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Important dates  
Abstract Submission (not mandatory for full paper submission) May 12, 2025 (AOE time)
Paper Submission June 23, 2025 (AOE time)
Paper Notification July 31, 2025 (AOE time)
Camera ready TBC
Early registration TBC
Registration deadline TBC
Workshop October 25-26, 2025 (AOE time)

Overview

Configuration is a special type of design approach where the product being configured is composed from instances of a set of predefined component types that can be combined in ways defined by a set of constraints. This task requires powerful knowledge representation formalisms and acquisition methods to capture the variety and complexity of configurable products. Furthermore, efficient reasoning methods are required to support intelligent interactive behavior, solution search, satisfaction of user preferences, personalization, optimization, reconfiguration, and diagnosis.

Topics of interest

Workshop topics include but are not limited to the following ones:

  • Configuration Problems and Models. Definitions of configuration, reconfiguration, distributed configuration. Definitions of product, process, system, service configuration. Structure of configuration problems. Knowledge representation, ontologies, fuzzy and incomplete knowledge, standardization of catalog exchange formats, feature models. Representations for product and process configuration, product design and configuration.
  • Techniques for obtaining and/or maintaining Configuration Models. Knowledge acquisition methods, cognitive approaches, machine learning, data extraction methods, ontology integration, reconciliation of knowledge bases, knowledge elicitation, testing and debugging configuration knowledge bases, knowledge understanding.
  • Reasoning Methods. Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and extensions, preference based reasoning, description logics, rules, case-based reasoning, SAT-solving, Answer Set Programming (ASP), local search, genetic algorithms, neural networks, problem decomposition, optimization, multi-criteria optimization, symmetry breaking, cooperative configuration processes, explanations, distributed problem solving, benchmark proposals, knowledge-based recommendation, knowledge compilation.
  • Intelligent User Interfaces and Business Process Integration. Personalization, explanations, recommender technologies, configuration web services, related software architectures, distributed configuration. Integration into the production and selling process, Configuration for pick-to-order, assemble-to-order, make-to-order, engineer-to-order. Product configuration and mass customization.
  • Applications and Tools. Configuration tools, design tools, application reports, new application domains such as the Internet of Things (IoT), case studies, real-world challenges, test environments for configuration knowledge bases, configuration in related fields such as software configuration, service composition, and model-driven engineering, Environments for feature model development and maintenance, design theories for applications and tools.

Green Configuration

The focus on Green Configuration refers to the EU Green Deal as stated in the EU Agenda 2050 to drive the EU community to a more sustainable future. EU Agenda 2050 fixes a pathway of goals to be urgently achieved by the whole production system at environmental, economic and social levels. Beside the EU Agenda 2050, given the condition of the global crisis it is urgent to address the green and digital transition also to re-configure traditional processes to face current and potential scarcity of resources and constant recession. Researcher from academia and industry are called to act jointly to provide solutions to operate more efficiently while facing time of crises (e.g., global health emergencies, consequences of conflicts and war in transport and resource scarcity, climate change) and to detect opportunities for a more sustainable future.

Focus on Green Configuration addresses the following topics:

  • Recycling and waste management. Configuration process and waste prevention. Designing production processes for green configuration. Recycling strategies enabled by product configuration. Waste prevention with configuration processes. Refurbishing and remanufacturing configuration strategies.

  • Configuration process to engage users in green deal. UX to support sustainability. User engagement in green behaviors. Tomorrow’s workforce in configuration management, training and education.

  • Configuration in time of crisis. Designing solutions for critical environment. Mobility and sustainability. Smart Health approaches to configure new health care assistance.

  • Out of the box. Going beyond traditional configuration approaches opening up new horizons.

Paper Submission

  • Full papers are limited to 10 pages (including references).
  • Position statements and problem instances can be submitted as short papers limited to 4 pages (including references).
  • Published articles: It is possible to submit already published or submitted articles. In that case, submit both a one-page abstract (600 words) and the article, and take note that the article will not be included in the proceedings. A limited number (max 4) of already published articles will be accepted.

Full and short papers submitted to ConfWS 2025 must be original. The submission, or a highly similar version of it, cannot have been published or accepted in a journal or another conference proceedings. Further, submissions must not be concurrently under consideration for publication or presentation elsewhere. In this case, consider to submit your work as a published article (one-page abstract).

Each submission will be subject to peer review by at least two members of the program committee. Refereeing criteria are relevance to workshop topics, significance and novelty of the research, technical content, discussion of relationship to previous work, and clarity of presentation. A contribution submitted as a full paper may be accepted as a short paper, if the program committee considers it to be inadequate for a long full paper but to present an important issue.

Website submission: Papers should be submitted to EasyChair.

Formatting guidelines: Both full and short papers must be formatted in PDF according to the new CEUR-ART style using the two-columns template.

Latex users should modify the following code placed at the start of the Latex document as follows:

\copyrightyear{2025}
\conference{ConfWS'25: 27th International Workshop on Configuration, Oct 25--26, 2025, Bologna, Italy}

Word users should modify the same information at the bottom of the first page.

Publication: The proceedings will be published in the CEUR Workshop Proceedings library.

At least one author of each accepted paper must register and present the paper in ConfWS’25 in order for the submission to be published.

Best Paper Award

ConfWS’25 again plans Best Paper Awards. Two papers will be recognized:

  • The best paper.
  • The best PhD student paper.