"As in the car industry for quite some time, dynamic simulation of complete vehicles is being practiced more and more in the development of off-road machinery. However, specific questions arise due not only to company structure and size, but especially to the type of product. Tightly coupled, non-linear subsystems of different domains make prediction and optimisation of the complete system's dynamic behaviour a challenge. Furthermore, the demand for versatile machines leads to sometimes contradictory target requirements and can turn the design process into a hunt for the least painful compromise. This can be avoided by profound system knowledge, assisted by simulation-driven product development. This paper gives an overview of joint research into this issue by Volvo Wheel Loaders and Linkoping University on that matter, lists the results of a related literature review and introduces the term "operateability". Rather than giving detailed answers, the problem space for ongoing and future research is examined and possible solutions are sketched."

"The design of genetic networks with specific functions is one of the major goals of synthetic biology. However, constructing biological devices that work "as required" remains challenging, while the cost of uncovering flawed designs experimentally is large. To address this issue, we propose a fully automated framework that allows the correctness of synthetic gene networks to be formally verified in silico from rich, high level functional specifications.
Given a device, we automatically construct a mathematical model from experimental data characterizing the parts it is composed of. The specific model structure guarantees that all experimental observations are captured and allows us to construct finite abstractions through polyhedral operations. The correctness of the model with respect to temporal logic specifications can then be verified automatically using methods inspired by model checking.
Overall, our procedure is conservative but it can filter through a large number of potential device designs and select few that satisfy the specification to be implemented and tested further experimentally. Illustrative examples of the application of our methods to the design of simple synthetic gene networks are included."

"Our 2.546-approximation is quite simple. The performance guarantee is based on a simple area argument. This gives rise to the following question: what is the smallest square that suffices for packing any set of circles of total area 1? We believe the worst-case may very well be shown in Figure 13, which yields a lower bound of 1.471299... We believe there are relatively easy ways to improve the upper bound."

"While analyzing HFT (High Frequency Trading) quote counts, we were shocked to find cases where one exchange was sending an extremely high number of quotes for one stock in a single second: as high as 5,000 quotes in 1 second! During May 6, there were hundreds of times that a single stock had over 1,000 quotes from one exchange in a single second. Even more disturbing, there doesn't seem to be any economic justification for this. In many of the cases, the bid/offer is well outside the National Best Bid/Offer (NBBO). We decided to analyze a handful of these cases in detail and graphed the sequential bid/offers to better understand them. What we discovered was a manipulative device with destabilizing effect."

"Music composition used to be a pen and paper activity. These these days music is often composed with the aid of computer software, even to the point where the computer compose parts of the score autonomously. The composition of most styles of music is governed by rules. We show that by approaching the automation, analysis and verification of composition as a knowledge representation task and formalising these rules in a suitable logical language, powerful and expressive intelligent composition tools can be easily built. …"

"…This idea arises from previous works in which computational models of self-assembly were subject to evolutionary design in order to perform the automatic construction of user-defined structures. Then, the aim of this paper is to present a novel methodology for the automated design of heuristics by means of self-assembly."

I want to make this sort of thing less newsworthy.

"In this paper we consider spatial networks that realize a balance between an infrastructure cost (the cost of wire needed to connect the network in space) and communication efficiency, measured by average shortest pathlength. A global optimization procedure yields network topologies in which this balance is optimized. These are compared with network topologies generated by a competitive process in which each node strives to optimize its own cost-communication balance. Three phases are observed in globally optimal configurations for different cost-communication trade-offs: (i) regular small worlds, (ii) star-like networks and (iii) trees with a centre of interconnected hubs. In the latter regime, i.e. for very expensive wire, power laws in the link length distributions $P(w)\propto w^{-\alpha}$ are found, which can be explained by a hierarchical organization of the networks…"

"Performance tuning of Database Management Systems(DBMS) is both complex and challenging as it involves identifying and altering several key performance tuning parameters. The quality of tuning and the extent of performance enhancement achieved greatly depends on the skill and experience of the Database Administrator (DBA). As neural networks have the ability to adapt to dynamically changing inputs and also their ability to learn makes them ideal candidates for employing them for tuning purpose. In this paper, a novel tuning algorithm based on neural network estimated tuning parameters is presented. The key performance indicators are proactively monitored….The tuner alters these tuning parameters using the estimated values using a rate change computing algorithm. The preliminary results show that the proposed method is effective in improving the query response time for a variety of workload types."

