30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

“Global optimization algorithms are certain to play an increasingly important role in a range of engineering problems, including design … As always in design—whether by man or machine—there can generally be no guarantees that the best system has been found … By simply keeping workstations singing during what would otherwise be idle hours, it is possible to boost the likelihood of finding additional solutions of interest: as each minute passes, hundreds, maybe thousands, of new configurations are examined in the quest for the ultimate solution.”