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New Publication of IEE Member

Metaheuristics in the Modern Economy – a new book of IEE-research fellow Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada with scientific editions of Orkun Karabasoglu from MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dedicated to the applications and comparison of heuristic optimization methods like Tabu Search (TS), Genetic Algorithms (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in modern economy. In addition, the author shows the advantages of the hybrid metaheuristics combining pure strategies.

The most of the real scheduling problems in job-shop scheduling are non-deterministic polynomial-time hard and that’s why cannot be solved in appropriate time even with supercomputers, available only to the limited number of scientific and defense institutions. With the emergence of the mass production and consumer markets in the 1950s importance of the optimization of the machine-scheduling have grown. As an alternative to precise optimization methods, heuristic algorithms deliver good results with less time and equipment costs than precise methods. But which metaheuristic is appropriate for a concrete enterprise? The author compares the existing major metaheuristics and concludes that hybrid metaheuristic algorithms adapted to a concrete job-shop problem is the most efficient strategy in solving real scheduling problems.

Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada: Metaheuristiken in der modernen Ökonomie. - Bochumer Universitätsverlag, 2015. - 129 S. - ISBN 978-3899667615

IEE Working Paper vol. 208

Dr. Martina Shakya,  IEE senior research fellow, published her paper "Social Capital, Tourism and Socio-Economic Transformation of Rural Society: Evidence from Nepal" as volume 208 of the IEE Working Paper series.

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IEE Working Paper vol. 209

Annika Engelbert,  student in the IEE PhD-IDS programme, published her paper "The Role of Anti-Corruption Agencies in the Investigation and Prosecution of Procurement Related Corruption Cases" as volume 209 of the IEE Working Paper series.
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Upcoming PhD Conference on International Development

4th PhD Conference on International Development
24 - 25 September 2015
Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum/Germany

The IEE together with the School of International Development (DEV), University of East Anglia, UK, the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL, and our partners in the UA-Ruhr Graduate Centre, the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) and the Institute of Political Science (IfP), University of Duisburg-Essen, is organizing the 4th PhD PhD Conference on International Development.

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EUSA_ID 2nd Call for Applications

The second call for applications is now open until 28 february 2015.

For non-degree seeking mobilities for the MADM at Ruhr University Bochum the application deadline is already 31 January 2015 as the mobility starts in April 2015.

South African Master and PhD candidates and staff are invited to apply for a mobility period at one of the European EUSA_ID partner universities while European PhD candidates are invited to apply for a mobility period at one of the South African partner universities!

More information on the EUSA_ID website.

Summer School in Ghana on Urban and Periurban Agriculture in West African Cities

From 28th September to 3rd October 2014, the Urban Food Plus (UFP) project will be conducting a summer school on urban and periurban agriculture (UPA) at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale/Ghana. The aim of the summer school is to present the state of the art on UPA and the on-going research activities of UFP in two West African cities (Tamale/Ghana and Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso). The UFP summer school will bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners from Africa and Europe. A special focus of the summer school will be on the potentials of biochar as a soil amendment in the context of Ghana.

The international UFP project investigates options for enhancing resource use efficiency in urban and periurban agriculture for improved food security in West African cities. It is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The IEE is coordinating UFP sub-project "Economics", which is assessing the economic impacts of biochar application and improved irrigation management.

For more information on UFP see the UFP section on our website.

For more information on the UFP summer school: http://www.urbanfoodplus.org/index.php?id=120