Roundtable Panel Discussion at DAC 2019: Evolutionary Computing or Heuristic Forever?

As demands for computing have been continuously increasing, various solutions have been proposed. Some approaches deal with improving algorithms and software programs, mainly through the tuning of advanced heuristics and learning methods. Some other tackle the problem by providing specialized hardware to enhance computation. Other revolutionary approaches, such as memcomputing and quantum computing, explore new paradigms in computation to beat the barrier of computational complexity. A highly attended plenary panel at the 2019 Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Las Vegas, NV, USA, with the provocative title "Evolutionary Computing or Heuristic Forever?" spurred a lively discussion that is reported in this Roundtable. It is moderated by the panel organizer and moderator Giovanni De Micheli, EPFL, Switzerland. Panelists include Antun Domic, former CTO and senior VP at Synopsys; Jason Cong, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA); Massimiliano Di Ventra, University of California San Diego (UCSD); and Martin Roettler, Microsoft Research.