Volume 8, Number 1, April 2012
Constraint Programming News
volume 8, number 1, April, 2012
Editors:
Jimmy Lee (events, career news)
Eric Monfroy (profiles, publications)
Toby Walsh (news, reports)
CONTENTS
- news: ACP EC Report
- journals: Constraints
- publications: recent books
- events: forthcoming competition, conferences and workshops
- career news: jobs
NEWS
REPORTFROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING
January-March 2012
This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months January-March 2012.
The 2012 ACP Executive Committee comprises the following people, in alphabetical order (officers identified):
- Yves Deville
- John Hooker
- Jimmy H.M. Lee - Secretary
- Barry O'Sullivan - President
- Thomas Schiex - Treasurer
- Helmut Simonis
- Peter Stuckey
- Roland Yap
The ACP Executive Committee welcomes feedback and suggestions from the ACP community. We encourage you to engage with the ACP-EC to help design new initiatives that promote constraint programming.
ACP.1. ACP Membership 2012-13
>The ACP-EC encourages all researchers active in the area of constraint programming to ensure they have formally recorded their membership of the association by visiting our web-site and joining up by following the 'Join the ACP' link. Membership of the ACP is required to vote in elections and at the annual General Assembly.
ACP.2. CP 2012 Conference
>Preparations for the CP 2012 conference, to be held in Quebec City, Canada, are well underway. A record number of submissions have been received across the three track of the conference. The Conference Chairs for the conference are Gilles Pesant and Claude-Guy Quimper, with an additional Local Chair in Louis Martin Rousseau. The Program Chair is Michela Milano (Bologna). There are two special tracks at the conference: one focused on applications (chaired by Helmut Simonis) and another on multidisciplinary research (chaired by Barry O'Sullivan).
>The ACP-EC would like to wish the various chairs and members of the organisation committee of the conference a very successful event, and thank them for their hard work and leadership.
ACP.3. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Distinguished Service Award 2012.
>The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2012 ACP award for Distinguished Service to the Constraint Programming Community, which will be presented at CP 2012 in Quebec City, Canada. The purpose of this award is to celebrate those CP community members who have made exceptional contributions to the CP community. Areas of service could include, but are not limited to: association service, service as an editor, conference organisation, representation of CP in other organizations, etc, resulting in positive effects on the field of CP. The recipient of this award will have the costs of is/her participation at the CP conference covered by the ACP. The call text for this award is appended to this report.
The winner of the inaugural award in 2010 was Francesca Rossi (Padova).
ACP.4. ACP Summer School 2012
>This year the 2012 ACP Summer School will take place in Wroclaw, Poland. The School will take place at the Institute of Computer Science of the University of Wroclaw, Poland from the 24-28 September 2012. The school will be devoted to the theory and applications of constraint technology.
The organizers are:
· Krzysztof R. Apt (CWI and University of Amsterdam)
· Witold Charatonik (University of Wroclaw)
· Leszek Pacholski (University of Wroclaw)
For further details please see the school web-site.
ACP.5. ACP-EC Elections in 2012
>This year there will be additional elections to replace those EC members whose terms will expire at the end of this year. A formal call for nominations will be circulated by the ACP Election Committee, which will be chaired by ACP Secretary, Jimmy Lee. Please consider the names of those you think would be suitable for the ACP-EC.
The elected terms of the following EC members come to end on 31/12/2012:
We are
resending the Call for Bids for CP 2013 and 2014. Please see the attached .
>In March-2012 JSR-331 “Java Constraint
Programming API” successfully passed the JCP Executive Committee Final Approval
Ballot and became an official standard.
>JSR-331 already comes with 3 working
implementations based on open-source CP solvers: Choco, JaCoP, and Constrainer.
Several more CP vendors expressed their intentions to provide JSR-331
implementations including IBM CP Optimizer, Oracle, Cream, JSetL, and JOpt.
Read more at CP Standardization Blog.
>JSR-331 software and documentation are
available for free downloads from JCP or from http://openrules.com/jsr331.
All CP specialists who want to contribute may get an access to the source code.
There is a Google Discussion Group where you may post questions and comments.
>The ACP would like to sincerely thank Jacob
Feldman (OpenRules) and Narendra Jussien (Nantes) for their hard work and
leadership on this initiative. Having this standard has the potential to create
signficiant opportunities for the uptake of CP technology in the commercial
world.
