Abstract

This paper discusses the use of multicriteria genetic algorithms for feature selection in classification problems. This feature selection approach is shown to yield a diverse population of alternative feature subsets with various accuracy/complexity trade-off. The algorithm is applied to select features for performing classification with fuzzy models, and is evaluated on two real-world data sets. We discuss when multicriteria genetic algorithm feature selection is preferable to a sequential feature selection procedure, namely backwards elimination. Among the key features of the presented approach are its computational simplicity, effectiveness on real world problems and the potential it has to become a powerful tool aiding many empirical modeling and data mining processes