Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithm

This thesis deals with evolutionary and genetic algorithms and the possible ways of combining them. The theoretical part of the thesis describes genetic algorithms and neural networks. In addition, the possible combinations and existing algorithms are presented. The practical part of this thesis describes the implementation of the algorithm NEAT and the experiments performed. A combination with differential evolution is proposed and tested. Lastly, NEAT is compared to the algorithms backpropagation (for feed-forward neural networks) and backpropagation through time (for recurrent neural networks), which are used for learning neural networks. Comparison is aimed at learning speed, network response quality and their dependence on network size