1st Call for Participation (apologies for multiple copies)

----------------------------------------------------------------------- MESS 2020 - Metaheuristics Summer School ~ Learning & Optimization from Big Data ~ 27-31 July 2020, Catania, Italy

https://www.ANTs-lab.it/mess2020/ mess.school@ANTs-lab.it -----------------------------------------------------------------------

** APPLICATION DEADLINE: 5th March 2020 **

MESS 2020 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 edition is ?Learning and Optimization from Big Data?, therefore MESS 2020 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.

MESS 2020 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.

MESS 2020 will take place at the ?Palazzo delle Scienze?, today place of the Department of Economics and Business of the University of Catania.

** MESS 2020 Workshop

All participants may submit an abstract of their recent results, or works in progress, for presentation and having the opportunities for debate and interact with leaders in the field. Workshop Organizers and Scientific Committee will review the abstracts and will recommend for the format of the presentation (oral or poster). All abstracts will be published on the electronic hands-out book of the summer school.

The Abstracts must be submitted by *March 5, 2020*.

** MESS 2020 Metaheuristics Competition

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 prize. Further, the students, whose algorithms will rank in the five top of the competition ranking, will be invited to submit a report/manuscript of their work to be published in the special MESS 2020 Volume of the AIRO Springer Series.

** School Directors

+ Salvatore Greco, University of Catania, Italy + Ender Ozcan, University of Nottingham, UK + Mario Pavone, University of Catania, Italy + El-Ghazali Talbi, University of Lille 1, France + Daniele Vigo, University of Bologna, Italy

https://www.ANTs-lab.it/mess2020/ -- mess.school@ANTs-lab.it Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MetaheuristicsSchool/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MESS_school