[alife] *Deadline Extended* Virtual Creatures Competition at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2014)

[Joel Lehman]

**Deadline Extended**


Due to several inquiries, the deadline for submission will be pushed 
back until Monday, June 16, 2014. Please note that there will be no 
further extensions.



Virtual Creatures Competition


to be held as part of the


2014 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2014)

July 12-16, Vancouver, BC, Canada

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~joel/virtual_creatures_contest/ 
<http://www.cs.utexas.edu/%7Ejoel/virtual_creatures_contest/submit/>


Organized by ACM SIGEVO

http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2014/ <http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2013/>


Submission Deadline for this competition: **Now June 16, 2014**


The Virtual Creatures Competition at the Genetic and Evolutionary 
Computation Conference showcases the power of evolutionary computation 
through virtual creatures with evolved morphologies and controllers. The 
goal is that the submissions exhibit some form of independent creativity 
through genetic and evolutionary computation.


==Entry Submission==


Entrants must submit: (1) a brief paper (2 pages maximum) describing the 
video and the underlying evolutionary algorithm and approach, and (2) a 
video of up to 5 minutes that demonstrates an evolved virtual creature 
(or many such creatures) engaging in interesting adaptive behavior. All 
submissions should be sent to joel at cs.utexas.eduby **June 16, 2014**. 
Note that attending the conference is not required to submit an entry.


==Evaluation==


The submissions will be evaluated by a jury of researchers from the 
evolutionary computation and artificial life communities. Each 
submission will be judged on the following criteria: perceptual animacy 
(perceived aliveness), technical achievement, aesthetic appeal, and 
innovation.


==Presentation==


Finalists selected by the jury will be invited to present their

submission at the competition session, held during the GECCO

conference. The winner of the competition will be announced at the

SIGEVO meeting ceremony, on July 16, 2014.


==Important Dates==


* Submission deadline: June 12, 2014

* Conference: July 12-16, 2014


==Organizers==


Joel Lehman, University of Texas at Austin, USA

Dan Lessin, University of Texas at Austin, USA


==Jury==


Karl Sims (GenArts Inc., USA)

Peter Bentley (University College London, UK)

Sebastian Risi (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Auke Jan Ijspeert, (EPFL, Switzerland)

Mark Bedau, (Reed College, USA)



GECCO is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery Special

Interest Group for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ACM SIGEVO).