Evolution is just variation and selection. That might be the biological evolution we are familiar with, but it might also be improvements that a carpenter makes to their toolbox over time.
Here (the toolbox and this paper) the variation is directed rather than random, but it's still variation and selection.
Its "evolution" in the sense it's an attempt to apply concepts from evolutionary theory to engineering problems and the principles of biological evolution are similar in the abstract.
Here (the toolbox and this paper) the variation is directed rather than random, but it's still variation and selection.