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Timo Kötzing

Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik
Campus E1 4, Room 316
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany

Email: Get my email address via email
Phone: +49 681 9325 1016
Fax: +49 681 9325 199

Research Interests

Bio-Inspired Computing (Theoretical Foundations, Swarm Theory)
Computational Learning Theory (Limit Learning, Stochastic Learning, Query Learning)

Publications - Refereed Conference Publications

[GECCO] Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann, Una-May O'Reilly and Andrew Sutton. The Max Problem Revisited: The Importance of Mutation in Genetic Programming.
Accepted for presentation at GECCO 2012.
[GECCO] Benjamin Doerr, Ashish Ranjan Hota and Timo Kötzing. Ants Easily Solve Stochastic Shortest Path Problems.
Accepted for presentation at GECCO 2012.
[GECCO] Jan Baumbach, Tobias Friedrich, Timo Kötzing, Anton Krohmer, Joachim Müller and Josch Pauling. Efficient algorithms for extracting biological key pathways with global constraints .
Accepted for presentation at GECCO 2012.
[ALT] Timo Kötzing. Iterative Learning from Positive Data and Counters.
Proceedings of ALT 2011, pp. 40-54.
[GECCO] Timo Kötzing, Dirk Sudholt and Madeleine Theile. How Crossover Helps in Pseudo-Boolean Optimization.
Proceedings of GECCO 2011, pp. 989-996. Winner of the Best Paper Award at GECCO 2011 (GA track). [ACM free deep link]
[GECCO] Benjamin Doerr, Timo Kötzing and Carola Winzen. Too Fast Unbiased Black-Box Algorithms.
Proceedings of GECCO 2011, pp. 2043-2050. [ACM free deep link]
[GECCO] Benjamin Doerr, Timo Kötzing, Johannes Lengler and Carola Winzen. Black-Box Complexities of Combinatorial Problems.
Proceedings of GECCO 2011, pp. 981-988. [ACM free deep link]
[GECCO] Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann and Reto Spöhel. PAC Learning and Genetic Programming.
Proceedings of GECCO 2011, pp. 2091-2096. [ACM free deep link]
[STACS] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Measuring Learning Complexity with Criteria Epitomizers.
Proceedings of STACS 2011, pp. 320-331.
[FOGA] Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann, Dirk Sudholt and Markus Wagner. Simple Max-Min Ant Systems and the Optimization of Linear Pseudo-Boolean Functions .
Proceedings of FOGA 2011, pp. 209-218. [Preliminary version] [ACM free deep link]
[FOGA] Benjamin Doerr, Daniel Johannsen, Timo Kötzing, Per Kristian Lehre, Markus Wagner and Carola Winzen. Faster Black-Box Algorithms Through Higher Arity Operators.
Proceedings of FOGA 2011, pp. 163-172. [Preliminary version] [ACM free deep link]
[ALT] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Solutions to Open Questions for Non-U-Shaped Learning with Memory Limitations.
Proceedings of ALT 2010, pp. 285-299.
[PPSN] Benjamin Doerr, Daniel Johannsen, Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann and Madeleine Theile. More Effective Crossover Operators for the All-Pairs Shortest Path Problem.
Proceedings of PPSN 2010, pp. 184-193.
[ANTS] Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann, Heiko Röglin and Carsten Witt. Theoretical Properties of Two ACO Approaches for the Traveling Salesman Problem.
Proceedings of ANTS 2010, pp. 324-335. Winner of the Best Paper Award at ANTS 2010.
[COLT] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Strongly Non-U-Shaped Learning Results by General Techniques.
Proceedings of COLT 2010, pp. 181-193.
[GECCO] Timo Kötzing, Per Kristian Lehre, Frank Neumann and Pietro S. Oliveto. Ant Colony Optimization and the Minimum Cut Problem.
Proceedings of GECCO 2010, pp. 1393-1400. [ACM free deep link]
[LATA] Anna Kasprzik and Timo Kötzing. String Extension Learning Using Lattices.
Proceedings of LATA 2010, pp. 380-391. [Preliminary Version]
[ALT] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Difficulties in Forcing Fairness of Polynomial Time Inductive Inference.
Proceedings of ALT 2009, pp. 263-277.
[ALT] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Dynamically delayed postdictive completeness and consistency in learning.
Porceedings of ALT 2008, pp. 389-403.
[ALT] John Case and Timo Kötzing. Dynamic modeling in inductive inference.
Proceedings of ALT 2008, pp. 404-418.
[ALT] John Case, Timo Kötzing and Todd Paddock. Feasible Iteration of Feasible Learning Functionals.
Proceedings of ALT 2007, pp. 34-48.

Dissertation

Timo Kötzing. Abstraction and Complexity in Computational Learning in the Limit. Dissertation Thesis, 2009.

Refereed Journal Publications

John Case and Timo Kötzing. Computability-Theoretic Learning Complexity. To appear in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
John Case and Timo Kötzing. Solutions to Open Questions for Non-U-Shaped Learning with Memory Limitations. To appear in Theoretical Computer Science.
Nicolas Alcaraz, Tobias Friedrich, Timo Kötzing, Anton Krohmer, Joachim Müller, Josch Pauling, Jan Baumbach. Efficient key pathway mining - Combining networks and OMICS data. Integrative Biology, 2012.
Timo Kötzing, Frank Neumann, Heiko Röglin and Carsten Witt. Theoretical analysis of two ACO approaches for the traveling salesman problem. Swarm Intelligence 6 (1), pp. 1-21, 2012.

The following tools I programmed because I couldn't find an appropriate tool online. I give no warranty on what actually happens when you use them, but feel free to send me bugs. Use a Java VM to execute.

Stopwatch. Very small tool to time talks. Counts down minutes and seconds from a specified time, resettable and resizable; counter will turn orange when at most five minutes are left, and red when at most one is left. Accurate to within about one tenth of a second.
LaTeXInOneCompiler. Nice little tool to compile a latex driver file to a single .tex file, recurses down through \include and \input commands and builds a new file called “<filename>InOne.tex”. Use by dragging file on the program frame and then dropping. BibTeX inlining optional, %-comments will be removed. This is great when your submission software gives you trouble with multiple source files. Note that this will not change any of your files, if they are not called something like “*InOne.tex”.

Teaching

Summer 2012 (at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany)
Limits of Computational Learning
Summer 2012 (at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany)
Co-lecturer of Basic Mathematical Techniques for Computer Scientists
Winter 2011/12 (at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany)
Co-lecturer of Multi-Core Programming Lab on Swarm Algorithms
Summer 2011 (at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany)
Co-lecturer of Seminar on Theoretical Foundations of Swarm Intelligence
Spring 2009 (at the University of Delaware, USA)
CISC 303 -- Automata Theory (an introductory course for theoretical computer science)
Spring 2006 - Fall 2008 (at the University of Delaware, USA)
Teaching assistent for a number of different courses in computer science
Winter 2003/04 - Summer 2005 (at the University of Kiel, Germany)
Teaching assistent for a number of different courses in mathematics

Recent Positions

September 2009 - present:
Post-Doc at the Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, Saarbrücken, Germany

Education

September 2005 - August 2009:
Ph. D. student in Computer Science at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
October 2002 - June 2005:
Studies in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Kiel, Germany
May 2002:
Abitur at the IGS Hassee, Kiel, Germany

Mini Course

These are the slides I used for a mini course on Computability Learning Theory at the MPII.

Talks

These are the slides for some of the talks I have given.

Conference Talks

Other Talks

Private

Hobbies

Ballroom Dancing
Cycling
Cooking
Pen and Paper RPG
Reading