GECCO-03 Workshop: EvoHybridNP'03 (**EXTENDED DEADLINE**)

[Jorge Tavares]

			LAST CALL FOR PAPERS
		EXTENDED DEADLINE: March 10th, 2003
		(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, 2003
		(www.isgec.org/GECCO-2003)


Aims and Scope
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.
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:
The workshop considers hybridization in a general sense. Topics of 
interest include, but are not restricted to:
1.Hybridization with exact techniques, such as the branch and bound, 
dynamic programming or linear programming.
2.Hybridization with approximation algorithms, i.e., methods that 
provide a guarantee on the quality of the solutions obtained.
3.Using EC algorithms inside exact techniques.
4.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.
5.Studies for which kind of NP-complete problems, hybrid EC algorithms 
are particularly well suited.


Important Dates
March 10, 2003:	Submission deadline
March 19, 2003: Notification of acceptance
April 4, 2003: 	Camera-ready copy
July 12, 2003: 	Workshop in Chicago

Even though the submission deadline is March 10, to ensure an accurate 
reviewing we request you to submit your paper as soon as possible.

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 March 10, 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 19, 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.

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
David Corne, University of Reading, UK.
Carlos Cotta, University of Málaga, Spain.
Jens Gottlieb, SAP AG, Germany.
Jin-Kao Hao, University of Angers, France
Bryant Julstrom, St. Cloud State University, USA.
Kay Chen Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Elena Marchiori, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Thomas Stützle, Technical University, Darmstadt, Germany.

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