Volume 3, Number 1, April 2007

Constraint Programming News

volume v3, number n1, April 2007

            <h4>Editors: <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~jlee/">Jimmy Lee</a> (events, career news) <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/info/perso/permanents/monfroy/">Eric Monfroy</a> (profiles, publications) <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://4c.ucc.ie/~tw/">Toby Walsh</a> (news, reports)</h4>
          </center>

  <h2>Contents</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#news">news</a>: ACP EC news, ACP Award, ... </li>
    <li><a href="#publications">publications</a>: CONSTRAINTS, Books, Special Issues, Softwares</li>
    <li><a href="#events">events</a>: conferences, workshops</li>
    <li><a href="#career">career news</a>: job opportunities, PhD scholarships, Post-doctoral positions, ...</li>
  </ul>












  <h2><a name="news" id="news">News</a></h2>






  <p>
  • ACP EC news: January 1st to March 31th, 2007

    This is a short summary of the activities of the ACP EC during the months January-March 2007.

    • CP 2008
      Two bids to host the CP 2008 conference were presented in the open call. The ACP EC selected the one from Sydney, Australia, presented by Toby Walsh. So CP 2008 will be held in Sydney in September 2008 and it will be colocated with a number of other conferences, among which ICAPS, KR, and NMR. Toby Walsh will be the Conference Chair.

    • CP 2008 Program Chair
      ACP EC members presented candidates for the position of CP 2008 Program Chair. A three phase voting procedure using Borda count was adopted to choose the PC. Initially, 14 candidates were presented. At the end, we decided to appoint Peter Stuckey as CP 2008 Program Chair.

    • Sponsorships
      We decided to support the following events:
      -- CSCLP 2007: Annual ERCIM Workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming, co-located with the French speaking days on Constraint Programming (JFPC'07), June 7th-8th 2007, INRIA Rocquencourt, France. The support amounts at 1000 euros.
      -- CP AI OR 2007: Fourth International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 23-26, 2007 - Brussels, Belgium. The support amounts at 2000 euros.
      -- CP 2007 Summer School. The support amounts at 4500 euros.

    • ACP awards
      Besides the current ACP research award and CP best paper award, we decided to add an award for best Ph.D. thesis. The rules and call for nominations for such an award will be sent out soon. We also decided to cover the expenses of the partipation to the CP conference for the receipients of the research award and the Ph.D. thesis award.

    • Feedback on Doctoral Program
      Zeynep Kiziltan is organizing the on-line procedure to get feedback from students and organizers of the past editions of the doctoral program. Emma Rollon is implementing the web site, that will be ready very soon. A mail will soon be sent to all past students and organizers asking them to fill the on-line questionnaire.

    • CP 2007 Summer School
      The Third Summer School on Constraint Programming will take place in Lloret de Mar (Spain), from June 10 to June 14. It is organized by Javier Larrosa and Pedro Meseguer. It will be a general school, with courses on different aspects of constraint programming. The program of the school includes:
      -- Symmetries in CP, by Barbara Smith
      -- Continuous constraints, by Frederic Benhamou
      -- SAT and CSP, by Lucas Bordeaux
      -- Operations Research in CP, by John Hooker
      -- CP systems, by Christian Schulte
      -- Complexity in Combinatorial Problems, by Jerome Lang
      The early registration deadline expires May 15, 2007. For more information, see the web site: http://www.iiia.csic.es/summerschols/sscp2007/

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Please visit the website of the Association, http://www.a4cp.org/. It explains the purpose of the ACP and its rules, and it provides links to the ACP EC elections, the Constraints Journal, the CP conferences, the CP summer school, the Yahoo! discussion group on constraints, and other activities of the ACP.

  • 2007 ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming
    Call for Nominations

    We hereby call for nominations for the 2007 ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming, which will be presented at CP 2007 in Providence, RI, USA, in September 2007. The purpose of this award is to celebrate those CP researchers who have made exceptional and very influential research contributions to CP with their work.

    The award recipient will give a plenary talk at CP 2007. The costs for his/her participation to the conference which will covered by the ACP.

    Nominations for this award are invited from anyone who is a member of the ACP. We recall that all participants of the last five CP conferences, plus the program committee members of the current CP conference, are members of the ACP.

    A nomination package consists of a nomination form from one nominator, and reference forms from at least 2 references.

    Typically, a nominator is somebody who knows the nominee very well, and locates the references, ensuring that they do their parts in time to produce a convincing nomination package. Ideally, a reference is a well known member of the CP community who has never had a very close relationship with the nominee, but who can speak with authority for him or her.

    Nominations and reference forms should follow the form below and should be sent (nomination forms by the nominators, and reference forms by references) by email to award07@a4cp.org. The textual part of this forms should be a statement of why the nominee deserves the award. The Award Committee is looking for evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the field. Effective letters will therefore emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

    The nomination package should arrive at the above address by May 31, 2007. We cannot accept anything received after that date. We will acknowledge receipt of nominations. The decision will become available on June 20, 2007.

    Award Committee:
    Every year, an Award Commmittee will decide the award receipient among the nominees, and will include:
    -- president and secretary of the EC
    -- the last 2 award receipients
    -- the program chair of the CP conference where the award will be given

    Thus, this year the Award Committee consist of Christian Bessiere, Eugene Freuder, Pedro Meseguer, Francesca Rossi and Pascal Van Hentenryck.

    Members of the award committee cannot be candidates, nor they can support a candidate by being a nominator or a reference.


    Enquires concerning nominations should be directed to the ACP EC secretary (Pedro Meseguer) at the address pedro@iiia.csic.es More information about the ACP can be found in the ACP web site (www.a4cp.org).

    ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming
    Nomination Form

    Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 9 by editing this form directly, and email the portion below the dotted line to award07@a4cp.org.

    The email submission must be in plain text (ASCII) and the answer to Question 9 must be limited to 300 words.

    Regarding Question 9, the Award Committee is looking for evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the CP field.

    Effective letters will therefore emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

    The information on this form is confidential. Neither the candidate nor the references will be informed of the views you express.


    1. Nominator's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; and email address)
    2. References (list at least 2 people who will submit the reference forms)
    3. Candidate's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; email address; and homepage if possible)
    4. Candidate's Education (highest degree received, field, institution, date)
    5. Record of Professional Experience (list of principal positions held and dates; please briefly describe primary responsibilities for each position)
    6. Professional Recognition (honors, awards, prizes)
    7. Contributions of Record (list 5-10 significant publications, patents, or other contributions)
    8. Noteworthy Public Services (boards, committees, etc)
    9. Please describe, in 300 words or less, the accomplishments of the candidate that, in your opinion, qualify him/her for the ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming.

    Answers to the following questions will assist in the evaluation process:
    • Which specific accomplishments made by the candidate merit the Award?
    • Where does the candidate stand in comparison to other scientists in the field of CP?
    • What impacts have the contributions of the candidate had on other fields (AI, OR, computer science, etc.), or on society?
    • If some of the candidate's contributions involved a team effort, what specifically were the candidate's contributions?



    ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming
    Reference Form

    Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 5 by editing this form directly, and email the portion below the dotted line to award07@a4cp.org.

    The email submission must be in plain text (ASCII) and the answer to Question 5 must be limited to 300 words.

    Regarding Question 5, the Award Committee is looking for evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the CP field.

    Effective letters will therefore emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

    The information on this form is confidential. Neither the candidate nor the nominator will be informed of the views you express.


    1. Reference's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; and email address)
    2. Nominator's Name
    3. Candidate's Name
    4. A reference is required to have been at "arm's length" from the candidate for the past 6 years, which here means being at a different institution from, not having supervised or been supervised by, and not having done joint work with the candidate. Please declare here any association you have ever had with the candidate.
    5. Please describe, in 300 words or less, the accomplishments of the candidate that, in your opinion, qualify him/her for the ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming.

    Answers to the following questions will assist in the evaluation process:
    • Which specific accomplishments made by the candidate merit the Award?
    • Where does the candidate stand in comparison to other scientists in the field of Constraint Programming?
    • What impacts have the contributions of the candidate had on other fields (AI, OR, computer science, etc), or on society?
    • If some of the candidate's contributions involved a team effort, what specifically were the candidate's contributions?


  • Third International Summer School of the Association for Constraint Programming
    Hotel Guitart Central Park
    Lloret de Mar, Spain
    June 10-15, 2007
    http://www.iiia.csic.es/summerschools/sscp2007/

    Constraint Programming is a flourishing area of research aiming at the efficient solving of combinatorial problems. The Third International Summer School on Constraint Programming is an introductory school on Constraint Programming and it is oriented to PhD students, researchers, and practitioners of all levels who wish to learn about this area.

      The program of the school will include the following courses:
    
      * * Symmetries in CP  (Barbara Smith)
      * * Continuous constraints (Frederic Benhamou)
      * * SAT and CSP  (Lucas Bordeaux)
      * * Operations Research in CP  (John Hooker)
      * * CP systems (Christian Schulte)
      * * Complexity in Combinatorial Problems (Jerome Lang)
      

    The school will take place in the Hotel Guitart Central Park of Lloret de Mar, Spain. Lloret de Mar is a sea resort 70 Km North of Barcelona. Instructions on how to register to the school will be posted soon at the event web page. For the moment, we can advance that the early registration fee will be approximately 350 euros and the room rate at the 3 stars hotel will of 53.40 Euros per night in single room and full board (even cheaper rates can be obtained for double rooms).

  • Grant and Professorship: award for CP/CS Chair at UCC

    University College Cork seeks an outstanding candidate for the award of a proleptic Chair in Computer Science. Candidates will be required to apply, no later than 15 June 2007, for a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Principal Investigator award that will pay their salary as a full time research professor for the first five years. A proleptic contract for a permanent full Professorship, to be taken up upon the normal termination of the SFI award, will be offered to the most suitable candidate who is deemed appointable and receives such an award. Preference will be given to candidates whose research is in the field of Constraint Programming, but applications from candidates in other fields of Computer Science who have strong potential for collaboration with Constraint Programming research at UCC will also be considered.

    Applicants should be world-class researchers. The appointee should be well suited to take up, after the initial five year research professorship, any teaching and administrative responsibilities that accompany the permanent full Professorship,while maintaining an active research program. Experience and interest in academic/industry collaboration is highly desirable.

    The UCC Computer Science Department has received approximately 30 million euro in external research funding in the past 5 years. UCC has been selected as Ireland.s University of the Year by The Sunday Times twice in the past 4 years. Cork is located on the south coast of Ireland, with convenient air and sea access to continental Europe.

    Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Eugene Freuder, Director, Cork Constraint Computation Centre to whom applicants should forward a copy of their SFI proposal.

