2008 Quarter 1

REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months January-March 2008.

  1. Location of CP 2009

Three extremely competitive bids were received to host CP 2009. After careful deliberation, the EC accepted a bid submitted by Pedro Barahona. Therefore, CP 2009 will be held in Lisbon. The ACP EC congratulates Pedro, and thanks the other bidders. The Programme Chair for 2009 has yet to be decided.

  1. ACP Summer School 2008

The ACP Summer School 2008 will be held in St. Andrews, Scotland, from June 30th - July 4th 2008. The topic of this year's school will be "Modelling with Constraints: Theory and Practice". As well as lecture series from world class researchers, participants will use the Minion constraint solver and the Essence modelling language in practical modelling exercises.

Web: http://www-circa.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/cpss2008/

  1. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Research Excellence Award 2008.

The call for nominations for this award is appended to this summary. Past winners of this award can be found at:

http://slash.math.unipd.it/acp/acp_award.htm

  1. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Doctoral Research Award 2008.

The call for nominations for this new award is appended to this summary. This is a new award from the ACP that will recognise the contributions of doctoral research carried out in the area of CP.

  1. Sponsorships.

We have agreed to sponsor the CSCLP workshop. This is in addition to CPAIOR, the ACP Summer School, and the CP conferences that the ACP is also committed to supporting.


                CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE

            Association for Constraint Programming

 AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING 2008

OVERVIEW

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2008 ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming, which will be presented at CP 2008 in Sydney, Australia, in September 2008. 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 2008. The costs for his/her participation to the conference which will covered by the ACP.

ELIGIBILITY

Nominations for this award are invited from anyone who is a member of the ACP.

NOMINATION PROCESS

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 secretary@cp-online.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.

TIMEFRAME

The nomination package must arrive at the above address by June 20, 2008. We cannot accept anything received after that date. We will acknowledge receipt of nominations. The decision will become available on July 11, 2008.

AWARD COMMITTEE

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

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 (Jimmy Lee) at the address secretary@cp-online.org. More information about the ACP can be found in the ACP web site (www.a4cp.org).

_____________________________ Nomination Form _______________________________

NOMINATION FORM: ACP AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 9 by editing this form directly, and email to secretary@cp-online.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, it is important to show 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 webpage)
  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?

_____________________________ Reference Form _______________________________

REFERENCE FORM: ACP AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 5 by editing this form directly, and email to secretary@cp-online.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, it is important to show 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?

                   CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE

               Association for Constraint Programming

                   DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARD 2008

OVERVIEW

The ACP Doctoral Research Award will be awarded every year to a promising young researcher working in the area of constraint programming and who defended his/her thesis between January and December of the previous two years.

The 2008 award will mark the inaugural award. The award, in the form of a certificate, will be presented at the CP 2008 conference, where the winning researcher will present a talk on the topic of his/her doctoral dissertation.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligible doctoral researchers are those who defended their doctoral thesis between January 1, 2006 and December 31st 2007 in the area of constraint programming. The researcher must be a current member of the Association for Constraint Programming.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Nominations must be made by the thesis supervisor, who is responsible for ensuring that the following items are submitted to the secretary of the ACP at secretary@cp-online.org.

  1. A URL to a zip-file containing the following items:
  • A PDF version of the dissertation. No specific language for the dissertation is imposed;

  • A PDF of an extended abstract of the doctoral dissertation, 3-5 pages in length, written in English;

  • PDF versions of each of up to five papers published at international peer-reviewed conferences or journals based on the work reported in the doctoral dissertation;

  • A PDF description, and pointer to, any software or systems developed during the research;

  • A PDF version of a nomination letter from the supervisor of the research.

  1. In addition to the supervisor's nomination letter, two additional letters should be forwarded directly to the secretary of the ACP from two referees, selected by the dissertation supervisor, supporting the submission and stating their assessment of why the thesis should win the award. These letters will not be shown to the research supervisor or the candidate.

TIMEFRAME

Deadline for nominations: Friday 30th May 2008 Notification: Monday 18th August 2008

SELECTION

The selection of the winning candidate is based on the originality, impact, and quality of the research work. The evaluation will consider all contributions to the CP community, including publications, software and systems.

The work of the candidates will be reviewed by a committee of researchers selected by the ACP Executive Committee, based on the nominations received.