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John R. Koza is a computer scientist and a consulting professor at Stanford University, most notable for his work in pioneering the use of genetic programming for the optimization of complex problems, and for the evolution of computer programs which solve them. He was a cofounder of Scientific Games Inc., a company which built computer systems to run state lotteries in the United States. He also invented the scratch-off lottery ticket.

Koza has a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan. His thesis was titled On Inducing a Non-Trivial, Parsimonious Grammar for a Given Sample of Sentences.

John Koza has his own company Genetic Programming Inc., and uses a 1000 node Beowulf cluster, composed of Pentium II and DEC Alpha processors, to do his research.

Koza was recently featured in Popular Science for his work on evolutionary programming that alters its own code to find far more complex solutions. The machine, which he calls the "invention machine", has created antennae, circuits, and lenses, and has received a patent from the US Patent Office.

In 2006 Koza suggested a plan to revamp the Electoral College in the United States such that candidates would be elected by popular vote.^[1]

1. ^ Yi, Matthew. "Stanford professor stumps for electoral alternative", San Francisco Chronicle, 2006-07-24.

1. Koza, J.R. (1990). Genetic Programming: A Paradigm for Genetically Breeding Populations of Computer Programs to Solve Problems, Stanford University Computer Science Department technical report STAN-CS-90-1314 (http://www.genetic-programming.com/jkpdf/tr1314.pdf). A thorough report, possibly used as a draft to his 1992 book.
2. Koza, J.R. (1992). Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection, MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-11170-5
3. Koza, J.R. (1994). Genetic Programming II: Automatic Discovery of Reusable Programs, MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-11189-6
4. Koza, J.R.; Goldberg, David; Fogel, David; & Riolo, Rick, (Eds.) (1996). Genetic Programming 1996: Proceedings of the First Annual Conference (Complex Adaptive Systems), MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-61127-9
5. Koza, J.R.; Deb, K.; Dorigo, M.; Fogel, D.; Garzon, M.; Iba, H.; & Riolo, R., (Eds.) (1997). Genetic Programming 1997: Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference, Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 1-55860-483-9
6. Koza, J.R.; & Others (Eds.)(1998). Genetic Programming 1998, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. ISBN 1-55860-548-7
7. Koza, J.R.; Bennett, F.H.; Andre, D.; & Keane, M.A. (1999). Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving, Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 1-55860-543-6
8. Koza, J.R.; Keane, M.A.; Streeter, M.J.; Mydlowec, W.; Yu, J.; & Lanza, G. (2003). Genetic Programming IV: Routine Human-Competitive Machine Intelligence, Springer. ISBN 1-4020-7446-8

• Homepage
• Interview with John Koza
• Popular Science article about John Koza's Invention Machine

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