Welcome to MESS 2026

The international Metaheuristics Summer School – MESS 2026 – is aimed at qualified and strongly motivated MSc and PhD students; post-docs; young researchers, and both academic and industrial professionals to provide them with an overview on the metaheuristics techniques, and an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art. It is a full-immersion four-days course in the beautiful and characteristic Sicily, whose goal is to offer all participants with a stimulating environment to study and learn advanced concepts and recent research in the fields of tradition and non-traditional computational paradigms in the optimization area.

The main theme of the fourth edition is "Emerging Computing Paradigms for Optimization: from Quantum to Neuromorphic", and aims to explore the new frontiers of non-traditional advacend computing, focusing mainly on and howq uantum and neuromorphic computing, and analysing how they can revolutionize the optimization of complex systems.

The courses will be taught by world-renowned experts in the field and will involve a total of 36-40 hours of lectures, therefore according to the academic system, all PhD and master students attending the summer school will can get 8 ECTS points. To this end, during the school the students will tackle homework, and/or project development for final evaluation. Furthermore, during the school days, the participants will have plenty of opportunities to debate and work with leaders in the field, benefiting from direct interaction and discussions in a friendly environment.

MESS 2026 also offers the possibility to all attendants to present their recent results and/or their works in progress through interaction with their scientific peers, in a professional and constructive environment.

Venue

Department of Economics and Business
University of Catania
Palazzo delle Scienze
Corso Italia, 55
95129, Catania, Italy

Title Lectures

MESS 2026 offers a deep dive into the frontiers of Quantum and Neuromorphic computing. The program explores the entire technological stack, covering architectures, programming models, and advanced algorithms for complex optimization. Through a blend of theoretical lectures and hands-on sessions, participants will gain the expertise to lead innovation in next-generation computational research.

The lectures will focus on the following topics for both quantum and neuromorphic computing:
      1) architectures;
      2) programming models;
      3) optimzation algorithms and applications;
      4) pratical work.

Program

Local Organizing Team