Proseminar

Nature-Inspired Optimisation

Winter Term 2026 / 2027

Proeminar: Nature-Inspired Optimisation

Prof. Joachim Weickert

Winter Term 2026 / 2027

Proseminar (2 h)

Important Dates – Description – Registration – Requirements – Introductory Meeting – Overview of Topics

Introductory meeting (mandatory):
The introductory meeting will likely take place on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 16:15 via Zoom. The link will be sent to all participants who have registered.
In this meeting, we will assign the topics to the participants. Attendance is mandatory for all participants. Do not forget to register first (see below).

Regular meetings during the winter term 2026 / 2027:
Wednesday 16:15-18:00, online via our Zoom link.

Date of first regular meeting:
To be announced.

Last meeting:
To be announced.

Write-up submission deadline:
February 28, 2027, 23:59. Please e-mail your write-up to Joachim Weickert.

Contents: In millions of years, nature has developed a wide variety of survival strategies. Many of them are simple, but still allow to tackle complex problems and tasks. In this proseminar, we will explore algorithms inspired by nature that can be used to solve optimisation problems. This includes e.g. genetic algorithms and methods inspired by swarm behavior. The seminar is based on the book "Nature-Inspired Metaheuristic Algorithms" by Xin-She Yang.

Prerequisites: The proseminar is designed for bachelor students of a mathematics or computer science study program. They are supposed to have some basic mathematical knowledge (e.g. Mathematics for Computer Scientists I-III)

Language: All papers are written in English, and English is the language of presentation.

Please register via the SIC Registration Website by October 14, 2026, 20:00 CET.

Regular attendance: You must attend all seminar meetings, except for provable important reasons such as illness (medical certificate required).

Talk: Talk duration is 30 min, plus 15 min for discussion. Please do not deviate from this time schedule.
Your presentation must be given in English. Your slides and your write-up, too, should be in English.

Write-up: The write-up has to be submitted until Sunday, February 28, 2027, 23:59 via e-mail to Joachim Weickert. It should summarise your talk on 5 pages. The file format for electronic submissions is PDF – text processor files (like .doc) are not acceptable. Participants who do not submit a writeup cannot obtain the certificate for the seminar.

Plagiarism: Please adhere to the standards of scientific referencing and avoid plagiarism: Quotations and copied material (such as images) must be clearly marked as such, and a bibliography is required. Otherwise the seminar counts as failed.

Mandatory consultation: Talk preparation has to be presented to your seminar supervisor no later than one week before the talk is given. It is your responsibility to approach us timely and make your appointment.

No-shows: No-shows are unfair to your fellow students: Some talks are based on previous talks, and your seminar place might have prevented the participation of another student. Thus, in case you do not appear to your scheduled talk (except for reasons beyond your control), we reserve the right to exclude you from future seminars of our group.

Participation in discussions: The discussions after the presentations are a vital part of this seminar. This means that the audience (i.e. all paricipants) poses questions and tries to find positive and negative aspects of the proposed concept and provides feedback and constructive criticism regarding the presentation. This active participation is part of your final grade.

Being in time: You are expected to participate from the beginning to the end.

Here you will find the slides from the introductory meeting. They contain important information for preparing a good talk.

We will discuss the chapters below. If your registration was successful, the password will be sent to you before the introductory meeting. This will enable you to inspect the topics and identify your favourites.

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