<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#467886;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:11.0pt;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-GB" link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Dear colleague,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With apologies for cross-posting, we would like to bring to your attention an exciting computational
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">competition on algorithms for train scheduling optimization!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We have collected real problem instances from various sources and combined them in a library called
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">DISPLIB with a simple but powerful file format. No previous knowledge on railway operations needed!
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We hope to foster collaboration and competition among researchers, but also provide an open
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">dataset for everyone developing and benchmarking new train scheduling algorithms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The competition starts now (October ‘24) and ends in April ’25. The winners will be offered the
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">opportunity to present in a special session at the International Conference on Optimization and
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Data Science 2025 (<a href="https://www.airoconference.it/">ODS2025</a>) and be invited to submit an extended report to the Journal of Rail
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Transport Planning and Management (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-rail-transport-planning-and-management">JRTPM</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">You can find more information at <a href="https://displib.github.io/">
https://displib.github.io/</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I hope you could help us spread the word and forward this message to whoever you think might be
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">interested in participating. We think this is particularly interesting for graduate students and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">researchers, even if they have no previous experience on railway optimization problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Sincerely, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The DISPLIB2025 Competition organizing committee<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="IT">(Oddvar Kloster, Bjørnar Luteberget, Carlo Mannino, Giorgio Sartor)</span><span lang="IT" style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>