Concepts of Metaheuristics

Neural Tools " NeuralTools can automatically update predictions when input data changes, so you don’t have to manually re-run your predictions when you get new data. Combine with Palisade’s Evolver or Excel’s Solver to optimize tough decisions and achieve your goals like no other Neural Networks    package can "...from Home Page. Link : http://www.palisade.com/neuraltools/ Advantages : This tool can be used along with the Risk Analysis and Evolver Optimization Engine.This tool comes as a part of the Decision Tools suite.Both Risk Analysis and Evolver is avaialble in the Decision Tool Suite along with the Neural model development toolkit. Suggestion : This tool is best suitable for a layman working in the field of stock trading or decision making problems often faced in business. This software is not suitable for anyone who is interested to modify the network architecture of the model.It does not allow the users to play with the basic parameters of the network model. ...

In ANN modeling a graph having input nodes connected to one single output nod is developed.Each node will have its own weight assigned randomly. At the output node all the weighted input nodes are summed up and activated or magnified with the help of Activation Functions. The Activation Functions can be of many types like Step,Ramp,Hypertan,Sinusoidal,Sigmoidal etc. After being activated the output is compared with the desired output(Supervised NN) or the median/mean or any other measures of a set of attributes(for making clusters;Unsupervised NN). If the output from the model is satisfactory with the objective of the model then the model is said to be learning and if not the weightage of the connections are changed and the entire process is repeated. This changing of the weightage is known as Training of the network and is conducted by various methods but mainly by Conjugate Gradient Descent,Back Propagaton and/or Quick Propagation or by some special procedures like Levenberg Marqua...