Charles Ofria

Dr. Charles A. Ofria is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the director of the Digital Evolution (DEvo) Lab at Michigan State University and a co-founder of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. Ofria's research focuses on the interplay between computer science and Darwinian evolution. ^[1]

Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs (digital organisms). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University and was originally designed by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus Brown at Caltech in 1993.

Representative journal publications

• On the gradual evolution of complexity and the sudden emergence of complex features.

Ofria C, Huang W and Torng E (to appear in Artificial Life) ^[2]

• Effects of population size and mutation rate on the evolution of mutational robustness

Elena SF, Wilke CO, Ofria C, and Lenski RE, Evolution 61(3):666-674 (2007).^[2]

• Specialization in digital organisms

Ostrowski E, Ofria C, and Lenski RE, The American Naturalist 169:E1-E20 (2007).^[2]

• Balancing Robustness and Evolvability

Lenski RE, Barrick JE, Ofria C, PLoS Biology 4(12):e428 (2006).^[2]

• Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms

Misevic D, Ofria C, and Lenski RE to appear in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences 273:457-464 (2006).^[2]

See also

• Artificial life
• Digital organism
• Digital organism simulators

References

1. ^ Computer Science Michigan state University
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Michigan State University Charles Ofria, JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS 4/29/2007

• "Testing Darwin", Discover Magazine, February 2005.

External links

• Avida Software
• Avida-ED Project - Robert T. Pennock
• An Avida Developer's Site
• The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Adaptive Features 2003 Nature Paper
• Reducible Complexity 2006 Science commentary on Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation

Scientific publications featuring Avida

• R. E. Lenski, C. Ofria, T. C. Collier, C. Adami (1999). Genomic Complexity, Robustness, and Genetic Interactions in Digital Organisms. Nature 400:661-664. abstract of this article
• C.O. Wilke, J.L. Wang, C. Ofria, R.E. Lenski, and C. Adami (2001). Evolution of Digital Organisms at High Mutation Rate Leads To Survival of the Flattest. Nature 412:331-333.
• R.E. Lenski, C. Ofria, R.T. Pennock, and C. Adami (2003). The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features. Nature 423:139-145.
• S.S. Chow, C.O. Wilke, C. Ofria, R.E. Lenski, and C. Adami (2004). Adaptive Radiation from Resource Competition in Digital Organisms. Science 305:84-86.

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