Best Paper Winners (and Nominees)

Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence - ACO+SI

Robustness of Ant Colony Optimization to Noise
Friedrich, Kötzing, Krejca, Sutton

Nominees:

The Impact of Centrality on Individual and Collective Performance in Social Problem-Solving Systems
Araujo, Grando, Lamb, Noble

An Ant Colony Optimization Based Memetic Algorithm for the Dynamic Travelling Salesman Problem
Mavrovouniotis, Müller, Yang

Artificial Life, Robotics, and Evolvable Hardware - ALIFE + Generative and Developmental Systems - GDS

Innovation Engines: Automated Creativity and Improved Stochastic Optimization via Deep Learning
Nguyen, Yosinski, Clune

Nominee:

Novelty-based evolutionary design of morphing underwater robots
Corucci, Calisti, Hauser, Laschi

Biological and Biomedical Applications (BIO) +Digital Entertainment and Arts - DETA + Parallel Evolutionary Systems - PES

Solving Interleaved and Blended Sequential Decision-Making Problems through Modular Neuroevolution
Schrum, Miikkulainen

Nominees:

Evolutionary optimization of cancer treatments in a cancer stem cell context
Monteagudo, Santos

Injection, Saturation and Feedback in Meta-Heuristic Interactions
Nowak, Izo, Hennes

Continuous Optimization - Evolution Strategies and Evolutionary Programming (CO)

On Lagrangian Constraint Handling for the (1+1)-ES
Arnold, Porter

Nominee:

Towards an Analysis of Self-Adaptive Evolution Strategies on the Noisy Ellipsoid Model: Progress Rate and Self-Adaptation Response
Melkozerov, Beyer

Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDA)+ THEORY

Improved Runtime Bounds for the (1+1) EA on Random 3-CNF Formulas Based on Fitness-Distance Correlation
Doerr, Neumann, Sutton

Nominee:

Kernels of Mallows Models for Solving Permutation-based Problems
Ceberio, Mendiburu, Lozano

Evolutionary Combinatorial Optimization and Metaheuristics (ECOM)

Global vs Local Search on Multi-objective NK-landscapes: Contrasting the Impact of Problem Features
Daolio, Liefooghe, Verel, Aguirre, Tanaka

Nominees:

Tunnelling Crossover Networks
Ochoa, Chicano, Tinós, Whitley

A Sequence-based Selection Hyper-heuristic Utilising a Hidden Markov Model
Kheiri, Keedwel

Subspace clustering using evolvable genome structure
Peignier, Rigotti, Beslon

Nominee:

Simpler is Better: a Novel Genetic Algorithm to Induce Compact Multi-label Chain Classifiers
Gonçalves, Plastino, Freitas

Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization - EMO

Greedy Hypervolume Subset Selection in the Three-Objective Case
Guerreiro, Fonseca, Paquete

Nominees:

Obtaining optimal Pareto front approximations using scalarized preference information
Braun, Shukla, Schmeck

Benchmarking Numerical Multiobjective Optimizers Revisited
Brockhoff, Hansen, Tran

An Experimental Investigation of Variation Operators in Reference-Point Based Many-Objective Optimization
Yuan, Xu, Wang

Genetic Algorithms - GA

Mk Landscapes, NK Landscapes and MAX-kSAT: A proof that the only challenging problems are deceptive.
Whitley

Nominees:

Evolutionary Bilevel Optimization for Complex Control Tasks
Liang, Miikkulainen

Gray-Box Optimization using the Parameter-less Population Pyramid
Goldman, Punch

Genetic Programming - GP

Memetic Semantic Genetic Programming 
Ffrancon, Schoenauer

Nominees:

An Efficient Structural Diversity Technique for Genetic Programming
Burks, Punch

Genetic Programming with Epigenetic Local Search
La Cava, Helmuth, Spector, Danai 

Real World Applications - RWA

Exploiting Linkage Information and Problem-Specific Knowledge in Evolutionary Distribution Network Expansion Planning
Luong, La Poutré, Bosman

Nominees:

Selecting Best Investment Opportunities from Stock Portfolios Optimized by a Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm
Michalak

