Introduction

Soft Computing (SC) is a term originally coined by Lotfi Zadeh to denote systems "….exploit the tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth to achieve tractability, robustness, low solution cost, and better rapport with reality". Conventionally soft computing has been divided into two groups namely Knowledge Driven Reasoning (e.g. fuzzy logic, probabilistic reasoning) and data driven search and optimization approaches (e.g. neuro computing, evolutionary computing).

At present, the research activities of SC applications are focused in the areas of structural engineering, environmental engineering, geo-technical engineering, etc.

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