      Email: e.freuder@4c.ucc.ie. Website: www.4c.ucc.ie
    
      Salary scale [new entrants]:  .109,104 . .140,385  
    
      Closing date for receipt of applications:  Friday, 15 June 2007
    
      Application forms and further details are
      available at:  http://hr.ucc.ie/EmploymentOpportunities or,
      Department of Human Resources, University College Cork, Ireland.
      Tel: + 353 21 4903073  / Email: recruitment@per.ucc.ie / Fax + 353 21 4276995
    
      University College Cork is an Equal Opportunities Employer
      
  • ACAI-2007: Logic for Artificial Intelligence Summer School
    August 20-28th 2007, Leuven, Belgium
    http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~dtai/acai/

    In collaboration with ECCAI, the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence, BNVKI-AIABN, the Belgian-Dutch Society for Artificial Intelligence, and SIKS, the Dutch research school for Information and Knowledge Systems, the University of Leuven is proud to organize the ACAI-2007 Summer School on Artificial Intelligence.

    ACAI, the Advanced Course on Artificial Intelligence, is ECCAI's two-yearly summer school on artificial intelligence. The 2007 edition will be hosted by the Declarative Languages and Artificial Intelligence research group of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The topic of the school is Logic for Artificial Intelligence.

    The school targets PhD students in the area of Informatics or Computer Science with some background in computational logic, who want to broaden their knowledge of the domain. ACAI-2007 features courses by leading scientists in this domain. In addition, students will have an opportunity to present their own research in a poster session.

    Program

    The summer school features eight courses, each treating a different subject within the area of logic for artificial intelligence, and each being taught by a lecturer with an outstanding international reputation.

      * Marc Denecker (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven):
       "Knowledge representation and reasoning in ID-logic."
      * Luc De Raedt (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven):
       "Probabilistic logic learning and statistical relational learning."
      * Bernhard Nebel (Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg):
        Title to be announced
      * Marie-Christine Rousset (University of Grenoble):
       "Logic-based techniques for information integration."
      * Fariba Sadri and Robert Kowalski (Imperial College, London):
       "Logic-based agents."
      * Ulrike Sattler (University of Manchester):
       "Description logics."
      * Heiner Stuckenschmidt (University of Mannheim):
       "Logic-based Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for the Semantic
        Web."
      * Pascal Van Hentenryck (Brown University):
       "Constraint Programming."
      

    Student poster session:
    Attending students will have the opportunity to present their own work at the summer school during a poster session. Students willing to take part in this poster session are invited to submit a two page abstract, which will be reviewed for relevance and interest to the summerschool's target audience.

    Social program:
    An exciting social program is included in the summer school. Full details are not yet available, but it will include a welcome drink, a party, and a daytrip to one of Flanders' nicest touristic locations.

    Location:
    Leuven hosts the oldest university of the Low Countries. Its 15-th century Town Hall and University Hall, its Great Beguinage (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage), and many other buildings bear witness of the city's splendid past. Today, Leuven is a charming small city with a young and lively atmosphere: during the academic year, 50% of its inhabitants are students, and in summer dozens of events attract visitors from everywhere. In the old center, restaurants and pubs adorn the streets.

    Reachability:
    Leuven is very easily reachable: it is at 15 minutes by train from Brussels Airport, which has direct flights to many airports all over Europe. It also has direct train connections to Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liege and Bruges, and excellent connections to Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Cologne (all less than 2 to 3 hours away).

    Financial aspects

    Cost of participation:
    Thanks to our sponsors, the registration cost for this two-week event is expected to be around 350 euro, including the complete social program. Accommodation will be available for 29 euro per night (single room with shared facilities, including breakfast). Student restaurants offer warm dishes for 2.4 to 4.5 euro. In addition to all this, some financial support will be available in the form of grants.

    Grants: ECCAI offers a limited number of grants (400 euro each) to students who are members of their national AI society; see http://www.eccai.org. Students presenting a poster may have priority when allocating grants. SIKS may provide additional support to its members (pending confirmation).

    Sponsors: Besides the financial sponsoring from SIKS and ECCAI, the organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the FWO-Vlaanderen, through the scientific research networks "Declaratieve Methoden in de Informatica" and "Machine learning for data mining and its applications".

      Important dates:
      Poster abstract Deadline:       May 15, 2007
      Notification:                   May 22, 2007
      Early registration Deadline:    May 31, 2007
      

    Further information: See the ACAI-07 Homepage: http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~dtai/acai/ or contact acai2007@cs.kuleuven.be.

  • Second International CSP Solver Competition: Final Results Available

    ** I N T R O D U C T I O N **

    In 2006, the second competition of CSP solvers was held alongside the third workshop on Constraint Propagation and Implementation (CPAI'06). For this second edition we considered instances involving constraints defined in extension and in intention (i.e. by a predicate). Also the global constraint allDifferent has been introduced.

    21 CSP solvers proposed by 12 teams entered (the second round of) the competition. They were run against a suite of 3425 instances (binary as well as non-binary). The total time spent by all solvers amounts to 343 CPU days.

    Also, a second problem has been considered for the 2006 competition: Max-CSP. This was the first edition. 9 Max-CSP solvers, proposed by 5 teams, entered the competition and were run against a suite of 1069 instances (binary and non-binary). The total time spent by all solvers amounts to 101 CPU days.

    ** R E S U L T S **

    The results are now available on-line. They may be found by visiting the URL http://www.cril.univ-artois.fr/CPAI06/ and by following the result hyperlinks in the second and third paragraphs.

    ** P R O B L E M I N S T A N C E S ( D V D F R E E B E E ) **

    All problem instances may be found by visiting the above URL and following the hyperlink `` the selected CSP instances in XML format''. The organisors intend to burn DVDs containing problem specifications of all instances that were used for the final evaluation. Copies of the DVDs will be posted to the contestants and people who helped organise the competition. Thanks to the sponsoring of the Association for Constraint Programming there will be some funding for additional DVDs. Should you be interested in receiving a copy then please send an email to Marc van Dongen (dongen@cs.ucc.ie) with your name and snail mail address in the body of the email. The subject line should contain the words ``COMPETITION DVD REQUEST.'' Depending on the availability and demand a DVD should be sent to you within one or two months from the time of posting this announcement.

