Date: 21-25 July 2018
Venue: Taormina, Italy

** APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15th April 2018 **

MESS 2018 is aimed at qualified and strongly motivated MSc and PhD  students; post-docs; young researchers, and both academic and  industrial professionals to provide an overview on the several metaheuristics techniques, and an in-depth analysis of the  state-of-the-art. As first edition, MESS 2018 wants to analyze all  metaheuristics from its designing to its implementation. In  particular, in MESS 2018 will be analyzed modern heuristic methods for  search and optimization problems, as well as the classical exact  optimization methods, seen also in the metaheuristics context.

All participants will have plenty of opportunities for debate and work  with leaders in the field, benefiting from direct interaction and  discussions in a stimulating environment. They will also have the
possibility to present their recently results and/or their working in  progress through oral or poster presentations, and interact with their  scientific peers, in a friendly and constructive environment.

Confirmed Speakers

Christian Blum, IIIA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
– Lecture 1: Construct, Merge, Solve & Adapt: A Recent Hybrid Metaheuristic
– Lecture 2: Swarm Intelligence in Combinatorial Optimization

 Juergen Branke, Warwick Business School, UK
– Lecture 1: Simulation-based optimisation
– Lecture 2: Multi-objective optimisation

Salvatore Greco, University of Catania, Italy & University of Portsmouth, UK
– Lecture 1: Basic Concepts of Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding/Making
– Lecture 2:Using Preference Elicitation in Evolutionary
Multiobjective Optimization

 Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
– Lecture 1:Data-driven surrogate-assisted evolutionary multi-objective optimization
– Lecture 2: Multi-objective machine learning

Gunther Raidl, Technische Universitat Wien, Austria
– Lecture 1: TBA
– Lecture 2: TBA

Helena Ramalhinho Lourenco, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
– Lecture 1: Extensions of Iterated Local Search
– Lecture 2: Issues and examples of applying metaheuristics in business

Mauricio Resende, AMAZON, USA
– Lecture 1: TBA
– Lecture 2: TBA

Celso Ribeiro, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
– Lecture 1: Optimization by GRASP ? Part I
– Lecture 2: Optimization by GRASP ? Part II

Andrea Schaerf, University of Udine, Italy
– Lecture 1: Simulated Annealing and Friends: Introduction to Randomized Local Search Methods
– Lecture 2: Simulated Annealing, we need to talk: Critical Analysis of Real-World Applications of Randomized Local Search Methods to Scheduling and Timetabling Problems

Fabio Schoen, Unviersity of Florence, Italy
– Lecture 1: TBA
– Lecture 2: TBA

El-Ghazali Talbi, University of Lille 1, France
– Lecture 1: TBA
– Lecture 2: TBA

Daniele Vigo, University of Bologna, Italy
– Lecture 1: TBA
– Lecture 2: TBA

Tutorial

Short Talk and Poster Presentation

All participants may submit an abstract of their recent results, or  works in progress, for presentation and having the opportunities for  debate and interact with leaders in the field. Mini-Workshop  Organizers and Scientific Committee will review the abstracts and will  recommend for the format of the presentation (oral or poster). All abstracts will be published on the electronic hands-out book of the
summer school.

The Abstracts must be submitted by April 15, 2018.

Sponsor & Scholarships:

Thanks to the sponsorship by EU/ME METAHEURISTICS working group  ( https://www.euro-online.org/websites/eume/), some scholarships for  the best participants will be available.

More sponsors and scholarships will be announced soon!!

Certificate:
Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance indicating the number of hours of lectures.

School Directors

– Salvatore Greco, University of Catania, Italy
– Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA
– Mario Pavone, University of Catania, Italy
– El-Ghazali Talbi, University of Lille 1, France
– Daniele Vigo, University of Bologna, Italy

Oral & Poster Presentation Organizers

– Luca Di Gaspero, Unviersity of Udine, Italy
– Paola Festa, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy

Metaheuristics Competition Chair

-Raffaele Cerulli, University of Salerno, Italy

 Conference Website: https://www.ants-lab.it/mess2018/

More Information:

Email: mess.school@ANTs-lab.it
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MetaheuristicsSchool/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MESS_school