>The ACP was saddened to hear the news that
David Waltz, a pioneer in the area of constraint satisfaction and filtering
algorithms, passed away on the 22nd of March 2012, in hospital in Princeton,
NJ, after a valiant fight against brain cancer. In Memoriam: David L. Waltz, CCLS Director
(Columbia University) David L. Waltz, Computer Science Pioneer, Dies at
68 (New York Times)
>We invite proposals to host the 19th and 20th
International Conferences on the Principles and Practice of Constraint
Programming (CP-2013|4). Proposals are due on or before March 1st, 2012
(revised deadline). These proposals will be evaluated by the Executive
Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming and a decision made for
the site shortly afterwards.
>The CP conferences are the premier
international conferences on constraint programming. They have been held
annually since 1995. CP 2012 will be held en Quebec City (Canada). Previous CP
conference have been held in Perugia (Italy), St. Andrews (Scotland), Lisbon
(Portugal), Sydney (AUS), Providence RI (USA), Nantes (France), Sitges (Spain),
Toronto (Canada), Kinsale (Ireland), Cornell (USA), Paphos (Cyprus), Singapore,
Alexandria (USA), Pisa (Italy), Schloss Hagenberg (Austria), Cambridge (USA),
and Cassis (France).
>Proposals should be up to two pages of plain
text and should address the following numbered topics: 1.Proposal for conference chair(s). 2.Local CP community support. 3.University, government and industry support,
especially financial. 4.Proposed dates, and flexibility around these
dates. 5.Co-located events that might be held
alongside CP. 6.Conference and exhibition facilities (CP
typically attracts between 200 and 250 delegates). 7.Accommodation and food services. 8.Site accessibility, attractiveness, and
desirability. 9.Previous experience in running conferences
and workshops. 10.Provisional budget. If
available, please include URLs to any additional information (e.g. web site for
the conference venue or hotel). Guidelines
for the CP conference organization, as well as the duties of the conference
chair(s), can be found on the ACP web site.
>Proposals should be sent to the secretary of
the Association for Constraint Programming committee preferably by email to secretary@a4cp.org.
In preparing a proposal, please feel free to address questions (e.g. regarding
the suitability of the proposed dates) to the same address, or to any member of
the ACP Executive Committee. CALL
FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE Association for Constraint Programming DISTINGUISHED
SERVICE AWARD 2012 OVERVIEW
>The Executive Committee of the ACP invites
nominations for the 2012 ACP award for Distinguished Service to the Constraint
Programming Community, which will be presented at CP 2012 in Quebec City,
Canada. The purpose of this award is to celebrate those CP community members
who have made exceptional contributions to the CP community. Areas of service
could include, but are not limited to: association service, service as an
editor, conference organisation, representation of CP in other organizations,
etc, resulting in positive effects on the field of CP. The recipient of this
award will have the costs of is/her participation at the CP conference 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 letters 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.
>Nomination 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. TIMEFRAME
>The nomination package must arrive at the
above address by June 1st, 2012. We cannot accept anything received after that
date. We will acknowledge receipt of nominations. The decision will be
available on July 14th, 2012. AWARD
COMMITTEE
>Every other 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 recipients of an ACP award or senior
members of the community, 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 at the address . _____________________________
Nomination Form _______________________________ NOMINATION
FORM: ACP DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
>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).
>
>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 reference reports) 3.Candidate's Name and Affiliation (first,
middle, last; address; telephone; fax; email address; and webpage) 4.List principal positions of service to the CP
community, and briefly describe primary responsibilities for each position.
Examples of service positions include society service, service as an editor,
conference organization, etc., resulting in positive effects on the field of
CP. ·
Position: ·
Dates: ·
Responsibilities: 5.Proposed Citation (to appear on the award
certificate -- citation should begin "For contributions to the field of
constraint programming through sustained service ..." followed by a phrase
of not more than 20 carefully edited words that reflect this candidate's
demonstrated service to the community).
