Fuzzy-based hunger games search algorithm for global optimization and feature selection using medical data

Feature selection (FS) is one of the basic data preprocessing steps in data mining and machine learning. It is used to reduce feature size and increase model generalization. In addition to minimizing feature dimensionality, it also enhances classification accuracy and reduces model complexity, which are essential in several applications. Traditional methods for feature selection often fail in the optimal global solution due to the large search space. Many hybrid techniques have been proposed depending on merging several search strategies which have been used individually as a solution to the FS problem. This study proposes a modified hunger games search algorithm (mHGS), for solving optimization and FS problems. The main advantages of the proposed mHGS are to resolve the following drawbacks that have been raised in the original HGS; (1) avoiding the local search, (2) solving the problem of premature convergence, and (3) balancing between the exploitation and exploration phases. The mHGS has been evaluated by using the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2020 (CEC’20) for optimization test and ten medical and chemical datasets. The data have dimensions up to 20000 features or more. The results of the proposed algorithm have been compared to a variety of well-known optimization methods, including improved multi-operator differential evolution algorithm (IMODE), gravitational search algorithm, grey wolf optimization, Harris Hawks optimization, whale optimization algorithm, slime mould algorithm and hunger search games search. The experimental results suggest that the proposed mHGS can generate effective search results without increasing the computational cost and improving the convergence speed. It has also improved the SVM classification performance.