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Call For Participation - Fourth EU/ME Workshop
DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF ADVANCED HYBRID META-HEURISTICS
3, 4 and 5 November 2004, Nottingham, UK
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DESCRIPTION
Hybrid meta-heuristic approaches have been successfully applied to a
variety of continuous and combinatorial optimisation problems. There is
a great interest on this topic, as reflected by the fact that, a
considerable number of heuristic methods reported in the literature
include some form of hybridisation. However, despite the great number of
hybrid methods proposed by researchers and practitioners, more attention
is required on the development of frameworks for designing and
evaluating advanced hybrid meta-heuristics. Among the few examples of
such frameworks are memetic algorithms. The existence of such frameworks
is useful for the design and evaluation of advanced hybrid systems in a
more methodical fashion as in the case of memetic algorithms. Therefore,
in order to motivate more research in this area, the theme of the fourth
EU/ME workshop will be on the design and evaluation of advanced hybrid
meta-heuristics.
As in the previous EU/ME workshops, the 2004 workshop will bring
together researchers and practitioners from the meta-heuristics
community but this time those with a particular interest in
hybridisation. The overall aim of the workshop is to serve as a forum
for an exchange of ideas and experiences between the workshop
participants. The fundamental issues are: How can we effectively design
advanced hybrid meta-heuristics in a more methodical way? How should we
evaluate the contribution of each component in the resulting hybrid system?
This is the fourth in a series of free of charge workshops organised by
EU/ME, the European Chapter on Metaheuristics. EU/ME is a working group
of EURO, the Association of European Operational Research Societies.
This worskhop is being organised in co-operation with ASAP, the
Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and PLanning Research Group at the
University of Nottingham, UK.
Workshop website http://webhost.ua.ac.be/eume/workshops/hybrid
CONTRIBUTED TALKS
Accepted contibutions will be presented orally at the workshop.
Please check out the above web site for a detailed programme of the
workshop.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
4 NOVEMBER 2004
Natalio Krasnogor, University of Nottingham, UK
http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~nxk/
"RECENT ADVANCES IN MEMETIC ALGORITHMS"
Memetic algorithms are evolutionary algorithms that apply a local search
process to refine solutions to hard problems. As such, Memetic
algorithms are a particular class of global-local search hybrids.
In these algorithms the global character of the search is given by the
evolutionary nature of the approach while the local search aspect is
usually performed by means of constructive methods, intelligent local
search heuristics or other search techniques.
Memetic algorithms have been successfully applied to hundreds of
real-world problems and are the subject of intense scientific research
both in academia and industry. The implementation of ever more
sophisticate MAs has been made possible thanks to advances in computing
capabilities, moreover, their use has spread to domains that range
from the construction of optimal university exam timetables, to the
prediction of protein structures and the optimal design of space-craft
trajectories.
In this talk we will give, first, a brief introduction to Memetic
Algorithms, then we will overview recent advances in the application of
MA to challenging practical domains. The third part of this talk will
focus on methodological (i.e. algorithmic design) recent advances. The
talk will conclude with a discussion on future directions for research.
5 NOVEMBER 2004
Ibrahim Osman, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
http://sb-lb.aub.edu.lb/PersonalSites/DrOsman/Default.asp
"HYBRID META-HEURISTICS FOR COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS"
In recent years, there have been significant advances in the theory and
application of meta heuristics to the approximate solutions of complex
optimization problems. A meta heuristic is an iterative master process
that guides and modifies the operations of subordinate heuristics to
efficiently produce high quality solutions. In general, a meta-heuristic
is composed of several components. First, the common components and
their attributes of any hybrid met-heuristic are identified. A graph
representation of the components/attributes is constructed. It provides
a framework to generate new hybrid meta-heuristics and to describe
existing ones. The framework also invites investigators to diversify
their search to find the optimal meta-heuristic or generate possibly new
better breeds. Second, it is often said my algorithm is better than
yours by either considering the computational effort or the quality of
solution but not both, among other criteria. A new way to compare
meta-heuristics is introduced. It is based on the concepts of power that
take into account both criteria and other measures. Last, we shall
present some of our meta-heuristics implementations with some directions
of future research.
POST-WORKSHOP VOLUME
There will be two special issues devoted to the workshop's best papers:
- Journal of the Operational Research Society (JORS)
- Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms (JMMA)
The programme committee will select only high-quality papers describing
excellent scientific work for publication in the above journals. It is
expected that both journal special issues will be published in late 2005.
REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION
Registration can be made at the workshop's website
http://webhost.ua.ac.be/eume/workshops/hybrid
The workshop will take place at the Comfort Hotel in Nottingham, UK. For
those participants who wish to stay at the workshop Hotel (which is of
course very convenient), we have negotiated a very good package of
accommodation/meals for workshop participants.
Visit the workshop's web site for further details (Click on Accommodation).
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
- Jason Atkin (UK)
- Edmund Burke (UK)
- Luca Di Caspero (Italy)
- Carlos Cotta (Spain)
- Kath Dowsland (UK)
- Michel Gendreau (Canada)
- Jens Gotlieb (Germany)
- Jin-Kao Hao (France)
- Graham Kendall (UK)
- Natalio Krasnogor (UK)
- Dario Landa Silva (UK)
- Peter Merz (Germany)
- Nysret Musliu (Austria)
- Ibrahim Osman (Lebanon)
- Gunther Raidl (Austria)
- Thomas Stutzle (Germany)
- Andrea Schaerf (Italy)
- Marc Sevaux (France)
- Wolfgang Slany (Austria)
- Kenneth Sorensen (Belgium)
- Eric Soubeiga (UK)
- El-ghazali Talbi (France)
- Greet Vanden Berghe (Belgium)
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
For more information please contact any member of the organising committee:
Jens Gottlieb ([log in to unmask]), SAP AG, Germany.
Dario Landa Silva ([log in to unmask]), University of Nottingham, UK.
Nysret Musliu ([log in to unmask]), Vienna University of
Technology, Austria.
Eric Soubeiga ([log in to unmask]), University of Nottingham, UK.
--
Dr E Soubeiga
Research Fellow, Hall Warden, Industrial Consultant
School of Computer Science & IT
The University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road
Nottingham NG8 1BB
Tel: +44 (0)115 846 6531
Fax: +44 (0)115 951 4254
Email: [log in to unmask]
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