The Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem with a wide variety of practical applications. Although many heuristics and semi-enumerative procedures for QAP have been proposed, no dominant algorithm has emerged. In this paper, we describe a Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach to QAP. Genetic algorithms are a class of randomized parallel search heuristics which emulate biological natural selection on a population of feasible solutions. We present computational results which show that this GA approach finds solutions competitive with those of the best previously-known heuristics, and argue that genetic algorithms provide a particularly robust method for QAP and its more complex extensions. 5 A Genetic Approach to the Quadratic Assignment Problem David M. Tate and Alice E. Smith Department of Industrial Engineering 1048 Benedum Hall University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15261 412-624-9837 412-624-9831 (Fax) 1. Introduction The Quadrat...