CFP: EvoHybridNP'03 -Bird-of-a-feather GECCO-2003 Workshop

[Jorge Tavares]

				CALL FOR PAPERS
			(We apologize for cross postings)

				EvoHybridNP-2003
			http://evohybridnp03.dei.uc.pt

	Application of Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithms to NP-complete 						Problems

			Bird-of-a-feather GECCO-2003 Workshop
				as part of the
		Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 						(GECCO-2003)
		    Chicago, July 12-16 (Saturday-Wednesday), 2003
			(http://www.isgec.org/GECCO-2003)



Introduction
This workshop will focus on the application of hybrid Evolutionary 
Computation (EC)
techniques to NP-complete problems. There are many examples of problems 
belonging to
this class, such as the boolean satisfiability (SAT), clique, decision 
trees, graph
partitioning or Hamiltonian circuits. Moreover, optimization problems 
belonging to
the NP-hard complexity class, such as the traveling salesperson or bin 
packing can
easily be restated in terms of a decision version. As an example, the 
optimization
question "What is the shortest tour?" which is NP-hard, can be restated 
as the NP-complete
decision problem "Is there a tour length less than K?".

When applied to this class of problems, evolutionary techniques can 
benefit from
hybridizing with problem-specific algorithms. In the past few years, 
results obtained
by several investigations give a clear indication that the joint 
application of
stochastic optimization algorithms and classical methods might improve 
the efficiency
of search. Adopting several current approaches as a starting point, this 
workshop aims
to promote a widespread discussion about this topic and, most important, 
to analyze if
it is possible to develop new hybrid architectures that perform better 
than today's
methods.


Topics of interest
The workshop considers hybridization in a general sense. Topics of 
interest include,
but are not restricted to:
* Hybridization with exact techniques, such as the branch and bound, 
dynamic programming
   or linear programming.
* Hybridization with approximation algorithms, i.e., methods that 
provide a guarantee
   on the quality of the solutions obtained.
* Using EC algorithms inside exact techniques.
* Analysis of the strengths (and weaknesses) of today's EC-based 
approaches. Studies
   of how they compare to other techniques that are also applied in 
these problems.
* Studies for which kind of NP-complete problems, hybrid EC algorithms 
are particularly
   well suited.


Submission procedure
We invite submissions reporting work in the area of the workshop. Send 
your manuscript
(postscript or PFD) via e-mail to xico at dei.uc.pt, no later than February 
24, 2003.
Submissions should follow the layout guidelines given for the main 
GECCO-2003
conference (formatting instructions can be found here: 
http://www-illigal.ge.uiuc.edu:8080/GECCO-2003/submissions.html)
and must not exceed 8 pages.

All the submissions will be fully refereed. Authors will be notified via 
e-mail on
the results of the review by March 12, 2003. Accepted papers will be 
orally presented
during the workshop and will be included in the GECCO-2003 Workshop 
Proceedings.
Authors of accepted papers will have to improve their paper on the basis 
of the
reviewers' comments and will be asked to send a camera-ready version of 
their manuscripts
by April 4, 2003.


Important Dates
February 24, 2003:	Submission deadline
March 12, 2003: 	Notification of acceptance
April 4, 2003: 		Camera-ready copy
July 12, 2003: 		Workshop in Chicago


Participation
The workshop is open to all registered members of GECCO-2003.
By submitting a camera-ready paper, the author agrees that she/he will 
attend the
workshop and present the accepted paper at the workshop.


Workshop Organizers
Francisco B. Pereira
xico at dei.uc.pt
Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra
Quinta da Nora, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal

Ernesto Costa
ernesto at dei.uc.pt
Centro de Informática e Sistemas da Universidade de Coimbra
Polo II da Universidade de Coimbra, 3030 Coimbra, Portugal

Günther Raidl
raidl at ads.tuwien.ac.at
Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna University of 
Technology
1040 Vienna, Austria


Program Committee (up to this date)
David Corne, University of Reading, UK.
Carlos Cotta, University of Málaga, Spain.
Jens Gottlieb, SAP, AG, Germany.
Bryant Julstrom, St. Cloud State University, USA.
Kay Chen Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Thomas Stützle, Technical University, Darmstadt, Germany.


Contacts
If you have any question, contact Francisco Pereira (xico at dei.uc.pt).

General information about GECCO 2003 workshops:
Alwyn Barry (A.M.Barry at bath.ac.uk)