In Memoriam: Daniel Ashlock
By Gary Fogel

The IEEE CIS community lost a dear friend, colleague, and mentor on 5 April 2022, when Daniel Ashlock passed away from complications of cancer. Dan was known by many in the evolutionary computation (EC) community as a leader and prolific contributor to the scientific literature. Earning a Ph.D. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1990, he served as a Professor of Mathematics at Iowa State University and later at the University of Guelph. Over 30+ years of academic service, he mentored many graduate and undergraduate students, and professional peers, improving their collective understanding of complex systems.

One defining aspect of Dan’s work was its amazing diversity. He maintained interests in bioinformatics, art, statistics, games, fractals, and more, all unified through computational intelligence and evolutionary computation. Early in his career, Dan became intrigued by applications of EC to computational biology and bioinformatics. His work in 2004 helped provide a strategy for the assembly of the newly-sequenced corn genome. Dan’s interests continued to expand over time with careful examinations of problems that presented particular difficulty to evolutionary search, whether through the addition of noise, complexity of coevolution, or competitive exclusion. This amazing breadth of interest led to a considerably improved understanding of fitness landscapes, the importance of representation and its effect on search efficiency, interactive evolutionary systems, and coevolutionary games.

His diversity of thought, quick wit, and uncanny ability to recite key phrases from science fiction books at just the right time, attracted a wide range of collaborators and friends. Many in the community will remember 1-on-1 conversations with Dan and it was through these many interactions that new directions, teams, and lasting friendships were forged. He had the rare gift of being able to explain difficult concepts to disparate communities, promoting the use of CI considerably and causing many to enter the field and join IEEE CIS. Dan did not just attend conferences; he was an active presence. He played a particularly significant role for decades in the Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Technical Committee and its associated IEEE CIBCB conference.

Dan viewed the field of EC through the lens of mathematics, showing us how much there is still to learn about evolution. Our loss is that we must now attempt to do so without our friend, colleague, and mentor showing us the way. But we will honor his legacy by continuing to work on the diverse problems that were his passion.

Call for Nominations/Applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence

The IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence (TETCI) is a publication of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS). TETCI publishes original articles on emerging aspects of computational intelligence, including theory, applications, and surveys. Details about the current state of this publication can be found on our website.

The IEEE CIS Executive Committee has formed an Adhoc Search Committee to invite nominations/applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief for TETCI. The Editor-in-Chief appointment is for a two-year term starting 1 January 2023. Nominees/applicants should be dedicated volunteers with outstanding research profiles and extensive editorial experience. The nomination/application package should include complete CV along with a separate description (max 300 words/topic) on each of the following items:

• Vision statement

• Editorial experience

• Summary of publishing experience in IEEE journals/magazines

• IEEE Volunteer experience

• Institutional support

• Current service and administrative commitments

• Networking with the Community

• Challenges, if any, faced by the publication, and how to deal with them

• Why the candidate considers himself/herself fit for this position?

The nomination/application package should be sent as a single PDF file through email to both Prof. Kay Chen Tan ([email protected]) and Jo-Ellen Snyder ([email protected]) by 20 May 2022.

Call for Nominations/Applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems

The IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems (TFS) is a publication of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS). TFS considers high-quality papers that deal with the theory, design or applications of fuzzy systems ranging from hardware to software. Details about the current state of this publication can be found on our website.

The IEEE CIS Executive Committee has formed an Adhoc Search Committee to invite nominations/applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief for TFS. The Editor-in-Chief appointment is for a two-year term starting 1 January 2023. Nominees/applicants should be dedicated volunteers with outstanding research profiles and extensive editorial experience. The nomination/application package should include complete CV along with a separate description (max 300 words/topic) on each of the following items:

• Vision statement

• Editorial experience

• Summary of publishing experience in IEEE journals/magazines

• IEEE Volunteer experience

• Institutional support

• Current service and administrative commitments

• Networking with the community

• Challenges, if any, faced by the publication, and how to deal with them

• Why the candidate considers himself/herself fit for this position?

