- The following papers have been nominated for a Best Paper Award.
- For each Best Paper (one per track, or group of small tracks), the final choice will be made by GECCO attendees.
- Regarding the small tracks, the Best Paper Award will be shared between two tracks with the following pairings: BBSR - ENUM; CS - SI; GA - THEORY.
List of Best Paper Nominations
| Track | Title | Authors |
|---|---|---|
| BBSR | Assessing Reproducibility in Evolutionary Computation: A Case Study using Human- and LLM-based Assessment | Francesca Da Ros (DPIA, University of Udine), Tarik Začiragić (LIACS, Leiden University), Aske Plaat (LIACS, Leiden University), Thomas Bäck (LIACS, Leiden University), Niki van Stein (LIACS, Leiden University) |
| BBSR | Exploration of Pareto-preserving search-space transformations in multi-objective test functions | Diederick Vermetten (Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LIP6), Jeroen Rook (Paderborn University) |
| L4EC | A Learning-Based Cooperative Coevolution Framework for Heterogeneous Large-Scale Global Optimization | Wenjie Qiu (South China University of Technology), Zixin Wang (South China University of Technology), Hongyu Fang (South China University of Technology), Zeyuan Ma (South China University of Technology), Yue-Jiao Gong (South China University of Technology) |
| L4EC | Deep Learning for Feature-Free Landscape Analysis in Combinatorial Optimization: An Empirical Study on NK-landscapes | Sarah Degaugue (Université de Lille, Inria Lille - Nord Europe), Bilel Derbel (Université de Lille, Inria Lille - Nord Europe) |
| SI | Automated PSO Configuration Framework via Deep Neural Networks and Function Landscape Descriptors | Yutong Zou (University College London), Peter J. Bentley (University College London) |
| CS | In Search of the Ingredients of Open-Endedness: Replicating Picbreeder with Large Vision-Language Models | Sam Earle (New York University), Kai Arulkumaran (Sakana AI), Akarsh Kumar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Andrew Dai (Independent), Julian Togelius (New York University), Sebastian Risi (Sakana AI) |
| ECOM | Obtaining Partition Crossover masks using Statistical Linkage Learning for solving noised optimization problems with hidden variable dependency structure | Michal Witold Przewozniczek (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology), Bartosz Frej (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology), Marcin Michał Komarnicki (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology), Michał Prusik (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology), Renato Tinós (University of São Paulo) |
| ECOM | A Heterogeneous Ant Colony Framework with Semantic Manifold Learning for Dynamic Ore-Flow Blending | Hao Tang (China University of Geosciences), Changhe Li (Anhui University of Science & Technology), Guoyu Chen (Anhui University of Science & Technology), Shoufei Han (Anhui University of Science & Technology), Michalis Mavrovouniotis (Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus University of Technology), Miqing Li (University of Birmingham) |
| ECOM | Vehicle Routing Problem with Resource-Constrained Pickup and Delivery: A Heuristic-Informed BRKGA with Pattern-Based Analysis | Manbir S. Sodhi (The University of Rhode Island), Romesh Satish Prasad (The University of Rhode Island) |
| EML | EvoPref: Multi-Objective Evolutionary Optimization Discovers Diverse LLM Alignments Beyond Gradient Descent | Dongxin Guo (The University of Hong Kong), Jikun Wu (Stellaris AI Limited), Siu Ming Yiu (The University of Hong Kong) |
| EML | Distributional Value Estimation Without Target Networks for Robust Quality-Diversity | Behrad Koohy (luffy.ai, University of Southampton), Jamie Thurston Bayne (luffy.ai) |
| EML | Mortar: Evolving Mechanics for Automatic Game Design | Muhammad Umair Nasir (University of the Witwatersrand), Yuchen Li (New York University), Steven James (University of the Witwatersrand), Julian Togelius (New York University) |
| EMO | Multi-objective Local Optima Networks based on Decomposition | Gabriela Ochoa (University of Stirling, University of Stirling), Quentin Renau (University of Stirling), Arnaud Liefooghe (LISIC, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale), Jonathan E. Fieldsend (University of Exeter) |
| EMO | Structural Bias in Continuous Multi-objective Optimization | Jakub Kudela (Brno University of Technology), Niki van Stein (Leiden University), Thomas Bäck (Leiden University), Anna V. Kononova (Leiden University) |
| EMO | QUIVER: Cost-Aware Adaptive Preference Querying in Surrogate-Assisted Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization | Florian A.D. Burnat (University of Warwick) |
| ENUM | S3-LRA-xNES: Step-size and Shape Separated Learning Rate Adaptation for Exponential Natural Evolution Strategy | Kosuke Ujihara (Institute of Science Tokyo), Masahiro Nomura (Institute of Science Tokyo), Isao Ono (Institute of Science Tokyo) |
| GA | Dropout-Inspired Strategies For Enhanced Exploration In Evolutionary Algorithms | Daniele Ganci (LASIGE, Department of Informatics; Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna), Luís Correia (LASIGE, Department of Informatics; Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon) |
| GP | Generalization Analysis of Symbolic Regression Algorithms via Stability Theory | Kei Sen Fong (National University of Singapore), Mehul Motani (National University of Singapore) |
| GP | Introns and Templates Matter: Rethinking Linkage in GP-GOMEA | Johannes Koch (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Delft University of Technology), Tanja Alderliesten (Leiden University Medical Center), Peter A.N. Bosman (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Delft University of Technology) |
| NE | Evolving Multi-Channel Confidence-Aware Activation Functions for Missing Data with Channel Propagation | Naeem Shahabi Sani (University of Oklahoma), Ferial Najiantabriz (University of Oklahoma), Shayan Shafaei (University of Oklahoma), Dean Frederick Hougen (University of Oklahoma) |
| NE | Parameter-Efficient Neuroevolution for Diverse LLM Generation: Quality-Diversity Optimization via Prompt Embedding Evolution | Dongxin Guo (The University of Hong Kong), Jikun Wu (Stellaris AI Limited), Siu Ming Yiu (The University of Hong Kong) |
| RWA | Evolution With Purpose: Hierarchy-Informed Optimization of Whole-Brain Models | Hormoz Shahrzad (Cognizant, The University of Texas at Austin), Niharika Gajawelli (Stanford University), Kaitlin Maile (IRIT, University of Toulouse, Google, Paradigms of Intelligence Team), Manish Saggar (Stanford University), Risto Miikkulainen (The University of Texas at Austin, Cognizant) |
| RWA | From Prompts to Pareto Fronts: Using Code LMs as Semantic Genetic Operators for Compiler Bug Discovery | Lang Hong Nguyet Anh (Hanoi University of Science and Technology), Ho Viet Duc Luong (Hanoi University of Science and Technology), Vu Van An (Hanoi University of Science and Technology) |
| THEORY | Parent Selection Mechanisms in Elitist Crossover-Based Algorithms | Andre Opris (University of Passau), Denis Antipov (Sorbonne University, CNRS) |