In 2020, the topic “Configuration” reached the headlines of public press!
See the New York Times of March 18th, 2020: “Customers Want Customization, and Companies Are Giving It to Them” by Aviva Freudmann.
This is a good reason to participate in the 23rd Workshop on Configuration that will take place at the Siemens Conference Center in Vienna, Austria on September 16th-17th, 2021 (Thursday & Friday)!
Overview
Configuration is a special type of design approach where the product being configured is composed from instances of a set of predefined component types that can be combined in ways defined by a set of constraints. This task requires powerful knowledge representation formalisms and acquisition methods to capture the variety and complexity of configurable products. Furthermore, efficient reasoning methods are required to support intelligent interactive behavior, solution search, satisfaction of user preferences, personalization, optimization, reconfiguration, and diagnosis.
The main goal of the workshop is to promote high-quality research in all technical areas related to configuration. The workshop is of interest for both researchers working in the various fields of Artificial Intelligence and System Engineering mentioned below as well as for industry representatives interested in the relationship between configuration technology and the business problem behind configuration and mass customization. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, evaluations, and experiences especially related to the use of AI techniques in the configuration context.
This workshop continues the series of successful workshops started at the AAAI’96 Fall Symposium and continued on IJCAI, AAAI, ECAI and CP since 1999 (see previous workshops list https://www.eventhelpr.com/event/JmBq0ti5xxcJXF6H).
Topics
Workshop topics include but are not limited to the following ones:
a) Configuration Problems and Models
Definitions of configuration, reconfiguration, distributed configuration. Definitions of product, process, system, service configuration. Structure of configuration problems. Knowledge representation, ontologies, fuzzy and incomplete knowledge, standardization of catalog exchange formats, feature models. Representations for product and process configuration, product design and configuration.
b) Techniques for obtaining and/or maintaining Configuration Models
Knowledge acquisition methods, cognitive approaches, machine learning, data extraction methods, ontology integration, reconciliation of knowledge bases, knowledge elicitation, testing and debugging configuration knowledge bases, knowledge understanding.
c) Reasoning Methods
Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and extensions, preference based reasoning, description logics, rules, case-based reasoning, SAT-solving, Answer Set Programming (ASP), local search, genetic algorithms, neural networks, problem decomposition, optimization, multi-criteria optimization, symmetry breaking, cooperative configuration processes, explanations, distributed problem solving, benchmark proposals, knowledge-based recommendation, knowledge compilation.
d) Intelligent User Interfaces and Business Process Integration
Personalization, explanations, recommender technologies, configuration web services, related software architectures, distributed configuration. Integration into the production and selling process, Configuration for pick-to-order, assemble-to-order, make-to-order, engineer-ot-order. Product configuration and mass customization.
e) Applications and Tools
Configuration tools, design tools, application reports, new application domains such as the Internet of Things (IoT), case studies, real-world challenges, test environments for configuration knowledge bases, configuration in related fields such as software configuration, service composition, and model-driven engineering, Environments for feature model development and maintenance, design theories for applications and tools.
Paper Submission
Full papers are limited to 8 pages. Position statements and problem instances can be submitted as short papers limited to 4 pages. Both regular and short papers should be formatted in pdf according to the ECAI 2020 style guide (http://ecai2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/AuthorsPack-ECAI2020.zip) and submitted to the EasyChair environment.
Each submission will be subject to peer review by at least two members of the program committee. Refereeing criteria are relevance to workshop topics, significance and novelty of the research, technical content, discussion of relationship to previous work, and clarity of presentation. A contribution submitted as a long paper may be accepted as a short paper, if the program committee considers it to be inadequate for a long paper but to present an important issue. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register at the workshop and to present the paper.
It is possible to submit already published or submitted articles. In that case, submit both a one-page abstract (600 words) and the article, and take note that the article will not be included in the proceedings. A limited number (max 4) of already published articles will be accepted.
Best Paper Award
Configuration Workshop 2021 again plans Best Paper Awards.
Two papers will be recognized: (1) best paper, (2) best PhD student paper.
Important Dates
Abstract submission: April 4th, 2021
Full Paper submission: May 9th, 2021 June 6th, 2021
Notification of Authors: June 13th, 2021 June 28th, 2021
Camera-ready papers due: July 25th, 2021
Registration deadline: August 29th, 2021
Workshop dates: Thursday & Friday, September 16-17, 2021
EasyChair Submission Website
Please submit your paper to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=confws21.