Evolving Solutions to TSP Variants for Active Space Debris Removal
Izzo, Getzner, Hennes, Simões

Search-Based Software Engineering and Self-* Search (SBSE-SS)

Random or GA Search for OO Test Suite Generation? Actually, Random Is Usually Good Enough
Shamshiri, Rojas, Fraser, McMinn

Nominee:

Extracting Variability-Safe Feature Models from Source Code Dependencies in System Variants
Assunção, Lopez-Herrejon, Linsbauer, Vergilio, Egyed

Best Paper Award nominations

Accepted Papers

Statistics:

Call for Papers (already closed)

Abstract submission
Prospective authors can still submit their abstracts for another week. The abstracts submitted now can be updated later when the full paper is submitted. Please note that the full paper submission deadline is Feb. 4 and will NOT be extended!

The GECCO 2015 Program Committee invites the submission of technical papers describing your best work in genetic and evolutionary computation. Abstracts need to be submitted by January 28, 2015. Full papers are due by the non-extensible deadline of February 4th, 2015.

Important information regarding submissions
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- Double-blind submissions:

Each paper submitted to GECCO will be rigorously reviewed, in a double-blind review process, meaning that reviewers should not be able to infer the identities of the authors of the papers under review, and, of course, that authors will not know the identities of their reviewers.

Submitted papers should anonymized, meaning they should NOT contain any element that may reveal the identity of their authors, such as author names, affiliations, and acknowledgements. Any references to the author's own work should be made as if the work belonged to someone else.

Review criteria include significance of the work, technical soundness, novelty, clarity, writing quality, and sufficiency of information to permit replication, if applicable.

- Supplementary  material:

It is possible to submit supplementary material (e.g., videos) in addition to the PDF of the paper. In particular, we encourage to submit source code for reproducing experiments described in the paper. At the time of submission, all the supplementary material must also be anonymized. Upon acceptance, the supplementary material will be made available.

You can upload supplementary material as a ZIP archive (.zip) or a compressed tarball (.tgz or .tar.gz). Please use informative filenames and do not upload more than 10MB.

Note that neither the reviewers, the track chairs, nor the editors are required to look at the supplementary material. They are requested to base their reviews and decisions solely on the main PDF manuscript.

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All accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library. GECCO allows submission of material that is substantially similar to a paper being submitted contemporaneously for review by another conference. However, if the submitted paper is accepted by GECCO, the authors agree that substantially the same material will not be published by another conference. Material may later be revised and submitted to a journal, if permitted by the journal.

Researchers are invited to submit abstracts of their work recently published in top-tier conferences and journals to the Hot Off the Press track. Contributions will be selected based on quality and interest to the GECCO community.

By submitting a paper, the author(s) agree that, if their paper is accepted, they will:

Submit a final, revised, camera-ready version to the publisher on or before the camera ready deadline
Register at least one author to attend the conference on or before the advance registration deadline
Attend the conference (at least one author)
Present the accepted paper at the conference

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date will be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

GECCO-2015 submission site

Dear Author,

Thank you for submitting a paper to the GECCO'15 Conference (sponsored by ACM SIGEVO), and contributing to the Proceedings. This page will acquaint you to the formatting and submission instructions for the submission version of your paper.

All ACM SIG sponsored proceedings will be included in the ACM Digital Library as well as prepared for printed and/or electronic publication. All papers for the conference must be submitted in an electronic format which conforms to ACM SIG specifications and formats.

Submissions should adhere to the ACM SIG guidelines (given here) and not exceed eight (8) pages in length. Submissions should have the authors' names removed to assure anonymity during the review process.

About the Registration Requirement for Submitter and Presenters
If your paper is accepted and a final version is submitted to be included on the GECCO 2015 Proceedings and Related Presentations CD, the author(s) agree that they will complete a paid conference registration for at least one author. At least one author must pay a registration and attend the conference, so that someone is at the conference to present the research. A paid registration is the like the "cost" of a "ticket" to attend the GECCO conference. A paid registration entitles the registered person to entrance to the workshops, tutorials, conference technical sessions, keynotes, and special events, like the Sunday evening Opening Reception.

