Gregory M. Kapfhammer

Parallel Genetic Algorithms

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10

In this research, we are exploring the benefits and drawbacks of several distributed system architectures in developing an implementation of a distributed GA that exploits the Jini and JavaSpace technologies. Our results, using the knapsack problem as an illustration, show that there is an unavoidable price to pay in terms of decreasing computation to communication ratios as a function of instance size. However, we can diminish these effects by expanding the number of JavaSpaces beyond those required for the obvious implementation. Our results also indicate that as the number of remote machines increases the potential for a better solution also rises. Even though our distributed GAs did not always exploit this potential for a higher quality solution, we believe that the combination of Java, Jini, and JavaSpaces presents avenues for easily distributing the computation of genetic algorithms. Currently, we are investigating the impact that topologies, migration rates, and migrant selection heuristics have on the convergence time when the solution quality is fixed. Furthermore, we are experimenting with the creation of parallel genetic algorithms that use the Java Messaging Service (JMS).

Related Papers:

• Brian Zorman, Gregory M. Kapfhammer, and Robert S. Roos. Creation and Analysis of a JavaSpace-based Genetic Algorithm. In the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications. Las Vegas, Nevada, June, 2002.

Related Presentations:

• Gregory M. Kapfhammer. Further Experience with Teaching Distributed Systems to Undergraduates. Presented at the Ninth Jini Community Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, October, 2005.

• Daniel Fiedler, Kristen Walcott, Thomas Richardson, Gregory M. Kapfhammer, Ahmed Amer, and Panos K. Chrysanthis. SETTLE: A Tuple Space Benchmarking and Testing Framework. Presented at the Ninth Jini Community Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, October, 2005.

• Brian Zorman, Gregory M. Kapfhammer, and Robert S. Roos. Building Distributed Genetic Algorithms with the Jini Network Technology. Presented at the Sixth Jini Community Meeting, Boston, MA, June, 2002.

Project Team:

• Gregory M. Kapfhammer (Allegheny College)
• Robert S. Roos (Allegheny College)
• Brian Zorman (Allegheny College)
• Christopher McNamara (Allegheny College)

This research project is supported by research and travel grants from the Department of Computer Science and the Dean's Office at Allegheny College. Please refer to Research for a complete listing of my current research activities.

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Links to this Page

• Research last edited on 26 August 2009 at 11:22 pm by 141.195.226.29
• Creation and Analysis of a JavaSpace-based Genetic Algorithm last edited on 21 May 2008 at 2:00 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Building Distributed Genetic Algorithms with the Jini Network Technology last edited on 12 June 2008 at 5:06 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Improving the Jini "Out of Box" Experience: Lessons Learned and Solutions Provided last edited on 12 June 2008 at 5:06 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Teaching Distributed Systems to Undergraduates: An Experience Report last edited on 12 June 2008 at 5:07 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Computer Science 580, Junior Seminar, Spring 2003 last edited on 13 July 2004 at 12:59 pm by aldenv28.allegheny.edu
• Computer Science 580, Junior Seminar, Spring 2004 last edited on 17 May 2005 at 6:01 pm by aldenv130.allegheny.edu
• Software Engineering and Distributed Systems last edited on 1 March 2005 at 10:44 am by aldenv130.allegheny.edu
• Research Papers last edited on 20 October 2009 at 5:41 pm by 141.195.226.29
• Research Presentations last edited on 29 October 2009 at 12:30 am by 141.195.226.29
• SETTLE: A Tuple Space Benchmarking and Testing Framework last edited on 12 June 2008 at 5:00 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Further Experience with Teaching Distributed Systems to Undergraduates last edited on 12 June 2008 at 4:59 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Software Engineering and Distributed Systems, Spring 2006 last edited on 17 January 2007 at 5:48 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• Software Testing and Analysis, Spring 2007 last edited on 21 February 2007 at 12:32 pm by aldenv29.allegheny.edu
• The Measured Performance of Communication and Serialization Primitives last edited on 19 November 2009 at 6:15 pm by 141.195.226.29