"The three-dimensional solar structure could, at least in principle, absorb a lot more light and generate more power than a flat panel containing the same area footprint. The hope is that all unused light which has been reflected off one panel would be captured by other panels. Panels of this type would be most ideal in circumstances with limited space."

via: Genetic Argonaut

"This paper briefly highlights the features of the software tool [RadPat4W], named after Radiation Patterns for Windows but also compatible with the [Wine] environment of Linux. The tool is a stand-alone part of a freeware suite that is based on an alternative exposition of fundamental Antenna Theory and is under active development for many years now. Nevertheless, [RadPat4W] source code has been now released as FLOSS Free Libre Open Source Software and thus it may be freely used, copied, modified or redistributed, individually or cooperatively, by the interested user to suit her/his personal needs for reliable antenna applications from the simplest to the more complex."

can;t actually read this :/

"To investigate the optimal shape a 3-D panel might take in order to harvest the most light, scientists used a "genetic algorithm" to evolve solar panels in a computer simulation.

The model they developed randomly generated jumbles of flat, triangular double-sided solar panels and analyzed which generated the most power as a virtual sun moved across the sky. The best ones were then "mated" together for "offspring" that combined features of each with "mutations" that varied their structures. This process was then repeated for up to millions of generations, all in order to see what might evolve."

"Using a numerical optimization program, Gilbert and colleagues showed it's possible to reduce the amount of material in parabola-shaped cables by 0.3% if Hencky nets are used at their ends. The researchers have been working under the assumption that the well-know and simple parabolic-shaped cables represented the optimum bridge design until Gilbert realized that the only option was that the current wisdom was wrong."

"Many GECCO papers discuss lessons learned in a particular application, but few papers discuss lessons learned over an ensemble of problem areas. A scan of the tables of contents of the Proceedings from GECCO 2005 and 2006 showed no paper title stressing lessons learned although the term "pitfall" appeared occasionally in abstracts, typically applying to a particular practice. We present in this paper a set of broadly applicable "lessons learned" in the application of evolutionary computing (EC) techniques to a variety of problem areas and present advice related to encoding, running, monitoring, and managing an evolutionary computing task."

KOJAC is a set of Java classes implementing optical elements and optics laws in order to build and simulate optical systems. KOJAC is also aimed at being a demonstrator of optics for educational purposes. It has been developed at the IMT by Olivier Scherler during a training period.

"Starting from the long-popular design ethos of looking to nature for the best solutions, the Morphogenesis tool set works by proposing optimized 3D structures to the CAD user, based on a defined external envelope and a set of loads and constraints. By hacking away at the envelope until only the minimum of needed material is left, the tool produces some thoroughly odd, organic shapes, often reminiscent of bones or sponges. The shapes can be saved as STL or other 3D data and used as an underlay for exploring alternate designs."

Me: "Solving interesting problems" well involves a frequent iterative dialog between the techniques, intermediate results, and the practitioner. Agility, in other words.

"The idea builds on an installation, called Bacterial Orchestra, the pair took in 2006 to Brazil, Germany, Norway and elsewhere. This year, the new generation, called Public Epidemic No.1 is spreading beyond the microphones and loudspeakers of the original installation.

Cornéer said the current project could be hosted on any mobile phone but they chose the iPhone “because it’s popular and the centralized App Store makes it easy for the epidemic to spread.”

Check out the clip from the first test of the project above and follow after the jump for more detail on how it works."