If an author has more than one paper to present at the conference, there are NO additional registration fees. The author registers one time (pays for 1 registration), and presents as many papers as have been accepted. If a paper has more than one author, and more than one author will attend the conference, then each author in attendance must pay for a registration.

Preparation Instructions for Submissions
Please follow the preparation instructions bellow for full, accepted papers (8 pages)

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR GECCO'15 FULL PAPERS
Submission Deadlines and Preparation of Copy All ACM SIG sponsored proceedings will be included in the ACM Digital Library as well as prepared for printed and/or electronic publication. All papers for the conference must be submitted in an electronic format which conforms to ACM SIG specifications and formats. Your electronic Abstract submission is due on or before January 28, 2015 and Submission of full papers is due on or before February 4, 2015. Please read the following, this is important to ensure the inclusion of your paper, poster, abstract, or talk in the proceedings and the ACM Digital Library (Portal).
PAGE LIMITS Please submit as early as possible if you are able to do so. Your page limit is set by the category your submission has been selected for: Full Regular Papers = 8 Page Limit
Preparation Requirements for your Submission: Page Size, Bad Breaks, Figures/Images, Page Numbering
Page Size	Submissions that do not conform to the ACM SIG standards, templates, and formats will be returned to the author for corrections and/or alterations. The page size for this ACM publication is US Letter (8-1/2x11 inches).
Bad Breaks	Be sure that there are no bad page or column breaks Meaning no widows (last line of a paragraph at the top of a column). If this happens either tighten the previous column or force a line over. Section and Sub-section heads should remain with at least 2 lines of body text when near the end of a page or column.
Images & Figures	(a) Colors and Black & White (Gray Scale) Print Testing. If you have any images in color, we suggest that you print your paper to a black/white printer (or black-white version) to be sure that the tones and screens used in your images or figures reproduce well in black and white. Your images will and may appear in color in the electronic proceedings, in color in the ACM Portal (digital library), but in grayscale in any print proceedings. (b) Resolution & CYMK: We recommend images to be at least 300 or 600 dpi for quality reproduction and saved as .tif images. When creating or revising your images for inclusion in the paper, please be sure you choose CYMK and not RGB (as the color profile choice). (c) TIF (EPS) vs JPG (JPEG) images: TIFs were (and should be created) created for pre-press applications where quality takes priority over file size. While TIFs can be compressed (LZW compression option when saving out of Photoshop, for example), no image data is lost, thus ensuring maximum quality. JPEG was designed as a compressed image format designed to keep the file size small which makes it idea for use in web graphics. To do this, the JPEG format actually deletes image data from the image. The higher the level of compression, the more data is removed. This is referred to as a lossy compression system. On a printout, the removed data tends to show up as blocky areas of a solid color. At higher resolutions (a minimum of 200 dpi), there's usually enough data in the JPEG file for the compression artifacts to be very noticeable. (d) Rules/Lines: We recommend for quality reproduction of rules in your graphs, tables or charts, that the rules are at least a 0.5 pt. and black. Finer lines and points than this will not reproduce well, even if you can see them on your laser printed hardcopy when checked -- bear in mind that your laser printers have a far lower resolution than the imagesetters that will be used. (e) Fonts: If your figure uses custom or any non-standard font, the characters may appear differently when printed in the proceedings. Remember to check your figure creation that all fonts are embedded or included in the figure correctly. (f) Transparencies: If a figure or image is assembled from multiple images, the images must be embedded, layers flattened or grouped together properly in the file, not lined. Transparencies should also be flattened.
Page Numbering, Headers, & Footers	Your final submission SHOULD NOT contain any footer or header string information at the top or bottom of each page. The submissions will be paginated in a determined order by the chairs and page numbers added to the pdf during the compiling, indexing, and pagination process.
