MOELIGA: a multi-objective evolutionary approach for feature selection with local improvement

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Hauptverfasser: Vignolo, Leandro, Gerard, Matias
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Vignolo, Leandro
Gerard, Matias
author_facet Vignolo, Leandro
Gerard, Matias
contents Selecting the most relevant or informative features is a key issue in actual machine learning problems. Since an exhaustive search is not feasible even for a moderate number of features, an intelligent search strategy must be employed for finding an optimal subset, which implies considering how features interact with each other in promoting class separability. Balancing feature subset size and classification accuracy constitutes a multi-objective optimization challenge. Here we propose MOELIGA, a multi-objective genetic algorithm incorporating an evolutionary local improvement strategy that evolves subordinate populations to refine feature subsets. MOELIGA employs a crowding-based fitness sharing mechanism and a sigmoid transformation to enhance diversity and guide compactness, alongside a geometry-based objective promoting classifier independence. Experimental evaluation on 14 diverse datasets demonstrates MOELIGA's ability to identify smaller feature subsets with superior or comparable classification performance relative to 11 state-of-the-art methods. These findings suggest MOELIGA effectively addresses the accuracy-dimensionality trade-off, offering a robust and adaptable approach for multi-objective feature selection in complex, high-dimensional scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20934
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MOELIGA: a multi-objective evolutionary approach for feature selection with local improvement
Vignolo, Leandro
Gerard, Matias
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Machine Learning
Selecting the most relevant or informative features is a key issue in actual machine learning problems. Since an exhaustive search is not feasible even for a moderate number of features, an intelligent search strategy must be employed for finding an optimal subset, which implies considering how features interact with each other in promoting class separability. Balancing feature subset size and classification accuracy constitutes a multi-objective optimization challenge. Here we propose MOELIGA, a multi-objective genetic algorithm incorporating an evolutionary local improvement strategy that evolves subordinate populations to refine feature subsets. MOELIGA employs a crowding-based fitness sharing mechanism and a sigmoid transformation to enhance diversity and guide compactness, alongside a geometry-based objective promoting classifier independence. Experimental evaluation on 14 diverse datasets demonstrates MOELIGA's ability to identify smaller feature subsets with superior or comparable classification performance relative to 11 state-of-the-art methods. These findings suggest MOELIGA effectively addresses the accuracy-dimensionality trade-off, offering a robust and adaptable approach for multi-objective feature selection in complex, high-dimensional scenarios.
title MOELIGA: a multi-objective evolutionary approach for feature selection with local improvement
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20934