Franz Rothlauf publishes a new book on the "Design of Modern Heuristics".
The book is published at Springer and provides an integrated view on modern heuristics. The following paragraphs provide a short summary of the book:
"Most textbooks on modern heuristics provide the reader with detailed descriptions of the functionality of single examples like genetic algorithms, genetic programming, Tabu search, simulated annealing, and others, but fail on teaching the underlying concepts behind all these
different approaches.
This book focuses on the users' needs and gives answers to three fundamental questions: First, it tells us for which types of problems modern heuristics are expected to perform well and which ones should be left to traditional optimization methods. Second, it teaches us how we can systematically design the ``right'' modern heuristic for a particular problem by providing a coherent view on design elements and working principles. Third, it shows us how we can make us of problem-specific knowledge for the design of efficient and effective modern heuristics that solve not only small toy problems but also perform well on large real-world problems.
The book is written in an easy-to-read style and aimed at students and practitioners who want to understand modern heuristics and are interested in a guide to their systematic design and use."
More information about the book can be found at
http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/book/978-3-540-72961-7
Parts of the book can be electronically accessed at
http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-540-72962-4#section=925019&page=1
Reviews of the book can be found at
http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/book/978-3-540-72961-7?detailsPage=reviews