Newsletter (Issue January 2018)

This issue includes:

1.  Obituary Yuri Bykov

2.  Timetabling stream at EURO 2018, Valencia, Spain, 8-11 July 2018

3.  PATAT - Timetabling conference Vienna, Austria, 28 - 31 August, 2018

4.  EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award 2018

5.  EURO Excellence in Practice Award 2018

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1. Obituary, Yuri Bykov

Dear friends, colleagues,

We are sorry to have to share with you very sad news that our friend and colleague, Yuri Bykov, passed away on 24 July, 2017. He had serious heart problems two years ago but it seemed that it was under control. The family and his friends/colleagues who knew him well are still in shock.

Many of us have known Yuri for long time. Yuri got MSc in automated control at the St. Petersburg Technical Marine University. He worked in the Technical Marine University and also founded a private company Elant for software development before joining the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham in 2000. He was awarded the PhD in 2003. He worked for quite a long time in the School on a variety of research projects. He also worked with the School of Chemistry, Business School and the Geospatial Institute at the same University and also joined an associated spin-off company. Yuri liked to work night shifts and people who used to stay longer or early after-midnight hours had an opportunity to chat with him. He has started a Research Fellow post in the beginning of the year at the Queen Mary University in London, but he continued to live with his family in Nottingham. He planned to move with his wife Irina to London and join there his daughter Anne, a fashion designer, but sadly that plan was not able to be realised.

Yuri was an excellent researcher. A number of his methods were often used and cited frequently in the scheduling/timetabling community including Late Acceptance Hill Climbing and Step Counting Hill Climbing. He was also an excellent programmer and developed rather quickly a number of software packages that were used in teaching at the University of Nottingham, including an excellent software package which contains a number of meta-heuristics with a professional user interface. He always showed enthusiasm for research, teaching and programming. I remember when he was introducing a fuzzy controller to students using an inverted pendulum, he made a small model of a cart with  pole to entertain students while teaching a serious subject. Yuri was very knowledgeable in his research field; he obtained the 1st place in the 2011 International Optimisation Competition in 2011, and 3rd place in the 1st International Timetabling Competition in 2003. Yuri also participated in many PATAT conferences, delivering talks with well-prepared presentations which attracted a high level of research interests.

Above all Yuri was a very good, very kind and honest person.

Yuri will be very much missed among his friends, colleagues and optimisation and timetabling research community.

Sanja Petrovic
Nottingham University Business School

 

2. Timetabling stream at EURO 2018, Valencia, Spain, 8-11 July 2018

We are pleased to announce that EWG PATAT is organising a Timetabling stream at the 29th European Conference of Operational Research (EURO) in Valencia, 08-11 July 2018 (http://euro2018valencia.com/)

CALL FOR PAPERS AND SESSIONS

Researchers, academics, practitioners, and students interested in any branch of Operational Research, mathematical modelling or economic analysis are invited to submit abstracts and/or organize sessions.  Each participant may present no more than one paper at the conference.  The abstract submission system is available online, via https://www.euro-online.org/conf/euro29/.

Abstracts: max. 1500 characters; submission deadline: March 5, 2018.

Researchers who wish to organize a stream or an invited session or contribute with a paper within an invited session should contact a Programme Committee member of the corresponding area.

If you wish to submit your paper to PATAT’s timetabling stream, please specify the appropriate session code in the stream Timetabling and enter the requested details about the paper.

Session                                                             Session code      Session chair

Employee timetabling                                   c4231797            Celia Glass
Hospital timetabling                                      39abfde7             Ahmed Kheiri
Nurse rostering                                               6c472a01            Pieter Smet
Shift and task scheduling                              ff9d42f8              Tony Wauters
Educational timetabling                                dc38bb6c             Sanja Petrovic

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract submission open: Friday, October 13, 2017

Abstract submission deadline: Monday, March 5, 2018

Registration open: Friday, October 13, 2017

Early registration deadline: Friday, April 6, 2018

Author registration deadline: Friday, April 20, 2018

We look forward to welcoming many PATAT members to a very exciting conference in Valencia!

 

3.  PATAT - Timetabling conference Vienna, Austria, 28 - 31 August, 2018

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

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

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

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                             - Artificial Intelligence
- Timetabling in Transport                            - Graph Colouring
- Employee Rostering                                    - Resource Capacity Planning
- Sports Timetabling                                       - Parallel/Distributed Computing
- Timetabling in Healthcare                          - Hybrid Methods (e.g., Memetic
- Mathematical Programming                        Computing, Matheuristics)
- Constraint-Based Methods                        - Machine Learning (e.g., Data Mining,
- Expert Systems                                                Classifier Systems, Neural Networks)
- Knowledge Based Systems                         - Multi-objective Approaches
- Fuzzy Systems                                               - Multi-criteria Decision Making
- Heuristic Search                                            - Foundational Studies (e.g.,
- Metaheuristics (e.g., Evolutionary              Complexity Issues)
  Computation, Simulated Annealing,          - Timetabling Tools and Applications
Tabu Search, Ant Colony Methods)            (e.g., Interactive
- Systems to Build Systems (e.g.,                  and Batch Systems,
  Hyper-heuristics,                                          - Standard Data Formats,
  Algorithm Portfolios)                                   Ontologies, Experiences)
- Algorithm Configuration

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/

 

4.  EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award 2018

The purpose of the prize is to distinguish an outstanding doctoral dissertation in OR defended in the countries having an OR society that is a member of EURO.  We invite you to widely disseminate this announcement.

THE PRIZE

The prize consists of a certificate and reward of €1,000.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Please check the guidelines (https://www.euro-online.org/web/pages/242/guidelines [www.euro-online.org]).

Since many doctoral dissertations in OR are defended each year, and due to the fact that in 2017 there was no EDDA award, only outstanding pieces of work are expected to be submitted. The jury would like to remind supervisors that only high-quality theses might have a chance of winning the award.

The jury selects a short-list of finalists who will present their work in a special session at the 29th European Conference on Operational Research in Valencia. There is no registration fee for each finalist. EURO will also contribute to the travel and accommodation expenses. The winner will be determined by the jury at the end of the special session and will be announced by the chair of the jury during the closing session of the EURO 2018 Conference.

Applications should be submitted online

http://www.euro-online.org/awards/edda2018/registration.php [www.euro-online.org] before January 31, 2018.

 

5. EURO Excellence in Practice Award 2018

The purposes of the competition are to:

• recognise outstanding accomplishments in the practice of OR,
• attract more application-oriented papers to EURO-k Conferences,
• promote the practice of OR in general.

THE PRIZE

• a certificate of excellence in OR practice for each author of the paper
• an amount of €3,000 shared between the authors.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Please check the guidelines (https://www.euro-online.org/web/pages/601/guidelines [www.euro-online.org]).

Letters of appreciation are important.

The jury selects a short-list of finalists who will present their work in a special session at the 29th European Conference on Operational Research in Valencia. There is no registration fee for one author of each of the finalist presentations. The winner will be determined by the jury at the end of the special session and will be announced by the chair of the jury during the closing session of the EURO 2018 Conference.

Applications should be submitted online http://www.euro-online.org/awards/eepa2018/registration.php [www.euro-online.org] before January 31, 2018.