In this report, we are mainly interested in Scatter Search which is an evolutionary heuristic, proposed two decades ago, that uses linear combination of a population subset to create new solutions. A special operator is used to ensure their feasibility and to improve their quality. We propose hereafter a Scatter Search approach to the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) problem. The basic method...

In the paper we consider strongly NP-hard flow shop problem with the criterion of minimization of the sum of job’s finishing times. We present the parallel algorithm based on the scatter search method. Obtained results are compared to the best known from the literature. Superlinear speedup has been observed in the parallel calculations.

We address the Identical Parallel Machine Scheduling Problem, one of the most important basic problems in scheduling theory, and some generalizations of it arising from real world situations. We survey the current state of the art for the most performing meta-heuristic algorithms for this class of problems, with special emphasis on recent results obtained through Scatter Search. We present insi...

Scatter search (SS) is a population-based method that has recently been shown to yield promising outcomes for solving combinatorial and nonlinear optimization problems. Based on formulations originally proposed in the 1960s for combining decision rules and problem constraints, SS uses strategies for combining solution vectors that have proved effective in a variety of problem settings. Path rel...

In this study we develop a method which improves a credit card fraud detection solution currently being used in a bank. With this solution each transaction is scored and based on these scores the transactions are classified as fraudulent or legitimate. In fraud detection solutions the typical objective is to minimize the wrongly classified number of transactions. However, in reality, wrong clas...

Image registration is a very active research area in computer vision, namely it is used to find a transformation between two images taken under different conditions. Point matching is an image registration approach based on searching for the right pairing of points between the two images. From this matching, the registration transformation we are searching, can be inferred by means of numerical...

Examination timetabling problem is an optimization problem which consists in assigning a set of exams to a set of contiguous time slot, satisfying a set of constraints. The problem falls in the category of the NP-Complete problems and is usually tackled using heuristic methods. In this paper we describe a solution algorithm and its implementation based on the graph heuristics and the evolutiona...

Practical elements of Scatter Search and Path Relinking are illustrated by seven recent applications. The computational outcomes, based on comparative tests involving real world and experimental benchmark problems, demonstrate that these methods provide useful alternatives to more established search procedures. The designs in these applications are straightforward, and can be readily adapted to...

A challenging part of Software Testing entails the generation of test cases, whose costs can be reduced by means of the use of techniques for automating this task. On the other hand, the nature of Software Engineering problems is ideal for the application of metaheuristic techniques. In this paper we present an approach based on the metaheuristic technique Scatter Search for the automatic test ...

In the last few decades, several effective algorithms for solving the resource-constrained project scheduling problem have been proposed. However, the challenging nature of this problem, summarised in its strongly NP-hard status, restricts the effectiveness of exact optimisation to relatively small instances. In this paper, we present a new meta-heuristic for this problem, able to provide near-...