Flow shop scheduling of jobs has always been a popular problem that has found solutions in the number of heuristic and meta-heuristic techniques. In this manuscript, two-machine flow shop scheduling problem has been investigated while optimizing makespan and idle time of machines. Uncertainties in the processing time and set up times of jobs involved are also taken into consideration in the for...

Job scheduling is one of the main factors affecting grid computing performance. Job scheduling problem classified as an NP-hard problem. Such a problem can be solved only by using approximate algorithms such as heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms. Ant colony system algorithm is a meta-heuristic algorithm which has the ability to solve differenttypes of NP-hard problems.However, ant colony s...

This article describes the origin and significant developments associated with the field of meta-heuristics as they relate to global optimization. Meta-heuristics provide a means for approximately solving complex optimization problems. These methods are designed to search for global optima; however, they cannot guarantee that the best solution found after termination criteria are satisfied is i...

A novel optimization algorithm named teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm and its implementation procedure were presented in this paper. TLBO is a meta-heuristic method, which simulates the phenomenon in classes. TLBO has two phases: teacher phase and learner phase. Students learn from teachers in teacher phases and obtain knowledge by mutual learning in learner phase. The suit...

Finding the best way to optimize the portfolio after Markowitz's 1952 article has always been and will continue to be one of the concerns of activists in the investment management industry. Researchers have come up with different solutions to overcome this problem. The introduction of mathematical models and meta-heuristic models is one of the activities that has influenced portfolio optimizati...

Many hard optimization problems can only be effectively handled by meta-heuristic methods. Some continuous optimization problems have specifi c characteristics that demand a particular interest. These features include the location of the optima in a specifi c region of search space. Hence the main goal of this paper is assessing the performance of some outstanding population-based meta-heuristi...

The hybridization of population-based meta-heuristics and local search strategies is an effective algorithmic proposal for solving complex continuous optimization problems. Such hybridization becomes much more effective when the local search heuristics are applied in the most promising areas of the solution space. This paper presents a hybrid method based on Clustering Search (CS) to solve cont...

Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a classical combinatorial optimization problem. This problem is NP-hard in nature. Meta-heuristic approaches have proved to be quite useful for approximate solution of difficult combinatorial optimization problems. Ant colony optimization is one of the popular Meta-heuristics and is unique on the basis of its distributed computation and indirect communicatio...

Best Management Practices (BMPs) are implemented in a watershed to reduce the amount of non-point source pollutants transported to water bodies. However, an optimization algorithm is required to choose the efficient type, size, and location of BMPs for application in a watershed for improving the water quality. In this study, the Charged System Search, a well-known and powerful meta-heuristic o...