Plenary Speaker

Since the Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA or HS) was first introduced in 2001, it has been widely used in various research areas. As many other meta-heuristic optimization algorithms like Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), there have been efforts to make the algorithm even more efficient for specific types of problem. In this presentation the original HSA is introduced first, and many other improved versions are showed along with the application examples. In the early stage there were attempts to modify the optimization parameters, resulted the modified HS, revised HS, and improved HS. The application of HS then was limited to the area of civil engineering, but later to broad area of engineering. Self-adaptive and/or parameter setting free versions of HS were developed in an effort to avoid the providing initial values of decision variables as well as changing the parameter values manually in the course of the search. Recent trends with the Harmony Search algorithm are multi-objective application and developing hybrid models. Hybrid models aim to take advantage of merits in different types of algorithm leading to a better performance. Comparison of results with other algorithms will also be presented. Biography Professor Kim, a faculty of Korea University in the School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 with the thesis title “Optimal replacement/rehabilitation model for water distribution systems”. Prof. Kim’s major areas of interest include: optimal design and management of water distribution systems, application of optimization techniques to various engineering problems, and development and application of evolutionary algorithms. His publication includes “A New Heuristic Optimization Algorithm: Harmony Search,” Simulation, February 2001, Vol. 76, pp 60-68, which has been cited over 1,100 times by other journals of diverse research areas. He hopes that the Harmony Search Algorithm would be used by many other scholars in a wider spectrum of professional area as a useful tool for their research. Recently, he gave a distinguished lecture in the Annual Meeting of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society held in Brisbane, Australia in June 2013, under the title of “Optimization Algorithms as Tools for Hydrological Science.”