mar 11th, 2010, Angers, Fr.
• "Fitness Landscapes and graphs in combinatorial optimization", invited talk, ASAP group University of Nottingham, Feb 9, 2010, Nottingham, UK.
• "Fitness Landscapes and graphs: Multimodularity, ruggedness and Neutrality" (new version), Tutorial GECCO'09, July 9, 2009, Montreal.
• "Centric selection: a way to tune the exploration/exploitation trade-off", GECCO'09, July 2009, Montreal.
• The Network Structure of Hard Combinatorial Landscapes, 19eme Journées Évolutionnaires Trimestrielles, april 10, 2009, Paris.
• "Some questions in stochastic optimisation" , journee thematique optimisation laboratoire I3S, July 4, 2008, Sophia Antipolis.
• "Fitness landscapes and problem hardness in evolutionary computation" , Part 1 (new version), Tutorial GECCO 2007, July 7, 2007, UCL London.
• "Fitness landscapes and problem hardness in evolutionary computation" , Short intro and Part 2 (from Leonardo Vanneschi), Tutorial GECCO 2007, July 7, 2007, UCL London.
• "Towards a resolution of the firing squad problem with 5 states by metaheuristics" , FRAC 2007, June 29, 2007, Nice.
• "Anisotropic selection in cellular genetic algorithms" , gecco 2006, July 11, 2006, Seattle.
• "Deceptiveness and neutrality - the nd family of fitness landscapes" , gecco 2006, July 11, 2006, Seattle.
• "Neutralite et Evolvabilite dans les paysages de fitness" (french), Séminaire PRISMa, équipe ALAB, June 14, 2006, INSA, Lyon.
• "Neutralité dans les paysages de fitness" (french), Premiere ecole d'ete de l'association Évolution Artifcielle, June 9, 2006, Latour de Carol.
• "Étude et exploitation des réseaux de neutralité dans les paysages adaptatifs pour l'optimisation difficile" (french), 16eme Journées Évolutionnaires Trimestrielles, April 6, 2006, Paris.
• "Evolutionary Algorithm and Fitness Landscape" (french), Séminaires doctorants, ADSTIC, March 15, 2006, laboratoire I3S, Nice.
• "Scuba search: when selection meets innovation" , cec 2004, June 20, 2004, Portland.
• "From royal road to epistatic road for variable length evolution algorithm", Evolution Artificielle, 6th International Conference, October 27, 2003, Marseilles.
• "Étude de la corrélation de la fitness des parents et la fitness des enfants" (french), 9eme Journées Évolutionnaires Trimestrielles, april 2, 2003, Paris.
• "Paysages de fitness" (french), Séminaire équipe INFORGE, January, 2003, university of Lausannes.

top

Organization of events

• Special session at the international conference LION 6:
  Autonomous Control for Search Algorithms (LION-S*EA)
  Co-organizers: Frederic Lardeux, Frederic Saubion, University of Angers, France.
• Special session at the international conference META 2010:
  Fitness landscapes and metaheuristics
  Co-organizer: Gabriela Ochoa, University of Nottingham, UK.
• Workshop on Nature Inspired Computing NatComp'2010 at ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications 2010 (AICCSA)

top

Awards

• Best paper nomination at EVOCOP (evostar) 2011:
  Verel S., Liefooghe A., Jourdan L., Dhaenens C. Pareto Local Optima of Multiobjective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives, sumary and pdf.
• Best paper nomination at GECCO 2008:
  Ochoa G., Tomassini M., Verel S., Darabos C. A Study of NK Landscapes' Basins and Local Optima Networks, sumary and pdf
• Best paper nomination at GECCO 2006:
  Simoncini D., Verel S., Collard P., Clergue M. Anisotropic selection in cellular genetic algorithms, sumary and pdf
• Price for best results and best paper at EvoNet Summer School, Parma, 2003.

top

Key words

artificial intelligence, operational research, evolutionary algorithms, metaheuristics, fitness landscapes, multiobjective problems, neutrality, neutral networks, combinatorial optimization, adaptive methods, complex systems, cellular automata, eyes tracking, EEG, cognitive science.

top

Some pictures

top

Ph.D. thesis in computer science

Director:

Philippe Collard

Title:

"Étude et exploitation des réseaux de neutralité dans les paysages adaptatifs pour l'optimisation difficile"

pdf and sumary on HAL on december 12, 2005:

slides pdf (in french)

Jury :

Director :

M. Philippe Collard, Professor at University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis

President :

M. Enrico Formenti, Professor at University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis

Rapporteurs :

M. Cyril Fonlupt, Professor at University of Littoral - Côte d'Opale

M. El-Ghazali Talbi, Professor at University of Lille

M. Marco Tomassini, Professor at University of Lausanne

Examinateur :

M. Manuel Clergue, Maître de conférences at University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis

Context:

The works of the thesis are in the domain of combinatorial optimization by metaheuristics (evolutionary algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, etc). The first part consist in a theoretical work which study redudant optimization problems according to a local search in using the concept of neutral fitness landscape and neutral networks. In second part, new metaheuristics are proposed which are design for this large class of problems.

in french:
Les travaux de doctorat s'inscrivent dans le domaine de l'optimisation combinatoire par métaheuristiques (algorithmes évolutionnaires, recuit simulé, recherche tabou, etc). Ils ont consisté d'une part à l'étude des problèmes d'optimisation redondant du point de vu de la recherche locale à l'aide du concept de paysage adaptatif neutre et de réseaux de neutralité, et d'autres part à concevoir de nouvelles métaheuristiques adaptées à cette large classe de problèmes.
top

Program Commitees

GECCO 2011:

Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, July 12th-16th, 2011, Dublin (Ireland), ACM

EVO* 2011:

European Conference on Evolutionary Computation, April 27th-29th, 2010, Turino (Italy), Springer Verlag, LNCS

Workshop on Self-tuning, self-configuring and self-generating search heuristics (Self* 2010)

11th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN 2010), September 11-15, 2010, Krakow, Poland

GECCO 2010:

Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, July 7th-11th, 2010, Portland (Oregon), ACM

EVO* 2010:

European Conference on Evolutionary Computation, April 7th-9th, 2010, Istanbul (Turkey), Springer Verlag, LNCS

EVOPHD 2010:

Second European Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation, April 7th-9th, 2010, Istanbul (Turkey)

GECCO 2009:

Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, July 8th-12th, 2009, Montreal (Canada), ACM

EA 2009:

EA'09 : 9th International Conference on Artificial Evolution, October 26th-28th, 2009, Strasbourg (France), Springer Verlag, LNCS

EVO* 2009:

European Conference on Evolutionary Computation, April 15th-17th, 2009, Tubingen (Germany), Springer Verlag, LNCS

EVO* 2008:

European Conference on Evolutionary Computation, March 26th-28th, 2008, Naples (Italy), Springer Verlag, LNCS

GECCO 2007:

Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, July 7th-11th, 2007, London (UK), ACM

EVO* 2007:

European Conference on Evolutionary Computation, April 11th-13th, 2007, Valencia (Spain), Springer Verlag, LNCS

EVOPHD 2007:

Second European Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation, April 11th-13th, 2007, Valencia (Spain)

EUROGP 2006:

Nineth European Conference on Genetic Programming, April 10th-12th, 2006, Budapest (Hungary), Springer Verlag, LNCS

EVOPHD 2006:

First European Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation, April 10th-12th, 2006, Budapest (Hungary)

top

Journals reviews

• Journal of Evolutionary Computation
• IEEE transaction on Evolutionary Computation
• Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing
• IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine
• Journal of Scientific Computing
• Journal of Artificial Evolution and Applications

top