Scheduling and timetabling in practice and theory

Short Description and Goals

Scheduling problems are ubiquitous in computer software/hardware and in the industry. Timetabling problems, on the other hand, manifest themselves in various settings, affecting organizations (e.g. hospitals, schools, universities), companies (e.g. transport companies, call centers, service industries) and the society in general (e.g. resource capacity planning). In this special session we welcome researchers to present their findings about the latest advances in complex scheduling and timetabling problems. Their papers may feature applications, novel approaches, innovative techniques and theoretical findings in scheduling and timetabling. Since such problems are usually computationally hard, high performance computing approaches are welcomed and endorsed. Researchers from the fields of computer science, operations research, artificial intelligence, discrete mathematics, software engineering and several other fields should find this session as a proper outlet for their valuable work. A non-exhaustive list of topics relevant to the special session include graph coloring, mathematical programming, artificial intelligence, constraint programming, heuristics, metaheuristics, educational timetabling, sports scheduling, healthcare timetabling, transport timetabling, employee rostering, parallel and distributed approaches to timetabling, and timetabling applications.

Special Session Organizers

Dr. Christos Gogos, Associate Professor, University of Ioannina

Christos Gogos is a faculty member of the University of Ioannina where he holds the position of Associate Professor at the department of Informatics and Telecommunications. He received his diploma degree in computer engineering and informatics from the University of Patras and a master’s degree in High Performance Algorithms from the University of Athens. He worked for several companies as a consultant about software development and technology integration. His PhD was awarded to him by the University of Patras and is in the research area of solving hard combinatorial optimization problems. His research interests include but are not limited to the following topics: algorithms, optimization, timetabling, mathematical programming, high performance computing and computational intelligence. He is the author of over 50 papers at scientific journals and conferences.

Dr. Christos Valouxis, University of Patras

Christos Valouxis holds the position of specialized and laboratory teaching staff at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Patras. He has published several papers in scheduling and timetabling and his research activities has attracted much interest. He has many years of experience in mathematical modeling and in solving complex scheduling problems including nurse rostering, high school timetabling, bus and driver scheduling and others.

Dr. Panayiotis Alefragis, University of Peloponnese and London South Bank University

Assoc. Prof. Panayiotis Alefragis has more than 25 years of experience in software engineering and the design of optimization algorithms for very large scale problems in various application areas. He holds a Diploma (1995) and a PhD(2000) in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Patras, Greece. His research interests include software engineering, high performance, edge and cloud computing, programming langu­a­ges and compilers, resource scheduling algorithms, integer and combinatorial optimization, production scheduling, energy markets and mobile/embedded applications. He has co-authored over 60 articles in refereed scientific journals & conference proceedings and he has extensive practical experience by participating in various national and international research projects in the above areas. Dr. Alefragis was one of the founders and the Managing Director of Lyseis Ltd, a specialized software company for optimization software for the airline industry, with clients including, among others, Lufthansa AG and AIMS. He is currently associate professor at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Peloponnese and is on sabbatical leave at London South Bank University. He can be contacted by sending an e-mail to alefrag at uop.gr.