Welcome to MESS 2020 +1
15-18 June 2021, Catania, Italy
(virtual mode)
The MESS 2020+1 directors and organizing team announce with BIG regret that the school will be held ONLY in virtual mode, due to the last decree of the Italian Prime Minister, which forbids all kind of congress until 1st July. We assure to all participants that we will do our best for making a great school anyway!
Many challenging applications in Science and Industry can be formulated as optimization problems. Due to their complexity and hardness often they cannot be solved in an exact manner within a reasonable time; thus approximate algorithms become the main alternatives to solve them thanks to their ability to efficiently explore large search spaces.
Metaheuristics are successful techniques able to solve such complex and hard optimization problems that arise in human activities, such as economics, industry, or engineering, and constitute a highly diverse family of optimization algorithms, each of which shows individual properties, and different strengths.
The international Metaheuristics Summer School is aimed at qualified and strongly motivated MSc and PhD students; post-docs; young researchers, and both academic and industrial professionals to provide an overview on the several metaheuristics techniques, and an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art. The main theme of the 2020+1 edition is “Learning and Optimization from Big Data”, therefore MESS 2020+1 wants to focus on (i) Learning for Metaheuristics; (ii) Optimization in Machine Learning; and (iii) how Optimization and Learning affect the Metaheuristics making them relevant in handling Big Data.
The courses will be held by world renowned experts in the field, and will be inspected practical aspects on complex combinatorial optimization problems, as well as examples of their successful real-world applications. The participants will have plenty of opportunities for debate and work with leaders in the field, benefiting from direct interaction and discussions in a stimulating environment. They will also have the possibility to present their recently results and/or their working in progress through oral or poster presentations, and interact with their scientific peers, in a friendly and constructive environment.
All participants to the school will be involved in the “Metaheuristics Competition”, where each of them, individually or divided in working groups, they will must develop a metaheuristic solution on the given problem. The top three of the competition ranking will receive the MESS 2020+1 prize. Further, students whose algorithms will rank in the top ten of the competition ranking will be invited to submit a manuscript of their work to be published in the special MESS 2020+1 Volume of the AIRO Springer Series.
MESS 2020+1 will involve a total of 36-40 hours of lectures, therefore in according to the academic system, all PhD and master students attending to the summer school will may get 8 ECTS points. Further, during the summer school the students will tackle homework, or project development.
Recent News
June 4, 2021:
The MESS 2020+1 Scientific Program Overview is now online (LINK)
May 12, 2021:
The MESS 2020+1 directors and organizing team announce with BIG regret that the school will be held ONLY in virtual mode, due to the last decree of the Italian Prime Minister, which forbids all kind of congress until 1st July. We assure to all participants that we will do our best for making a great school anyway!
April 12, 2021:
All information needed for the registration to the MESS 2020+1 summer school has been sent to all applicants! If you haven’t received it, please, contact us immediately.
Mar. 26, 2021:
All notifications have been sent to all applicants!
If you have applied and haven’t received it, please look for it in the SPAM folder, otherwise let us know immediately sending an email to mess.school@ANTs-lab.it or mario.pavone@unict.it
Feb. 4, 2021:
We are very glad to announce that Andrea Lodi from Polytechnique Montréal, Canada, will be lecturer at MESS 2020+1!!
Jan. 26, 2021:
We are really glad to announce that the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO), and the EURO Working Group on Metaheuristics (EU/ME – the metaheuristics community) are sponsors and supporter of MESS 2020+1!!
Dec. 4, 2020:
Prof. Paolo Arena from University of Catania, Italy, will be Lecturer at MESS 2020+1.
Dec. 2, 2020:
Prof. Gabriela Ochoa from University of Stirling, UK, will be Lecturer at MESS 2020+1.
Oct. 29, 2020:
Some scholarships are offered by the CNRS (Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), France.
Sept. 28, 2020:
NEW DATES FIXED FOR MESS 2020+1!
We are very happy and proud to announce that MESS 2020+1 will be held from 15 to 18 June 2021 at the Department of Economics & Business, University of Catania!
The school will be held in presence and online mode.
Important Dates
Application Deadline: March 5, 2021
Notification acceptance: March 26, 2021
Early Registration: by Apr 25, 2021
Late Registration: from Apr 26, 2021
Speakers
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Paolo Arena |
Angelo Cangelosi |
Swagatam Das |
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Salvatore Greco |
Jin-Kao Hao |
Giuseppe F. Italiano |
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Andrea Lodi |
Rafael Martì |
Gabriela Ochoa |
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Mauricio Resende |
El-Ghazali Talbi |
Daniele Vigo |
Lectures
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Insect brain models: from locomotion to perception Part I | |
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Insect brain models: from locomotion to perception Part II joint presentation with Luca Patanè, University of Messina, Italy |
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Cognitive and Developmental Robotics, part 1 | |
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Cognitive and Developmental Robotics, part 2 | |
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Deep Generative Adversarial Networks and Their Application to Class-imbalanced Learning | |
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Non-convex Constrained Optimization – Some Advanced Approaches | |
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Preference Learning in Multicriteria Decision Support | |
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Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization Guided by Preference Learning | |
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Learning and Pattern-Mining Driven Optimization: case studies | |
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2-Connectivity on Directed Graphs, part 1 | |
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2-Connectivity on Directed Graphs, part 2 | |
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On the Interplay between Machine Learning and Discrete Optimization | |
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Heuristics for Mixed-Integer Optimization through a Machine Learning Lens | |
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Optimization in Graph Drawing | |
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Models and Heuristics in Discrete Diversity Maximization | |
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Fitness Landscapes and Local Optima Networks | |
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Search Trajectory Networks | |
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GRASP with Path-Relinking for Real-World Optimization Problems | |
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Biased Random-Key Genetic Algorithms with Applications | |
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Machine Learning for Metaheuristics | |
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Automated Design of Deep Neural Networks | |
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Fast and Scalable Heuristics for Vehicle Routing Problems | |
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Integrating Machine Learning into Vehicle Routing Heuristics |
Metaheuristics Competition
All participants are invited, individually or in team (no more than 3 people), to design and develop a metaheuristic solution on the problem: Warehouse Location Problem with Store Incompatibilities.
