Week 7 introduced Genetic Algorithms, who’s effectiveness is somewhat disputed. In any case, these algorithms are quite interesting in their balance between a kind of hill climbing (fitness function) and stochastic methods (cross over, mutation).
The lecture gave the natural basis for these algorithms and defined the key components:
- Chromosome (ie 101101101)
- Reproduction (ie crossover/roulette/tournament)
- Mutation
- Fitness functions
The second half of the lecture was dedicated to assignment and unit test revision.