KBS were proud to host CO 2016 an International Symposium on Combinatorial Optimisation. The conference was part of a series of biennial conferences jointly organised with ECCO (European Chapter on Combinatorial Optimization).<\/p>\n
CO 2016<\/a> is a primary forum for researchers interested in the area of combinatorial optimisation from theoretical perspectives to its vast spectrum of applications.<\/p>\n The symposium took place in early September at Kent Business School<\/a> on the University of Kent<\/a>\u00a0Canterbury campus<\/a>. Previous conferences have taken place in M\u00fcnchen (2014),\u00a0Oxford (2012), Malaga (2010), Warwick (2008), Porto (2006), Lancaster (2004), Paris (2002), Greenwich (2000), Brussels (1998) and London (1996).<\/p>\n Kent Business School\u2019s Professor Said Salhi<\/a> chaired the Program Committee and the Organizing Committee: \u201cAs one of a series of biennial international symposia on combinatorial optimization, CO 2016 continues to attract participants from all over the world.” There were 45 participants including 3 plenary speakers; Professor Panos\u00a0Pardalos from Florida, Professor Martin Skutella from Berlin and Professor Adam Letchford from Lancaster. The delegates came from 17 countries from all the 5 continents. Topics of interest included theory and applications of combinatorial optimisation and approximation algorithms, heuristics, and meta-heuristics for combinatorial optimisation problems.<\/p>\n The delegates found the conference to be interesting, relaxing and well-organised. One delegate noted there was not even one cancelled talk which is extremely unusual! Social highlights of the symposium included a Canterbury walking tour to Canterbury Cathedral<\/a>\u00a0and a Conference Dinner at Caf\u00e9 du Soleil.<\/p>\n A special issue in a 3* journal (Annals of Operation research) edited by Professor Salhi<\/a> (lead guest editor) and Professors Richard Eglese from Lancaster and Nicolas Hadji-Constantinou from Imperial\/Cyprus is scheduled (submission deadline is 31st<\/sup> October 2016).<\/p>\n Special thanks go to the Kent Business School organizing committee, which included: Professor Said Salhi<\/a> (Chair), Dr Nader Azizi<\/a>, Becky Callaghan<\/a>, Dr Gabor Nagy<\/a>, Dr Maria Paola Scaparra,<\/a> Jeeu Fong Sze<\/a> (Yvonne), Paul Verrion<\/a>, and Niaz Wassan.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"