(apologies for multiple postings): Dear Colleagues You are invited to present work in the area of hyper-heuristics (or adaptive control of search in general) in the Hyper-heuristics stream, in the Metaheuristics and Matheuristics area, at the IFORS conference in Barcelona in July 2014 (http://ifors2014.org/). All contributions are most welcome. Some ideas for topics that could be addressed are, but not limited to: - hyper-heuristics interfaces and their roles within general optimisation frameworks - general control of search and meta-heuristics - applications of hyper-heuristics (or similar methods) to optimisation problems - automated support for the generation of heuristics (including genetic programming, etc) - control of algorithm configuration and parameters To submit an abstract, please visit http://ifors2014.upc.edu/abstract Your abstract can contain up to 600 characters (but no mathematical notation). (For anyone unfamiliar with IFORS/EURO conferences, no paper is required in order to give a talk only submission of the very short abstract). To submit to one of the following invited sessions, please use the given session invitation code: Session: Hyperheuristics: Interfaces, Implementations and Applications Chairs: Shahriar Asta and Daniel Karapetyan Invitation code: : f9612ae1 Session: Algorithm Configuration: black, white and gray box Chair: Patrick De Causmaecker Invitation code: 6c079914 (Fuller desriptions of the sessions are given below.) Submission deadline: 10th February 2014. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. best regards, Andrew Parkes [log in to unmask] Fuller descriptions for the sessions: Title: Hyperheuristics: Interfaces, Implementations and Applications Chairs: Shahriar Asta and Daniel Karapetyan Session invitation code: : f9612ae1 Description: Abstracts are sought in the area of Hyperheuristics. Suggested categories (but not limited to): - Cross-domain benchmark platforms - Reusable frameworks - Open source and cross-platform implementations - Parallel and concurrent implementations - Practical and theoretical applications - Case studies - New problem domains and instance sets - Hyperheuristics vs. metaheuristics - Problem representation Title: Algorithm Configuration: black, white and gray box Chair: Patrick De Causmaecker Session invitation code: 6c079914 Description: The task of automated (off-line) algorithm configuration includes finding a good parameter configuration for an algorithm based on some performance measure and a problem instance distribution. This could be considered as an expensive optimization problem. Currently, most algorithms treat the target (configured) algorithm as a black-box, i.e., only the final result of each run of the target algorithm on a problem instance is taken into account. If we "open the box", we could have a gray-box or even a white-box configuration problem. An example of a gray-box configuration problem could be the case when the target algorithm is local search, and the collected information is the solution obtained after each iteration. The box could be considered whiter when more detail of the algorithm is used. We invite speakers to present initial or advanced research concerning this issue. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.