Gé rard-Michel Cochard is Professor Emeritus at Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, where he has held various senior positions. He has also served at the French Ministry of Education and the CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Mé tiers). His research is conducted at the Eco-PRocé dé s, Optimisation et Aide à la Dé cision (EPROAD) laboratory, France.
Mhand Hifi is Professor of Computer Science at Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, where he heads the EPROAD UR 4669 laboratory and manages the ROD team. As an expert in operations research and NP-hard problem-solving, he actively contributes to numerous international conferences and journals in the field.