ACM SIGEVO – Wikipedia

Professional special interest group on genetic and evolutionary computation

The ACM SIGEVO is a Special Interest Group of the Association of Computing Machinery for members of that organization who are practitioners, academics, students or others with interests in evolutionary computation and related algorithms.

ACM SIGEVO was founded in 2005 when the International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC)^[1] became an ACM Special Interest Group under its present title. The ISGEC had been formed in 1999 by the merger of the Genetic Programming conference organization with the International Conference on Genetic Algorithms (ICGA) leading to the first Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO).^[2]

Members of this SIG pay a small fee in addition to the ACM membership fee^[3]. In return they have access to a quarterly online newsletter^[4], but more importantly can obtain reduced registration rates at the two conferences organised by ACM SIGEVO: GECCO^[5] and the Foundations of Genetic Algorithms Workshop (FOGA)^[6].

They can also access material on evolutionary computation and related topics in the ACM Digital Library^[7]. In addition they can subscribe to an email newsletter in order to keep informed about news over time^[8].

For students, ACM SIGEVO sponsors Travel Awards for attendance at the GECCO Conference and FOGA (the Foundations of Genetic Algorithms Workshop). ACM SIGEVO also sponsors a Graduate Student Workshop ^[8]. ACM also sponsors Awards to be competed by attendees at the conferences it organises.

ACM SIGEVO organises two major conferences in the field of evolutionary computation. The Genetic and Evolutionary Conference (GECCO) is held annually^[5], while the Foundations of Genetic Algorithms Workshop (FOGA)^[6] is held biennially.

The first GECCO conference was held prior to the formation of ACM SIGEVO^[2] but since 2005 (see History above) it has been organised annually by ACM SIGEVO. The latest (2025) was held in Malaga, Spain^[5]. The next (2026) will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica^[9].

The Foundations of Genetic Algorithms Workshop started in 1990^[10], prior to the formation of ACM SIGEVO. However since 2007 (there was no FOGA workshop in 2005 immediately after the foundation of ACM SIGEVO^[11]) there have been FOGA workshops every other year. The latest was held in Leiden, the Netherlands^[6]. Although the workshop title suggests that FOGA workshops only deal with genetic algorithms in fact the current workshops cover all other evolutionary algorithms and related heuristics^[11].

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