[Call] 10th AIROYoung Workshop and Ph.D. School, February 9-13, 2026 @Padova, Italy – Registration opening and 1st Call for Contributions

[Alice Raffaele]

Dear all,

After last month's preliminary message about the dates of the 10th AIROYoung Workshop and Ph.D. School (10AYW), we are excited to announce that the registration and abstract submission will open on November 3rd, at 17:00 CET. Here is the link to the official website: https://ayw2026.github.io, where you will find all the information about every part of the event.

Below, we have included all details about important dates, registration, abstract submission, accommodation grants, short paper submission, and awards.

For any questions, please feel free to email airoyoungw...@gmail.com.

We can't look forward to seeing you in Padova to celebrate our first ten years!

The 10AYW organizing committee and the AIROYoung Board

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Call for Registration and Contributions to the 10th AIROYoung Workshop and Ph.D. School – Optimization between determinism and uncertainty

University of Padua, February 09-13, 2026

With this call, we invite all AIROYoung members, Ph.D. students, and early-stage Researchers (Ph.D. degree <= 5 years) in Operations Research and related topics, or anyone with a strong interest in OR under 35 years old, to submit an abstract to be presented during the workshop.

REGISTRATION – Deadline: January 28, 2026

- One of AIROYoung’s missions is to involve everyone in its events, regardless of their funds. For this reason, our events are free for everyone, and we work hard to secure some funding to help with accommodation.

- Participants submitting an abstract and simple attendees are required to fill in the Workshop Registration Form (link to the form will be available here on November 3rd, at 17:00 CET).

- Please note that you can first register and later submit an abstract, even after days or weeks. We kindly ask you to register as soon as possible to get an estimate of the number of participants (and also, if you want to apply for an accommodation grant, the sooner, the better – see below).

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION – Deadline: December 10, 2025

- Authors can submit an abstract to give a short presentation of their work by filling out the Abstract Registration Form (link to the form will be available here on November 3rd, at 17:00 CET).

- Submitted abstracts must be limited to one page (including references). Please use the LaTeX or the Word template available here and upload a ZIP file containing all source files and a PDF version of your abstract. Please name your PDF file SURNAME_NAME_10AYW and the ZIP archive SURNAME_NAME_10AYW.zip.

- The author will be notified of the contribution's acceptance by email by December 23, 2025.

- Please note that each author can give at most one talk during the event.

ACCOMMODATION GRANTS

- Thanks to the financial support offered by AIRO and our sponsors, we are able to provide several accommodation grants to cover accommodation expenses for the entire event (i.e., hotel check-in on February 8, Sunday afternoon, and check-out on February 13, Friday morning).

- Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to participants who indicate their interest in applying for the grant during the registration process and are (willing to become) AIRO members.

- Note that you are already an AIRO member if you have registered for The International Conference on Optimization and Decision Science (ODS) 2025 or if you have paid the AIRO registration fee for the year 2026. Otherwise, to become an AIRO member, please follow the instructions here.

- Grants availability: 12 grants for those who, regardless of their career stage, submit an abstract to hold a presentation and whose abstract is accepted, + 4 grants for those who do not submit an abstract, but must be master’s or first-year Ph.D. students (in this case, a certificate from a supervisor is required to confirm this).

- Participants who will be awarded an accommodation grant will receive a notification by December 23, 2025, with all the instructions to follow to confirm the grant.

SHORT PAPER SUBMISSION – Deadline: February 14, 2026

- Besides abstracts, young researchers and practitioners can submit a short paper as a book chapter of a future volume in the AIRO Springer Series.
- Attending the workshop is not mandatory for submitting a short paper.

- For guidelines and templates for submitting a short paper, please visit the related Springer page.

- For submissions, please visit the dedicated Meteor platform.

AWARDS

Authors presenting during the workshop or submitting a short paper to our Volume in the AIRO Springer Series will have the opportunity to get their work recognized as outstanding. More precisely, there will be the following two awards:

• Optit Best Presentation Award – You can indicate your interest in participating in the Abstract Submission form; prize: €500.
• Cargoful Best Paper Award – Participation is automatic and limited to authors submitting a paper to the Springer volume; prize: €300.

More details will be available soon.

PH.D. SCHOOL LECTURERS – February 9:

- Marco Di Summa, University of Padova

- Matteo Fischetti, University of Padova

- Francesco Rinaldi, University of Padova

- Domenico Salvagnin, University of Padova

WORKSHOP PLENARY SPEAKERS – February 10-13:

- Martine Labbé, Université Libre de Bruxelles

- Stefan Ropke, Technical University of Denmark

- Hande Yaman Paternotte, KU Leuven

- Wolfram Wiesemann, Imperial College London

SPECIAL ROUNDTABLE TO CELEBRATE AIROYoung 10th ANNIVERSARY – February 12:

During the workshop, we will have a special session with AIROYoung's founders and members of former and current boards, who will share with the audience the origin of AIROYoung, its mission and growth through the years, what it meant for each of them, and how it affected their career paths.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:

- The event is open to national and international Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and young practitioners working mainly in Operations Research, but also in Machine Learning and Data Science.

- As usual, no registration fees for participants, thanks to the support of our national and international sponsors.

- There will be one plenary session only, some industrial talks, and social events.

If you want to know more or have questions, you can write to us at airoyoungw...@gmail.com

The Organizing Committee

Manuel Aprile, University of Padova

Francesco Cavaliere, FICO

Martina Galeazzo, University of Padova

Dario Palasgo, University of Padova

Anthony Palmieri, University of Padova

Lorenzo Perinello, University of Padova

Matteo Pernini, ESSEC Business School

Alice Raffaele, University of Padova (chair)

Gabriele Sanguin, University of Padova

The AIROYoung Board

Matteo Cosmi, University of Luxembourg

Martina Doneda, University of Bergamo

Alessandro Druetto, University of Torino

Andrea Mancuso, University of Naples Federico II

Sara Stoia, University of Calabria

Marta Leonina Tessitore, University Roma Tre

Websites and Social Media 

10AYW official website: https://ayw2026.github.io

AIROYoung official website: https://airoyoung.airo.org

LinkedIn: AIRO Young

Facebook: AIROYoungResearchersChapter 

Instagram: airoyoung 
X: AIROyoung