Call for Papers

"Evolutionary Algorithms for Dynamic Optimization Problems"

a bi-annual Workshop which is part of

The 2005 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005)

June 26, 2005
Washington D. C., USA

Objective & Scope:

Many real-world optimization problems are actually dynamic. New jobs are to be added to the schedule, the quality of the raw material may be changing, new orders have to be included into the vehicle routing problem etc. In such cases, when the problem changes over the course of the optimization, the purpose of the optimization algorithm changes from finding an optimal solution to being able to continuously track the movement of the optimum through time.

Since in a sense natural evolution is a process of continuous adaptation, evolutionary algorithms seem to be particularly suited to dynamic optimization problems. And indeed, the topic seems to be promising with the number of papers published in this area rising continuously. The main challenge seems to be to avoid early convergence (in which case the evolutionary algorithm would loose its ability to adapt) without disrupting the search process. Several attempts have been made to find a balance between these two goals, and to tune evolutionary algorithms for optimization in a changing environment.

The goal of the workshop would be to foster interest in the important subject of evolutionary algorithms for dynamic optimization problems, get together the researchers working on the topic, provide an overview on the field and discuss recent trends in the area.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Paper Submission:

Each accepted paper will be presented orally at the workshop and printed in the proceedings distributed to all GECCO attendees. Authors should follow the format of the GECCO manuscript style, refer to http://www.isgec.org/GECCO-2005/ for details. Manuscripts should not exceed 8 pages. Papers may be submitted in PostScript or PDF format to: s.yang@mcs.le.ac.uk or branke@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de. Accepted papers will be included as part of the proceedings of the workshop (published with the GECCO 2005 proceedings).

Papers accepted for the workshop will be judged as to whether an extended version would be suitable for the Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines special issue on "EC in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments". All authors of papers deemed appropriate are encouraged to submit an extended version to the journal, and will undergo a fast track reviewing process.

Important dates:

Paper submission: 1 April, 2005 (EXTENDED)
Notification of acceptance: 20 April, 2005
Final camera-ready copy due: 29 April, 2005
Workshop: 26 June, 2005

Workshop Chairs:

Dr. Shengxiang Yang 
Department of Computer Science
University of Leicester 
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom 
Tel: +44-116-252 5341
Fax: +44-116-252 3915 
Email: s.yang@mcs.le.ac.uk
http://www.cs.le.ac.uk/people/syang   

Dr. Jürgen Branke
Institute AIFB
University of Karlsruhe 
76128 Karlsruhe, Germany 
Tel: +49-721-608 6585
Fax: +49-721-693717 
Email: branke@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de
http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/~jbr/jbr.engl.html   

Program Committee:

Ernesto Costa (Portugal)
Kenneth DeJong (USA)
Ron Morrison (USA)
Karsten Weicker (Germany)
Tim Blackwell (UK)
Sima Uyar (Turkey)
William Rand (USA)
Hussein A. Abbass (Australia)
Daniel Merkle (Germany)