The 3rd International Conference on the Harmony Search Algorithm (ICHSA 2017) will be held in Bilbao (Bizkaia, Basque Country, Spain), a beautiful venue internationally recognized for business, trading and its devotion to first-level R&D, as buttressed by more than two hundred technology-based companies and R&D centers established in the region. ICHSA 2017 targets information exchange and cross-fertilization among academia, research centers and industry. The 2017 edition of this international event will span beyond the development, design and applications of naive, variants, and hybrid methods of the Harmony Search Algorithm: prospective authors are encouraged to present their latest achievements around Computational Intelligence, with particular emphasis on innovative bio-inspired optimization methods (Evolutionary Computation, Swarm Intelligence) and their applicability to exploratory data analysis, predictive modeling and optimization.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Analytical convergence studies of meta-heuristics
- Theoretical foundations of meta-heuristics
- Improved variants of the HS algorithm
- Hybridizations of HS and other avant-garde meta-heuristic solvers (e.g. FA, CS, BA)
- Parallel and distributed computing implementations of bio-inspired optimization schemes over Big Data architectures
- Examples of the application of meta-heuristics to data mining (including Deep Learning models)
- Applications of bio-inspired optimization algorithms to different sectors

Paper acceptance and publication will be judged based on their technical relevance and alignment to the main themes of the event, clarity of presentation, originality and accuracy of results and proposed solutions.

All accepted papers will be included in the Symposium Proceedings, which will be published by Springer as part of Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Extended versions of the best papers accepted and presented at ICHSA 2017 may be considered for publication in a Special Issue of an internationally recognized journal, indexed in relevant databases.

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IMPORTANT DATES
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Paper submission deadline: August 25th, 2016
Acceptance notification: September 30th, 2016
Final paper submission: November 18th, 2016
Conference dates: February 22nd-24th, 2017

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ORGANIZERS:
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TECNALIA Research & Innovation, Spain (www.tecnalia.com, bigdatabytecnalia.com)
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain (www.ehu.eus)

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COMMITTEE:
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General Chair

Javier Del Ser, TECNALIA and EHU/UPV, Spain

International Steering Committee

Joong Hoon Kim, Korea University, South Korea
Zong Woo Geem, Gachon University, South Korea
Ali Kaveh, Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran
Anupam Yadav, Korea University, South Korea
Ling Wang, Tsinghua University, China
M. Tamer Ayvaz, Pamukkale University, Turkey
Ioannis Kougias, European Commission, Italy
Nicolaos Theodossiou, Aristotle University, Greece
Osama Moh'd Alia, University of Tabuk, South Arabia
Ponnuthurai Nagaratnam Suganthan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Do Guen Yoo, Korea University, South Korea
Kusum Deep, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
M. Fatih Tasgetiren, Yasar University, Turkey
Reza Sirjani, Cyprus International University, Cyprus
Chung-Li Tseng, University of New South Wales, Australia
Ali Sadollah, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Ardeshir Bahreininejad, Institut Teknologi Brunei, Brunei
Rosni Abdullah, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Miren Nekane Bilbao, EHU/UPV, Spain
Sergio Gil-Lopez, TECNALIA, Spain
Iyad Abu Doush, Yarmouk University, Jordania
David Camacho, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Sancho Salcedo-Sanz, Universidad de Alcala, Spain

Organizing Committee

Javier Del Ser, TECNALIA and EHU/UPV, Spain
Miren Nekane Bilbao, EHU/UPV, Spain
Cristina Perfecto, EHU/UPV, Spain
Jesus L. Lobo, TECNALIA and EHU/UPV, Spain
Ibai Laña, TECNALIA and EHU/UPV, Spain
Esther Villar-Rodriguez, TECNALIA, Spain
Ana I. Torre Bastida, TECNALIA, Spain
Manuel M. Velez, EHU/UPV, Spain
Iker Sobrón, EHU/UPV, Spain
Izaskun Oregui, TECNALIA and EHU/UPV, Spain