Foreword

I feel greatly honored to write a foreword for the book entitled *Computational Optimization in Engineering: Paradigms and Applications* edited by Dr. Hossein Peyvandi.

Optimization has been challenging for centuries. However, computational optimization as a methodology, particularly in the field of engineering, has a history of rapid growth over a couple of recent decades. The advent and development of computational optimization over the last decades have provided very versatile novel methodologies. With the recent developments in science and technology, some new areas of applications for computational optimization have emerged in the field of engineering. There has since been a remarkable period of growth, not only because of the many advantages of novel algorithms but also because in many applications of technology, sophisticated optimization techniques are the only viable choice. Examples of such emerging applications include complex networks that are now evolving to reach unprecedented size and scale and the field of automated medical diagnosis.

Dr. Peyvandi has to be complimented for bringing together an excellent collection of contributions for this important and timely topic. His experience of research positively reflects in the edited book on computational optimization with a comprehensive treatment of the subject. I hope the book will establish itself as a popular text.

> **Professor Muhammad Ali Imran** Professor of Communication Systems Vice Dean Glasgow College UESTC School of Engineering University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK

## Preface

"Since the fabric of the universe is most perfect, and is the work of the most wise **Creator**, nothing whatsoever takes place in the universe in which some form of **optimality** does not appear."

> *Leonhard Euler* Swiss Mathematician and Physicist (1707–1783)

The purpose of optimization is to maximize the quality of lives, productivity in time, as well as interests. Therefore, optimization is an ongoing challenge for selecting the best possible among many other inferior designs. For a hundred years in the past, as optimization has been essential to human life, several techniques have been developed and utilized. Such a development has been one of the long-lasting challenges in engineering and science, and it is now clear that the optimization goals in many real-life problems are unlikely to be ach‐ ieved without resource to computational techniques. The history of such a development in the optimization techniques starts from the early 1950s and is still in progress. Since then, the efforts behind this development dedicated by many distinguished scientists, mathemati‐ cians, and engineers have brought us today a level of quality of lives. This book concerns with the computational optimization in engineering and techniques to resolve the underly‐ ing problems in real life. The current book contains studies from scientists and researchers around the world from North America to Europe and from Asia to Australia.

In Chapter 1, entitled "Deterministic Annealing: A Variant of Simulated Annealing and Its Application to Fuzzy Clustering," a combination of the deterministic annealing algorithm of optimization with fuzzy c-means has been studied. The method has been further developed using Tsallis entropy maximization, called Tsallis-DAFCM, for the considered optimization problem. In Chapter 2, entitled "Generalized Simulated Annealing," a modified GSA ap‐ proach has been discussed and implemented using the R package, GenSA. The nonconvex optimization problems in the fields of physics and finance have been analyzed. In addition, an interesting comparison between R packages has been presented in this chapter. In Chap‐ ter 3, entitled "A Simulated Annealing-Based Optimization Algorithm," the challenges in metamodels for an optimization process have been discussed. A method of enhancement in the overall prediction accuracy of models has also been proposed. In Chapter 4, entitled "Si‐ mulated Annealing of Constrained Statistical Functions," it has been demonstrated how si‐ mulated annealing can be used to perform a likelihood-based statistical inference in a constraint optimization problem. In this study, an impressive stress-strength modeling is in‐ troduced along with its statistical and numerical properties. In Chapter 5, entitled "Fitting Truncated Mode Regression Model by Simulated Annealing," the truncated mode regres‐ sion optimization has been considered to explore the conventional income structure in Chi‐ na. In this study, the statistical parameters of an optimization problem have been analyzed. In Chapter 6, entitled "Facility Layout Problem for Cellular Manufacturing Systems," a heu‐ ristic algorithm has been designed to allocate and displace facilities in the radial direction for the underlying optimization problem. In order to improve the search efficiency of the developed algorithm, the different cell size in initialization has been considered. In this chapter, a real-life optimization problem from the industry has been used. In Chapter 7, en‐ titled "Application of Simulated Annealing and Adaptive Simulated Annealing in Search for Efficient Optimal Solutions of a Groundwater Contamination-Related Problem," the optimi‐ zation problem of source characterization has been considered using a methodology based on ASA. In this study, it has also been shown that ASA provides reliable results for the con‐ sidered optimization problem.

I would like to add that it was a great time working on the chapters as an editor. I hope the contents of the book attract the interests from all fields of engineering and scientific sectors, as it has been desired to serve so. I welcome any further questions or comments on the book chapters and their contents. Interested readers may send their comments directly to the edi‐ tor using the following e-mail address.

I would like to thank my family for their support, particularly, Reza for letting me work on the book in times that I should have spent with him. I would like to thank Professor Mu‐ hammad Ali Imran, vice dean of UESTC at the University of Glasgow, for his encourage‐ ment and kind words. I would also like to thank Ms. Ana Pantar, senior commissioning editor, and Ms. Martina Usljebrka, publishing process manager, for their assistance in pre‐ paring the book during the year.

> **Dr. Hossein Peyvandi** PhD, FHEA, MIEEE, MIET, MSc, BSc University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey United Kingdom
