Edgar A. Duéñez-Guzmán

Ms. Sc.

Bio

I got a Masters in Computer Science and Industrial Mathematics from the Center for Mathematical Research (CIMAT).

I was the first student in 25 years to get the Masters Degree (usually a 2-year program) in only 1 year. The courses I took were of 2 different kinds.

First, courses taken by general examination. These consisted of a verbal or regular exam on the contents of the course, to get credit for the course, without actually having to attend class. Second, courses taken regularly. These were typical courses.

The main courses I took were Artificial Intelligence, Foundations of Evolutionary Algorithms and Technological Projects (from which the project Caliman arouse).

My thesis was in Evolutionary Algorithms, with the title Baldwin Effect as an optimization strategy under the supervision of Arturo Hernández Aguirre. And is mainly concerned with an effect (first observed by the naturalist Baldwin two centuries ago) that yields Lamarckian results with a purely Darwinian mechanism, and how can it be applied to Evolutionary Algorithms.

That is, how, if at all, life-time learning of individuals could help the evolution of a species, if no genetic information about the learned traits is inherited by the next generation.