I don't know anything about the formulas being solved there. But the evolutionary computation of a a century-old algebra problem done by researchers from Hampshire College in Massachusetts and the State University of New York proves its strength. The user is allowed to play God a little bit by selecting the elements of computation to use and by determining the measurement of desired designs. Starting with random combinations of elements, each computation step generates offsprings that are "recombined" and that may "mutate", then evaluated (thus simulating some kind of 'fitness'). The solution emerges during this artificial evolution process. The aforementioned researchers, Hampshire’s Lee Spector (genetic programming), and SUNY-New Paltz’s David M. Clark, along with Spector’s students Ian Lindsay, Bradford Barr and Jon Klein, won the 2008 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference’s top prize. (Source)
Learn about the basics of Genetic Programming.