Call For Papers: 11th ESICUP Meeting Beijing, China, March 19 – 21, 2014

ESICUP – The EURO Special Interest Group on Cutting and Beijing Jiaotong University

The purpose of ESICUP – The EURO Special Interest Group on Cutting and Packing is to improve communication among individuals working in the field of Cutting and Packing. It brings together practitioners, researchers and instructors from all around the world. Apart from the organization of meetings, the activities of the group include the promotion of publications and the maintenance of a website.

The group has been initiated by Harald Dyckhoff and Gerhard Wäscher at the occasion of the 1988 EURO/TIMS Conference in Paris. Since 2003, ESICUP is organized as an international working group of the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO). It currently has around 600 registered members. For more information on ESICUP see http://www.fe.up.pt/esicup/.

The Meeting
The 2014 edition is the 11th regular meeting of ESICUP. It provides a forum for researchers and practitioners from all over the world who are interested in presenting their research results and in learning about the latest developments in the field of Cutting & Packing. The meeting will take place in Beijing, China. It follows meetings in Wittenberg (Germany), Southampton (United Kingdom), Porto (Portugal), Tokyo (Japan), L’Aquila (Italy), Valencia (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Copenhagen (Denmark), La Laguna (Spain) and Lille (France). The conference language will be English.

The meeting will be hosted by Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), a national key university of China under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education. With origins that can be traced back to 1896, it has become one of the leading universities in China, well known, in particular, for research and education related to the construction and the management of railway systems. Its location in Beijing, less than 9 Kilometers from Tiananmen Square, makes it a university that is nearest to the heart of China.
Program Committee
Gerhard Wäscher, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (Chair); A. Miguel Gomes, University of Porto; Guochuan Zhang, Zhejiang University; Jiazhong Cha, Beijing Jiaotong University; José Fernando Oliveira, University of Porto; Julia Bennell, University of Southampton; Naihua Xiu, Beijing Jiaotong University; Ramón Alvarez-Valdes, University of Valencia; Yaodong Cui, Guangxi University; Yiping Lu, Beijing Jiaotong University; Zhiming Liu, Beijing Jiaotong University

Local Organising Committee
Zhiming Liu, Beijing Jiaotong University (Chair); Yiping Lu, Beijing Jiaotong University (Co-Chair); Guolin Duan, Hebei University of Technology; Jieping Liu, Beijing Jiaotong University; Jinmin Wang, Tianjin University of Technology and Education; Mingcheng E, Beijing Jiaotong University; Tianqiao Tang, Beijing Jiaotong University; Wei Liu, Beijing Jiaotong University; Xianghui Ning, Beijing Jiaotong University; Xiaomin Zhu, Beijing Jiaotong University; Zengqiang Jiang, Beijing Jiaotong University

Topics of Interest
Contributions dealing with any aspect of Cutting and Packing are invited. This includes theoretical achievements, model formulations, development of algorithms and real-world implementations. Typical – but not exclusive – topics of interest are:

• One-dimensional problems
• Two-dimensional rectangular problems
• Packing of irregular shapes, nesting
• Three-dimensional packing, container loading
• Bin packing problems
• Knapsack problems
• Typologies
• Problem generators, benchmark problem instances
• Variants and extensions of cutting and packing problems
• Industrial applications

Presentations on other problems which are closely related to Cutting and Packing are also welcomed.

Abstract Submission
As for the submission of abstracts, please follow the procedure described in the “Abstract Submission” section on the meeting website (see below). Authors of accepted papers will be notified by January 22, 2014 and their abstracts will be published (if registered for the conference) in the abstract book of the 11th ESICUP Meeting which will be available for download. No further conference proceedings will be published.

Conference Fees
Early registration (until January 31): 817 CNY / 100 Euro
Late registration (after January 31): 980 CNY / 120 Euro
Important Dates
January 15, 2014: Deadline for abstract submission
January 22, 2014: Notification of acceptance
January 31, 2014: Deadline for early registration and authors registration
March 19-21, 2014: 11th ESICUP Meeting
Website
http://www.fe.up.pt/~esicup/extern/esicup-11thMeeting/

Acknowledgement
The conference organizers acknowledge support from the Mathematical Programming Branch of the Operations Research Society of China.