Intermodal Terminals Optimization and Simulation

Call For Papers

Intermodal Terminal Optimization and Simulation

Track at the International Workshop on Harbour, Maritime & Multimodal Logistics Modelling and Simulation

(HMS 2008)

Track Chairs: M. Flavia Monaco^(a), Luca Maria Gambardella^(b)

Affiliation: ^(a) University of Calabria (Italy), ^(b) IDSIA Lugano (Switzerland)

Contacts: ^(a) monaco@deis.unical.it, ^(b) luca@idsia.ch

Track Description

The management of an intermodal terminal is a complex task, which involves a great number of decisions to be taken at different levels, from strategic development down to the single move of a container or TEU. Almost as often, the sheer amount of the information makes nearly impossible for the human operators to see the "big picture", that is, the whole terminal in its complexity, considering the multiple interactions of the various concurrent processes, such as yard planning, resource allocation (berths, container handling equipment, and manpower), ship/train/trucks loading and unloading. It is clear that Operations Research and Simulation techniques could bring the advantage of making a better use of the available information and, consequently, to increase the overall performance. This is not an easy task. The models describing the terminal processes and the solution techniques must be studied and designed with great care, often with a conflicting objective in mind: models should include all the significant characteristics but, at the same time, they should be simple enough to be computationally solvable. The goal of this track is to investigate recent research issues in optimization and simulation for the efficient management of maritime and dry intermodal terminals. Topics under investigation include:

- Yard management

- Resource allocation and scheduling

- Loading/unloading optimization

- Heuristics and exact methods for intermodal terminal management

- Simulation of intermodal optimization policies

Nevertheless different topics concerning Intermodal Terminal Optimization and Simulation are welcome.

Key Dates

Submissions of Extended Abstracts (extension) May 5, 2008

Notification of acceptance: May 20, 2008

Early Registration: June 10, 2008

Final Camera-Ready Submission (extension) June 24, 2008

Authors' Guidelines (further information author’s instruction section)

FIRST SUBMISSION

Extended abstracts (minimum 2 pages), full draft papers or other proposals should be submitted for the review process through the submission section by May 5, 2008.

The extended abstract or the full draft paper must contain title, authors, affiliations, addresses, main body and references.

Each extended abstract or full draft paper will be reviewed by at least two members of the International Program Committee taking into consideration scientific quality, originality and relevance. Only original papers, written in English will be accepted.

The extended abstract or the full draft paper should be prepared by following the final paper formatting. However any type of paper formatting can be accepted for the first submission.

NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE

Notification of acceptance will be sent by May 20, 2008.

CAMERA READY PAPER SUBMISSION

The International Program Committee will accept two types of camera ready papers: extended paper (10 pages, 2 columns); regular paper (6 pages, 2 columns) both for regular and special sessions.

The camera ready paper must adhere to the conference template. The .dot file contains the complete instructions for preparing a camera ready copy for the Proceedings. The final version of the paper must be a PDF file.

Your camera ready paper (extended paper or regular paper) in PDF format must be submitted by using the submission section before the 24^th of June 2008

The page limit for manuscripts is ten (10) pages (included in the author registration fee). Additional pages will require an additional fee.

If your work must be cleared or approved before publication by your institution, company, or governmental agency, please be sure that process will be completed by the due date above or we will not be able to include it in the CD Conference Proceedings.