ANTS'98
Call for Extended Abstracts
 
ANTS'98 - From Ant Colonies to Artificial Ants:
First International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization
 
Last updated Feb 9, 1998

Brussels, Belgium, October 15-16, 1998
 
 
Up-to-date information on the conference can be found at

http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~ants/ants98/ants98.html

Conference email address: ants98@iridia.ulb.ac.be

The behavior of ant colonies and how they coordinate complex activities like foraging and nest building has since long time fascinated researchers in ethology and animal behavior, who have proposed many models to explain these capabilities.
Recently, algorithms taking inspiration from the behavior of real ant colonies have been applied to solve many types of optimization problems.
This new approach to distributed optimization is known as "Ant Colony Optimization".
Ant Colony Optimization has been applied successfully to a large number of difficult combinatorial problems like the quadratic assignment and the traveling salesman problems, to routing in telecommunications networks, to clustering and sorting problems, etc.
ANTS'98 is the first event entirely devoted to Ant Colony Optimization and more in general to algorithms inspired by the observation of ant colonies behavior.
Also of great interest to the workshop are models of ant colonies behavior which could stimulate new algorithmic approaches.
The aims are to give researchers in both real ants behavior and in ant colony optimization an opportunity to meet, to present their latest research, and to discuss current developments and applications.
The two-day event will be held in Brussels, Belgium, from October 15 to October 16, 1998. In the evening of October 14 there will be a tutorial on ant colony optimization.

RELEVANT RESEARCH AREAS

Submissions are invited that describe: (1) Models of aspects of real ant colonies behavior, (2) Empirical and theoretical research in Ant Colony Optimization. Submissions that describe the application of Ant Colony Optimization methods to real-world problems are encouraged.

SUBMISSION OF EXTENDED ABSTRACTS

Format: Extended abstracts should be of approximately 3 pages plus one title page (4 pages all together). All accepted abstracts will be presented at the workshop. All attendees will receive a copy of all abstracts that are accepted for presentation at the conference.
The title page must contain the title of the paper, the names and addresses of all authors, and the full address of the first author (or the contact person), including phone, fax and e-mail.
An electronic version (compressed PostScript) of the title page plus extended abstract, and an electronic version of the title page only (plain ASCII), should be emailed by May 31, 1998 to ants98@iridia.ulb.ac.be.
Only if electronic submission is not possible, then authors can send four hard copies of the extended abstract to the Program Chair.

PUBLICATION IN JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE

A selection of the best papers will be published in the Future Generation Computer Systems journal, special issue on Ant Colony Optimization, North Holland (Editor M. Dorigo).

REGISTRATION AND FURTHER INFORMATION

Up-to-date information about the workshop will be made available at the ANTS'98 web site (http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ants98/ants98.html). For information about local arrangements, registration forms, etc., please refer to the above mentioned web site, or contact the local organizer at the address below.
A registration fee of BF 6,500 will cover local organization expenses, coffee breaks, and a social dinner on the Thursday 15 evening.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline                            31   May 1998
Notification of acceptance                    15   July 1998
Camera ready copy of abstract               1   September 1998
Conference                                     15-16   October 1998

PROGRAM CHAIR AND LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS

Marco DORIGO, IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

SUBMISSIONS ADDRESS

Extended abstracts should be emailed to: ants98@iridia.ulb.ac.be

PROGRAM CHAIR ADDRESS

Marco Dorigo, Ph.D.
Chercheur Qualifié du FNRS
IRIDIA CP 194/6
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium

Tel +32-2-6503169
Secretary +32-2-6502729
Fax +32-2-6502715

CONFERENCE LOCATION

Avenue A. Buyl 87
Building C - 4th floor (IRIDIA, Dorigo's lab, is at the 5th floor of the same building).
There will be arrows and indications to the workshop room.

LIMITED NUMBER OF PLACES

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 ants98@iridia.ulb.ac.be.