Dear
members of the CP community,
>I would like to remind you that the
"Constraints" journal recently created "Survey" and
"Application" paper categories. Survey papers are often highly cited
and offer a rare opportunity to share specific expertise. They are very useful
to the community and arise naturally as initial chapters of Ph.D.
dissertations. Application papers are a witness to the success and relevance of
CP. In addition to reporting on them in publications dedicated to the
appropriate application area, we want to encourage authors to write up papers
focusing on and detailing the CP aspects of their work. The
first such papers have recently been published: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10601-011-9115-6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10601-012-9118-y
>The two editorial board members responsible
for these tracks, Thomas Schiex (Thomas.Schiex@toulouse.inra.fr) for Surveys
and Helmut Simonis (h.simonis@4c.ucc.ie) for Applications, are actively seeking
out submissions. If you know of some work that would fit well into these two
categories, I encourage you to contact them directly. Regards, Gilles
Pesant Editor-in-Chief Dear
all, I am
happy to inform you that CP letters is alive again. See www.cp-letters.org
or www.constraint-programming.org/letters Volume
5 has just begun. It contains the article "Symmetry Breaking with Polynomial
Delay" written by T. Januschowski, B. Smith and M.R.C van Dongen best
regards jean-charles
régin The CP
2012 Workshop Chair invites proposals for the Workshop Program.
>CP 2012 workshops will provide an informal
setting where workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss
specific technical topics in an atmosphere that facilitates the active exchange
of ideas. It is an opportunity to disseminate work in progress or to promote
new and emerging areas within the field of constraints. The topics of the
workshops can cover any area related to constraints and any related cross-disciplinary
areas.
>
>Workshops can be half-day or full-day during
the CP 2012 Conference. The internal format of the workshop will be determined
by the organizers of each workshop. Participants can register for workshops
only. Important
Dates
Proposal
Submissions
>Proposals for workshops should contain the
following information:
·
A brief
discussion of why and to whom the workshop is of interest. ·
A list of
tentatively confirmed attendees, if available.
·
The name and
email address of the main organizer. Responsibilities
of the Workshop Organizers
>Each workshop main organizer will be
responsible for:
·
Providing a
brief description of the workshop for the conference program. ·
Selecting
submitted papers.
Responsibilities
of the CP 2012 Organizing Committee The CP
2012 organizing committee will be responsible for the following:
Submitting
a Proposal All
proposals should be submitted by electronic mail (in ASCII), to the Workshop
Chair as follows: Meinolf
Sellmann IBM
Research Watson [firstname]@
US dot IBM dot COM Volume
17, Number 2 / April 2012 Constraint-based
Very Large-Scale Neighborhood search Sébastien
Mouthuy, Pascal Van Hentenryck and Yves Deville A CP
framework for testing CP Nadjib
Lazaar, Arnaud Gotlieb and Yahia Lebbah Partial
symmetry breaking by local search in the group Steve
D. Prestwich, Brahim Hnich, Helmut Simonis, Roberto Rossi and S. Armagan Tarim Improvements
of constraint programming and hybrid methods for scheduling of tests on vehicle
prototypes (application) Kamol
Limtanyakul and Uwe Schwiegelshohn Artificial
Intelligence Journal:
6th call for applications for AIJ sponsorships. Artificial
Intelligence Journal: funding opportunities for promoting AI research Deadline
for proposals: May 13, 2012. More details... Autonomous Search. Y. Hamadi, E.
Monfroy and F. Saubion (Eds). Now available at Springer.
>ICKEPS 2012@ICAPS 2012, 4th International Competition on
Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling, June 25-29 2012, Atibaia,
Sao Paulo, Brazil. Design Process Track Paper submission deadline: February 17,
2012. Challenge Track Paper submission deadline: April 1, 2012. AIMMS MOPTA Modeling Competition "Scheduling in
SmartGrids". Submission deadline: May 31, 2012.
>Minizinc
Challenge 2012. The aim of the MiniZinc challenge is to compare various
constraint solving technologies on the same problems. The focus is on finite
domain propagation solvers. An auxiliary aim is to build up a library of
interesting problem models, which can be used to compare solvers and solving
technologies.
>Entrants to the challenge provide an
interface to their solver via the FlatZinc solver inputs language and a set of
MiniZinc global constraint definitions specialized for their solver. Each
solver is run on 100 MiniZinc model instances. IMPORTANT
DATES
>For registration details, the challenge rules
and other details see the 2012 MiniZinc challenge website.
>For details of the MiniZinc modelling
language and the FlatZinc solver input language, see the MiniZinc website.
