evolutionary programming 2019-01-18 http://identifiers.org/biosimulators/copasi http://identifiers.org/isbn/9780750308953 AZ EP Evolutionary programming (EP) is a computational technique that mimics evolution and is based on reproduction and selection. An EP algorithm is composed of individuals that reproduce and compete, each one is a potential solution to the (optimization) problem and is represented by a "genome" where each gene corresponds to one adjustable parameter. At each generation of the EP, each individual reproduces asexually, i.e. divides into two individuals. One of these contains exactly the same "genome" as the parent while the other suffers some mutations (the parameter values of each gene change slightly). At the end of the generation, the algorithm has double the number of individuals. Then each of the individuals is confronted with a number of others to count how many does it outperform (the number of wins is the number of these competitors that represent worse solutions than itself). All the individuals are ranked by their number of wins, and the population is again reduced to the original number of individuals by eliminating those which have worse fitness (solutions). evolutionary algorithm