Artificial evolutionary development [Elektronische Ressource] / Till Steiner. Technische Fakultät

Arti cial EvolutionaryDevelopmentTILL STEINERDissertationA thesis presented to theTechnische Fakultat of the Universitat Bielefeldin partial ful llment of the requirementsfor the degree ofDoctor rerum naturalisOctober 2010Printed on non-aging paper (DIN EN ISO 9706).iiAcknowledgementsWorking at the Honda Research Institute was an exciting opportunity for me. Notmany PhD-students have the chance to start their scienti c career as an employee of abig international enterprise. In this privileged and unusual setting, I began to explorethe somewhat exotic topic of computational evolutionary development back in 2006.I was acquainted with the basics of this scienti c eld from my previous internshipat Honda, and felt at home in the institute. Provided with exceptional supervisionand funding, it was the ideal starting point for my PhD. Who else can say that theyare sent to Singapore for a short research project, just because they would enjoy suchan experience and agree to pursue a PhD afterwards? Not to mention being allowedseveral conference visits per year throughout the course of my PhD... Additionally,I had the opportunity to take a peek into the organization of an industrial researchinstitute. I am starting to see the great value of having had this experience now.