(Apologies for cross postings)
************************************************************************************  
                          9th International Workshop on 
                 COMBINATIONS of INTELLIGENT METHODS and APPLICATIONS
                                   (CIMA 2021)
                    (URL: http://aigroup.ceid.upatras.gr/cima2021/)
                                                        
                               in conjunction with
  The Twelfth International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications
			           (IISA 2021)  

                          12-14 July 2021, Chania, Greece 

*************************************************************************************
                                CALL FOR PAPERS
*************************************************************************************

The combination of different intelligent methods is a very active research area 
in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The aim is to create integrated or hybrid methods
that benefit from each of their components. It is generally believed that complex
problems can be easier solved with such integrated or hybrid methods. Some of the 
existing efforts combine what are called soft computing methods (fuzzy logic, 
neural networks and genetic algorithms) either among themselves or with more 
traditional AI technologies such as logic and rules. Another stream of efforts 
integrates case-based reasoning and machine learning with soft-computing and 
traditional AI methods. Yet another integrates agent-based approaches with logic 
and also non-symbolic approaches. Some of the combinations have been quite important 
and more extensively used, like neuro-symbolic methods, neuro-fuzzy methods and 
methods combining rule-based and case-based reasoning. However, there are other 
combinations that are still under investigation, such as those related to the 
Semantic Web and Deep Learning. In some cases, combinations are based on first 
principles, but in most cases they are created in the context of specific 
applications.  

The Workshop is intended to become an annual forum for exchanging experience and 
ideas among researchers and practitioners who are dealing with combining intelligent 
methods either based on first principles or in the context of specific applications.  

Topics of interest of the Workshop are (but not limited to):

    Bayesian Networks
    Case-Based Reasoning
    Deep Learning
    Ensemble learning, Ensemble methods
    Evolutionary Algorithms
    Evolutionary Neural Systems
    Fuzzy-Evolutionary Systems
    Hybrid Approaches for the Web
    Hybrid Knowledge Representation Approaches & Systems
    Hybrid and Distributed Ontologies
    Information Fusion Techniques
    Integrations of Neural Networks
    Intelligent Agents Integrations
    Integrations of Statistical and Symbolic AI Approaches
    Intelligent Agents Integrations
    Machine Learning Combinations
    Neuro-Fuzzy Approaches/Systems
    Reinforcement learning
    Semantic Web Technologies Integrations
    Swarm intelligence methods & integrations
    Applications
        Agents & Multi-agent Systems
        Big Data
        Biology, Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
        Decision Support and Recommender systems
        Economics, Business and Forecasting Applications
        Education & Distance Learning
        Industrial & Engineering applications
        Medicine & Health Care
        Multimodal Human Computer Interaction
        Natural language Processing and Understanding
        Planning, Scheduling, Search & Optimization
        Robotics
        Social Networks

This year we are very interested in combinations of intelligent methods for sentiment 
analysis and emotion recognition.

PAPER SUBMISSION

We are interested in high quality research papers on the above or related topics. 
Interested authors are invited to submit original contributions to the workshop. 
The papers should be submitted through the IISA-21 submission system (https://easyconferences.eu/iisa2021/submission/). In the "Select Tack" page, 
choose "CIMA 2021" (or similar choice). In preparing your submission, follow IISA-21 
guidelines (https://easyconferences.eu/iisa2021/instructions-for-authors/). All papers 
will be refereed by at least two members of the program committee of the Workshop. 
Accepted papers will be presented at the Workshop sessions of the conference. 


PROCEEDINGS

The proceedings of the workshop will be part of the IISA 2021 proceedings (IEEEXplore 
approval pending). After the workshop, we may issue a Springer volume with extended 
versions of the accepted papers, after a second review round. 

ATTENDANCE

One of the authors of each accepted paper should register for the IISA Conference 
and present the work at the associated Workshop session of the conference. If none 
of the authors is registered, their paper will not be presented at the Workshop and
will not be included in theproceedings. Registration info is available in https://easyconferences.eu/iisa2021/.  

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper submission: 15 March, 2021
Acceptance notification: 15 April, 2021
Camera-ready: 26 April 2021


ORGANIZERS AND CO-CHAIRS

Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis,  University of Patras, Greece
Maria Virvou, University of Piraeus
Vasile Palade, Coventry University, UK
Isidoros Perikos, University of Patras, Greece

  
PROGRAM COMMITTEE (TBA)