>Note that even if you dont intend to submit a
solver to the challenge you are welcome, encouraged even, to submit MiniZinc
problems for use in the challenge directly to the organizers or to the MiniZinc wiki. ICCI 2012, 8th International Conference
on Computational Intelligence, April 11-13, 2012, Barcelona, Spain. ECCO 2012,
25th Conference of the European Chapter on Combinatorial Optimization, April
26-28, 2012, Antalya, Turkey. ICAISC,
11th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing,
April 29 - May 3, 2012, Zakopane, Poland. FLAIRS
2012, 25th International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society
Conference Conference Silver Anniversary, May 23-25, 2012, Marco Island,
Florida, USA. AI
2012, 25th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, May
28-30, 2012, York Univeristy, Toronto, Canada. CPAIOR
2012, 9th International Conference on Integration of Artificial Intelligence
and Operations Research Techniques in Constraint Programming, May 28 - June 1,
2012, Nantes, France. o
BPPC
12@CPAIOR 2012, 4th International Workshop on Bin Packing and Placement
Constraints, May 29 2012, Nantes, France. CompSust 12, 3rd International
Conference on Computational Sustainability, July 5-6, 2012, Biocenter,
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstract submission deadline:
May 7, 2012. KR 2012,
13th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and
Reasoning, June 10-14, 2012, Rome, Italy. CEC 2012@WCCI,
Special Session on Evolutionary Computation in Scheduling 2012 IEEE World
Congress on Evolutionary Computation, June 10-15, 2012, Brisbane, Australia. SAT 2012,
15th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability
Testing, June 17-20, 2012, Trento, Italy. o
CSPSAT 2012@SAT 2012, 2nd International Workshop on the Cross-Fertilization
Between CSP and SAT. Paper submission deadline: April 8, 2012. VEROLOG
2012, 1st meeting of the EURO working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics
Optimization, June 18-20, 2012, Bologna, Italy. ICAPS
2012, 22nd International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling,
June 25-29, 2012, Atibaia, Sao Paulo, Brazil. o
TAMPRA 2012@ICAPS 2012, Combining Task
and Motion Planning for Real-World Applications. o
Special
Track@ICAPS 2012, Continuous Planning, 22nd International Conference
on Automated Planning and Scheduling. o
IPC 2012@ICAPS 2012, 3rd Workshop on International Planning
Competition. o
PSTL 2012@ICAPS 2012, Workshop on
Planning and Scheduling with Timelines. Paper submission deadline: April 6,
2012. o
COPLAS 2012@ICAPS 2012, Workshop on
Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems. Paper
submission deadline: April 6, 2012. o
PlanEx 2012@ICAPS 2012, 5th Workshop on
Planning and Plan Execution for Real-World Systems. Paper submission deadline:
April 6, 2012. o
SPARK 2012@ICAPS 2012, Workshop on
Scheduling and Planning Applications. o
HSDIP 2012@ICAPS 2012, Workshop on
Heuristics and Search for Domain-Independent Planning. o
DEMO 2012@ICAPS 2012, System Demonstrations and Exhibits
program. o
DC
2012@ICAPS 2012, ICAPS Doctoral Consortium. EURO 2012,
25th European Conference on Operational Research, July 8-11, 2012, Vilnius,
Lithuania. SoCS 2012,
5th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Search, July 19-21, 2012, Niagara Falls,
Canada and Buffalo, New York. Submission deadline: April 15, 2012. AAAI 2012, 26th Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July
22-26, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tutorial Forum@AAAI 2012, 26th
Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July 22-26, 2012, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. UAI
2012, 28th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence,
August 15-17, 2012, Catalina Island, USA. ISMP 2012,
21st International Symposium on Mathematical Programming, Berlin, Germany,
August 19-24, 2012. Abstract submission deadline: April 15, 2012. ECAI 2012,
20th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, August 27-31, 2012,
Montpellier, France. Workshop paper submission deadline: May 28, 2012. o
DREAMAP
2012@ECAI 2012, Workshop on Diagnostic REAsoning: Model Analysis and
Performance. Paper submission deadline: May 28, 2012. o
STAIRS
2012@ECAI 2012, 6th "Starting Artificial Intelligence
Research" Symposium. Paper submission deadline: May 25, 2012. o
AIGM
2012@ECAI 2012, Workshop on algorithmic issues for inference in graphical
models. Paper submission deadline: May 31, 2012. o
M-PREF 2012@ECAI
2012, 6th Multidisciplinary Workshop on Advances in Preference Handling. Paper
submission deadline: June 1, 2012. o
CoCoMile
2012@ECAI 2012, Workshop on Combining Constraint solving with Mining
and Learning. Paper submission deadline: May 28, 2012. PRICAI
2012, 12th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
August 27-31, 2012, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. OR 2012, 54th Conference of the UK
Operational Research Society, Edinburgh, September 4-6, 2012. OR 2012,
INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE GERMAN OPERATIONS RESEARCH SOCIETY,
September 4-7, 2012, Hannover, Germany. Abstract deadline: April 30, 2012.