    ** A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S **

    The main organisers should like to thank the following people and institutions for turning the 2006 edition of the competition into a successful event:

    ** P R O B L E M I N S T A N C E S ( D V D F R E E B E E ) **

    All problem instances may be found by visiting the above URL and following the hyperlink `` the selected CSP instances in XML format''. The organisors intend to burn DVDs containing problem specifications of all instances that were used for the final evaluation. Copies of the DVDs will be posted to the contestants and people who helped organise the competition. Thanks to the sponsoring of the Association for Constraint Programming there will be some funding for additional DVDs. Should you be interested in receiving a copy then please send an email to Marc van Dongen (dongen@cs.ucc.ie) with your name and snail mail address in the body of the email. The subject line should contain the words ``COMPETITION DVD REQUEST.'' Depending on the availability and demand a DVD should be sent to you within one or two months from the time of posting this announcement.

    ** A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S **

    The main organisers should like to thank the following people and institutions for turning the 2006 edition of the competition into a successful event:

        o The members of the independent jury, Radoslaw Szymanek (EPFL -
          Lausanne), Djamal Habet (LSIS - Marseille) and Richard Ostrowski
          (LSIS - Marseille), who selected the final instances for the
          competition.
        o Lucas Bordeaux (Microsoft) for providing the SMT instances.
        o Rick Wallace (4C) for generating his Max-CSP instances.
        o The CRIL (Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Lens) from the
          university of Artois for providing the cluster for the final   
          evaluation.
        o The Association for Constraint Programming (ACP) for financially
          supporting the event.
        o All members of the organising committee.
        o The contestants for participating: without them there would not
          have been a competition.
      

    ** M A I N O R G A N I S E R S **

      Marc van Dongen (UCC -- Cork)
      Christophe Lecoutre (CRIL -- Lens)
      Olivier Roussel (CRIL -- Lens)
      
  </p>
















  <h2><a name="publications" id="publications">Publications</a></h2>

CONSTRAINTS: Upcoming and Planned Special Issues
The Constraints Journal has the following special issue which currently has an open call for papers:

CONSTRAINTS: News
Constraints is now a AAAI sponsored journal. This means that AAAI members can receive Constraints at a reduced rate. See: http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Journals/sponsored-journals.php As well, in case you missed the earlier announcement, Constraints is now listed in the Science Citation Index.

CONSTRAINTS: Accepted Papers
The contents of the most recently completed issue and forthcoming papers are listed below. Links to the authors' final versions of these papers (no subscription required) and to the final published versions (subscription required) can be found here: http://ai.uwaterloo.ca/~vanbeek/Constraints/constraints.html

Volume 12, Issue 3
Special Issue on Local Search in Constraint Satisfaction

  Local Search-Based Hybrid Algorithms for Finding Golomb Rulers
  C. Cotta, I. Dotu, A. J. Fernandez, P. Van Hentenryck

  Generic Incremental Algorithms for Local Search 
  M. Agren, P. Flener, J. Pearson

  Local-Search Extraction of MUSes
  É. Grégoire, B. Mazure, C. Piette

  Satisfiability Testing of Boolean Combinations of 
  Pseudo-boolean Constraints using Local-search Techniques 
  Lengning Liu, Miroslaw Truszczy´nski

  Stochastic Local Search Algorithms for Graph Set 
  T-Colouring and Frequency Assignment 
  Marco Chiarandini Thomas Stutzle


Forthcoming Papers

  A Constraint-Based Approach for Annotating Music Scores 
  with Gestural Information 
  Daniele P. Radicioni and Vincenzo Lombardo 

  An Analysis of Arithmetic Constraints on Integer Intervals 
  Krzysztof R. Apt and Peter Zoeteweij 


Books:

  • Trends in Constraint Programming
    Frederic Benhamou, Narendra Jussien and Barry O'Sullivan
    url: http://iste.co.uk/index.php?isbn=9781905209972
    ISTE, May 2007
    This title presents an overview of CP 2006 workshops and special events (including CPTools) with synthesis and selections of papers from the presentations held in Nantes in September 2006.

  • Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling: Models, Algorithms, Extensions and Applications
    Christian Artigues, Sophie Demassey and Emmanuel Néron
    url: http://iste.co.uk/index.php?isbn=9781905209729
    ISTE, June 2007
    This title presents a large variety of models and algorithms dedicated to the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP), which aims at scheduling at minimal duration a set of activities subject to precedence constraints and limited resource availabilities.

  • A-Z of Sudoku
    Narendra Jussien
    url: http://iste.co.uk/index.php?isbn=9781847040008
    ISTE, January 2007
    As its title suggests, this book provides a “one stop shop” on sudoku, covering the history of the puzzle, its development and growth in the world’s media, before moving on to the mathematics of sudoku and various techniques that can be used to solve grids by hand. Next, the essentials of software development relating to sudoku are presented along with the recent branch of computer science devoted to solving such problems: constraint programming, showing how the principle behind solving sudoku grids can be used in other contexts.

  • Décompositions combinatoires et applications industrielles (collection programmation par contraintes)
    Thierry Benoist
    url: http://www.lavoisier.fr/fr/livres/index.asp?texte=2746215690&select=isbn
    Hermes, février 2007
    Décompositions combinatoires et applications industrielles propose des schémas de décomposition originaux applicables à la résolution de problèmes combinatoires de grande taille. Prenant appui sur les outils classiques de la recherche opérationnelle comme l'optimisation linéaire, la programmation par contraintes ou les métaheuristiques, cet ouvrage développe des techniques de décomposition génériques souvent hybrides. Ces algorithmes sont appliqués sur des cas réels, issus de plusieurs années de pratique de la recherche opérationnelle au sein d'un grand groupe industriel diversifié. Neuf applications concrètes sont ainsi présentées, dans les domaines de la construction, de la téléphonie et de la télévision.

