EUROGEN99 is the third in this series of EUROGEN Short Courses. The first course took place in Las Palmas in 1995 and the second in Trieste in 1997. EUROGEN95 concentrated on the theory of genetic algorithms whereas EUROGEN97 was more focused on applications. The theme of EUROGEN99 was chosen to be Recent Advances in Genetic Algorithms, Evolution Strategies, Evolutionary Programming, Genetic Programming and Industrial Applications. Special emphasis was given to practical industrial and engineering applications.
The Short Course consisted of 16 invited presentations, 3 tutorials, 8 industrial INGENET presentations and 25 contributed talks. There were 104 participants in the Short Course from 20 countries.
The invited presentations and the industrial INGENET presentations were published by John Wiley & Sons as a book "Evolutionary Algorithms in Engineering and Computer Science" edited by Kaisa Miettinen, Marko M. Mäkelä, Pekka Neittaanmäki and Jacques Periaux.
The contributed talks were published as a Report of the Department of Mathematical Information Technology, at the University of Jyväskylä, entitled Proceedings of EUROGEN99 -- Short Course on Evolutionary Algorithms in Engineering and Computer Science, edited by Kaisa Miettinen, Marko M. Mäkelä, Jari Toivanen.
The European Scientific Committee of EUROGEN99 consisted of T. Bäck (Germany), P. Neittaanmäki (Finland), C. Poloni (Italy), H.P. Schwefel (Germany), A. Desideri (France), J. Périaux (France), D. Quagliarella (Italy) and G. Winter (Spain).
Kaisa Miettinen, Marko M. Mäkelä, Pekka Neittaanmäki and Jari Toivanen formed the local organizing committee. The actual organization of the Short Course was carried out at the Department of Mathematical Information Technology. The Short Course staff included also Janne Kanner, Tuomas Kautto, Markku Könkkölä, Elina Laiho-Logren, Niko Luojumäki, Tommi Myöhänen, Markus Pelkonen, Jussi-Pekka Pulkkinen, Marja-Leena Rantalainen, Marja-Liisa Salonen, Tuukka Tawast and Mika Videnoja.
EUROGEN99 lasted five days. The program in the form it was realized is available electronically. The first activity of EUROGEN99 was a boat cruise on Sunday to Savutuvan apaja. The actual Short Course program started on Monday with three tutorials by professors Naujoks, Deb and Periaux. The official opening of EUROGEN99 took place before the invited presentations. The rector of the University of Jyväskylä together with the coordinator of INGENET opened the Short Course. The program on Monday continued with three invited presentations given by professors Haataja, Fogel and De Jong. The day was concluded by a reception hosted by the city of Jyväskylä.
Six invited presentations were given on Tuesday. The speakers were professors Fogel, Koza, Koza (on behalf of Bennett), Michalewicz, Reeves and Tomassini. A number of 11 contributed presentations in two parallel sessions concluded the day.
On Wednesday, professors Deb, Dorigo, Dulikravich and Rudnicki gave their invited presentations. After them, 13 contributed presentations were given. The Short Course banquet was served in restaurant Priimus.
Professors Cerrolaza, Lutton and Luchian gave the last invited presentations on Thursday morning. The program continued with industrial sessions. To start with, the coordinator of INGENET gave a short introduction to the Thematic Network. Then, achievements of eight tandems of INGENET partners were described. In between, the DECISION project was introduced. The final activity of EUROGEN99 was the INGENET M18 Midterm meeting (INGENET Activities 1998-1999) for INGENET members in the evening.