  Many problems in science and engineering are optimization problems, which may
require sophisticated optimization techniques to solve. Nature-inspired
algorithms are a class of metaheuristic algorithms for optimization, and some
algorithms or variants are often developed by hybridization. Benchmarking is
also important in evaluating the performance of optimization algorithms. This
chapter focuses on the overview of optimization, nature-inspired algorithms and
the role of hybridization. We will also highlight some issues with
hybridization of algorithms.
