ROAR-NET’s Second General Meeting at IUS Brings Together Experts from 36 Countries

The International University of Sarajevo (IUS) hosted the Second General Meeting of ROAR-NET on February 18-19, 2025. The event was organized by Associate Professor Dr. Özge Büyükdağlı and attended by 86 participants from 36 countries.

ROAR-NET aims to enhance the competitiveness of randomized optimization algorithms (ROAs) in practical applications by identifying and addressing scientific, technical, economic, and human-level barriers to adoption. The network prioritizes the needs of practitioners, whose work generates the economic value of optimization solvers. These needs drive new theoretical, methodological, and technical advancements, supporting the development of software tools, training materials, and educational programs to promote wider acceptance and use of ROAs.

Bringing together a diverse group of ROA theoreticians, algorithm developers, applied researchers, software engineers, and practitioners from over 40 countries, ROAR-NET ensures that its frameworks, libraries, and software tools remain relevant to real-world challenges while aligning with cutting-edge theoretical developments. The network’s geographical reach strengthens its ability to create versatile, globally applicable solutions for complex optimization problems.