CfP EvoSTOC, Stochastic and Dynamic Environments

Dear colleague,

we kindly would like to inform/remind you about the forthcoming 
submission deadline (November 14) of the EvoSTOC 2004 conference.

Best regards,
    Juergen Branke and Yaochu Jin

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             CALL FOR PAPERS
               EvoSTOC2004
First European Workshop on Evolutionary Computation
       in Stochastic and Dynamic Environments
         Coimbra, Portugal, 5-7 April 2004
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In  many  real-world  optimization  problems, a wide range of
uncertainties has to be taken  into account. Generally,  uncertainties
in evolutionary optimization can be categorized into three classes:
1. The fitness function is stochastic. Uncertainties may be either
    biased or unbiased. Noise in fitness evaluations may result from
    many
    different sources such as sensory measurement errors or numerical
    instabilities in simulation.Large biases often occur when the
    fitness
    function has to be estimated, e.g. if approximate models are used
    or fitness inheritance is adopted in order to save costly fitness
    evaluations.
2. The design variables or the environmental parameters are subject to
    perturbations or deterministic changes. It is very common that a
    system to be designed needs to still work satisfyingly even when the
    design variables change slightly, e.g. due to manufacturing
    tolerances, or it has to work well in a variety of possible
    environmental conditions. This issue is often known as the search
    for robust solutions.
3. The fitness function is dynamic, in other words, the optimum of the
    system changes with time, requiring a repeated re-optimization or
    even continuous tracking.

Handling uncertainties in evolutionary optimization has received an
increasing interest in the evolutionary community. A variety of methods
for addressing uncertainties have been reported from different application
backgrounds. The objective of this workshop is to foster interest in the
issue of handling uncertainties, to provide a forum for researchers to
meet and a platform to present and discuss latest research in the field.
Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:
- handling noisy fitness functions
- searching for robust optimal solutions
- tracking moving optima
- sophisticated real-world applications.

The  workshop is  sponsored by  EvoNet, the  Network of  Excellence in
Evolutionary Computing. It will be part of EvoWorkshops2004 and will be
held  in  conjunction  with  EuroGP2004, the  European  Conference  on
Genetic Programming,  and EvoCOP2004,  the 4th European  Conference on
Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization.

Papers may be submitted in PostScript or
PDF format via email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Manuscripts should be submitted before 14 November 2003 and should
not exceed 12 pages. Please follow the format of the Springer manuscript
style, refer to http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html for
details.
Each accepted paper has to be presented orally at the workshop and
will be published by Springer together with the other EvoWorkshops.

Each accepted paper has to be presented orally at the workshop and
will be published by Springer together with the other EvoWorkshops.
Selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version to a
special issue of IEEE Transactions.

For further details see
http://evonet.dcs.napier.ac.uk/eurogp2004/evostoc

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline:         14 November 2003
Notification of acceptance:  19 December 2003
Final copy due:              16 January 2004
Workshop:                    5-7 April 2004

PROGRAMME CHAIRS
Juergen Branke                     Yaochu Jin
University of Karlsruhe, Germany   Honda Research Institute Europe

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*---------------------------------------------------*
 Dr. Juergen Branke
 Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe
 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
 Phone: ++49 (721) 608-6585   Fax: ++49 (721) 693717
 E-mail: branke @ aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de
*---------------------------------------------------*