Event sponsored by:

The ANTS 2002 conference proceedings are available online. For more information click here. The behavior of social insects in general, and of ant colonies in particular, has long since fascinated both the scientist and the layman. Researchers in ethology and animal behavior have proposed many models to explain interesting aspects of social insect behavior such as self-organization and shape-formation. Recently, ant algorithms have been proposed as a novel computational model that replaces the traditional emphasis on control, preprogramming, and centralization with designs featuring autonomy, emergence, and distributed functioning. These designs are proving flexible and robust, they are able to adapt quickly to changing environments and they continue functioning when individual elements fail. A particularly successful research direction in ant algorithms, known as ant colony optimization (ACO), is dedicated to their application to discrete optimization problems. Ant colony optimization has been applied successfully to a large number of difficult combinatorial problems such as the traveling salesman problem, the quadratic assignment problem, scheduling problems as well as to routing in telecommunication networks. ANTS 2002 is the third edition of the only event entirely devoted to ant algorithms and to ant colony optimization. Also of great interest to the workshop are models of ant colony behavior which could stimulate new algorithmic approaches. The workshop will give researchers in both real ant behavior and in ant colony optimization an opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to discuss current developments and applications. All submitted papers will be peer reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. The conference proceedings will be published in the Springer-Verlag's Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. The three-day workshop will be held in Brussels, Belgium, September 12-14, 2002. In the late afternoon of September 11th there will be also a tutorial on ant algorithms. RELEVANT RESEARCH AREAS ANTS 2002 solicites contributions dealing with any aspect of ant algorithms and ant colony optimization. Typical, but not exclusive topics of interest are: Models of aspects of real ant colonies behavior that can stimulate new algorithmic approaches. Empirical and theoretical research in ant algorithms and ant colony optimization. Application of ant algorithms and ant colony optimization methods to real-world problems. Related research in swarm intelligence. Deadline for paper submission April 14, 2002 The number of participants will be limited. If you intend to participate please fill in and send the intention form, or drop a line to ants-registration@iridia.ulb.ac.be. - General information about Brussels and Accomodations in Brussels is available here. - Note that just before ANTS 2002, the conference PPSN-VII, will take place in Granada, Spain.

Access statistics:

Last updated Jan 11, 2002