Monday, April 23, 2018

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

Call for Papers: Black-Box Discrete Optimization Benchmarking (BB-DOB@PPSN)

Workshop @ Fifteenth International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving
from Nature (PPSN XV)

September 8-9, 2018 in Coimbra, Portugal

http://iao.hfuu.edu.cn/bbdob- <http://iao.hfuu.edu.cn/bbdob-gecco18>ppsn18


The Black-Box Discrete Optimization Benchmarking Workshop (BB-DOB@PPSN), a
part of the Fifteenth International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving
from Nature (PPSN XV), is cordially inviting the submission of original and
unpublished research papers or of abstracts for a talk contribution.


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 quantifying and comparing the performance of
optimization algorithms for continuous optimization. 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 second instalment 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.


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: 20 May 2018

Notification of Acceptance: 30 May 2018

Camera-Ready Copy Due: 4 June 2018

Conference Presentation: 8-9 September 2018

3. Instructions for Authors


Two types of submissions are welcome:

1. An abstract describing the contents of a talk to be presented at the
workshop
2. A full paper with 10 page limit in Springer LNCS style.


Abstracts and papers should be submitted as PDF files via email to the
workshop chair Pietro Oliveto at p.oliveto@sheffield.ac.uk with copy to
wrobel@evosys.org, ales.zamuda@um.si, tweise@hfuu.edu.cn, and
markus.wagner@adelaide.edu.au.


The accepted papers in this workshop will not be included in the
Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Parallel Problem
Solving from Nature (PPSN XV). However, the accepted papers will be listed
in the official conference programme. Submitted full papers will be
considered for an invitation to submit an extended version 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. Only full paper submissions can be considered for inclusion
in the special issue.


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 José Manuel García Nieto, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain

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 Luis Paquete, University of Coimbra, Portugal

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 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>

**********************************************************
*
* Contributions to be spread via DMANET are submitted to
*
* DMANET@zpr.uni-koeln.de
*
* Replies to a message carried on DMANET should NOT be
* addressed to DMANET but to the original sender. The
* original sender, however, is invited to prepare an
* update of the replies received and to communicate it
* via DMANET.
*
* DISCRETE MATHEMATICS AND ALGORITHMS NETWORK (DMANET)
* http://www.zaik.uni-koeln.de/AFS/publications/dmanet/
*
**********************************************************