International Tutorial Workshop on Optimisation/Search/Decision Support

[Edmund Burke <ekb@Cs.Nott.AC.UK>]

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                     An International Educational Workshop:

      INtroductory TutoRials in Optimization, Search and decision support
                             methodologies (INTROS)

        Tuesday 12th August 2003, Royal Moat House Hotel, Nottingham, UK


                            CALL FOR PARTICIPATION


Sponsored by:

         o  The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
         o  The London Mathematical Society (LMS)
         o  Kluwer Academic Publishers
         o  The University of Nottingham


The INTROS Workshop will offer the opportunity to engage with some
of the leading researchers in the world in optimization, search and
decision support technology.  The programme lies at the interface
between Artificial Intelligence and Operational Research. The workshop
is aimed at anyone who wants to learn about some of the most important
search methodologies that are currently at the forefront of international
research efforts. 

We expect each tutorial to last one and a half hours.

The programme is:

8.30-9.00:   Registration
9.00-9.15:   Welcome

9.15-10.45:  David Goldberg*: Genetic Algorithms  (Room 1)
             Michael Trick* and Bob Bosch%: Integer Programming (Room 2)

10-45-11.15: Coffee

11.15-12.45: Riccardo Poli* & John Koza%: Genetic Programming (Room 1)
             Roman Slowinski*: Rough Set Based Decision Making (Room 2)

12.45-2.00:  Lunch

2.00-3.30:   Dipankar Dasgupta*: Artificial Immune Systems (Room 1)
             Michel Gendreau*: Tabu Search (Room 2)
             Mark Wallace* & Eugene Freuder%:Constraint Based Reasoning (Room 3)

3.30-3.45:   Tea

3.45-5.15:   Kalyanmoy Deb*: Multi-objective Optimization (Room 1)
             Pierre Hansen* & Nenad Mladenovic%: Variable Neighborhood Search
                                                                      (Room 2)

5.15-5.30:   Break

5.30-7.00:   Xin Yao*: Machine Learning (Room 1)
             Darrell Whitley* & Jean-Paul Watson%: Complexity Theory and
             The No Free Lunch Theorem (Room 2)


Key:
* = Tutorial Presenter
% = Co-author for an associated book chapter that will be published
in a book by Kluwer that will be based around the workshop.

The tutorials are specifically aimed at:
         o   Academic Researchers 
         o   PhD students
         o   Industrial Practitioners
         o   Consultants/Software Engineers

The workshop will be particularly appropriate for those who require
a "refresher" course in modern Artificial Intelligence, Operational
Research and Optimisation/Search/Decision Support methods.

Workshop places are limited, so early booking is essential.
Registration will be open from 12th April.
See http://www.mistaconference.org/intros03/registration.html

It is possible to make an expression of interest (no obligation) on that
web page which will reserve a place until two weeks after registration
opens.

There are some PhD student bursaries available to provide free
registration (not travel and subsistence).  For details about how
to apply for these see http://www.mistaconference.org/intros03/bursaries.html

For further details about attendance and registration see
http://www.mistaconference.org/intros03/ or contact
Dr Graham Kendall at the University of Nottingham (gxk@cs.nott.ac.uk).

The INTROS'03 workshop is being held the day before the MISTA
conference.  For details about MISTA see http://www.mistaconference.org