ANTS
2012, 8th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, September 12-14,
2012, Brussels, Belgium. Matheuristics'2012, 4th International Workshop on Model-Based Metaheuristics,
September 16-21, 2012, Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
CP 2012,
18th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint
Programming, October 8-12, 2012, Quebec City, Canada. Abstract submission
deadline: April 19, 2012. o
DP@CP
2012, Doctoral Programme. Paper submission deadline: 15 June 2012. MICAI-2012,
11th Mexican International Conference on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, October 27 -
November 4, 2012, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Submission deadlines: June 1 for
abstract and June 15 for PDF. ·
LION 2013, 7th Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN
Conference, January 7-11, 2013, Catania, Italy. Collateral workshop proposal
deadline: June 30, 2012. Paper submission deadline: October 14, 2012. ·
CLAIO, Congreso Latino-Iberoamericano de
Investigacion Operativa, September 24-28 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dear
all, As of
this April, a Postdoc position in planning will be available under my
supervision at the University of Saarbruecken, Germany. The position offers
full research freedom and there are no project duties whatsoever. Duration can
be flexibly negotiated, but is expected to be 1-2 years for a start. Renumeration
depends on experience; I can give more details on request. If you
could be interested in this position, please just send me an email to get in
touch. Best
regards, Joerg
Hoffmann[joerg.hoffmann@loria.fr] A
postdoc position in computer science at LIRMM,
Montpellier, France is available in the framework of the HPAC project. Informations
& Application
Please
send a CV and reference letters by email to Pascal Giorgi (pascal.giorgi@lirmm.fr)
to apply for this position. Project Keywords:
computer algebra, linear algebra, finite fields, HPC, C/C++ programming
>This postdoc position is available within the
project HPAC (High Performance Algebraic Computing) funded for four years by
the french research agency ANR under grant ANR-11-BS02-013. The overall
ambition of the project HPAC is to provide international reference
high-performance libraries for exact linear algebra and algebraic systems on
multi-processor architecture and to influence parallel programming approaches
for algebraic computing. This project gathers researchers working on parallel
language and environments, middleware software engineering, exact linear
algebra, algebraic systems, cryptology and symbolic-numeric verified
computations. The major challenge is the design and implementation of verified
mathematical algorithms with provable, adaptive and sustainable performance.
LINBOX and FGB are two international reference mathematical libraries. LINBOX
offers a large panel of functionalities in exact linear algebra and is used by
computer algebra systems such as SAGE for instance. FGB is the reference for
Gröbner bases computations usable,
for instance, via MAPLE. Both libraries are sequential and rely on exact linear
algebra kernels. The central goal of the HPAC project is to extend their
efficiency to new trend parallel architectures such as clusters of
multi-processor systems and graphics processing units in order to tackle a
broader class of problems in lattice cryptography and algebraic cryptanalysis.
>In order to guarantee sufficient
performances, the first goal of the project HPAC is to design new parallel
building blocks for dense linear algebra over finite fields, since they are the
core of most exact computations. In particular, this concerns matrix multiplication
and normal form such as the echelon form. The purpose of this postdoc position
is to work on the design and the implementation of algorithm for such problems
which guarantee sustainable performances on a shared memory multi-processor systems.
A similar work may also be done on Graphic Processor Unit (GPU). One of the
difficulty will be to manipulate elements of a finite fields which possibly do
not directly map to the native 64 bit integer representation available in
modern processor. For instance, one of our target is finite fields with few
hundred of bits size elements. Another purpose of this postdoc is to design new
methods which take advantage of a possible block structure in the matrix
representation as the one arising in the Gr
style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>ö
>bner basis computations. Qualifications
>The candidate must hold a Ph.D in either
computer science or in computational mathematics. He/She must have a strong
knowledge of linear algebra algorithms and C/C++ programming. An experience in
either high performance computing or computer algebra would be a strong
advantage to incorporate our project. pdf version of this announce. Doctoral
Student Positions in Information and Communication Technologies at University
of Trento, Italy Project
>Doctoral Student Positions in Information and
Communication Technologies on the research project "Advanced SMT
Techniques for Word-level Formal Verification - (WOLF)" are available at
the International Doctorate School in Information and Communication Technologies
of the University of Trento, Italy, under the joint supervision of: ALESSANDRO
CIMATTI,
>Embedded Systems Research Unit,
>FBK-Irst,
>via Sommarive 18, I-38123 Povo, Trento, Italy ROBERTO
SEBASTIANI
>Software Engineering & Formal Methods
Research Program
>DISI, University of Trento,
>via Sommarive 14, I-38123 Povo, Trento, Italy.
