EvoStar


EvoStar, or Evo*, is an international scientific event devoted to evolutionary computation held in Europe. Its structure has evolved along time and it currently comprises four conferences: EuroGP the annual conference on Genetic Programming, EvoApplications, the International Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoCOP, European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation, and EvoMUSART, the International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design. According to a 2016 study EvoApplications is a Q1 conference, while EuroGP and EvoCOP are both Q2.
Other conferences in the area include the ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation and the bi-annual Parallel Problem Solving from Nature.

History

Originally run under the name of EvoWorkshops, the event was an outcome of EvoNet, the Network of Excellence in Evolutionary Computing, funded by the European Commission under the Information Societies Technology Programme, FP5-IST. EvoNet was coordinated by Terry Fogarty and managed by Jennifer Willies, both at Edinburgh Napier University at the time, and had more than 100 participating nodes.
After EvoNet funding ended, support was provided by Edinburgh Napier University to help EvoStar to continue over the years. In 2014 the SPECIES Society was set up to provide an appropriate legal structure for future organisation and support of the EvoStar conferences. SPECIES support of EvoStar became effective in 2017, with Edinburgh Napier University taking a sponsoring role.

Editions

The first edition was held in Paris in 1998. Subsequent editions took place in Göteborg, Edinburgh, Lake Como, Kinsale, Essex, Coimbra, Lausanne, Budapest, Valencia, Napoli, Tübingen, Istanbul, Torino, Málaga, Vienna, Granada, Copenhagen, Porto, Amsterdam, Parma and Leipzig. In 2020, Evostar was to be held in Seville, Spain, but due to COVID-19 pandemic, it was finally held as an online conference. In 2021 Evostar is expected to be held in Seville.

Online event (2020)

The 23rd edition took place on 15-17 April and was for the first time in history held as an online event. Sessions were available via videoconferencing for registered participants, who could remotely present their work and interact during question time. Conference program chairs were Ting Hu and Nuno Lourenço for EuroGP, Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Luís Paquete and Christine Zarges for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Juan Romero for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator, João Correia was Publicity Chair and Francisco Chicano was Electronic Media Chair.

Leipzig (2019)

The 22nd edition took place from 24-26 April in the premises of in Leipzig, with Hendrik Richter as local chair. Conference program chairs were Lukas Sekanina and Ting Hu for EuroGP, Paul Kaufmann and Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Luís Paquete for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 98 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 22 conference sessions plus a general poster session The opening invited speaker was Risto Miikkulainen while Manja Marz gave the closing keynote.

Parma (2018)

The 2018 edition took place on April 4-6 in the premises of the Università degli Studi di Parma in Parma, with Stefano Cagnoni as local chair. Conference program chairs were Mauro Castelli and Lukas Sekanina for EuroGP, Kevin Sim and Paul Kaufmann for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP and Juan Romero and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Coordinators were Jennifer Willies and Anna Esparcia-Alcázar and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 116 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 24 conference sessions plus a general poster session. The opening invited speaker was Una-May O'Reilly, while Penousal Machado delivered the closing keynote.

Amsterdam (2017)

The 20th edition took place on 19-21 April in De Bazel in Amsterdam with Evert Haasdijk and Jacqueline Heinerman serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were James McDermott and Mauro Castelli for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP; João Correia and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Lukáš Sekanina, Antonios Liapis, and Kevin Sim served as Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invided speakers were Kenneth De Jong and Arthur Kordon. A total of 210 papers were presented: 108 in EvoApplications, 34 in EuroGP, 39 in EvoCOP, and 29 in EvoMUSART.

Porto (2016)

The 19th edition took place between March 30 and April 1 in Seminário de Vilar Rua Arcediago Van Zeller in Porto with Penousal Machado and Ernesto Costa serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Malcolm Heywood and James McDermott for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Mauro Castelli, João Correia, and Paolo Burelli were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Richard Forsyth and Kenneth Sörensen. A total of 218 papers were presented: 113 in EvoApplications, 36 in EuroGP, 44 in EvoCOP, and 25 in EvoMUSART.

Copenhagen (2015)

The 18th edition took place between 08-10 April in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen with Paolo Burelli and Sebastian Risi serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Penousal Machado and Malcolm Heywood for EuroGP; Gabriela Ochoa and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Adrián Carballal for EvoMUSART; Antonio Mora for EvoApplications. Giovanni Squillero, João Correia, and James McDermott were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and Paulien Hogeweg. A total of 133 papers were presented: 73 in EvoApplications, 18 in EuroGP, 19 in EvoCOP, and 23 in EvoMUSART.

Málaga (2012)

EvoStar 2012 took place in Málaga, in the premises of the School of Computer Science and Telecommunications of the University of Málaga, 11-13 April. This edition was locally chaired by Carlos Cotta, and comprised five conferences, namely EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoMUSART, EvoApplications, and EvoBIO, as well as a novel event termed EvoTransfer, oriented to present prospects for practical applications to an audience composed of company representatives. The global conference programme was composed of 144 articles, arranged in 42 sessions, plus two plenary talks by Dario Floreano and by Marco Tomassini. During the conference gala dinner held in St. Katherine's Castle Castillo de Santa Catalina, Günther R. Raidl received the 2012 Award for Outstanding Contribution to EC in Europe for his championing role in evolutionary combinatorial optimization.