  • Précis de sudoku
    Narendra Jussien
    url: http://www.lavoisier.fr/fr/livres/index.asp?texte=2746215594&select=isbn
    Hermes, octobre 2006
    Ce Précis de sudoku permet de découvrir les origines de ce jeu et d'apprendre à le résoudre par la présentation de règles mathématiques ou logiques. Près de quinze règles et techniques sont étudiées. Des exemples et des exercices progressifs sont illustrés à partir de grilles qui vont du plus facile à l'expert. Cet ouvrage explique les principes essentiels de la programmation d'un logiciel pour résoudre n'importe quelle grille de sudoku. Il expose les aspects importants du processus de génération de grilles et du procédé d'évaluation de leur difficulté.


Special Issues:

  Special Issue of Journal of Scheduling
  Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling
    http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~rxq/JoSHspecial.htm

  Guest editors: Rong Qu, Derek Long and Maria Fox

  The Journal of Scheduling invites researchers in planning and scheduling
  to submit papers to the Special Issue on "Artificial Intelligence
  Planning and Scheduling". We especially aim to bring together research at
  the interface between the AI planning and OR scheduling.

  SCOPE

  Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  - Novel planning and scheduling algorithms
  - Constraint-based planning/scheduling and control techniques
  - Empirical studies of planning/scheduling systems
  - Integration of planning and scheduling in autonomous systems
  - Reasoning about knowledge, action, and time for planning and scheduling
  - Case-based planning/scheduling
  - Iterative improvement techniques for scheduling and/or planning
  - Artificial intelligence and operations research applied to scheduling
    and/or planning
  - Planning/scheduling under uncertainty
  - Management of resources through integrated planning and scheduling
  - Exploration of the interaction between planning and scheduling

  SUBMISSIONS

  Papers should be submitted electronically via Journal of Scheduling's
  online submission system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/josh/,
  following the journal's instructions to authors. Please indicate that
  your submission is to the Special Issue on "Artificial Intelligence
  Planning and Scheduling". All papers submitted to the special issue will
  be reviewed in accordance with the standard procedures of the Journal of
  Scheduling.

  IMPORTANT DATES

  Paper submission due:           4th May 2007
  Notification of acceptance:     7th Sept 2007
  Final manuscript due:           14th Dec 2007

  Please contact the guest editors with any queries.

  Dr Rong Qu
  School of CSiT, University of Nottingham
  Nottingham, UK
  rxq@cs.nott.ac.uk

  Dr Derek Long
  Department of Computer and Information Sciences
  University of Strathclyde, UK
  Derek.Long@cis.strath.ac.uk

  Professor Maria Fox
  Department of Computer and Information Sciences
  University of Strathclyde, UK
  Maria.Fox@cis.strath.ac.uk



Software:

  jOpt releases CSP Solver and Constraint-Based Scheduler

  jOpt, an open-source development project striving to be a Java-based
  implementation of the OPL (Optimization Programming Language), has made
  major progress by releasing a stable version of its Constraint
  Satisfaction Problem (CSP) Solver and an alpha version of its Scheduling
  Solver.

  CSP Release 1.0 contains a relatively stable implementation of a
  constraint satisfaction problem solver drawing on research from both the
  artificial intelligence and operations research fields. It includes
  extensible expression building and constraint creation, arc consistency
  tools, and a flexible searching structure with backtracking capabilities.

  JS Alpha 1.0 is an extension of the CSP Solver for job scheduling
  problems - problems involving the assignment of activities to resources
  with consideration given to time and ordering limitations.

  Project homepage: http://jopt.sourceforge.net/

  Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=112044




  <h2><a name="events" id="events">Events</a></h2>
  • DALT 2007, 5th International Workshop on Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies (held in conjunction with AAMAS 2007), 14 or 15 May 2007, Hawaii Convention Center, Hawaii, USA. http://www.di.unito.it/~baldoni/DALT-2007/

  • CPAIOR 2007, The Fourth International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 23-26, 2007, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.cs.brown.edu/sites/cpaior07

  • SAT'07, 10th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing, May 28 - 31, 2007, Lisbon, Portugal. http://sat07.ecs.soton.ac.uk

  • WORKSHOP ON UNIVERSAL ALGEBRA AND THE CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEM (following the International Conference on Order, Algebra, and Logics), June 17 - 20, 2007 , , Nashville, TN, USA. http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/%7Euacsp2007/

  • CSCLP 2007 (co-located with JFPC 2007), International ERCIM workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming, June 7-8th 2007, INRIA, Rocquencourt, France. Submission deadline: April 6th, 2007. http://contraintes.inria.fr/CSCLP07

  • JFPC 2007, French speaking Days of Constraint Programming, June 4-6th 2007, INRIA, Rocquencourt, France. http://contraintes.inria.fr/JFPC07

  • SMT Workshop '07, 5th International Workshop on Satisfiability Modulo Theories (affiliated with CAV '2007), 1-2 July, 2007, Berlin, Germany. Paper submission deadline: 23 April, 2007. http://www.lsi.upc.edu/~oliveras/smt07

  • 14th RCRA workshop: Experimental evaluation of algorithms for solving problems with combinatorial explosion, 5-6 July, 2007, CNR (National Research Council), Rome, Italy. Paper submission deadline: 25 April, 2007. http://pst.istc.cnr.it/RCRA07/

  • ATCP07, (an Affiliated Workshop of ICALP 2007 and LICS 2007) International Workshop on Algorithmic Topics in Constraint Programming, July 8, 2007, Wroclaw, Poland. Paper submission deadline: April 30, 2007. http://atcp07.cs.brown.edu/

  • "Timetabling and Rostering" stream at EURO XXII (the 22nd European Conference on Operational Research), July 8-11, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic.

