2nd CALL FOR PAPERS
QuantOpt@GECCO-2025
4th Workshop on Quantum Optimization
Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'25)
Malaga, Spain, July 14-18, 2025
Paper Submission Deadline: March 26, 2025
Scope
Quantum computers are rapidly becoming more powerful and increasingly
applicable to solve problems in the real world. They have the potential
to solve extremely hard computational problems, which are currently
intractable by conventional computers. Quantum optimization is an
emerging field that focuses on using quantum computing technologies to
solve hard optimization problems.
There are two main types of quantum computers: quantum annealers and
gate-based quantum computers. Quantum annealers are specially tailored
to solve combinatorial optimization problems. They find (near) optimal
solutions via quantum annealing, which is similar to traditional
simulated annealing, and use quantum tunnelling phenomena to provide a
faster mechanism for moving between states and faster processing. On the
other hand, gate-based quantum computers are universal and can perform
general purpose calculations. These computers can be used to solve
combinatorial optimization problems using the quantum approximate
optimization algorithm and quantum search algorithms.
Quantum computing has also given rise to quantum-inspired computers and
algorithms. Quantum-inspired computers use dedicated hardware technology
to emulate/simulate quantum computers. Quantum-inspired optimization
algorithms use classical computers to simulate some physical phenomena
such as superposition and entanglement to perform quantum computations,
in an attempt to retain some of its benefit in conventional hardware
when searching for solutions.
To solve optimization problems on a quantum computer, we need to
reformulate them in a format suitable for the quantum hardware, in terms
of qubits, biases and couplings between qubits. In mathematical terms,
this requirement translates to reformulating the optimization problem as
a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. This is
closely related to the renowned Ising model. It constitutes a universal
class, since all combinatorial optimization problems can be formulated
as QUBOs. In practice, some classes of optimization problems can be
naturally mapped to a QUBO, whereas others are much more challenging to
map.
Content
The aim of the workshop is to provide a forum for both scientific
presentations and discussion of issues related to quantum optimization.
As the algorithms that quantum computers use for optimization can be
regarded as general types of randomized search heuristics, there are
potentially great research benefits and synergy to bringing together the
communities of quantum computing and randomized search heuristics.
The workshop aims to be as inclusive as possible and welcomes
contributions from all areas broadly related to quantum optimization –
by researchers from both academia and industry.
Particular topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
· Formulation of optimization problems as QUBOs (including
handling of non-binary representations and constraints)
· Fitness landscape analysis of QUBOs
· Novel search algorithms to solve QUBOs
· Experimental comparisons on QUBO benchmarks
· Theoretical analysis of search algorithms for QUBOs
· Speed-up experiments on traditional hardware vs
quantum(-inspired) hardware
· Decomposition of optimization problems for quantum hardware
· Application of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm
· Application of Grover's algorithm to solve optimization
problems
· Novel quantum-inspired optimization algorithms
· Optimization/discovery of quantum circuits
· Quantum optimization for machine learning problems
· Optical Annealing
· Dealing with noise in quantum computing
· Quantum Gates' optimization, Quantum Coherent Control
All accepted papers of this workshop will be included in the Proceedings
of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'25)
Companion Volume.
Instructions for Authors
We invite submissions of two types of paper:
· Regular papers (limit 8 pages)
· Short papers (limit 4 pages)
Papers should present original work that meets the high-quality
standards of GECCO. Each paper will be rigorously evaluated in a review
process. Accepted papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of
the Companion Proceedings of GECCO. Each paper accepted needs to have at
least one author registered by the author registration deadline. Papers
must be submitted via the online submission system
https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/gecco/. Please refer to
https://gecco-2025.sigevo.org/Paper-Submission-Instructions for more
detailed instructions.
Workshop Chairs
- Alberto Moraglio, University of Exeter, UK
- Mayowa Ayodele, D-Wave systems, UK
- Francisco Chicano, University of Malaga, Spain
- Ofer Shir, Tel-Hai College and Migal Institute, Israel
- Lee Spector, Amherst College, USA
- Matthieu Parizy Fujitsu Limited, Japan
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