Torino (2011)

EvoStar 2011 took place in Turin, in the premises of the of the University of Turin, 27-29 April. This edition was locally chaired by Mario Giacobini, and comprised four conferences, namely EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoBio, EvoApplications. The global conference programme was composed of 157 articles, plus two plenary talks by Craig Reynolds and by Jean-Pierre Changeux.

Istanbul (2010)

EvoStar 2010 took place in Istanbul, in the premises of the ITU Suleyman Demirel Cultural Center of the Istanbul Technical University, 7-9 April. The conference was locally chaired by Şima Uyar. Stephen Dignum served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, a series of 11 EvoWorkshops and EvoPhD, the Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation. Invited plenary speakers were Kevin Warwick, Jens Gottlieb and Günther Raidl.

Naples (2008)

The 2008 editon of EvoStar took place in Naples, in the premises of the of the University of Naples Federico II, 26-28 March. The conference was locally chaired by Ivanoe De Falco, Antonio Della Cioppa and Ernesto Tarantino. Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, and a series of 8 EvoWorkshops. Invited plenary speaker were Hans-Paul Schwefel and Stefano Nolfi.

Valencia (2007)

The first edition under the umbrella name EvoStar took place in Valencia in the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, with Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar as local chair, Leonardo Vanneschi as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO and the series of EvoWorkshops. Marc Ebner and Michael O'Neill were co-chairs of EuroGP, with Anikó Ekárt as Publication chair; Carlos Cotta and Jano van Hemert were co-chairs of EvoCOP; Elena Marchiori, Jason H Moore and Jagath C. Rajapakse were co-chairs of EvoBIO and Mario Giacobini was coordinator of EvoWorkshops, which consisted of seven workshops: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoIASP, EvoINTERACTION, EvoMUSART, EvoSTOC and EvoTRANSLOG. A total of 163 papers were presented: 35 in EuroGP, 21 in EvoCOP, 28 in EvoBIO and 79 in EvoWorkshops. Invited speakers were Ricard Solé, Alan Bundy and Chris Adami.

Areas

The areas covered include both theoretical aspects and applications of evolutionary computation, in particular genetic programming, and hybridization with other metaheuristics.

Competitions

A number of competitions have been held throughout the history of EvoStar, specifically in and . These have been frequently related to the evolutionary games and arts and design areas.
Of particular relevance has been the Mario AI Championship

Art exhibitions

The first curated evolutionary art exhibition linked to EvoStar was held in Budapest in 2006, in the ArtPool P60 space, and run under the title Process revealed. Nineteen works from 8 different countries were presented, with Janis Jefferies and Tim Blackwell acting as curators.
The following year, ArtEscapes - Variations of life in the media arts was launched in Valencia in conjunction with the 2007 edition of EvoStar, and spanning 5 more weeks.. Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar and Paulo Urbano curated 22 works, with artists coming from 11 countries around the globe.

Proceedings

Proceedings of the EvoStar conferences are published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.
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The EvoStar Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in Europe was established in 2006 and its first recipient was Jennifer Willies.
The full list of recipients is as follows:
2006 Jennifer Willies2011 Julian Miller2016 Penousal Machado
2007 Wolfgang Banzhaf and Riccardo Poli2012 Guenther R. Raidl2017 James Foster and Gusz Eiben
2008 and Marc Schoenauer2013 Una-May O'Reilly and Elena Marchiori2018 Sara Silva
2009 Ernesto Costa and Stefano Cagnoni2014 Terence C. Fogarty2019 JJ Merelo and Carlos Cotta
2010 Marco Tomassini2015 Anna Esparcia-Alcazar and Leonardo Vanneschi2020 Gabriela Ochoa

Keynote speakers

1998 John Koza1999 John Koza and David Fogel2000 David Goldberg 2001 Enrico Coen and Lee Altenberg2002 Chrystopher L Nehaniv and Ingo Wegener2003 David Goldberg and Christopher Stephens2004 Stephanie Forrest and Zbigniew Michalewicz
2005 Matteo Fischetti and Alberto Piazza2006 Rich Terrile and Stefan Voss2007 Ricard Solé, Alan Bundy and Chris Adami2008 Hans-Paul Schwefel and Stefano Nolfi2009 Stuart Hameroff and Peter Schuster2010 Kevin Warwick, Jens Gottlieb and Günther Raidl2011 Craig Reynolds and Jean-Pierre Changeux
2012 Dario Floreano and Marco Tomassini2013 A E Eiben and Richard Watson2014 Thomas Schmickl, Federico Morán and Susan Stepney2015 Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and Paulien Hogeweg2016 and Kenneth Sörensen2017 Kenneth A De Jong and Arthur Kordon2018 Una-May O'Reilly and Penousal Machado
2019 Risto Miikkulainen and Manja Marz2020 José Antonio Lozano and Roberto Serra