We survey eight recent works by our group, involving the successful blending of evolutionary algorithms with machine learning and deep learning: 1. Binary and Multinomial Classification through Evolutionary Symbolic Regression, 2. Classy Ensemble: A Novel Ensemble Algorithm for Classification, 3. EC-KitY: Evolutionary Computation Tool Kit in Python, 4. Evolution of Activation Functions for Deep Learning-Based Image Classification, 5. Adaptive Combination of a Genetic Algorithm and Novelty Search for Deep Neuroevolution, 6.

We present Classy Ensemble, a novel ensemble-generation algorithm for classification tasks, which aggregates models through a weighted combination of per-class accuracy. Tested over 153 machine learning datasets we demonstrate that Classy Ensemble outperforms two other well-known aggregation algorithms -- order-based pruning and clustering-based pruning -- as well as the recently introduced lexigarden ensemble generator. We then present three enhancements: 1) Classy Cluster Ensemble, which combines Classy Ensemble and cluster-based pruning; 2) Deep Learning experiments, showing the merits of Classy Ensemble over four image datasets: Fashion MNIST, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and ImageNet; and 3) Classy Evolutionary Ensemble, wherein an evolutionary algorithm is used to select the set of models which Classy Ensemble picks from.