E. Tzakou to speak on ALOPEX

[Lorien Y. Pratt]

				 Fall, 1988  
		     Neural Networks Colloquium Series 
				 at Rutgers  

		     ALOPEX: Another optimization method
		     -----------------------------------

				E. Tzanakou
		   Rutgers University Biomedical Engineering

		      Room 705 Hill center, Busch Campus  
		    Friday November 18, 1988 at 11:10 am 
		      Refreshments served before the talk


                                   Abstract   



The ALOPEX process was developed in the early 70's by Harth
and Tzanakou as an automated method of mapping Visual Receptive Fields
in the Visual Pathway of animals. Since then it has been used as a
"universal" optimization method that lends itself to a number of
optimization problems.

The method uses a cost function that is calculated by the simultaneous
convergence of a large number of parameters. It is iterative and
stochastic in nature and has the tendency to avoid local extrema.

Computing times largely depend on the number of iterations required for
convergence and on times required to compute the cost function. As such
they are problem dependent. On the other hand ALOPEX has a unique
inherent feature i.e it can run in a parallel manner by which the
computing times can be reduced.

Several applications of the method in physical, physiological and
pattern recognition problems will be discussed.