Genetics in Action: Evolutionary Algorithms

Genetics in Action: Evolutionary Algorithms
Evolutionary algorithms help us solve optimization problems where we know what the answer is, but don't know how to get that answer. In this talk, we will look at how different evolutionary algorithms apply the concepts of genetics to discover formulas and patterns. Specifically, we will look at genetic algorithms and genetic programming, digging into how they work and solving a number of problems with each. We will also include a crash course on basic genetics, just in case high school biology isn't fresh in your mind.

Speaker:
Kevin Feasel
Proprietor @ Catallaxy Services, LLC
Road Warrior. Kevin Feasel has worked as an application developer, database administrator, database engineer, manager of a predictive analytics team, and CTO of a startup.
He specializes in data analytics with T-SQL and R, forcing Spark clusters to do his bidding, fighting with Kafka, and pulling rabbits out of hats on demand.
Kevin is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP based on his community efforts. Kevin has presented at over 100 SQL Saturdays across the world, has delivered a pre-conference training at PASS Summit, and has spoken at conferences like PASS Summit, NDC (Oslo and Sydney), Music City Tech, Datagrillen, Open F#, and IT/DevConnections. He is also President of the Triangle SQL Server Users Group (TriPASS) in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and a co-organizer of the Triangle .NET Users Group (TriNUG).
A resident of Durham, North Carolina, he can be found cycling the trails along the triangle whenever the weather's nice enough.