  • */Educational Timetabling/* stream at EURO XXII (the 22nd European Conference on Operational Research), July 8-11, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic.

  • ACM PPDP 2007, 9th ACM-SIGPLAN International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming, July 14-16, 2007, Wroclaw, Poland. http://ppdp07.ii.uni.wroc.pl

  • CADE21, 21st International Conference on Automated Deduction, July 17-20, 2007 (workshops July 15-16), International University Bremen, Germany. http://www.cadeconference.org/meetings/cade21

  • SARA'07, (organised in cooperation with AAAI and co-located with AAAI'07) The Seventh International Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation, July 18-21, 2007, Whistler, Canada. http://www.cs.st-and.ac.uk/~ianm/SARA2007.html

  • AAAI 2007 Workshop on Configuration A Workshop affiliated with The 22nd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-2007) July 22-23, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada http://www.cs.ucc.ie/~osullb/aaai-config-ws-2007/

  • AAAI'07, The Twenty-Second National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. July 22-26, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai07.php

  • ISSAC 2007, The International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation 2007, July 29 to August 1, 2007, Waterloo, Canada. http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/issac2007/

  • SLS 2007, Engineering Stochastic Local Search Algorithms --- Designing, Implementing and Analyzing Effective Heuristics, 6-8 September, 2007, Brussels, Belgium. Paper submission deadline: April 8, 2007. http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/sls2007

  • WCB07 Workshop on Constraint Based Methods for Bioinformatics Workshop at ICLP07 September 8-13, 2007 Porto, Portugal http://www.bioinf.uni-freinburg.de/Events/WCB07

  • 3rd Doctoral Consortium at (ICLP'07) the 23rd International Conference on Logic Programming, September 8-13, 2007, Porto, Portugal. Paper submission deadline: May 2, 2007 (strict). http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~epontell/DC2007

  • ICLP'07, 23rd International Conference on Logic Programming, September 8-13, 2007, Porto, Portugal. http://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/iclp07/

  • Doctoral Programme of CP 2007, 13th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (co-located with ICAPS 2007), September 23-27, 2007, Providence, RI, USA. Deadline for applications: April 25, 2007. Email: cp-phd2007 @ aegean.gr. http://www.cp2007.org/

  • CP 2007, 13th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (co-located with ICAPS 2007), September 23-27, 2007, Providence, RI, USA. Conference chairs: Meinolf Sellmann and Laurent Michel. Program chair: Christian Bessiere. Research papers deadline: April 18, 2007. Application papers deadline: April 18, 2007. Tutorial Proposal deadline: May 18, 2007. http://www.cp2007.org/

  • ICKEPS 2007, (hosted at ICAPS 2007), The 2nd International Competition on Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling, September 22--26, 2007, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Submission deadline: April 18, 2007. Simulations Available: April 18, 2007. http://andorfer.cs.uni-dortmund.de/~edelkamp/ickeps/

  • ICAPS 2007, The International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, September 22--26, 2007, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Abstract submission: April 13, 2007. Paper submission: April 18, 2007. http://icaps07.icaps-conference.org

  • ICTAI-2007, The 19th IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on TOOLS with ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, October 29-31, 2007, Patras, Greece. Paper submission deadline: 1 June, 2007. http://ictai07.ceid.upatras.gr



  <h2><a name="career" id="career">Career news</a></h2>
  • Internship in Constraint Reasoning

    The Constraint Reasoning Group ( http://research.microsoft.com/constraint-reasoning ) is offering several three-months internship positions in Cambridge, UK. Jobs are open to PhD students and to post-doctoral researchers working in one of the following areas:

      *         Constraint Programming
      *         SAT, Satisfiability Modulo Theory
      *         Machine learning applied to Search          
      *         Optimization under uncertainty
    

    The goal of these internships is to conduct fundamental research driven by long term Microsoft applications. More information about the MSRC internship program can be found here, http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/jobs/internships/about_uk.aspx

    Required availability: ASAP and summer 2007. Contact point: youssefh at microsoft dot com.

  • Embark Initiative Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme

    Please pass this on to students who might be interested: Embark Initiative Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme The Irish Embark Initiative offers funding opportunities for postgrads. Funding is not limited to Irish citizens. Information is available at:
    http://www.embark.ie/grant_schemes/postgrad.html

    If you are interested in applying for one of these to use at the Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) contact the Director, Prof. Gene Freuder -- e.freuder@4c.ucc.ie -- or contact a prospective advisor at 4C directly.

    For more information about 4C: www.4c.ucc.ie

  • PhD Scholarship (http://www.jason.edu.au Ref: 3011)

    A PhD scholarship is available to work with Professor Mark Wallace, exploring new techniques for solving complex industry-relevant optimisation problems. The PhD is funded by a major ARC Linkage grant, entitled "From Tactical Planning to Operational Control – Bridging the Chasm", with A/Prof Natashia Boland from Melbourne University and the Melbourne software company Constraint Technologies.

    The challenge is to extract the best from widely differing approaches to optimisation, including mathematical programming, local search and constraint programming (see Apt and Wallace's new book "Constraint Logic Programming using ECLiPSe").

    Candidates are sought who are competent in mathematics, logic and computer programming, and ideally have some experience of constraint solving and optimisation.

