RandGA: injecting randomness into parallel genetic algorithm for variable selection

Recently, the ensemble learning approaches have been proven to be quite effective for variable selection in linear regression models. In general, a good variable selection ensemble should consist of a diverse collection of strong members. Based on the parallel genetic algorithm (PGA) proposed in [41], in this paper, we propose a novel method RandGA through injecting randomness into PGA with the aim to increase the diversity among ensemble members. Using a number of simulated data sets, we show that the newly proposed method RandGA compares favorably with other variable selection techniques. As a real example, the new method is applied to the diabetes data.