How to solve it: Modern heuristics (Q4935970)

50 years after \textit{G. Pólya's} book ``How to Solve It'' (Princeton Univ. Press) (1945), this book is a first attempt toward a comprehensive view of problem solving for the twenty-first century, the century of the computer revolution. The book gives information on problem solving using modern heuristics, is written in a lively, engaging style and is intended for students and practitioners alike, which have some basic knowledge of discrete mathematics and computer programming. The book is organized into 15 chapters: Chapter 1 indicates the main sources of difficulty in problem solving. Chapter 2 provides basic notation. Chapters 3 and 4 survey classical optimization algorithms. Chapter 5 covers two modern search algorithms. Chapters 6 and 7 introduce intuitions and details about new evolutionary algorithms. Chapters 8-10 then address some challenging issues concerning problems that require searching for a particular permutation of items, handling constraints, and tuning the algorithms to the problem. Chapter 11 addresses the issue of time-varying environments and noise. Chapters 12 and 13 provide tutorials for neural networks and fuzzy systems. Chapter 14 provides a short and general discussion on hybrid systems and extensions to evolutionary algorithms. Chapter 15 concludes the text by summarizing the material and providing some hints for practical problem solving. Appendix A provides an overview of fundamental concepts in probability and statistics. Appendix B offers a list of suggested problems and projects to tackle when the text is used as part of an university course.