This special issue contains selected papers that are based on presentations at the 8th International Conference on Optimization: Techniques and Applications (ICOTA8) which was held in Fudan University, Shanghai, 10–13 December 2010.
The goal of ICOTA is to provide an international forum for scientists, researchers, software developers, and practitioners to exchange ideas and approaches, to present research findings and solution methodologies, to share experiences on potentials and limits, and to open new avenues of research and developments, on all issues and topics related to optimization and its applications. The first ICOTA was held in 1987 in Singapore. Starting from 1992, ICOTA has been held regularly once every three years. ICOTA is now an official conference series of the Pacific Optimization Research Activity Group.
The organizing committee of the 8th ICOTA was co-chaired by Xiaolin Sun, Duan Li, Shouyang Wang, and Ya-xiang Yuan. The steering committee was co-chaired by Jie Sun and Wuyi Yue, and the international programming committee was co-chaired by Masao Fukushima and Kok Lay Teo. Eight plenary talks were given by Kurt M. Anstreicher, Aharon Ben-Tal, Christodoulos A. Flouda, Graham C. Goodwin, Jean B. Lasserre, Shinji Mizuno, George L. Nemhauser, and Shuzhong Zhang. Presented at the conference were also more than 140 contributed talks, ranging from nonlinear programming, equilibrium problems, combinatorial and discrete optimization, integer programming, low-rank matrix optimization, polynomial optimization, approximation methods, heuristics methods, scheduling, network optimization, DEA models, semi-infinite programming, optimal control, DC programming, and optimization in finance, logistics, and supply chain management.
This special issue consists of 16 high-quality papers selected from the contributed talks of the conference. These papers provide an overview of the high-quality talks at ICOTA8. We would like to thank the referees and editorial board members Mihai Anitescu, Igor Konnor, Liqun Qi, and Luis Nunes Vicente of Optimization Methods and Software for their help in handling papers in this special issue.