The combination of different intelligent methods is a very active research area in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The aim is to create integrated or hybrid methods that benefit from each of their components. Some of the existing efforts combine soft computing methods either among themselves or with more traditional AI methods such as logic and rules. Another stream of efforts integrates machine learning with soft-computing or traditional AI methods. Yet another integrates agent-based approaches with logic and also non-symbolic approaches. Some of the combinations have been quite important and more extensively used, like neuro-symbolic methods, neuro-fuzzy methods and methods combining rule-based and case-based reasoning. However, there are other combinations that are still under investigation, such as those related to the Semantic Web. The 2nd Workshop on “Combinations of Intelligent Methods and Applications” (CIMA 2010) was intended to become a forum for exchanging experience and ideas among researchers and practitioners who are dealing with combining intelligent methods either based on first principles or in the context of specific applications. CIMA 2010 was held in conjunction with the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2010). Also, a special track was organized in ICTAI 2010, under the same title. This volume includes revised versions of the papers presented in CIMA 2010 and one of the short papers presented in the corresponding ICTAI 2010 special track. It also includes a paper of the editors as invited.

This volume is the first in a series which deals with the challenge of AI issues, gives updates of AI methods and applications, and promotes high quality new ideas, techniques and methodologies in AI. This volume contains articles by 38 specialists in various AI subfields covering theoretical and application issues.

Advances in Computational Intelligence and Learning: Methods and Applications presents new developments and applications in the area of Computational Intelligence, which essentially describes methods and approaches that mimic biologically intelligent behavior in order to solve problems that have been difficult to solve by classical mathematics. Generally Fuzzy Technology, Artificial Neural Nets and Evolutionary Computing are considered to be such approaches. The Editors have assembled new contributions in the areas of fuzzy sets, neural sets and machine learning, as well as combinations of them (so called hybrid methods) in the first part of the book. The second part of the book is dedicated to applications in the areas that are considered to be most relevant to Computational Intelligence.

Complex problems usually cannot be solved by individual methods or techniques and require the synergism of more than one of them to be solved. This book presents a number of current efforts that use combinations of methods or techniques to solve complex problems in the areas of sentiment analysis, search in GIS, graph-based social networking, intelligent e-learning systems, data mining and recommendation systems. Most of them are connected with specific applications, whereas the rest are combinations based on principles. Most of the chapters are extended versions of the corresponding papers presented in CIMA-15 Workshop, which took place in conjunction with IEEE ICTAI-15, in November 2015. The rest are invited papers that responded to special call for papers for the book. The book is addressed to researchers and practitioners from academia or industry, who are interested in using combined methods in solving complex problems in the above areas.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 8th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence, SETN 2014, held in Ioannina, Greece, in May 2014. There are 34 regular papers out of 60 submissions, in addition 5 submissions were accepted as short papers and 15 papers were accepted for four special sessions. They deal with emergent topics of artificial intelligence and come from the SETN main conference as well as from the following special sessions on action languages: theory and practice; computational intelligence techniques for bio signal Analysis and evaluation; game artificial intelligence; multimodal recommendation systems and their applications to tourism.

This book presents a number of research efforts in combining AI methods or techniques to solve complex problems in various areas. The combination of different intelligent methods is an active research area in artificial intelligence (AI), since it is believed that complex problems can be more easily solved with integrated or hybrid methods, such as combinations of different soft computing methods (fuzzy logic, neural networks, and evolutionary algorithms) among themselves or with hard AI technologies like logic and rules; machine learning with soft computing and classical AI methods; and agent-based approaches with logic and non-symbolic approaches. Some of the combinations are already extensively used, including neuro-symbolic methods, neuro-fuzzy methods, and methods combining rule-based and case-based reasoning. However, other combinations are still being investigated, such as those related to the semantic web, deep learning and swarm intelligence algorithms. Most are connected with specific applications, while the rest are based on principles.

This book presents recent research on the hybridization of intelligent methods, which refers to combining methods to solve complex problems. It discusses hybrid approaches covering different areas of intelligent methods and technologies, such as neural networks, swarm intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, agent-based approaches, knowledge-based system and image processing. The book includes extended and revised versions of invited papers presented at the 6th International Workshop on Combinations of Intelligent Methods and Applications (CIMA 2016), held in The Hague, Holland, in August 2016. The book is intended for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry interested in using hybrid methods for solving complex problems.