What is ISCO?

ISCO (Integer Symposium on Combinatorial Optimization) is a biannual symposium whose aim is to bring together researchers from all the communities related to combinatorial optimization, including algorithms and complexity, mathematical programming, operations research, stochastic optimization, graphs and combinatorics. Quality papers on all aspects of combinatorial optimization, from mathematical foundations and theory of algorithms to computational studies and practical applications, are solicited.

Each ISCO conference is preceded or followed by a Spring School lectured by international Combinatorial Optimization searches. This school is dedicated to PhD students but the lectures are also opened to older colleagues.

Scope of ISCO

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Approximation algorithms
• Branch-and-bound algorithms
• Branch-and-cut-and price algorithms
• Computational biology
• Computational complexity
• Computational geometry
• Constraint Programming
• cutting plane algorithms
• Exact and parameterized algorithms
• Graph and network algorithms
• Interior point methods
• Linear and nonlinear integer programming
• Local search algorithm
• Metaheuristic
• On-line algorithms
• Polyhedral combinatorics
• Randomized algorithms
• Scheduling algorithms

A bit of history

The first issue of ISCO was held in Hammamet, Tunisia in March 2010. This first attempt gathered more than 200 participants in a beautiful mediterranean country. The plenary sessions as well as all the talks have shown the large spectrum of our Combinatorial Optimization domain. Pierre Bonami from University of Méditerranée, Gerard Cornuéjols from Carnegie Mellon University and Andrea Lodi from University of Bologna have given a Spring School on "Cutting plane methods for integer and combinatorial optimization".

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2012 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics (ENDM): ISCO2010 ENDM volume.

A special issue in 2010 DAM special issue has been published.

The second issue has been moved to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea in Athens, Greece in April 2012. This second conference has been organized with colleagues from the Athens University Of Economics & Business in the deep center of the famous town. From this conference, ISCO topics has been extended to Theoretical Computer Science aspects of Combinatorial Optimization. A Spring School was organized around "Mathematical Programming and Design of Approximation Algorithms" with lectures by David Shmoys and David Williamson from Cornell University, USA.

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2012 has been published by Elsevier in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2012 LNCS volume.

Three special issues was dedicated to ISCO2012:
- a 2012 Mathematical Programming special issue,
- a 2012 Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) special issue,
- and a 2012 RAIRO Operation Research special issue have been published.

The third issue has been organized on the side of the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon, Portugal in March 2014 with colleagues from the university of Lisbon around Luis Gouveia. A Spring School on "Stochastic Programming" will be organized before the conference by Rüdiger Schultz (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) and Jonas Schweiger (Zuse Institute Berlin, Germany).

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2014 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2014 LNCS volume.

A special issue of Discrete Optimization 2014 DO special issue was dedicated to the conference.

The fourth issue came back to the Mediterranean Sea in Vietri Sul Mare, Italy in April 2016 with colleagues from the university of Salerno around Raffaele Cerulli. The Spring School was dedicated to "Extended Formulations for Combinatorial Optimization" with lectures by Volker Kaibel from Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany and Samuel Fiorini from the Free University of Bruxelles, Belgium.

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2016 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2016 LNCS volume.

Two special issues
- one in Networks 2016 Network special issue
- and one in Journal of Combinatorial Optimization 2016 JOCO special issue.

The fifth issue goes to Marrakesh, Morocco in March 2018 organized with colleague from Mohammed V University at Rabat around Abdellatif El Afia. The spring school talked about "Advanced Mixed Integer Programming Formulation Techniques" with Juan Pablo Vielma and Joey Huchette from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2018 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2018 LNCS volume.

A special issue in Discrete Applied Mathematics 2018 DAM special issue has been dedicated to the 2018 edition.

The sixth issue was to be held at HEC Montreal and the University of Montreal, Canada, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held online. The online version has been organized in May 2020 by Bernard Gendron, from Université de Montréal. The conference focuses on long papers and the spring school was canceled.

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2020 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2020 LNCS volume.

A special issue in Discrete Applied Mathematics (DAM) 2020 DAM special issue has been dedicated to the 2020 edition.

The seventh issue has be held online in May 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This version has been organised with a French team directed by Ivana Ljubic and Pierre Fouilhoux. The spring school was titled "An introduction to quantum algorithms for optimization" wuth Giacomo Nannicini from the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA.

A selection of short papers presented at ISCO 2020 has been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): ISCO2022 LNCS volume.

A special issue in Discrete Applied Mathematics (DAM) 2022 DAM special issue has been dedicated to the 2022 edition.

The heigth issue will be held in Tenerife, Spain in May 2024 (see website) organized with colleague of La Laguna around Juan José Salazar González. The sprinf school will focus on Combinatorial Optimization and Machine Learning with Amitabh Basu from Johns Hopkins University, USA, and Andrea Lodi from Cornell Tech and Technion, New York, USA.

Steering Comittee

The ISCO steering comittee is

• Mourad Baiou (LIMOS, University Clermont Auvergne, France)
• Pierre Fouilhoux (LIPN, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, France)
• Luis Eduardo Neves Gouveia (CIO, University of Lisbon, Portugal)
• John Lee (University of Michigan, USA)
• Ivana Ljubic (ESSEC Business School, France)
• Nelson Maculan (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)
• A. Ridha Mahjoub (LAMSADE, University Paris Dauphine, France)
• Giovanni Rinaldi (IASI, Roma, Italy)

The french members of the steering comittee are also members of the french POC research group from CNRS.