Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory

The 2008 Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering has posted the book of extended abstracts here. The IlliGAL tie to WPE-2008 traces back through the Design of Innovation and earlier arguments about the modeling spectrum and an economy of thought. I realized that I was making what was essentially a philosophical argument about the distinctiveness of engineering thought relative to scientific reasoning, yet there appeared to be few forums to present such work in a philosophical setting. A blog post on TEE (here) and subsequent rabblerousing of a then-inactive NAE committee on Philosophy and Engineering (here) contributed to the establishment of WPE-2007 at Delft (here), and the sequel begins Monday, 10 November 2008, at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London (register here).