The purpose and structure

of the FIPSE meetings

FIPSE-7 will take place at the Makedonia Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki, Greece.

It is the seventh conference in a series initiated in 2012. An overview of the conference’s daily format is provided below.
The details of the technical program can be found HERE. Information about the conference site can be found HERE.

The FIPSE meetings also aim to produce a white paper
summarizing the presentations and discussions from each of its three daily sessions.

News: In the spring of 2025, the FIPSE trustees established two Innovation Awards.

More details are provided HERE.

Purpose and Types of FIPSE Papers

Purpose of FIPSE Meetings

The primary purpose of a FIPSE meeting is to identify the most significant open research challenges related to the three daily topics discussed.

FIPSE Presentations and Publications

Invited presentations:

The organizers of each of the three daily sessions invite two speakers to deliver in-depth and authoritative analyses of crucial open research challenges and emerging research directions in selected PSE topics. These presentations last for 45 minutes and are followed by a 30-minute open discussion period.

Two months before the conference, invited speakers must submit a three-page draft summarizing the main points of their presentations. These texts will serve as the foundation for writing a white paper that describes the presentations and discussions of the day.

Contributed presentations:

A maximum of five contributed short presentations will be included in a session following the invited talks. These presentations, lasting no more than 10 minutes, should also address one significant open problem related to the daily topic, albeit with a much narrower focus than the invited talks.

Individuals interested in delivering a brief presentation must submit a 3-page paper that defines the open research challenge problem six months before the conference. The session organizers and the FIPSE Trustees will review these papers to determine if they make a significant contribution to the daily topic. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to collaborate with the invited speakers and session organizers in drafting the post-conference white paper.

Poster presentations:

For FIPSE-7, participants wishing to present a poster must submit a half-page abstract at least two months prior to the conference.

Special journal issue:

The white papers from each daily conference session will be included in a special virtual issue of a leading journal within our community. All presenters of short and poster papers who do not contribute to the writing of the main post-conference papers will have the option to submit a short paper for publication in this special issue based on their FIPSE presentation.

Structure of each Daily Session

Each day, the program has two invited keynotes that define a broad set of open problems in the day’s topical area.

In addition, three to five additional short presentations define one challenging open research problem each in the technical area under consideration.

The tentative program for each day looks as follows:

Morning Session: 8:45 – 13:00

08:45 – 09:00 Welcome and mission of the day
09:00 – 09:45 First Keynote
09:45 – 10:00 Discussion
10:00 – 10:45 Second Keynote
10:45 – 11:00 Discussion
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30 Short presentations 15 min each
- ONLY 10 minutes for each presentation
- ONLY 8-9 slides
- Plus 5 minutes for discussion
12:30 – 13:00 Further Discussion

Lunch: 13:00 – 14:30

Afternoon Session: 14:30 – 16:30

14:30 – 16:00 Discussion of open problems in small groups
16:00 – 16:30 Small groups report to all

END of the Day: 16:40 (Approximate)

Speakers are strictly required to limit their presentations to the allotted time. Plenary speakers should spend more than 70% of their time discussing and defining challenging OPEN problems.

Short presentations have just enough time to define a single open problem succinctly.

Posters are set up early in the morning, and authors discuss with participants during coffee breaks and at the end of the lunch break.

Discussions, Discussions, and Discussions of Open Research Challenges

Each day of the conference is devoted to a single topic of Process Systems Engineering. The FIPSE trustees select the three topics and the corresponding leader. These day-leaders further define the topic and, with the help of the FIPSE trustees, select the invited speakers.

The invited two speakers for each day make a 45-minute morning presentation. These presentations focus 70% of their time on defining a few significant open research problems the community should address in the next 5 to 10 years.

In the second half of the morning session, 4 short talks are presented. They are selected from proposals submitted ahead of the conference. These talks will also be listed in the conference program.

The morning session concludes with suggestions on making the afternoon discussions most productive.

In the afternoon session, the participants break into groups of 6-8 members. They discuss further and define the open problems of the day’s topic in greater detail. Each group reports to all participants, and another round of discussions follows where all participants are involved. The day organizer(s) and the two invited speakers, with some help from the graduate students present, keep a record of what was discussed.

Over the following six months, the day organizer(s) and the invited speakers produce a draft manuscript that describes what was discussed and concluded at the conference. This draft is circulated among all FIPSE participants for comments and suggestions for improvement before submission to a leading journal. All who contribute substantial edits become co-authors. This publication aims to inform the general community and motivate researchers to help solve the defined challenges or to pursue alternative ones.