The nomination/application package should be sent as a single PDF file through email to both Prof. Kay Chen Tan ([email protected]) and Jo-Ellen Snyder ([email protected]) by 20 May 2022.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR VARIOUS OFFICER AND ADCOM MEMBERS AT LARGE POSITIONS

The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) is seeking nominations for the following key leadership positions (terms are in parentheses):

President-Elect (2023)

Vice President for Education (2023-2024)

Vice President for Member Activities (2023-2024)

Vice President for Publications (2023-2024)

Five ADCOM Members-at-Large (2023-2025)

According to the CIS Bylaws, ARTICLE XII– GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION, Section 35 Schedule for ADCOM Elections:

"Five ADCOM Members-at-Large are elected each year, plus any vacated positions."

"The election of President-Elect, Vice President for Education, Vice President for Member Activities, and Vice President for Publications shall take place in even-numbered years."

Eligibility requirements are defined in the CIS Bylaws, ARTICLE XIV – NOMINATIONS, ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.

The nomination will close on 15 May 2022.

For more information on eligibility, submission requirements, and deadlines please visit our website for the official call for nominations.

Deadlines for 2024 IEEE CIS Financially-sponsored Conference Proposals 

As noted previously the hard deadline for proposals for IEEE SSCI 2024 and IEEE CAI 2024 is 15 May 2022. These are two larger financially-sponsored events that will happen in 2024.

However, there are many other conferences that IEEE CIS maintains via financial sponsorship or financial co-sponsorship. These include the:

• 2024 IEEE Conference on Games (IEEE CoG 2024) associated with the Games Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE Conference on CI in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (IEEE CIBCB 2024) associated with the Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE Symposium on CI in Financial Engineering and Economics (IEEE CIFEr 2024) associated with the Computational Finance and Economics Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE Latin American Conference on Computational Intelligence (IEEE LA-CCI 2024) associated with the Task Force on Computational Intelligence in Latin America

• 2024 IEEE Smart World Conference (IEEE SWC 2024) associated with the Smart World Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (IEEE ICDL 2024) associated with the Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (IEEE DSAA 2024) associated with the Data Mining and Big Data Analytics Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems Conference (IEEE EAIS 2024) a co-sponsored event with IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society and associated with the Adaptive and Evolving Fuzzy Systems Task Force of the Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee

• 2024 IEEE Conference on CI and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications (IEEE CIVEMSA 2024), a co-sponsored event with IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and associated with the CIVEMSA Steering Committee.

Chairing a conference is a great way of helping the community, building a network, and getting involved with IEEE CIS. Proposals for these two conferences should be submitted by 30 August 2022 (hard deadline) to provide sufficient time for review and decision by IEEE CIS Confcom and Adcom. This also helps the society maintain its required two year horizon for approved conferences. Please inform VP Conferences Marley Vellasco ([email protected]) and Gary Fogel ([email protected]) as Chair of the Confcom Subcommittee on Future Conferences of your intention to provide a proposal or if you would like further information. The process for generating such a proposal can be found on our website.

We look forward to receiving your proposals and appreciate your support and effort on behalf of our conferences.

Associate Editors for New Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation

The Power and Energy Society (PES) has launched a new Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation with its first issue scheduled for January 2023.

The scope:

IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation is a rigorously peer-reviewed journal disseminating relevant knowledge and developments in the organization and structure of rapidly evolving multi-energy supply and demand systems. It publishes articles on energy system frameworks, policies, and regulations, such as multi-tier energy market structures, pricing policies, and auction rules. The Journal promotes the decarbonization of supply, distribution, and demand in multi-energy systems, and drives robust and sustainable investments in resilient and green energy systems considering all stakeholders’ needs. Published articles are supported by detailed engineering, economic and policy analyses and assessments of the topics discussed, based on relevant principles, models, techniques and tools.

Appointment of Associate Editors:

We are soliciting applications/nominations from IEEE PES members of good standing for the position of Associate Editors of IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation. The position will be effective from 1 July 2022.

