http://dergipark.gov.tr/tujes Trakya University Journal of Engineering Sciences, 17(2): 45-56, 2016 ISSN 2147–0308 * Corresponding Author: Didem ABİDİN e-mail: didem.abidin@cbu.edu.tr Araştırma Makalesi / Research Article Received: 8.6.2016/ Revised: 13.12.2016/ Accepted: 20.12.2016 GENETIC ALGORITHM AND DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION ALGORITHM COMPARED ON A NOVEL APPLICATION DOMAIN Didem ABİDİN * Celal Bayar University, Department of Computer Engineering, 45140 Manisa, Turkey Abstract: In this paper, the performances of genetic algorithms (GA) and differential evolution (DE), which are two of the most popular optimization techniques used, are compared. There exist many other studies which compare these two; however, comparing those on an education material domain will be the contribution to the literature. The problem is stated as a sequencing problem of education material, in which the order of the topics covered really matters. Selection of the contents of the courses to be given to the students is an important factor to improve the level of education of the students. Representing the content of a course in the correct order is a critical task for instructors. In this study, the importance of the order of the contents of a course was emphasized and the performance of a course content sequencing mechanism using GA and DE was compared. The results put forward that, sequencing the course contents with GA performs better; however, DE is also obviously successful with a close score to that of the GA's. Keywords: Genetic algorithm; differential evolution; sequencing; optimization GENETİK ALGORİTMA VE DİFERANSİYEL EVRİM ALGO-RİTMASININ YENİ BİR UYGULAMA ALANINDA KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI Özet: Bu çalışmada, genetik algoritmalar (GA) ve diferansiyel evrim (DE) algoritmaları gibi çok popüler iki optimizayson tekniği kullanılarak performans karşılaştırmaları yapılmıştır. Bu iki tekniği kıyaslayan pek çok çalışma yapılmış olsa da, bu kıyaslamanın algoritmaların eğitim materyalleri üzerinde kullanılarak yapılmış olması literatüre katkı değerinde olacaktır. Ele alınan problem bir sıralama problemi olup, işlenen konuların sırası önem kazanmaktadır. Ders içeriğinin doğru seçimi, öğrencilerin eğitim seviyesinin yükselebilmesi için çok önemlidir. Dersin öğretim üyesi için, ders içeriğini doğru sıra ile aktarmak kritik bir görevdir. Bu çalışmada, bir desin içeriğinin doğru sırada aktarılmasının önemine dikkat çekilmiş ve GA il e DE tekniklerinin kullanılmasıyla oluşturulmuş ders içeriği sıralama mekanizmasının performans karşılaştırmaları yapılmıştır. Alınan sonuçlar, GA'nın DE tekniğinden biraz daha iyi sonuçlar elde ettiğini göstermiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Genetik algoritmalar; diferansiyel evrim; sıralama; optimizasyon Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI), which is a branch of computer science, aims to understand intelligence by developing some computer programs which simulates the behavior of an intelligent being. Accordingly, computer science education at universities has become very popular. Many different courses organized by computer science departments of universities have emerged and these courses have to be arranged according to the needs of the current technological developments. The selection of computer science courses is important but determining the contents of a course is also crucial. The contents of a course have to be up to date; they have to meet the requirements of the sector. The contents of a course have to be helpful for the students when they graduate and start working as computer scientists. For this purpose, the instructors have to decide the order of the contents of a course because finding the optimum order for the contents makes learning easier for the students. Although this is a decision that the instructor has to make, a computer program can help to find an optimum order for the course content more quickly and more reliably. Genetic algorithm (GA) is a stochastic search technique which can be used in various application domains from optimization (Rankovic, 2014)