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        Call For Papers - Fourth EU/ME Workshop

         DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF ADVANCED HYBRID META-HEURISTICS

                  3,4 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 the exchange of ideas and experiences
between the workshop participants. The fundamental issues are: How can we
effectively design advanced hybrid meta-heuristics in a 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.

EU/ME Website: http://webhost.ua.ac.be/eume
EURO Website: http://www.euro-online.org
ASAP Website: http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk

TOPICS

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

- Hybridisation of meta-heuristics with exact methods, manual (or
interactive)
  systems, etc.
- Hybrid evolutionary methods (e.g. memetic algorithms).
- A-teams of heuristics, also called A-architectures.
- Analysis of components in the hybridised system.
- Metric and methods to evaluate the performance of hybrid systems.
- Classification schemes, surveys, annotated bibliographies, etc.
- Innovative inter-disciplinary applications of hybrid meta-heuristics.


CONTRIBUTIONS

Authors are invited to submit a 3-5 pages extended abstract on the theme of
the workshop. Each extended abstract will be peer-reviewed by two members
of the programme committee. Please send contributions by email to:

Nysret Musliu at [log in to unmask]

The organising committee will negotiate the publication of a post-workshop
volume on a high quality book series or journal. After the meeting,
participants of the workshop will be given the opportunity to submit a
revised
and extended version of their contribution. The programme committee will
select the best contributions, which will appear in the post-workshop
volume.


REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION

Following the spirit of the EU/ME workshops, registration to the meeting is
free of charge (including tea, coffee and biscuits). Participants will need
to cover their travel, accommodation and meal expenses. The workshop will
take place in the Comfort Hotel in Nottingham, UK. For those participants
who want to stay in that Hotel (which is of course very convenient), we
have
negotiated a very good package of accommodation/meals for the workshop
participants. A summary of this is as follows:

Full package at 220 GBP (approx. 330 EUROS) includes:

- 2 nights accommodation
- 2 Breakfast meals
- 2 Lunch meals
- Reception dinner (3rd November)
- Workshop banquet (4th November)


The 1 day accommodation rate is 110 GBP (approx. 165 EUROS) and includes
accommodation and meals.

Those attending the workshop but not staying at the hotel can get the meals
(including evening) package at 30 GBP (approx. 45 EUROS) per day.


IMPORTANT DATES

- Deadline for pre-registration (via the EU/ME website): 01 August 2004.
- Deadline for submission of contributions: 27 August 2004.
- Notification of accepted contributions: 24 September 2004.
- Deadline for early Registration: 01 October 2004.
- Workshop dates: 3 and 4 November 2004.


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]
[log in to unmask]



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