******************************************************************************* Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference LION 4 January 18-22, 2010. Venice, Italy More details and up-to-date information at www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION4 ******************************************************************************* The LION conference aims at exploring the boundaries between machine learning, artificial intelligence, mathematical programming and algorithms for hard optimization problems. The main purpose of the event is to bring together experts from all these areas to present and discuss new ideas, new methods, general trends, challenges and opportunities in applications as well as in research aiming at algorithmic advances. The conference program will consist of plenary presentations, introductory and advanced tutorials, technical presentations, and it will give ample time for discussions. Relevant Research Areas ======================== LION 4 solicits contributions dealing with all aspects of learning and intelligent optimization. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Metaheuristics such as tabu search, iterated local search, evolutionary algorithms, memetic algorithms, ant colony optimization, and particle swarm optimization - Hybridizations of metaheuristics with other techniques for optimization - Supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning applied to heuristic search - Reactive search optimization - Self-adaptive algorithms - Hyperheuristics - Algorithm portfolios and off-line tuning methods - Multiscale and multilevel methods - Algorithms for dynamic, stochastic and multi-objective problems - Interface(s) between discrete and continuous optimization - Experimental analysis and modeling of algorithms - Theoretical foundations - Parallelization of optimization algorithms - Memory-based optimization High-quality scientific contributions to these topics are solicited, in addition to advanced case studies from interesting, high-impact application areas. We also welcome proposals for advanced tutorial presentations. Submission Details =================== We offer the following submission types: - Original novel and unpublished work for publication in the post-conference proceedings (max. 15 pages in Springer LNCS format); - An extended abstract of work-in-progress or a position statement (max. 4 pages); - Manuscripts that have recently been accepted for publication, or appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, or which are currently under review (only for oral presentation). Each submission will be evaluated according to its relevance to the meeting, novelty, technical quality, and presentation. Accepted long papers will appear in the LNCS post-conference proceedings (max 15 pages). Accepted short papers papers will appear in the LNCS post-conference proceedings (max 4 pages). The post-conference proceedings will be published as a volume of Springer's Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Best Paper Award ================= A best paper award will be presented at the conference. Further Information ==================== Up-to-date information will be published on the web site www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION4. For information about local arrangements, registration forms, etc., please refer to the above-mentioned web site or contact the local organizers. Important Dates =============== (Strict) submission deadline October 16, 2009 Notification of acceptance November 27, 2009 Conference January 18-22, 2010 Camera ready for post-proceedings February 19, 2010 LION 4 Conference Committee ============================ Conference Chair Roberto Battiti, Universita'  di Trento (Italy) Local Organization Chair Marcello Pelillo, Universita'  Ca' Foscari di Venezia (Italy) Technical Program Committee Chair Christian Blum, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain) Technical Program Committee Ethem Alpaydin, Bogazici University (Turkey) Roberto Battiti, University of Trento (Italy) Mauro Birattari, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) Immanuel Bomze, University of Vienna (Austria) Juergen Branke, University of Karlsruhe (Germany) Mauro Brunato, Universtity of Trento (Italy) Carlos Cotta, Universidad de Málaga (Spain) Luca di Gaspero, University of Udine (Italy) Karl Doerner, University of Vienna (Austria) Marco Dorigo, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) Antonio J. Fernandez, Universidad de Málaga (Spain) Valerio Freschi, University of Urbino (Italy) Michel Gendreau, Université de Montréal (Canada) Martin Charles Golumbic, CRI Haifa (Israel) Walter Gutjahr, University of Vienna (Austria) Youssef Hamadi, Microsoft Research, Cambridge (UK) Jin-Kao Hao, University of Angers (France) Richard Hartl, University of Vienna (Austria) Geir Hasle, SINTEF Applied Mathematics (Norway) Pascal van Hentenryck, Brown University (USA) Francisco Herrera, Universidad de Granada (Spain) Tomio Hirata, Nagoya University (Japan) Holger Hoos, University of British Columbia (Canada) Márk Jelasity, University of Szeged (Hungary) Narendra Jussien, Ecole des Mines de Nantes (France) Zeynep Kiziltan, University of Bologna (Italy) Michail G. Lagoudakis, Technical University of Crete (Greece) Vittorio Maniezzo, Università di Bologna (Italy) Francesco Masulli, Università degli Studi di Genova (Italy) Lyle A. McGeoch, Amherst College (USA) Bernd Meyer, Monash University (Australia) Nenad Mladenovic, School of Mathematics, Brunel University, West London (UK) Daniel Molina, Universidad de Granada (Spain) Pablo Moscato, The University of Newcastle (Australia) Djamila Ouelhadj, University of Nottingham (UK) Panos Pardalos, University of Florida (USA) Marcello Pelillo, Università "Ca' Foscari" di Venezia (Italy) Vincenzo Piuri, Università di Milano (Italy) Guenther Raidl, Technische Universitaet Wien (Austria) Franz Rendl, Institut fuer Mathematik, Universitaet Klagenfurt (Austria) Celso Ribeiro, Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil) Andrea Roli, University of Bologna (Italy) Ruben Ruiz, Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) Wheeler Ruml, University of New Hampshire (USA) Ilya Safro, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne (USA) Horst Samulowitz, Microsoft Research, Cambridge (UK) Frederic Saubion, University of Angers (France) Andrea Schaerf, University of Udine (Italy) Marc Schoenauer, INRIA (France) Meinolf Sellmann, Brown University (USA) Yaroslav D. Sergeyev, Università della Calabria (Italy) Patrick Siarry, Université Paris XII Val De Marne, Paris, (France) Kate Smith-Miles, Monash University (Australia) Christine Solnon, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) Thomas Stuetzle, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) Stefan Voss, Institute of Information Systems, University of Hamburg (Germany) Toby Walsh, University of New South Wales (Australia) David Woodruff, University of California, Davis (USA)