>The research activity will be carried out
jointly within the Embedded Systems (ES) Research Unit of the Center for
Scientific and Technological Research of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK),
Trento, and the Software Engineering & Formal Methods (SE&FM) Research
Program, at Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI)
of University of Trento.
>The research activity will aim at
investigating and developing novel techniques, methodologies and support tools
for Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) for the formal verification of
systems. This work will be part of the "Advanced SMT Techniques for
Word-level Formal Verification - (WOLF)" project, a three-year research
project supported by SRC/GRC, in strict collaboration with
the Formal Verification Group at Intel, Haifa, and other major HW companies.
>The goal of the WOLF project is to provide a
comprehensive SMT package to support effective formal verification of systems
ranging from RTL circuits all the way up to high-level hardware description
languages (e.g. SystemC) and software. The package will be implemented on top
of the MathSAT
SMT platform, and provided as an API. Ph.D.
courses will start in Autumn 2012, and the thesis must be completed in three or
four years. People enrolled Ph.D. courses are expected to move to Trento, and
will receive monetary support during phases of their activity. Candidate
Profile
>The ideal candidate should have an MS or
equivalent degree in computer science, mathematics or electronic engineering,
and combine solid theoretical background and excellent software development
skills (in particular C/C++).
>The candidate should be able to work in a
collaborative environment, with a strong commitment to reaching research
excellence and achieving assigned objectives. Background
knowledge and/or previous experience in the following areas (in order of
preference), though not mandatory, will be considered very favorably:
Applications
and Inquiries Interested
candidates should inquire for further information and/or apply by sending email
to wolf-recruit@disi.unitn.it Applications
should contain a statement of interest, with a Curriculum Vitae, and three
reference persons. PDF format is strongly encouraged. Emails
will be automatically processed and should have 'PHD ON WOLF PROJECT' as subject. Contact
Person Prof.
ROBERTO SEBASTIANI
()
>Software Engineering & Formal Methods
Research Program
>DISI, University of Trento,
>via Sommarive 14, I-38100 Povo, Trento, Italy. The
Embedded Systems Research Unit at FBK
>The Embedded Systems Unit consists of about
15 persons, including researchers, post-Doc, Ph.D. students, and programmers.
The Unit carries out research, tool development and technology transfer in the
fields of design and verification of embedded systems. Current
research directions include:
>The Embedded Systems Unit is part of
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, formerly Istituto Trentino di Cultura, a public
research institute of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy), founded in
1976. The institute, through its center for the scientific and technological
research, is active in the areas of Information Technology, Microsystems, and
Physical Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces. Today, FBK is an internationally
recognized research institute, collaborating with industries, universities, and
public and private laboratories in Italy and abroad. The institute's applied
and basic research activities aim at resolving real-world problems, driven by
the need for technological innovation in society and industry. The SW
Engineering & Formal Methods Research Program at DISI
>The SW Engineering & Formal Methods R. P.
at DISI currently consists on 5 faculties, various post-docs and PhD students.
The Unit carries out research, tool development and technology transfer in the
fields of Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering, Agent-oriented SW
engineering, Security, and Formal Methods. Referring
to formal methods, current research directions include:
>The R.P. is part of the Department of
Information Engineering and Computer Science, DISI of University of Trento.
