<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0cm 0cm 12pt;text-align:center;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">CALL FOR PAPERS</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span class="gmail-il"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">QuantOpt</span></b></span><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">@GECCO-2023</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">2<sup>nd</sup> Workshop
on </span></b><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Quantum Optimization</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Genetic and
Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'23)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Lisbon, Portugal,
July 15-19, 2023</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0cm 0cm 12pt;text-align:center;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Paper Submission Deadline: April 14, 2023</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Scope</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Quantum computers are rapidly becoming more powerful and
increasingly applicable to solve problems in the real world. They have the
potential to solve extremely hard computational problems, which are currently
intractable by conventional computers. Quantum optimization is an emerging
field that focuses on using quantum computing technologies to solve hard
optimization problems.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">There are two main types of quantum computers: quantum annealers
and gate-based quantum computers. Quantum annealers are specially tailored to
solve combinatorial optimization problems. They find (near) optimal solutions
via quantum annealing, which is similar to traditional simulated annealing, and
use quantum tunnelling phenomena to provide a faster mechanism for moving
between states and faster processing. On the other hand, gate-based
quantum computers are universal and can perform general purpose calculations.
These computers can be used to solve combinatorial optimization problems using
the quantum approximate optimization algorithm and quantum search algorithms. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Quantum computing has also given rise to quantum-inspired
computers and algorithms. Quantum-inspired computers use dedicated
hardware technology to emulate/simulate quantum computers. Quantum-inspired
optimization algorithms use classical computers to simulate some physical
phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform quantum
computations, in an attempt to retain some of its benefit in conventional
hardware when searching for solutions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">To solve optimization problems on a quantum computer, we need to
reformulate them in a format suitable for the quantum hardware, in terms of
qubits, biases and couplings between qubits. In mathematical terms, this
requirement translates to reformulating the optimization problem as a Quadratic
Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. This is closely related to
the renowned Ising model. It constitutes a universal class, since all
combinatorial optimization problems can be formulated as QUBOs. In practice,
some classes of optimization problems can be naturally mapped to a QUBO,
whereas others are much more challenging to map.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Content</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">The aim of the workshop is to provide a forum for both scientific
presentations and discussion of issues related to quantum optimization. As
the algorithms that quantum computers use for optimization can be regarded as
general types of randomized search heuristics, there are potentially great research
benefits and synergy to bringing together the communities of quantum computing
and randomized search heuristics. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">The workshop aims to be as inclusive as possible and welcomes
contributions from all areas broadly related to quantum optimization – by
researchers from both academia and industry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Particular topics of interest include, but are not limited
to: </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Formulation of
optimization problems as QUBOs (including handling of non-binary
representations and constraints)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Fitness landscape
analysis of QUBOs</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Novel search
algorithms to solve QUBOs</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Experimental
comparisons on QUBO benchmarks </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Theoretical analysis
of search algorithms for QUBOs </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Speed-up experiments
on traditional hardware vs quantum(-inspired) hardware</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Decomposition of
optimization problems for quantum hardware</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Application of the
quantum approximate optimization algorithm</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Application of Grover's
algorithm to solve optimization problems</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Novel
quantum-inspired optimization algorithms</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Optimization/discovery
of quantum circuits</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Quantum optimization
for machine learning problems</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Optical Annealing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Dealing with noise
in quantum computing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol;color:black">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt;line-height:107%;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Quantum Gates’
optimization, Quantum Coherent Control</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">All accepted papers of this workshop will be included in
the Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference
(GECCO'23) Companion Volume.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Key
Dates<br>
</span></b>Submission Opening: February
13, 2023<br>
<b>Paper Submission Deadline: April 14, 2023</b><br>
Notification of Acceptance: May 3, 2023<br>
Camera-Ready Copy Due: May 10, 2023<br>
Author Registration: May 10, 2023<br>
Conference Presentation: 15 July 2023 to 19 July 2023</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Instructions
for Authors</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We
invite submissions of two types of paper:</p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Regular
papers (limit 8 pages)</span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Short
papers (limit 4 pages)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Papers should present original work that meets the
high-quality standards of GECCO. Each paper will be rigorously evaluated in a
review process. Accepted papers appear in the ACM digital library as part of
the Companion Proceedings of GECCO. Each paper accepted needs to have at least
one author registered by the author registration deadline. Papers must be
submitted via the online submission system <a href="https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/gecco/" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">https://ssl.linklings.net/conferences/gecco/</span></a>. Please refer to <a href="https://gecco-2022.sigevo.org/Paper-Submission-Instructions" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">https://gecco-2022.sigevo.org/Paper-Submission-Instructions</span></a> for more detailed instructions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Workshop Chairs </span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Alberto
Moraglio, University of Exeter, UK, </span><a href="mailto:a.moraglio@exeter.ac.uk" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">a.moraglio@exeter.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Mayowa
Ayodele, Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe, UK, </span><a href="mailto:mayowa.ayodele@fujitsu.com" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">mayowa.ayodele@fujitsu.com</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-indent:18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Francisco
Chicano, University of Malaga, Spain, </span><a href="mailto:chicano@lcc.uma.es" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">chicano@lcc.uma.es</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Oleksandr
Kyriienko, University of Exeter, UK, </span><a href="mailto:o.kyriienko@exeter.ac.uk" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">o.kyriienko@exeter.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ofer
Shir, Tel-Hai College and Migal Institute, Israel, </span><a href="mailto:ofersh@telhai.ac.il" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204)">ofersh@telhai.ac.il</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 8pt 18pt;line-height:11.75pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Lee
Spector, Amherst College, USA, </span><a href="mailto:lspector@amherst.edu" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">lspector@amherst.edu</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:11.75pt;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p></div>