The 14 revised full papers and 2 revised short papers presented together with one keynote paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 submissions. The papers deal with topics such as software test automation, static program analysis, verification, dynamic methods of program analysis, testing and analysis of parallel and distributed systems, testing and analysis of high-load and high-availability systems, analysis and verification of hardware and software systems, methods of building quality software, tools for software analysis, testing and verification.

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) are a set of algorithms in the Evolutionary Computation (EC) field characterized by the use of explicit probability distributions in optimization. Contrarily to other EC techniques such as the broadly known Genetic Algorithms (GAs) in EDAs, the crossover and mutation operators are substituted by the sampling of a distribution previously learnt from the selected individuals. EDAs have experienced a high development that has transformed them into an established discipline within the EC field.

This book attracts the interest of new researchers in the EC field as well as in other optimization disciplines, and that it becomes a reference for all of us working on this topic. The twelve chapters of this book can be divided into those that endeavor to set a sound theoretical basis for EDAs, those that broaden the methodology of EDAs and finally those that have an applied objective.

The 14 revised full papers and 2 revised short papers presented together with one keynote paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 submissions. The papers deal with topics such as software test automation, static program analysis, verification, dynamic methods of program analysis, testing and analysis of parallel and distributed systems, testing and analysis of high-load and high-availability systems, analysis and verification of hardware and software systems, methods of building quality software, tools for software analysis, testing and verification.

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

The multi-volume set LNAI 12975 until 12979 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2021, which was held during September 13-17, 2021. The conference was originally planned to take place in Bilbao, Spain, but changed to an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 210 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 869 submissions.

The volumes are organized in topical sections as follows:

Research Track:

Part I: Online learning; reinforcement learning; time series, streams, and sequence models; transfer and multi-task learning; semi-supervised and few-shot learning; learning algorithms and applications.

Part II: Generative models; algorithms and learning theory; graphs and networks; interpretation, explainability, transparency, safety.

Part III: Generative models; search and optimization; supervised learning; text mining and natural language processing; image processing, computer vision and visual analytics.

Applied Data Science Track:

Part IV: Anomaly detection and malware; spatio-temporal data; e-commerce and finance; healthcare and medical applications (including Covid); mobility and transportation.

Part V: Automating machine learning, optimization, and feature engineering; machine learning based simulations and knowledge discovery; recommender systems and behavior modeling; natural language processing; remote sensing, image and video processing; social media.

Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) are a set of algorithms in the Evolutionary Computation (EC) field characterized by the use of explicit probability distributions in optimization. Contrarily to other EC techniques such as the broadly known Genetic Algorithms (GAs) in EDAs, the crossover and mutation operators are substituted by the sampling of a distribution previously learnt from the selected individuals. EDAs have experienced a high development that has transformed them into an established discipline within the EC field.

This book attracts the interest of new researchers in the EC field as well as in other optimization disciplines, and that it becomes a reference for all of us working on this topic. The twelve chapters of this book can be divided into those that endeavor to set a sound theoretical basis for EDAs, those that broaden the methodology of EDAs and finally those that have an applied objective.