Scope and Topics

Currently, electric energy is used in most of the devices, machines, processes and modern technology used around the world. There are diverse sources of energy, with interesting applications each, from nuclear to hydro energy through hydroelectric plants, wind turbines, PV systems, tidal, geothermic energy and others. Owing to global warming and the increase of the population and industry, expanding the use and reliance on alternatives to fossil fuels has become paramount, and the development of new technologies and theories to help maximize their potential. This is particularly true since current technologies still need improving, from cost reduction to increasing their useful life and reducing their inherent dangers in some cases (such as nuclear energy), in order to make them competitive with fossil fuel based energy production. Conversely, the use of fossil fuels is still a reality in our world, so optimizing its use is also a high priority. Therefore, the need to improve the manner in which we produce and consume energy has become a central point of our technological development as we move into a new decade.

One avenue of research and development at our disposal to reach such goals is to use powerful tools from mathematical optimization and meta-heuristic methods. These tools can prove to be a powerful ally in the optimization of energy use and extraction, as well as in the reduction of downtimes, operation costs and hazards.

The goal of the Numerical and Evolutionary Optimization (NEO) workshop series is to bring together people from all optimization fields to discuss, compare and merge their complimentary perspectives. NEO encourages the development of fast and reliable hybrid methods that maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of each underlying paradigm, while also being applicable to a broader class of problems. Moreover, NEO fosters the understanding and adequate treatment of real-world problems, particularly in emerging technologies that affect us.

Though all the above issues will be highly welcome for this year’s event, the "NEO Energy" 2020 edition will have a particular focus on energy problems, such as health structural monitoring, active and passive control, diagnostic and prognostic of failure and damages, optimization techniques for data processing, evolutionary computing for preventive maintenance, services and inspection, and other related topics we enlist below.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

A) Optimization, Machine Learning and Metaheuristics applied to:

  • Energy production and consumption
  • Wind power
  • Solar and PV energy
  • Nuclear energy
  • Bioenergy
  • Ocean energy
  • Hydro energy

B) Search and Optimization:

  • Single- and multi-objective optimization
  • Advances in evolutionary algorithms and genetic programming
  • Hybrid and memetic algorithms
  • Set oriented numerics
  • Stochastic optimization
  • Robust optimization

C) Real World Problems:

  • Health monitoring systems
  • Computer vision and pattern recognition
  • Energy optimization and prediction
  • Modeling and control of real-world energy systems
  • Smart cities