Call for Papers - Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2026)
25–28 August, 2026
Nottingham, United Kingdom
https://patatconference.org/patat2026/
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Submission deadline: Wednesday, 1 April 2026
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AIM AND SCOPE
The International Series of Conferences on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT) is held biennially as the main international forum for both researchers and practitioners of timetabling to exchange ideas. PATAT 2026 which is the fifteenth in the conference series, will be held in Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Whether it is sporting events, educational institutions, transportation or employee management, the construction of efficient timetables which provide the maximum in way of flexibility for all constituent parts, including stakeholders, is as important as it is challenging. An increasingly important aspect within organisations is an automated approach which optimises all aspects of resource usage. In doing so, a number of quantitative and qualitative challenges must be dealt with from both a technical and practical perspective.
An important aim of the conference is to align the needs of practitioners and the objectives of researchers. This is achieved through the presentation and application of leading-edge research techniques. Practitioners and Researchers alike are encouraged to present their work and experiences with the overall goal of developing efficient and practical solutions. With this goal in mind, at PATAT 2026, researchers and practitioners will be brought together through a number of key presentations and contributed talks.
Topics of interest and themes of the conference include, but are not limited to:
- Educational Timetabling
- Timetabling in Transport
- Employee Rostering
- Sports Timetabling
- Timetabling in Healthcare
- Mathematical Programming
- Constraint-Based Methods
- Knowledge-Based Systems
- Heuristic Search
- Metaheuristics (e.g., Evolutionary Computation, Simulated Annealing,
Tabu Search, Ant Colony Methods)
- Systems to Build Systems (e.g., Hyper-heuristics, Algorithm Portfolios)
- Algorithm Configuration
- Artificial Intelligence
- Trustworthiness, Fairness and Ethical Issues in Timetabling
- Graph Colouring
- Resource Capacity Planning
- Parallel/Distributed Computing
- Hybrid Methods (e.g., Memetic Computing, Matheuristics)
- Machine Learning (e.g., Data Mining, Classifier Systems, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Deep Learning, GFlowNets)
- Expert Systems
- Multi-objective Approaches
- Multi-criteria Decision Making
- Preference Collection and Elicitation in Timetabling
- Foundational Studies (e.g., Complexity Issues)
- Timetabling Tools and Technologies (e.g., Web Applications, Interactive
and Batch Systems, Standard Data Formats, Ontologies, Experiences, Libraries)
INVITED SPEAKERS
* Jeroen Mulder, Air France-KLM, France
* David Pisinger, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
* Hana Rudova, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
* Kevin Tierney, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
PUBLICATION
Authors are invited to submit their work in one of three categories:
1. Full papers: to describe significant, original and unpublished work (max 12 pages).
2. Abstracts: People who wish to give a talk (e.g. practitioners, researchers with preliminary or incomplete papers) but do not want to submit a full paper can submit abstracts of up to 1000 words (not exceeding 4 pages).
3. Demonstration abstracts: to showcase innovations and contributions of timetabling systems set in production by industrial researchers and practitioners (up to 1000 words, not exceeding 4 pages).
All submissions will be peer reviewed by the members of the programme committee. Accepted contributions will be invited for an oral presentation at the event and included in the PATAT 2026 proceedings after the event.
Submission details are available at: https://patatconference.org/patat2026/
JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE
Authors of contributions of all three categories will be invited to submit extended versions of their work as full papers to be considered for publication in a Special Issue of the Journal of Scheduling.
IMPORTANT DATES
- Paper Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 1 April 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: Friday, 15 May 2026
- Early Registration Closes: Monday, 22 June 2026
- Conference: Tuesday-Friday, 25–28 August 2026
PROGRAMME CO-CHAIRS
- Daniel Karapetyan, University of Nottingham (UK), daniel.karapetyan(ATT)nottingham.ac.uk
- John Drake, University of Leicester (UK), john.drake(ATT)leicester.ac.uk
- Edmund Burke, Bangor University (UK), ekb(ATT)bangor.ac.uk
- Barry McCollum, Queen's University Belfast (UK), barrymccollum(ATT)eventmapsolutions.com
- Ender Özcan, University of Nottingham (UK), ender.ozcan(ATT)nottingham.ac.uk
LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE
- Daniel Karapetyan, University of Nottingham (UK), daniel.karapetyan(ATT)nottingham.ac.uk
- John Drake, University of Leicester (UK), john.drake(ATT)leicester.ac.uk