University of Trento in the latest years has always been rated among the
top-three small&medium-size universities in Italy. DISI currently consists
of 50 faculties, 68 research staff and support people, 21 postdocs and 146
Doctoral students, plus administrative and technical staff. DISI covers all the
different areas of information technology (computer science,
telecommunications, and electronics) and their applications. These disciplines
above are studied individually but also with a strong focus on their
integration, Location
>Trento is a lively town of about 100.000
inhabitants, located 130 km south of the border between Italy and Austria. It
is well known for the beauty of its mountains and lakes, and it offers the
possibility to practice a wide range of sports. Trento enjoys a rich cultural
and historical heritage, and it is the ideal starting point for day trips to
famous towns such as Venice or Verona, as well as to enjoy great naturalistic
journeys. Detailed information about Trento and its region. Call
for one PhD position in ICT on "Application of SAT- and SMT-based
optimization algorithms to requirement engineering" at Dept. of Computer
Science & Engineering, University of Trento, Italy. Advisors:
Prof. John Mylopoulos and Prof. Roberto
Sebastiani Eligibility
Criteria Candidates
are required to have a master -- or equivalent -- degree in Computer Science,
Computer Engineering or Mathematics, or to obtain it withing November 1st 2011.
>The ideal candidates should have a good
background in logic and in software engineering. A background knowledge in
Propositional Satisfiability (SAT), Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT),
Automated Reasoning, Knowledge Representation & Reasoning or Formal Methods
would be very-positively evaluated.
>All the positions are covered by a
scholarship, amounting roughly to 51,000 Euros over the three years.
Substantial extra funding is available for participation in international
conferences, schools, and workshops. Description
>Over the past decade, logic-based
goal-oriented requirements modeling languages have been used in Computer
Science in order to represent software requirements, business objectives and
design qualities. Such models extend traditional AI planning techniques for
representing goals by allowing for partially defined and possibly inconsistent
goals. In past work by the proposers, a framework for reasoning with such goal
models has been proposed.
>The goal of the PhD project is to investigate
and implement novel automated reasoning procedures --or to adapt existing
ones-- for efficiently solving requirements problems expressed as goal models,
for optimizing the solutions according to required criteria and, since
requirements evolve with time, to minimize the effort of finding new solutions
and maximizing the reuse of old solutions. In particular, a significant effort
will be devoted to investigate and adapt SAT- and SMT-based algorithms for
finding optimal solutions to parameterized goal models. Application Interested
candidates should inquire for further information and/or apply by sending email
to roberto.sebastiani@disi.unitn.it Applications
should contain a statement of interest, with a Curriculum Vitae, and three
reference persons. PDF format is strongly encouraged. Emails
will be automatically processed and should have as subject: 'PHD ON LUCRETIUS
PROJECT' INFORMAL
ENQUIRIES ARE ENCOURAGED. You can get in touch with Prof. Roberto Sebastiani
(roberto.sebastiani@disi.unitn.it, +39.0461.281514), in order to have a better
understanding of possible research activities and the formal application
details.
>FUNDING: The position is funded by the
project “Lucretius: Foundations for Software Evolution", thanks to an ERC
(European Research Council) advanced grant awarded to Prof. John Mylopoulos
(2011-2016). The positions is within the Software Engineering and Formal
Methods group, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science and
the ICT
Doctoral School of the Department of the University of Trento, Trento,
Italy. Research
fellows - supply chain optimisation & automated planning and scheduling,
University of Melbourne
>The University of Melbourne is seeking
outstanding Research Fellows to conduct leading edge research in supply chain
optimisation and automated planning for mine scheduling.
>The positions will be located in the
Department of Computing and Information Systems within the Melbourne School
of Engineering.
>Salary $100,355-$115,715 AUD p.a. (Senior
Research Fellow) or $81,925-$97,283 (Research Fellow) plus 9% superannuation;
Employment type: Full-time Fixed Term
>The successful candidates will conduct
leading-edge research and development in the area of optimisation for mine
scheduling. The work is part of an ARC funded project, "Making the Pilbara
Blend: Agile Mine Scheduling through Contingent Planning". As part of the
team you would be involved in discovering more agile contingent planning techniques
for solving new classes of scheduling and planning problems. The overarching
responsibility of this position will be the development of optimisation
techniques for synthesising more robust plans for short term production
scheduling of iron ore in distributed, multi-mine pit settings.
>The role of the Supply Chain Optimisation
Fellow will involve computational approaches to optimising supply chain
management, such as constraint solving techniques, combinatorial optimisation
and/or network flow techniques, especially those for distributed multi-agent
problems.
>The role of the Automated Planning and
Scheduling Fellow will involve planning languages such as those based on the
situation calculus, classical planning techniques and/or model-checking
techniques, especially those for distributed multi-agent problems.