    The scholarships are available to Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and New Zealand citizens only. Each $24650 award is supplemented by an annual $5,000 contribution from the industrial partner. The latest start date is June 2007.

    In the first instance informal enquiries should be directed to Professor Mark Wallace (+61-3-9905-1367), email: mark.wallace@infotech.monash.edu.au

  • European MSc in Computational Logic - scholarships available http://www.computational-logic.eu

    The Faculty of Computer Science at the Free University of Bozen- Bolzano (FUB), in Italy (at the heart of the Dolomites mountains in South-Tyrol), is offering the European Masters Program in Computational Logic as part of its Master of Science in Computer Science offer (Laurea Specialistica). The European Masters Program in Computational Logic is an international distributed Master of Science course, in cooperation with the computer science departments in the following universities:

        * Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
        * Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
        * Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal   
        * Technische Universitaet Wien, Austria   
        * Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
    

    Thiss program, completely in English, involves studying one year at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and possibly completing the second year with a stay in one of the partner universities. After this, the student will obtain, together with the European degree, two Master of Science degrees: the Laurea Specialistica degree from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, with legal value in Italy, and the respective Master of Science degree from the visited university, with legal value in its country.

      APPLICATION DEADLINES:
    
      - * 10 FEBRUARY 2007 *: deadline  for non-European students requesting an
        Erasmus Mundus scholarship (notification of acceptance: 10 March 2007)
      - 15 June 2007: deadline for all European and non-European students
        (notification of acceptance: 15 July 2007)
      - 24 August 2007: last deadline only for European students starting at
        the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy (notification of
        acceptance: 10 September 2007)
             
      ** NOTE **: 10 FEBRUARY 2007 is the final deadline  for requesting an
      Erasmus Mundus scholarship for non-European students!
    

    SCHOLARSHIPS & MONEY SUPPORT:
    In 2007 the European Masters Program in Computational Logic will offer 24 new Erasmus Mundus scholarships for non-European citizens (in 2004, 2005 and 2006 more than 50 Erasmus Mundus scholarships were given). Special scholarships are offered to students from India, China, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, and the African, Caribbean, Pacific ACP Group of States. Each scholarship for each student amounts to 21,000 EUR per academic year; this includes 10 monthly grants of 1,600 EUR and a fixed amount of 5,000 EUR for fees, travel expenses, relocation costs, etc. The 10th of February 2007 is the final deadline for requesting an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for non-European students.

    European citizens or non-European citizens with residence in Italy can apply to scholarships which are granted purely on the basis of the yearly income of the applicant and of her/his parents or husband/wife. Scholarships amount up to more than 6,000 EUR per academic year, including facilities on the accommodation and total reimbursement of the enrolment fees.

    The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano has a tuition-waiver budget for reimbursing the total tuition/enrolment fees to all the applicants studying in Bozen-Bolzano and who do not have already a scholarship; so, applicants studying in Bozen-Bolzano are entitled not to pay any tuition/enrolment fees.

    Check the web page for detailed info on applications and scholarships: http://www.computational-logic.eu

    THE STUDY PROGRAMME:
    The European Masters Program in Computational Logic is designed to meet the demands of industry and research in this rapidly growing area. Based on a solid foundation in mathematical logic, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence and declarative programming students will acquire in-depth knowledge necessary to specify, implement and run complex systems as well as to prove properties of these systems. In particular, the focus of instruction will be in deduction systems, knowledge representation and reasoning, artificial intelligence, formal specification and verification, syntax directed semantics, logic and automata theory, logic and computability. This basic knowledge is then applied to areas like logic and natural language processing, logic and the semantic web, bioinformatics, information systems and database technology, software and hardware verification. Students will acquire practical experience and will become familiar in the use of tools within these applications. In addition, students will be prepared for a future PhD, they will come in contact with the international research community and will be integrated into ongoing research projects. They will develop competence in foreign languages and international relationships, thereby improving their social skills.

    Applicants should have a Bachelor degree (Laurea triennale) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or other relevant disciplines; special cases will be considered. The programme is part of the Master in Computer Science (Laurea Specialistica in Informatica) and it has various strengths that make it unique amongst Italian and European universities:

      * Curriculum taught entirely in English:  The programme is open to the
        world and prepares the students to move on the international scene.
      * Possibility of a strongly research-oriented curriculum.
      * Possibility  for  project-based  routes  to obtain  the  degree  and
        extensive lab facilities.
      * Other specialisations  with streams in the  hottest Computer Science
        areas, such as Web Technologies, Information and Knowledge Management,
        Databases and Software Engineering.
      * International student community.
      * Direct  interaction with  the local  and international industry and
        research centres, with the possibility  of practical and research
        internships that can lead to future employment.
      * Excellent scholarship opportunities and student accommodations.
    

    The European Masters Program in Computational Logic is one of the few European Masters awarded by the European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme from its first year of existence in 2004. The Erasmus Mundus programme is a co-operation and mobility programme in the field of higher education which promotes the European Union as a centre of excellence in learning around the world. It supports European top-quality Masters Courses and enhances the visibility and attractiveness of European higher education in third-countries. It also provides EU-funded scholarships for third-country nationals participating in these Masters Courses, as well as scholarships for EU-nationals studying in third-countries.

    The European Masters Program in Computational Logic is sponsored scientifically by the European Network of Excellence on Computational Logic (CoLogNET), the European Association of Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI), the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI), the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA), the Italian Association for Informatics (AICA, member of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies), the Italian Association for Logic and its Applications (AILA), and the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence (APPIA).

