DR RAJARSHI DAS

Dr Rajarshi Das is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Nonlinear
Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), USA and at the Santa Fe
Institute (SFI).  He is visiting New Zealand to present his research at the
First International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation
(UMC'98) at the University of Auckland from 5-9 January, 1998.

THE EVOLUTION OF EMERGENT COMPUTATION IN CELLULAR AUTOMATA

Abstract:  
How does an evolutionary process interact with a decentralised,
distributed system in order to produce globally coordinated behaviour?
Using a genetic algorithm (GA) to evolve cellular automata (CAs), it is
shown that the emergent coordination is engendered when evolution takes
advantage of the underlying medium's potential to form embedded particles.
The particles, typically walls or defects between homogeneous domains, are
designed by the evolutionary process to resolve global conflicts in the
system. Description of typical solutions discovered by the GA, and the
discovered coordination algorithm in terms of embedded particles dynamics
will be presented. The particle-level description will also be employed to
analyse the evolutionary sequence by which the solutions were discovered.
The results have implications both for understanding emergent collective
behaviour in natural systems and for the automatic programming of
decentralised spatially extended multiprocessor systems.

When: 	1.00 pm, Tuesday, 27 January 1998

Where:	  Seminar Room, Archway West