2009 Quarter 1 | Association for Constraint Programming

REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during
the months January-March 2009.

1. The 2009 ACP Executive Committee

The 2009 ACP Executive Committee comprises the following people,
in alphabetical order (officers identified)::

- Christian Bessiere
- John Hooker
- Jimmy H.M. Lee - Secretary
- Pedro Meseguer - Conference Coordinator
- Barry O'Sullivan - President
- Karen Petrie
- Thomas Schiex - Treasurer
- Christian Schulte
- Peter Stuckey
- Michael Trick
- Roland Yap

2. Hosting of CP-Online and the ACP Web-site

4C will provide hosting services for the main ACP and CP-Online
web-sites. The URLs of these sites are:

http://wwww.4c.ucc.ie/acp
http://www.4c.ucc.ie/cponline

For the past several years these sites have been hosted by
the University of Padova. The ACP would like to extend its
gratitude to Francesca Rossi and Mirco Gelain for their
hard work and service to the CP community.

3. Location of CP 2010

The ACP-EC is delighted to announce that CP-2010 will be held
in St. Andrews University in Scotland. The Conference Chair will
be Karen Petre. She will be supported by an excellent local
organising committee involving Peter Jeavons (Oxford), Chris
Jefferson (St. Andrews), Alan Frisch (York), Ian Gent (St. Andrews),
Angela Miguel (St. Andrews), Ian Miguel (St. Andrews), Patrick
Prosser (Glasgow) and Barbara Smith (Leeds). The Programme Chair
for 2010 has yet to be decided. We also have not yet made a
decision regarding the location of CP 2011.

4. ACP Summer School 2009

The ACP Summer School 2009 will be held at the Cork Constraint
Computation Centre. This year's school will cover a variety of
topics in constraint programming and its applications.

Web: http://www.cs.ucc.ie/~osullb/ACPSS2009

5. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Research Excellence Award 2009.

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2009 ACP
award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming, which will be
presented at CP 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal, in September 2009. 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 call
for nominations is included in this edition of the CP-News. Past winners
of this award can be found at:

http://www.4c.ucc.ie/acp/acp_award.htm

6. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Doctoral Research Award 2009.

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2009 ACP
Doctoral Research Award, which will be presented at CP 2009 in Lisbon,
Portugal, in September 2009. The ACP Doctoral Research Award is 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 call for nominations for this award
is included in this edition of the CP-News. Past winners of this award
can be found at:

http://www.4c.ucc.ie/acp/doctoral_award.htm

7. ACP Joins the ACM Special Interest Group in Logic and Computation

The logic and computation community has been discussing for the last
couple of years the establishment of a Special Interest Group on Logic
and Computation (SIGLOG), under the auspices of the Association of
Computing Machinery (ACM). ACM SIGs are technical communities that
operate somewhat autonomously of the ACM, but they are covered by
ACM's financial umbrella and guidelines. See http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigs.
SIGLOG, under the leadership of Professor Moshe Vardi (Rice University),
has been established. The motivation for starting SIGLOG is the
observation that while the logic and computation community is technically
vibrant, it is fragmented and lacks a voice that represents its true
strength. The establishment of SIGLOG creates an organization that can
serve as the focal point for logic and computation. As an example,
SIGLOG is be the home of FLoC, a successful federated conference
that have been organized since 1996 on an ad-hoc basis. SIGLOG also
sponsors conferences that currently do not have a sponsoring organizations.
SIGLOG will also establish prizes and awards in the area of logic and
computation, broadly conceived.

The ACP has joined SIGLOG. The ACP representative will be Peter Stuckey.

8. ACP Industry Advisory Board

The ACP-EC is working on the establishment of an Industry Advisory
Board. Interested industry-based members of the community are encouraged
to contact Barry O'Sullivan - b.osullivan@4c.ucc.ie - who will be
contacting potential members once this initiative formally begins.

9. ACP CP Standardisation Initiative

Jacob Feldman and Narendra Jussien have submitted a report on their
initial steps in the direction of CP standardization. In May-2009 they
will make available a new website http://www.cpstandards.org that will
be a central place where CP professionals can discuss and specify common
principles, concepts, implementation approaches, and concrete straw-man
proposals for different CP standards. This web-site will maintain a
Discussion Forum where all contributors may express their opinions about
different standardization aspects and suggest concrete improvements. The
first standard under consideration is a "Java CP API" that will be
implemented using a well-established process for Java Technology
Specification, JSR.

____________________________________________________________________________

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE

Association for Constraint Programming

AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING 2009

OVERVIEW

The award recipient will give a plenary talk at CP 2009. The costs for
his/her participation to the conference will covered by the ACP.

ELIGIBILITY

Nominations for this award are invited from members 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 21, 2009.
We cannot accept anything received after that date. We will acknowledge
receipt of nominations. The decision will be available on July 13, 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,
two previous 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 can they support
a candidate by being a nominator or a reference.

Enquiries 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 2009

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 award, in the form of a certificate, will be presented at the
CP 2009 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, 2007 and December 31st 2008 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.

2. 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: Monday 31st May 2009
Notification: Monday 17th August 2009

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.

____________________________________________________________________________

Content

Section

Executive Committee Decisions