Wednesday, March 21, 2018

[DMANET] Call For Contributions: GECCO 2018 Workshop on Black-Box Discrete Optimization Benchmarking (BB-DOB@GECCO)

Call for Papers: Black-Box Discrete Optimization Benchmarking (BB-DOB@GECCO)
Workshop @ 2018 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2018)
July 15-19, 2018 in Kyoto, Japanhttp://iao.hfuu.edu.cn/bbdob-gecco18

The Black-Box Discrete Optimization Benchmarking Workshop
(BB-DOB@GECCO), a part of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
Conference (GECCO) 2018, is cordially inviting the submission of
original and unpublished research papers.

Quantifying and comparing the performance of optimization algorithms
is one important aspect of research in search and optimization. The
Black-Box- Optimization Benchmarking (BBOB) methodology introduced by
the long- standing and successful BBOB-GECCO workshops series has
become a well- established standard for benchmarking continuous
optimization algorithms. The aim of this workshop is to develop a
similar standard methodology for the benchmarking of black-box
optimization algorithms for discrete and combinatorial domains. We
want to produce:

(1) a well-motivated benchmark function testbed,
(2) a standardized experimental set-up,
(3) rules for measuring and the generation of data output, and
(4) standardized post-processing and presentations for the results in
graphs and tables.


1. Topics of Interest

This first installment of the new BB-DOB workshop series focuses on a
debate regarding which functions should be included in the
benchmarking testbed. These benchmark functions should capture the
difficulties of combinatorial optimization problems in practice, but
at the same time be comprehensible so that the resulting algorithm
behaviors can be understood or interpreted. In this way, the mutual
advantages and disadvantages of algorithms can be analyzed in depth.
Gaining such insights is vital for the design of improved algorithms.
The sought benchmark functions should ideally be scalable with the
problem size and non-trivial in the black-box optimization sense,
i.e., allow for shifting the optimum to any point. This workshop wants
to provide a common forum to bring together experts on benchmarking of
optimization algorithms. Interested participants are encouraged to
submit papers related to black-box optimization benchmarking of
discrete optimizers in the widest sense. In particular if they
suggest,

(1) function classes that should be included in the function
collection and motivate the reasons for inclusion,
(2) benchmark function properties that allow to capture difficulties
which occur in real-world applications (e.g., deception, separability,
etc.)
(3) which classes of standard combinatorial optimization problems
should be included and how to select significant instances,
(4) which classes of toy problems should be included and motivate why
(5) issues concerning any other aspect of benchmarking methodology for
discrete optimizers such as design of experiments, performance
measures, presentation methods, etc.

All accepted papers in this workshop will be included in the Companion
Material Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
Conference 2018 published by ACM and indexed by EI. Authors of
selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions of these
papers to the Special Issue on Benchmarking of Computational
Intelligence Algorithms appearing in the Computational Intelligence
journal by Wiley Periodicals Inc., indexed by EI and SCI.

This workshop is organized as part of the ImAppNIO Cost Action 15140.

For more information please contact Pietro S. Oliveto at
p.oliveto@sheffield.ac.uk.

Disclaimer: Two BB-DOB workshops will take place in 2018, i.e., the
first edition as BB-DOB@GECCO and the second edition as BB-DOB@PPSN.
Both are independent events of the same series.


2. Important Dates

Paper Submission Deadline: 27 March 2018
Notification of Acceptance: 11 April 2018
Camera-Ready Copy Due: 24 April 2018
Conference Presentation: 15-19 July 2018


3. Instructions for Authors

Detailed instructions regarding how to submit papers and the paper
format are given at the conference website
http://gecco-2018.sigevo.org/index.html/Papers+Submission+Instructions.
Some general things to consider are:

- Submitted papers should be ANONYMIZED, i.e., cannot contain any
element that may reveal the identity of their authors, in order to
facilitate a double-blind review process.
- The maximum paper length is eight pages.
- The paper format is the ACM SIG format.
- The paper size is US Letter (8-1/2x11 inches).
- Papers must be submitted in pdf format.
- The papers must include a correct ACM copyright statement.
- If the paper is accepted, also all sources (LaTeX, Word, all
graphics, etc.) need to be submitted alongside the final version.


4. Chairs

o Pietro S. Oliveto, University of Sheffield, UK
o Markus Wagner, University of Adelaide, Australia
o Thomas Weise, Hefei University, Hefei, China
o Borys Wróbel, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
o Aleš Zamuda, University of Maribor, Slovenia


5. International Program Committee

o Abhishek Awasthi, University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz,
Görlitz, Germany
o Christian Blum, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Bellaterra, Spain
o Josu Ceberio Uribe, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain
o Wenxiang Chen, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
o Raymond Chiong, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
o Carola Doerr, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, Paris, France
o Mohamed El Yafrani, Mohammed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco
o Thomas Jansen, Aberystwyth University, UK
o Michael Kolonko, TU Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
o William La Cava, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
o Algirdas Lančinkas, Vilnius University, Lithuania
o Jörg Lässig, University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany
o Bin Li, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
o Jinlong Li, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
o Pu Li, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
o Zhen Liu, Hefei University, Hefei, China
o Manuel López-Ibáñez, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
o Yi Mei, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
o Martin Middendorf, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
o Frank Neumann, University of Adelaide, Australia
o Miguel Nicolau, University College Dublin, Ireland
o Pietro S. Oliveto, University of Sheffield, UK
o Qi Qi, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
o Ofer Shir, Tel-Hai College, Israel
o Danilo Sipoli Sanches, Federal University of Technology – Paraná,
Cornélio Procópio, Brazil
o Kate Smith-Miles, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
o Thomas Stützle, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), IRIDIA, Belgium
o Markus Ullrich, University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz,
Görlitz, Germany
o Ryan J. Urbanowicz, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
o Sébastien Verel, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, France
o Markus Wagner, University of Adelaide, Australia
o Thomas Weise, Hefei University, Hefei, China
o Carsten Witt, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
o Borys Wróbel, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
o Zijun Wu, Hefei University, Hefei, China
o Yang Yu, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
o Aleš Zamuda, University of Maribor, Slovenia
o Xingyi Zhang, Anhui University, Hefei, China


--
Pietro S. Oliveto
Senior Lecturer,
EPSRC Early Career Fellow,
Department of Computer Science,
The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
*www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/P.Oliveto/rig/
<http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/P.Oliveto/rig/>*

*Fully funded PhD studentships available now* in time complexity analysis
of bio-inspired computation. Enquiries by excellent candidates can be sent
to me by email. Applications will be accepted until the posts are filled.
Further details are here
<http://staffwww.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/P.Oliveto/PhDStudentships.html>.
Applicants should apply using the online application form here
<http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/online>

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