FRICO 2023 - The 26th Workshop on Future Research in Combinatorial Optimization
August 14 - 18 2023, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

The 26th Workshop on Future Research in Combinatorial Optimization will take place from August 14 to August 18 2023 at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

FRICO is directed at PhD students from the following research areas:

Every participant will give a ~30 minute presentation about their research. It is especially encouraged to present ongoing work and open problems.

FRICO does not have a conference fee. This is made possible by our sponsors:
On Wednesday 16th, the 'industry day', they will explain how they apply combinatorial optimization in practice.

To get a general impression of FRICO, visit the webpage of FRICO 2022, which took place in Bonn, or have a look at the history of FRICO. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at frico2023@tue.nl.


Main organizers
Organizers

Program

The program is tentative and subject to change.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9:00 Registration and opening
9:30 3 talks 2 talks 3 talks 3 talks
10:00 2 talks
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Coffee break Coffee break 3 talks Coffee break Coffee break
11:30 3 talks 3 talks 3 talks 2 talks
12:00
12:30 Lunch Closing and awards
13:00 Lunch Lunch Lunch
13:30 Lunch
14:00 Industry talk Activity and dinner
14:30 3 talks 3 talks
15:00 Coffee break
15:30 Industry talk
16:00 Coffee break Coffee break
16:30 3 talks 3 talks Coffee break
17:00 Industry talk
17:30
18:00 Break
18:30 Dinner and pub quiz Dinner and game night1 Travel to dinner
19:00 onw. Conference dinner

1Participants are invited to bring their own (board) games to play! Some board games and playing cards are available at the venue.

Registration

To register for FRICO 2023, send an email to frico2023@tue.nl containing the following information:

Within five working days, you will receive a confirmation of your submission. If this is not the case, please contact the organizers directly.

The deadline for registration is June 14. Although we aim to welcome as many participants as possible, there is a limit on the number of talks we can accommodate. Talks will be selected based on how closely they adhere to the research interests of FRICO. You will receive a definitive confirmation of your participation shortly after the deadline.

For the collection and processing of personal data necessary for registration, please review our privacy policy.

Hotels

We recommend the following hotels:

You can also look at: airbnb.nl and booking.com.

Venue

FRICO 2023 takes place at Eindhoven University of Technology. The campus is at walking distance from the station and city center and offers ample parking space. The conference will take place in the Corona room in Luna. Coffee breaks and lunches are organized at student cafe Hubble, in the same building.

A map of the campus can be found here.

History of FRICO

Ulrich Pferschy described the origin of the FRICO in the program booklet of the 10th FRICO as follows:

" … However, some people who are taking part in this relaxed exchange of ideas for the first time may ask themselves how such an unstructured event came about. To prevent the formation of false legends, which are sometimes already spread in an hour with wine, I would like to briefly present the official version of the FRICO creation.
In the autumn of 1996, a two-week summer school on the approximation of combinatorial optimization problems took place in Udine (this was the summer school to which the great Papadimitriou had mistakenly arrived a year too early). On the free weekend contained therein, it was obvious to undertake an excursion into the surrounding wine country. At least this was the firm conviction of the two Graz participants, Rüdiger Rudolf and myself. Since excursions of this kind are only half as nice for two (if they are men), we successfully tried to win the apparently like-minded participants Dagmar Handke (Konstanz) and Katja Wolf (Cologne) as companions. The beautiful excursion ended in a trattoria in Cividale with a special local dish, which can best be described as a mixture of potatoes, onions, bacon, and cheese; nothing for a weak stomach. The Frico cheese, a Friulian specialty, gives the dish its name. In a cheerful circle, Katja invited all of us to a Frico dinner in Cologne without knowing what she was starting.
However, it was to take over a year before this invitation could be made more concrete. Now the way from Graz to Cologne is quite long, and as optimizers, we tried to combine the pleasant with the useful. Without further ado, we offered to combine the private visit with a lecture at the then ZPR Cologne. And so that it didn′t look as if the people of Cologne can only listen and have nothing to say themselves, Katja immediately obliged a few "locals" to give further lectures. Thus a one-day workshop had developed in the twinkling of an eye. Although the organizer said: "We can′t call it FRICO", I managed to find the acronym that is known today.
The first FRICO Workshop in 1997 was a great success (in contrast to the Frico dinner in the evening, which was canceled from the program in the following years). This moved Professor Schrader to donate a barrel of Kölsch and to "threaten" to continue organizing this event format on his own if we did not. Of course, we couldn′t afford to let that happen, and so the second FRICO was decided in Graz in 1998.
The rest is history."


Previous FRICOs and best talk awards