“There’s a thriving academic community of people applying evolutionary computation to all kinds of complex optimisation problems,” explains Dario Izzo, coordinating the ACT. “With these challenges we’re seeking to extend a bridge from the space sector, to encourage them to apply what are often very useful algorithms to space-related challenges. Our science fiction setting works to grab the imagination of the community – and we have attracted a lot of contestants to our previous SpOCs – but the core problems are inspired by real scientific issues being looked at in space research.”

Biological evolution has proven to be an extraordinarily powerful problem-solving mechanism during the approximately 3.7-billion-year history of terrestrial life on Earth, succeeding in populating almost all conceivable environmental niches with living things.

Evolutionary computing seeks to borrow this principle to solve complex optimisation problems using software that mutates, mates then reproduces to best fit the solution. The most useful responses are selected to pass their traits onto the next generation in turn. This basic technique has been applied to everything from antenna design to financial trading, power system management to software fault detection.