ACM Classification Sections	The ACM Classification section and Author Keywords are mandatory to be included on the first page of your submission. ACM Classification Keywords (Mandatory): Make sure that your selection included on the first page of your paper after Authors' Keywords are also chosen properly on the submission page. Click here for information on the ACM Computing Classification Scheme. General Terms (Optional for 1st page): You must select one or more of the following General Terms, which must match those listed in your submission. Algorithms Experimentation Management Security Design Human Factors Measurement Standardization Documentation Languages Performance Theory Economics Legal Aspects Reliability Verification ACM General Terms are no longer required for the Papers & Abstracts to be included in the ACM Digital Library, so they are not required for GECCO papers. Authors' Keywords (Mandatory): This section is your (author) choice of terms that you would like used to index your work.
Creating an ACM Compliant PDF	Your pdf file should be ACM Compliant. The requirements for an ACM Compliant PDF are Outlined Here. Right Click here to obtain the (acm.joboptions) to use ACM distiller settings for full versions of Adobe Acrobat and Distiller ONLY. The acm.joboptions has all the settings and requirements to create an ACM compliant PDF with Adobe Acrobat-Distiller.
Thumbnail Image	ACM is requesting a thumbnail image to identify your paper (a small one image representation of your paper). This thumbnail image is "optional" and should be at least 72 dpi, 100 pixels wide in .jpg format. If you do submit a thumbnail image, a short-brief caption (20-30 words) will be required.
ACM Templates & Formats
WORD	LaTEX
WORD INSTRUCTIONS
(a)	Please download the template from the ACM website: http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html
(b)	Be sure to format your document for American Letter (8-1/2x11). Please check that your submission adheres to the set page limit for your type of submission (see above).
(c)	Insert the ACM copyright statement (GECCO-blurb.txt, right click and download to cut and paste the text into your paper). This statement should appear in 8 pt. Times New Roman, justified text, with GECCO'15 (the venue acronym made italic).
(d)	Distill/Create an ACM compliant PDF. If your submitted pdf file is not ACM Compliant, we will distill your .doc or .docx file with the ACM distilling settings, send the PDF to the contact author for approval, and use the PDF for the proceedings and the ACM DL.
(e)	You need to upload your .doc and .pdf files (& optional thumbnail image) to: https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/gecco/ on or before January 28, 2015 (for Abstract submission) and February 4, 2015 (for Submission of full papers). We recommend using a modern, standards-compliant Web browser to upload the necessary files.
LaTEX INSTRUCTIONS
(a)	Please use this specified class file -- sig-alternate class file (right click to download the sig-alternate class file to use)
(b)	Be sure to use the specified class file above with the Option 2: LaTeX2e templates and sample files from: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates
(c)	Include the following five (5) lines in your .tex document after \begin{document} will produce the correct ACM & needed conference copyright statement and needed info for the bottom/left of the first page:    \conferenceinfo{GECCO'15,} {July 11-15, 2015, Madrid, Spain.}     \CopyrightYear{2015}     \crdata{TBA}     \clubpenalty=10000     \widowpenalty = 10000
(d)	You MUST use Type 1 fonts for your submission, for help see on obtaining the correct type of fonts and other formatting issues, see: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/sigfaq.htm for help. We do not need your whole directory of images, figures and packages, just the main TEX file with the title, authors, affiliations, abstract, ACM classification sections (Categories, General Terms and keywords), as well as the references from your bbl file (not your whole bib directory). We do NOT and can NOT recompile your LaTEX submission(s).
(e)	Please check that your submission adheres to the set page limit for your type of submission (see above).
(f)	Create a PS file directly from tex and Distill/Create an ACM compliant PDF. If your submitted pdf file is not ACM Compliant, we will distill your .ps (postscript) file with the ACM distilling settings, send the PDF to the contact author for approval, and use the PDF for the proceedings and the ACM DL.
(g)	You need to upload your .pdf files (& optional thumbnail image) to: -https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/gecco/- on or before January 28, 2015 (for Abstract submission) and February 4, 2015 (for Submission of full papers). We recommend using a modern, standards-compliant Web browser to upload the necessary files.
6. QUESTIONS If you still have questions or problems please contact Sara Silva via email at with the conference name (GECCO'15) in the subject line. Thank you in advance for adhering to the chairs' page limits and the set deadlines.