    THE FREE UNIVERSITY OF BOZEN-BOLZANO:
    The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, founded in 1997, boasts modern premises in the centre of Bozen-Bolzano. The environment is multilingual, South Tyrol being a region where three languages are spoken: German, Italian and Ladin. Studying in a multilingual area has shown that our students acquire the cutting edge needed in the international business world. Many of our teaching staff hails from abroad. Normal lectures are complemented with seminars, work placements and laboratory work, which give our students a vocational as well as theoretical training, preparing them for their subsequent professional careers. Studying at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano means, first and foremost, being guided all the way through the student's educational career. Bozen-Bolzano, due to its enviable geographical position in the centre of the Dolomites, also offers our students a multitude of opportunities for spending their free-time. The city unites the traditional with the modern. Young people and fashionable shops throng the city centre where ancient mercantile buildings are an attractive backdrop to a city that is in continual growth. To the south there is the industrial and manufacturing area with prosperous small and medium-sized businesses active in every economic sector. Back in the 17th century Bozen-Bolzano was already a flourishing mercantile city that, thanks to its particular geographic position, functioned as a kind of bridge between northern and southern Europe. As a multilingual town and a cultural centre Bozen-Bolzano still has a lot to offer today. Its plethora of theatres, concerts with special programmes, cinemas and museums, combined with a series of trendy night spots that create local colour make Bozen-Bolzano a city that is beginning to cater for its increasingly demanding student population. And if you fancy a very special experience, go and visit the city's favourite and most famous resident - "Oetzi", the Ice Man of Similaun, housed in his very own refrigerated room in the recently opened archaeological museum.

    Bozen-Bolzano and its surroundings are an El Dorado for sports lovers: jogging on the grass alongside the River Talfer-Talvera, walks to Jenesien-S.Genesio and on the nearby Schlern-Sciliar plateau, excursions and mountain climbing in the Dolomites, swimming in the numerous nearby lakes and, last but not least, skiing and snowboarding in the surrounding ski areas.

      FURTHER INFORMATION:
    
      Prof. Enrico Franconi at info@fub.computational-logic.eu
    
      European Masters Program in Computational Logic
      Faculty of Computer Science
      Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
      Piazza Domenicani, 3
      I-39100 Bozen-Bolzano BZ, Italy
    
      Phone: +39 0471 016 000
      Fax:   +39 0461 173 9006
      Email: info@fub.computational-logic.eu
      Web site: http://www.computational-logic.eu
    
  • Job opportunity at Microsoft Research

    The Constraint Reasoning Group ( http://research.microsoft.com/constraint-reasoning ) of Microsoft Research Cambridge is opening a two-year post-doctoral position in Cambridge, UK. Current CRG research efforts are related to stochastic optimization, SAT/SMT/CP Integration, automated parameter tuning, etc. The group is applying its research to a very large scope of applications: software verification, business processes, planning and scheduling, graphics, etc. The successful candidate will pursue fundamental research in constraint reasoning. She or he will also be involved with engineers and architects from Microsoft product groups. This will give to the candidate an unique opportunity to pursue fundamental research while being exposed to long term industrial challenges. Ideally, the candidate should have strong skills in combinatorial search, constraint programming, SAT. Knowledge in machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, stochastic local search, or control theory is a plus. A general AI background would be also very appreciated. Technically, the ideal candidate will have a deep knowledge in C# and C++.

    Requirements: Candidates must have completed their PhD by July 2007.

    Expected start: July-December 2007.

    Interested candidates should send a cover letter including personal and scientific CV, list of publications and names of three references to Youssef Hamadi ( youssefh at microsoft dot com ). In addition, candidates will have to register themselves through the following link

    http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/labs/cambridge/postdoc.aspx

  • Position: PhD studentship; fully funded for three years.
    Location: Constraint Computation Centre, University College Cork, Ireland
    Area: Advanced Electronic Auctions for B2B Commerce, Optimisation
    Contact: Barry O'Sullivan - b.osullivan@cs.ucc.ie

    Research Topic: This project involves the study of combinatorial auctions in which multiple distinguishable items are sold. In contrast to standard single unit auctions, in a combinatorial auctions bidders bid on preferred combinations of items, thus enabling the expression of complementarities. For example, a take-off slot in Cork airport and a landing slot in Heathrow 1 hour apart complement each other because this is the precise flight time between the two cities and their combined value is much greater than that of two slots 90 minutes apart. Bidders can describe their preferences in a more expressive manner so that they can be awarded combinations of items that result in greater economic efficiency over single-item auctions.
    Combinatorial auctions present difficulties in terms of preference elicitation, how the bidder describes their preferences concisely, and winner determination. The bid-taker must choose the combination of bids that maximises revenue and this requires a sophisticated algorithmic solution, given that potentially thousands of bids may be submitted.
    This project aims to develop a combinatorial auction solution for the multi-billion euro procurement sector so that suppliers can inform purchasers of those combinations of items that cause cost reductions for suppliers, thus enabling a win-win situation for bidders and the bid-taker.

  • Post-Doctoral Positions at Orebro university, Sweden

    Orebro University is in a strong expansive phase and it is announcing 50 new post doctoral positions. In particular the following positions are announced in Computer Science, Robotics and Mechanical Engineering.

    Post-Doctoral position in Computer Science with a direction towards Multi-agent System and Robotics.

    Post-Doctoral position in Computer Science with a direction towards Computer Vision.

    Post-Doctoral position in Computer Science/Control Theory with a direction towards Manipulation and Learning.

    Post-Doctoral position in Mechanical Engineering with a direction towards Modeling and Simulation.

    The positions are 4 years and include both research and teaching time. Applicants should have obtained their PhD latest 5 years before the application date. Deadline for applications is the 27th of April 2007.

    Additional information can be found at:
    http://www.oru.se/templates/oruExtNormal____40989.aspx