Milad Jahangiri

A new efficient and robust metaheuristic algorithm called ‘‘Interactive Autodidactic School (IAS)” is proposed in this paper to solve numerical optimization and structural design optimization problems. IAS is a population-based algorithm on the basis of the interactions between students in an autodidactic school with the goal of increasing their knowledge through a combination of self-teaching/self-learning, interactive discussion, criticism, and the competition. IAS is tested in twenty mathematical optimization and seven structural optimization problems. Subsequently, its optimum solution is compared with other well-known optimization algorithms. The obtained results confirmed that the proposed IAS algorithm gives best optimal solution and has excellent performance compared with other optimization methods.