Research
מִכָּל תַּלְמִידַי הִשְׂכַּלְתִּי
From all my students, I have learned↴
Research • Honors • Mentorship • Grants • Service
Current Research
- deep learning
- evolutionary computation
- general issues regarding AI
- machine learning
- ➔ publications
- ➔ previous research
Honors
- 2026 – University Research Excellence Award, Ben-Gurion University
- 2021 – Named one of “5 Scientists at the Forefront of Computing and AI” (Ezvid Wiki)
- 2020 – Ranked in top 2% (Mendeley)
- 2020 – Recognized as a top scientist (Research.com)
- 2015 – IEEE CIS Outstanding TCIAIG Journal Paper Award, “Evolutionary Design of FreeCell Solvers”
- 2013 – Gold Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “Evolutionary Design of FreeCell Solvers”
- 2013 – 3rd Place, GECCO Workshop, “From Size Perception to Counting: An Evolutionary Computation Perspective”
- 2013 – Keynote Speaker, International Conference on Adaptive and Natural Computing Algorithms (Switzerland)
- 2011 – Outstanding Researcher Award, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University
- 2011 – Gold Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “GA-FreeCell: Evolving Solvers for the Game of FreeCell”
- 2009 – Bronze Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “GP-Rush: Evolving Solvers for the Rush Hour Puzzle”
- 2008 – Bronze Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “Evolving an Automatic Defect Classification Tool”
- 2008 – Toronto Prize for Academic Excellence in Research, Ben-Gurion University
- 2007 – Silver Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “Evolution of an Efficient Search Algorithm for the Mate-in-n Problem in Chess”
- 2006 – Keynote Speaker, International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry (France)
- 2005 – Bronze Award, Human-Competitive Results Competition (“Humies”), “Attaining Human-Competitive Game Playing with Genetic Programming”
- 2004 – Voted Best Speaker, Evolution: From Biology to Statistical Modeling, International School of Mathematics (Italy)
- 2003 – Keynote Speaker, International Workshop on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues (Switzerland)
- 2001 – SNF Professorship, Swiss National Science Foundation
- 1999 – EPFL Latsis Prize (Latsis Foundation), “Le développement des automates cellulaires et des systèmes bio-inspirés”
Mentorship
Graduate students
- Achiya Elyasaf
- Ami Hauptman
- Amit Benbassat
- Assaf Glazer
- Assaf Zaritsky
- Avinoam David
- Barak Naveh
- Carlos-Andres Peña-Reyes
- Carmel Bregman
- Eyal Segal
- Eylon Mizrahi
- Gali Barabash Katz
- Hagai Ravid
- Ilan Kadar
- Itai Tzruia
- Itay Azaria
- Itay Reznik
- Kfir Wolfson
- Mathieu S. Capcarrère
- Mati Bot
- Michael Orlov
- Ohad Sharet
- Ram Janovski
- Raz Lapid
- Roee Ziv
- Rotem Golan
- Sergey Tatarenko
- Shahar Michal
- Shai Sharabi
- Shalom Kachko
- Snir Vitrack Tamam
- Tal Alter
- Tal Cohen
- Tomer Halperin
- Tor Ivry
- Yael Zaritsky
- Yaniv Azaria
- Yehonatan Shichel
- Yehudit Hasson
- Zvika Haramaty
Grants
Principal Investigator on the majority of these grants; total funding exceeds $4M
- 2024 – Israel Data Science and AI Initiative (IDSAI) ($5K), Identifying Casualties through Deep Learning
- 2023–2024 – Data Science Research Center ($24K), Evolutionary-Based Adversarial Attacks
- 2022–2025 – Israeli Innovation Authority, Trust.AI Consortium ($376K), Adversarial Attacks and Defenses for Computer Vision and Tabular AI Models
- 2021–2022 – Data Science Research Center ($27K), Source-Code Evolution: Closing the Gap Towards the Evolution of Entire Programs
- 2016–2020 – Israel Science Foundation, Grant No. 856/16 ($168K), Evolutionary-Based Playout for Scenario-Based Specifications
- 2011–2016 – Israel Science Foundation, Grant No. 123/11 ($293K), Evolution of Java Bytecode and Programs through Genetic Programming
- 2005–2010 – Ministry of Trade and Industry, IMG4 Consortium ($1.1M), 4th Generation Imaging Machines (IMG4)
- 2006–2007 – Ben-Gurion University, Grant No. 82472110 ($6K), Finding Common RNA Motifs using Genetic Programming
- 2004–2005 – Ben-Gurion University, Grant No. 82288110 ($5K), Applying Genetic Programming and Meta-Reasoning to the Development and Analysis of Game Strategies
- 2002–2003 – Ben-Gurion University, Grant No. 82153101 ($5K), Bio-Inspired Computing
- 2001–2005 – Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant No. 620-062734 (CHF 1.35M), SNF Professorship
- 1999–2002 – Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant No. 2000-055597.98 (CHF 213K), Cellular Programming: Programming Massively Parallel Cellular Machines by Means of Coevolution (Second Extension)
- 1997–1999 – Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant No. 2000-049349.96 (CHF 270K), Cellular Programming: Programming Massively Parallel Cellular Machines by Means of Coevolution (Extension)
- 1996–1997 – Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant No. 2100-045630.95 (CHF 72K), Cellular Programming: Programming Massively Parallel Cellular Machines by Means of Coevolution
Service
- Associate Editor (past & present)
◦ Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines
◦ IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
◦ IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games
◦ Memetic Computing - Conference leadership
◦ Cochair, GPTP 2015
◦ Program Cochair, IEEE CIG 2014
◦ Co-organizer, EvoRobocode Competition, GECCO 2012 & 2013
◦ Cochair, SBSE Track, GECCO 2011
◦ Steering Committee Member, ICES conference series
◦ Program Chair, ICES 1998 - Program committees & reviewing
◦ Member of ~150 conference program committees
◦ Referee for ~40 journals and funding agencies - Invited talks & tutorials
◦ Plenary and tutorial speaker at several international conferences - Institutional service
◦ Various departmental and university roles, including Graduate Studies Chair (multiple years)
Previous Research
- artificial life
- artificial neural networks (before they became deep learning ㋡)
- artificial self-replication
- bio-inspired computing
- cellular automata
- cellular computing
- embryonic electronics
- evolutionary robotics
- evolvable hardware
- fuzzy logic
- game AI
- search-based software engineering
