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Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XVII pp 165–180Cite as

Using Modularity Metrics as Design Features to Guide Evolution in Genetic Programming

Part of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation book series (GEVO)

Abstract

Genetic Programming has advanced the state of the art in the field of software synthesis. However, it has still not been able to produce some of the more complex programs routinely written by humans. One of the heuristics human programmers use to build complex software is the organization of code into reusable modules. Ever since the introduction of the concept of Automatically Defined Functions (ADFs) by John Koza in the 1990s, the genetic programming community has also expressed the need to evolve modular programs, but despite this interest and several subsequent innovations, the goal of evolving large-scale software built on reusable modules has not yet been achieved. In this chapter, we first discuss two modularity metrics—Reuse and Repetition—and describe the procedure for calculating them from program code and corresponding execution traces. We then introduce the concept of design features, which can be used alongside error measures to guide evolution. We also demonstrate the use of modularity design features in parent selection.

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Fig. 9.1
Fig. 9.2

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/lspector/Clojush.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank other members of Hampshire College Institute for Computational Intelligence for their valuable inputs.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1617087. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Anil Kumar Saini & Lee Spector

  2. Department of Computer Science, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA

    Lee Spector

  3. School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, USA

    Lee Spector

Authors
  1. Anil Kumar Saini
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  2. Lee Spector
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anil Kumar Saini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and Engineering, John R. Koza Chair, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Wolfgang Banzhaf

  2. BEACON Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Prof. Dr. Erik Goodman

  3. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, Okemos, MI, USA

    Leigh Sheneman

  4. Depto Ingenieria en Electronic Electrica Tecnológico Nacional de México/ IT, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

    Dr. Leonardo Trujillo

  5. Evolution Enterprises, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Bill Worzel

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Saini, A.K., Spector, L. (2020). Using Modularity Metrics as Design Features to Guide Evolution in Genetic Programming. In: Banzhaf, W., Goodman, E., Sheneman, L., Trujillo, L., Worzel, B. (eds) Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XVII. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39958-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39958-0_9

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