Design of Modern Heuristics / Natural Computing Series (PDF)

the reader to understand and interpret the vast number of published research articles on the development and the application of heuristic search techniques for optimization. ... [This] is a must read book for anyone interested in modern heuristic algorithms development as it encourages the reader to focus on design decisions and not on implementation mechanisms. It is an excellent entry point to modern heuristic algorithms but although rigorous and substantial, the coverage of the topic is also brief and concise. This book is a valuable addition to the literature and should be considered key reading for students entering the exciting field of modern heuristic algorithms." (Dario Landa-Silva, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 2012)

“When somebody wants to start studying optimization and methods for solving optimization problems, this book is a good starting point. It describes the mentioned issues using an easy-to-read way, giving the opportunity to understand all the necessary elements. … The book is a nice contribution to the study of optimization problems and can be a significant help to the students and practitioners willing to apply modern heuristic methods.” (Emil Sköldberg, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1232, 2012)

"This is the kind of book that all students interested in search and optimization should read. Almost half of the book is devoted to laying a foundation for understanding search and optimization for both heuristic methods and more traditional exact methods. This is really why the book is so valuable. It puts heuristic search in context, and this integrated view is important and is often lacking in other books on modern heuristic search. The book then goes on to provide an excellent tutorial level discussion of heuristic methods such as evolutionary algorithms, variable neighborhood search, iterated local search and tabu search. The book is a valuable contribution to the field. Other books have tried to provide the same breadth by collecting together tutorials by multiple authors. But Prof. Rothlauf's book is stronger because it provides an integrated and unified explanation of modern heuristic methods." Darrell Whitley, Colorado State University, Chair of SIGEVO, former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Evolutionary Computation



"The book by Franz Rothlauf is interesting in many ways. First, it goes much further than a simple description of the most important modern heuristics; it provides insight into the reasons that explain the success of some methods. Another attractive feature of the book is its thorough, yet concise, treatment of the complete scope of optimization methods, including techniques for continuous optimization; this allows optimization methods, including techniques for continuous optimization; this allows readers with a limited background in optimization to gain a deeper appreciation of the modern heuristics that are the main topic of the book. Finally, the case studies presented provide a nice illustration of the application of modern heuristics to challenging and highly relevant problems." Michel Gendreau, École Polytechnique de Montréal, former Vice-President of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), Editor-in-Chief of the journal Transportation Science



"Franz Rothlauf’s new book, "Design of Modern Heuristics: Principles and Application", is a celebration of computer science at its best, combining a blend of mathematical analysis, empirical inquiry, conceptual modeling, and useful application to give readers a principled and practical overview of heuristics in modern problem solving. Despite years of successful experience to the contrary, some still use the word “heuristic” as a putdown or dirty word, suggesting that any computational procedure not formally proven to converge on some particular class of problem is somehow not worthy of study or even polite discussion. Rothlauf’s intelligent text sets such folly aside, helping readers to understand that a principled approach can be taken to those computational objects that defy simple mathematical description or elucidation, helping readers to separate the wheat from the computational chaff clearly and systematically to practical end." David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, author of “Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning” and “The Design of Innovation”



"The book on modern heuristic methods by Franz Rothlauf is very special as it has very strong practical flavour – it teaches us how to design efficient and effective modern heuristics to solve a particular problem. This empasis on design component resulted in in-depth discussion on topics like: for which types of problems we should use modern heuristics, how we can select a modern heuristic that is well-suited to our problem, what are basic principles for the design of modern heuristics, and how we can use problem-specific knowledge for the design of modern heuristics? I recommend this book highly to the whole optimization research community and, in particular, to every practitioner who is interested in the applicability of modern heuristic methods." Zbigniew Michalewicz, University of Adelaide, author of “How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics”