Monday, November 13, 2017

[DMANET] First Call for Papers - PATAT 2018: 12th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling

[Please circulate to all those who might be interested, and accept our
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Call for Papers

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PATAT 2018

12th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated
Timetabling

28-31 August, 2018 in Vienna, Austria

http://www.patatconference.org/patat2018/

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AIM AND SCOPE:

The International Series of Conferences on the Practice and Theory of
Automated Timetabling (PATAT) is held biennially as the main international
forum for both researchers and practitioners of timetabling to exchange
ideas. PATAT 2018 which is the twelfth in the conference series will be held
in Vienna, Austria.

Whether it is sporting events, educational institutions, transportation or
employee management the construction of efficient timetables which provide
the maximum in way of flexibility for all constituent parts is as important
as it is challenging. An increasingly important aspect within organisations
is an automated approach which optimises all aspects of resource usage. In
doing so a number of quantitative and qualitative challenges must be dealt
with from both a technical and practical perspective.

An important aim of the conference is to align the needs of practitioners
and the objectives of researchers. This is achieved through the presentation
and application of leading edge research techniques. Practitioners and
Researchers alike are encouraged to present their work and experiences with
the overall goal of developing efficient and practical solutions. With this
goal in mind, at PATAT 2018, researchers and practitioners will be brought
together through a number of key presentations and workshops.

Topics of interest and themes of the conference include, but not limited to:

- Educational Timetabling

- Timetabling in Transport

- Employee Rostering

- Sports Timetabling

- Timetabling in Healthcare

- Mathematical Programming

- Constraint-Based Methods

- Knowledge Based Systems

- Fuzzy Systems

- Heuristic Search

- Metaheuristics (e.g., Evolutionary Computation, Simulated Annealing, Tabu
Search, Ant Colony Methods)

- Systems to Build Systems (e.g., Hyper-heuristics, Algorithm Portfolios)


- Algorithm Configuration

- Artificial Intelligence

- Graph Colouring

- Resource Capacity Planning

- Parallel/Distributed Computing

- Hybrid Methods (e.g., Memetic Computing, Matheuristics)

- Machine Learning (e.g., Data Mining, Classifier Systems, Neural Networks)

- Expert Systems

- Multi-objective Approaches

- Multi-criteria Decision Making

- Foundational Studies (e.g., Complexity Issues)

- Timetabling Tools and Applications (e.g., Interactive and Batch Systems,
Standard Data Formats, Ontologies, Experiences)

IMPORTANT DATES:

* Paper Submission Deadline: 26 February, 2018

* Notification of Acceptance: 30 April, 2018

* Early Registration Closes: 30 June, 2018

* Conference: 28-31 August, 2018

PUBLICATION:

Authors are invited to submit their work in one of three categories:

1) Full papers: Authors should submit papers describing significant,
original and unpublished work.

2) Abstracts: People who wish to give a talk (e.g. practitioners,
researchers with preliminary or incomplete papers) but do not want to submit
a full paper can submit abstracts of up to 1000 words.

3) System demonstrations: Authors can also submit an abstract, describing
the major properties and contribution of implemented and/or commercial
timetabling systems.

All submissions will be peer reviewed by at least three members of the
programme committee. Accepted papers will be invited for an oral
presentation at the event and included in the PATAT 2018 proceedings after
they are presented.

Detailed submission details and the link to the submission system are
available at: http://patatconference.org/patat2018/instructions/

JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE:

Authors of all three categories will be invited to submit extended versions
of their original work as full papers for consideration to be published in a
Special Issue of the Annals of Operations Research.

PROGRAMME CO-CHAIRS:

* Edmund Burke, Queen Mary University of London (UK), e.burke(ATT)qmul.ac.uk

* Luca Di Gaspero, Univerity of Udine (IT), luca.digaspero(ATT)uniud.it

* Barry McCollum, Queen's University Belfast (UK), b.mccollum(ATT)qub.ac.uk

* Nysret Musliu, TU Wien (AT), musliu(ATT)tuwien.ac.at

* Ender Özcan, University of Nottingham (UK),
ender.ozcan(ATT)nottingham.ac.uk

ORGANISING COMMITTEE:

* Emir Demirović, University of Melbourne (AU)

* Luca Di Gaspero, University of Udine (IT)

* Florian Mischek, TU Wien (AT)

* Nysret Musliu, TU Wien (AT)

* Tommaso Urli, Satalia and Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (AT)

* Felix Winter, TU Wien (AT)

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