November Technical Seminar

A seminar on Genetic Programming will be presented by Dr. P. K. Menon of Optimal Synthesis on November 8, 1999. The time for this presentation is 10 am to 12 noon. The venue of the seminar is Ballroom of Moffett Training and Conference Center, Building 3 (Coordinates A3 in NASA map which can be downloaded from http://www.arc.nasa.gov/about_ames/area_map.html), at NASA Ames Research Center. The main gate of NASA Ames is on Moffett Field and can be reached from 101 North and South, Central Express Way, and El Camino via Castro Street. Only US Citizens and Permanent Residents can come on Base.

If you plan to attend this seminar, please send an email to gchatterji@mail.arc.nasa.gov with your name, your residency status (citizen or permanent resident), affiliation (Ames or not). This will ensure that you will be reminded of the seminar and also arrangements will be made for you with the badging office if you do not work at Ames.

Genetic search methods have attracted significant research attention in recent years. It has found application in such diverse areas as Expert Systems, Pattern Recognition, Human Performance Modeling, Automatic Control, Air Traffic Control, Soft Computing, and Numerical Optimization. An interesting aspect of the genetic search techniques is that they are equally effective in numerical and non-numerical search problems. When formulated properly, genetic search methods can outperform purely random search methods.
However, this power comes at a cost. On numerical search problems involving smooth, well-behaved functions, genetic search methods are not as effective as traditional search methods that exploit additional information such as the first and second derivatives. In these problems, genetic search methods can be computationally wasteful and may not produce the desired level of accuracy. Thus, the first step in the effective use of these methods is to assess whether these methods are appropriate for the problems that the analyst is attempting to solve.
This talk will examine the application of genetic search methods. The author and his team have applied genetic search method to numerous problems in the areas of numerical optimization, automatic control, signal processing, soft computing, scheduling, evolutionary programming and pattern recognition. Several of these practical examples will be presented, followed by a software demonstration.

Short Resume of Dr. P. K. Menon:

Dr. Menon has been involved in the development of nonlinear control systems for aircraft, rotorcraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, and robots. In the past, he has received support in these research areas from the Navy, NASA, Air Force and the Army. He has published extensively in professional journals and has presented papers at various national and international conferences.
Dr. Menon has been the president and chief scientist at Optimal Synthesis Inc since 1992. His experience includes 15 years as a research scientist in the aerospace industry, 8 years at universities as a faculty member and 3 years with NASA as a visiting scientist. He has taught advanced graduate courses in Flight Vehicle Dynamics, Guidance and Control, Machine Vision, and Digital Signal Processing. He has directed Ph. D dissertations and numerous graduate Projects. Dr. Menon has lead short courses on automatic control at national conferences.
Dr. Menon is a member of the IEEE, AHS, Sigma Gamma Tau, and is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA. He is the recipient of research awards from NASA and the IEEE. Dr. Menon is a reviewer for 10 different archival journals on automatic control and signal processing, and has served as an Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics.

10/28/99