Using global and local catastrophes across sub-populations in parallel evolutionary computing

A method comprising:

• tracking forward progress of a first sub-population across generations thereof, wherein the first sub-population is one of a plurality of sub-populations that form a population of candidate solutions to an optimization problem for which a solution is being searched by a parallel evolutionary computing process;
• at a current generation of the first sub-population, determining that forward progress of the first sub-population fails a set of one or more forward progress criteria;
• in response to determining that the forward progress of the first sub-population fails the set of one or more forward progress criteria at the current generation, invoking a local catastrophe on the current generation of the first sub-population;
• re-populating the first sub-population after the local catastrophe is invoked;
• and
• re-establishing the first sub-population after re-populating while constraining migration to the first sub-population.