Important Dates:
– Start: June 15th, 2021
– Deadline: September 30th, 2021
– Finalist announcement: October 10th, 2021
– Software setup for finalists: October 20th, 2021
– Final ranking announcement: November 10th, 2021
– Paper due: December 10th, 2021
Top three in the ranking will receive a MESS 2020+1 prize in money, in addition to the winner certificate (+ imperishable glory!). Further, for those will be ranked in the top ten (or something more) will be invited for the publication on the special MESS 2020+1 Volume of the AIRO Springer Series.
Competition material:
1. Specifications
2. Presentation
3. Instances: Training (link) and Validation (link)
4. Validator
Contacts:
– Sara Ceschia: sara.ceschia @ uniud.it *
– Carmine Cerrone: carmine.cerrone @ unige.it *
– Andrea Schaerf: schaerf @ uniud.it
– Raffaele Cerulli: raffaele @ unisa.it
– Mario Pavone: mario.pavone @ unict.it
* primary contacts
Workshop
The Metaheuristics Summer School aims to provide a stimulating environment for all participants, where they may interact and exchange ideas with their scientific peers in a friendly and constructive way. At this end to all participants is offered the opportunity to present their research activities on the Metaheuristics by an oral or poster presentation.
All participants may submit then an abstract (in any printable pdf format) of their recent results, or works in progress, or recently published to be presented in the workshop. The abstract must be submitted before 5th March 2021, and must be written in English. Each abstract will be reviewed by the Workshop Chairs and/or Scientific Committee, which will decide on the format of the presentation (oral or poster), in according to the authors’ request. All abstracts, in any format, will be published in an electronic book of the summer school that will be put online on the website.
For poster presentation, a board will be provided to mount the poster including all logistic material (push tacks or velcro adhesive). You need only to print and bring with you the poster to the school.
For more information send an email to: mess.school @ ANTs-lab.it
Organizing Committee
MESS 2020+1 Directors
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Pascal Bouvry |
Salvatore Greco |
Ender Ozcan |
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Mario F. Pavone |
El-Ghazali Talbi |
Daniele Vigo |
Workshop Chairs
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Vincenzo Cutello |
Paola Festa |
Isaac Triguero |
Metaheuristics Competition Chairs
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Raffaele Cerulli |
Andrea Schaerf |
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Sara Ceschia |
Carmine Cerrone |
Local Organizing Committee
Vincenzo Cutello (Chair), University of Catania, Italy
Laura Scrimali, University of Catania, Italy
Antonio Spampinato, University of Catania, Italy
Rocco A. Scollo, University of Catania, Italy
Georgia Fargetta, University of Catania, Italy
Carolina Crespi, University of Catania, Italy
Antonino Di Stefano, ANTs Research Laboratory, Italy
Alessandro Vitale, ANTs Research Laboratory, Italy
Francesco Zito, University of Catania, Italy
Publicity Chair
Stephan Petrone, ANTs Research Laboratory, Italy
Sponsors
Venue
MESS 2020+1 will take place at the “Palazzo delle Scienze”, today place of the Department of Economics and Business of the University of Catania.
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Application
The school is open to all qualified, motivated and pre-selected candidates interested in the metaheuristics field, and in any topic proposed by the school. Advanced graduate and undergraduate students; PhD students; Post-Docs; and young researchers (both academic and industrial), and academic as well as industrial professionals are encouraged to apply.
The expected school fee in presence is of € 400 for Master and Phd students, € 450 for post-docs and research fellows, and € 500 for all other kinds of participants. The fee will include all course materials, coffee breaks, WiFi Internet Connection, attending to the workshop, a guided tour, social dinner, and welcome party.
For those who would like to attend to the school in online mode the registration fees are as follows: € 150 for Master and Phd students, € 170 for post-docs and research fellows, € 200 for University Personnel and € 250 for Industry Personnel. The online mode fee includes access to the online platform, attending to all lectures, all course materials, and MESS 2020+1 gadget.
Applications to attend MESS 2020+1 should be received before or at most 5 March 2021. All accepted applicants will receive the notification by 26 March 2021 in according to the application time.
All fees will be increased after the early registration deadline.
Those who plan to present talk or poster must submit the abstract in the relative section (deadline 5th March 2021).
We cordially invite to include in the CV at least three references, and at least one publication (if any). This information might be crucial for the application acceptance.
NOTE: the application form seems to work better with Google Chrome as browser.
Application Form
Contact Us