I have a lot entries of data, each entry consists of 8 (eight) numbers.
For each entry I know "fitness score" (i.e. how "good" this entry).
And, I want to build/find approximation function ("fitness score" dependent on those 8 parameters). Not only mathematical representation of this function is ok for me, but any implementation (like NN) wich will give me plausible "fitness score" for arbitrary (new) entry.
I tried Neural Networks(Encog library) and Genetic approach (Watchmaker library). Second approach gave me much better results than NN. However, I represent approximation function as sum of eight "a * pow(x, b)" components, where "a" and "b" are mutated by GA and "x" is parameter of data entry. Despite on fact that I have some positive results with help of GA, obviously, this is not the best approach.
So, the questions are : what are the ways to improve searching approximation function in my case? Are there any other methods than NN and GA ?
Thanks.