The deadline for receipt of all materials is 31 May 2022. All materials should be sent to: Maria Proetto, Senior Administrator, PES Publication Services, [email protected] with the transactions title you are applying or being nominated for

All applicants should meet the following essential requirements and they should be covered in the CV submitted:

• Minimum of 3 years of academic experience as full time academic or 3 years of industrial experience as industry technical specialist.

• It is expected that the applicant has published about 10 or more journal papers in the last 8 years of which at least 3 should be in the market and economics topics in PES Transactions

• For applicants from industry the lack of PhD degree can be compensated by attained chartered/professional engineer status.

• Active involvement in PES transaction paper reviews and other research evaluation activities such as conference paper review and grant application assessment.

• Involvement in national and international working groups, task forces, standardisation committees, industry advisory bodies, etc.

• Invitations to give technical or academic presentations to industry or academia.

Application/nomination materials must include the following information:

• Prior service on an IEEE Editorial Board

• Technical Committee activity

• IEEE Region (1-10)

• Profession Sector (i.e., academia, utility, manufacturer, government, vendor, research institute, other)

• Three to five (maximum) keywords of research/professional expertise

• Titles of 3-10 journal papers authored by nominee in the last 8 years of which at least 3 should be in the market and economics topics in PES Transactions

• Names and contact information of two references

• A resume/CV (max 2-pages) addressing the essential criteria specified above

The process:

The selection process will be chaired by EIC at Large and new EIC who will shortlist candidates and assess further and come with a list of recommended candidates to the PES Vice President (Publications) who will confirm the appointment.

Best regards,

Half a Dozen Real-World Applications of Evolutionary Multitasking, and More

Until recently, the potential to transfer evolved skills across distinct optimization problem instances (or tasks) was seldom explored in evolutionary computation. The concept of evolutionary multitasking (EMT) fills this gap. It unlocks a population’s implicit parallelism to jointly solve a set of tasks, hence creating avenues for skills transfer between them. Despite it being early days, the idea of EMT has begun to show promise in a range of real-world applications. In the backdrop of recent advances, the contribution of this paper is twofold. First, a review of several application-oriented explorations of EMT in the literature is presented; the works are assimilated into half a dozen broad categories according to their respective application domains. Each of these six categories elaborates fundamental motivations to multitask, and contains a representative experimental study (referred from the literature). Second, a set of recipes is provided showing how problem formulations of general interest, those that cut across different disciplines, could be transformed in the new light of EMT. Our discussions emphasize the many practical use-cases of EMT, and are intended to spark future research towards crafting novel algorithms for real-world deployment. Read More

IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, May 2022

A Survey of Embodied AI: From Simulators to Research Tasks

There has been an emerging paradigm shift from the era of “internet AI” to “embodied AI,” where AI algorithms and agents no longer learn from datasets of images, videos or text curated primarily from the internet. Instead, they learn through interactions with their environments from an egocentric perception similar to humans. Consequently, there has been substantial growth in the demand for embodied AI simulators to support various embodied AI research tasks. This growing interest in embodied AI is beneficial to the greater pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), but there has not been a contemporary and comprehensive survey of this field. This paper aims to provide an encyclopedic survey for the field of embodied AI, from its simulators to its research. By evaluating nine current embodied AI simulators with our proposed seven features, this paper aims to understand the simulators in their provision for use in embodied AI research and their limitations. Lastly, this paper surveys the three main research tasks in embodied AI – visual exploration, visual navigation and embodied question answering (QA), covering the state-of-the-art approaches, evaluation metrics and datasets. Finally, with the new insights revealed through surveying the field, the paper will provide suggestions for simulator-for-task selections and recommendations for the future directions of the field. Read More

Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, April 2022

Training a Gaming Agent on Brainwaves

Error-related potentials (ErrPs) are a particular type of event-related potential elicited by a person attending a recognizable error. These electroencephalographic signals can be used to train a gaming agent by a reinforcement learning algorithm to learn an optimal policy. The experimental process consists of an observational human critic (OHC) observing a simple game scenario while their brain signals are captured. The game consists of a grid, where a blue spot has to reach a desired target in the fewest amount of steps. Results show that there is an effective transfer of information and that the agent successfully learns to solve the game efficiently, from the initial 97 steps on average required to reach the target to the optimal number of eight steps. Our results are expressed in threefold: the mechanics of a simple grid-based game that can elicit the ErrP signal component; the verification that the reward function only penalizes wrong steps, which means that type II error (not properly identifying a wrong movement) does not affect significantly the agent learning process; collaborative rewards from multiple OHCs can be used to train the algorithm effectively and can compensate low classification accuracies and a limited scope of transfer learning schemes. Read more

IEEE Transactions on Games, March 2022

Multitask Shape Optimization Using a 3-D Point Cloud Autoencoder as Unified Representation

The choice of design representations, as of search operators, is central to the performance of evolutionary optimization algorithms, in particular, for multitask problems. The multitask approach pushes further the parallelization aspect of these algorithms by solving simultaneously multiple optimization tasks using a single population. During the search, the operators implicitly transfer knowledge between solutions to the offspring, taking advantage of potential synergies between problems to drive the solutions to optimality. Nevertheless, in order to operate on the individuals, the design space of each task has to be mapped to a common search space, which is challenging in engineering cases without clear semantic overlap between parameters. Here, we apply a 3-D point cloud autoencoder to map the representations from the Cartesian to a unified design representation: the latent space of the autoencoder. The transfer of latent space features between design representations allows the reconstruction of shapes with interpolated characteristics and maintenance of common parts, which potentially improves the performance of the designs in one or more tasks during the optimization. Compared to traditional representations for shape optimization, such as free-form deformation, the latent representation enables more representative design modifications, while keeping the baseline characteristics of the learned classes of objects. We demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in an optimization scenario where we minimize the aerodynamic drag of two different car shapes with common underbodies for cost-efficient vehicle platform design. Read More

IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, April 2022

Meet: Alice Smith

Current roles (many past roles):

What is your title, and place of work? ( or Technical Field of Research)?

How long have you been a member of CIS and what was the reason you chose to join IEEE CIS?

I am not sure exactly when I joined CIS but it was more than 20 years ago, probably close to 30 years ago. I was already an IEEE member and began my research concentration in computational intelligence (my PhD dissertation – completed in 1991 – was on neural networks). I have been an active member ever since.

What Computational Intelligence Society Committee do you serve?

I have been on many committees over the years and have several current roles (see above). I have found my service on Ad Com, as a Distinguished Lecturer, and as an IEEE conference leader particularly meaningful.

What have you learned from your experience and how has it helped you professionally?

During the pandemic time, I gave many virtual lectures to IEEE CIS related events in countries around the world including Chile, China, Brazil, Australia, and India. While I would have preferred an in-person experience this still allowed a variety of computational intelligence students and researchers to connect with me. I have also very much enjoyed the great group of people from many parts of the globe I have met through CIS activities and leadership roles. Both technical growth and networking are two truly exceptional opportunities that I have found in CIS.

What has been the most fun/rewarding thing about being a volunteer for the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society? What have you enjoyed the most?

The group of participants in the Women in Computational Intelligence committee are awesome. As we are underrepresented in CI (and in IEEE) it is so empowering and supportive to periodically get together (virtually recently but hopefully in person very soon) over the years. We have important and serious conversations but also a lot of laughs.

Tell us something about you that we don't know.

I am a language student – and undergraduate! I am currently finishing a B.A. in Spanish at my university (Auburn University) and I also study Portuguese and French online. Languages are very difficult for me, so it is challenging to exercise and develop a different sector of my brain. I hope to practice my new languages in the future with some visits to Latin America and Europe for CIS activities.

IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers Programs

Distinguished Lecturers present novel basic and/or applied research results in their CIS sub-field. Their lectures offer insights into the trends and challenges of their CIS sub-field and their vision for the given sub-field. This year we have 15 lecturers in various CIS sub-fields. The detail is shown in on the IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturers page.

The program supports local CIS Chapters by enabling a major chapter event which can considerably improve a chapter’s visibility to their existing IEEE CIS members, other IEEE society members and the wider CIS community in their area. The process of organizing distinguished lectures is shown in https://cis.ieee.org/professional-development/dlp/organizing-distinguished-lectures.

It should be noted that this program is NOT intended as a means to finance speakers for conferences/workshops or symposia. 

CI & AI-FML Machine Learning Competition @ IEEE WCCI 2022

CI & AI-FML Machine Learning Competition for

Human and Smart Machine Co-Learning on Real-World Applications

Organizers:

Chang-Shing Lee, Yusuke Nojima, Giovanni Acampora Marek Reformat, Naoyuki Kubota, Ryosuke Saga, Jose Manuel Soto Hidalgo, and Shen-Chien Chen

Supported by Task Forces on Competitions of IEEE CIS Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee

Posted by Chang-Shing Lee ([email protected])

Competition Website @ IEEE WCCI 2022

https://wcci2022.org/accepted-competitions/
http://oase.nutn.edu.tw/wcci2022-fmlcompetition/overview/

I. Scope and Topics

Computational Intelligence (CI), which includes fuzzy logic (FL), neural network (NN), and evolutionary computation (EC), is an imperative branch of artificial intelligence (AI). As a core technology of AI, it plays a vital role in developing intelligent systems, such as games and game engines, neural-based systems including a variety of deep network models, evolutionary-based optimization methods, and advanced cognitive techniques. The main contents of this competition proposal focused on the CI & AI-FML machine learning for human and smart machine co-learning on AIoT applications or real-world applications to encourage elementary-school students, high-school students, or undergraduate students to join the competition. This competition is supported by 2021 IEEE CIS High School Outreach Subcommittee, Task Forces on Competitions of IEEE CIS Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee, Task Forces on Web Intelligence of IEEE CIS Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee, Task Forces on Fuzzy System Software of IEEE CIS Fuzzy Systems Technical Committee, KWS research center of National University of Tainan, Taiwan, and CcS research center of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan.

II. Submission Instructions and Deadline
The participants are invited to submit their results via the competition website.

Submissions must be received before 30 June 2022, 23:59 (GMT).

IEEE CIS Student and Early Career Mentoring Program

The IEEE CIS mentoring program is back in 2022! The program was rated exceptionally highly, with around 90% of participants rating the programs Very Useful or Useful and about 9 out of 10 confirming they would recommend participation to a friend. WCCI2022 will offer an expanded IEEE CIS mentoring program compared to 2020, keeping the best parts of the 2020 edition, while adding new activities. It includes: 

• Activity I: One-to-One publication feedback and community point-of-contact
• Activity II: Paper Development Workshop (PDW)  
• Activity III: Networking Event

More details about the program are available here.

• IEEE CIM Special Issue on Models of Representation in Computational Intelligence (1 June 2022)

• IEEE CIM Special Issue on Federated Learning for Future Communication Networks (1 June 2022)

• IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on Explainable and Generalizable Deep Learning for Medical Imaging (1 September 2022)

• IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on Explainable Representation Learning-based Intelligent Inspection and Maintenance of Complex Systems (1 September 2022)

• IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on Information Theoretic Methods for the Generalization, Robustness and Interpretability of Machine Learning (1 October 2022)

• IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on Deep Learning for Intelligent Media Computing and Applications (30 October 2022)

• IEEE TETCI Special Issue on Resource Sustainable Computational and Artificial Intelligence (1 February 2023)

• IEEE TAI Special Issue on Physics-Informed Machine Learning (30 April 2022)

• IEEE TAI Special Issue on New Developments in Explainable and Interpretable AI (1 June 2022)

• IEEE TCDS Special Issue on Cognitive Learning of Multi-Agent Systems (30 September 2022)