>
>This project tackles a challenging problem
faced in mine scheduling. An increased need for consistent quality has occurred
at the same time as the complexity of modern day mining operations has
increased, across multiple mine sites with variable ore grades and increasing
infrastructure constraints. There is a pressing need for more agile mining
techniques that maximise net present value (NPV) while commodating the
complexities and uncertainties inherent in modern day mining operations.
>
>The goal of this project is to bring together
automated planning techniques with constraint programming to address this
paradigm shift. The research tackles plan synthesis for the multi-commodity,
multi-mine site supply chain problem and promises to lead to improved
techniques for collaborative planning and solving hard constraint problems. The
theoretical significance of this project derives from the fundamental challenge
posed by the problem underlying dynamic scheduling. On the one hand,
optimisation must take into account nondeterminism - the uncertain outcomes of
actions inherent in the problem - and on the other must lead to feasible plans
for each mine site - while continuing to solve the necessary constraints for
the overall supply chain schedule during the course of continuing (non-terminating)
execution.
>The project will develop agile scheduling
techniques of great economic importance. Carefully planned scheduling has the
potential to reduce the need for new infrastructure, minimising environmental
impacts and maximising regeneration after mining. More details... RESEARCH
GROUP Intelligent
Agent Laboratory (Agentlab) G12 Constraint Programming Platform Research
Fellow in Supply Chain Optimisation: position number 0028933 (closing 3 June
2012) Research
Fellow in Automated Planning and Scheduling: position number 0028932 (closing 3
June 2012) Contact:
For
more information, please contact Adrian Pearce
>SINTEF is the largest,
multidisciplinary, contract research organization in Scandinavia. Each year we
perform more than 7000 research projects for some 2000 clients in about 60
different countries.
>We are looking for a new RESEARCH DIRECTOR to
head the Department
of Applied Mathematics, one of nine departments within the research
division for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The department
consists of 44 researchers who focuses on innovative use of mathematical and
numerical methods across a variety of application areas. Core research areas
include computational geometry, optimization, numerical simulation,
visualization, and parallel computing. Responsibilities:
>The Research Director is responsible for
further strategic development of the Department's research and competence
areas, international network, market segments, and staff. The Director heads a
team of research managers and chief research scientists. Among the Director's
main tasks are to inspire and motivate the staff, to contribute to marketing
and sales processes, to oversee the general direction of research projects, and
to communicate with major customers and funding agencies, as well as day-to-day
management of the Department.
>The Research Director will be part of the
management team at SINTEF ICT and as such will share the responsibility for
developing and reaching SINTEF ICT's goals, as well as the overall goals of
SINTEF. The
Department has offices in Oslo and Trondheim, but the Research Director will be
based in Oslo. Qualifications:
>We seek a candidate who combines in-depth
knowledge and strategic foresight in the Department's research and market areas
with proven, excellent leadership abilities for researchers. The candidate must
be market and business oriented. Preferably, the Research Director should be
well reputed in the international applied mathematics community. High ethical
standards are important at SINTEF. For
further information on the position, please contact Executive Vice President
Aage Thunem on mobile no. +47 930 58 951, or e-mail.
Application
including cover letter, CV and proof of education should be submitted using our
on-line application system alias Application
deadline: 2012-05-21
Research Fellow
£31,309 - £35,218
University of Huddersfield, UK
Fixed term appointment until 31 January 2014 Ref:
6257 The
School of Computing and Engineering is seeking a Research Fellow to carry out a
program of research in the Department of Informatics. We are seeking a
researcher with expertise in the specific research area of Artificial Intelligence
known as Automated Planning (especially areas of Planning related to Knowledge
Engineering, Path Planning, and Machine Learning).
>You should be educated up to PhD level, with
a relevant publication track record within the specified research area. You
must be able to demonstrate engagement with current research activities in your
field, have excellent communication skills, possess some teaching experience,
and have a proven ability to work in a team. Additionally, you must be able to
lead research in the specific research area.
>For further details and an application form
visit www.hud.ac.uk/jobs.
Alternatively contact the Personnel Office on 01484 472845. Closing
date: 28 May 2012. Interview
date: 20 June 2012. Quintiq
is a software company specializing in advanced planning and scheduling
software. Quintiq was founded in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, in
September 1997 by five computer programmers. Since then Quintiq has grown from
a group of five programmers in a tiny office to a company with hundreds of
employees in offices around the world. Quintiq
software is currently in use in 74 countries, being used by organizations
involved in mining, steel processing, transport, airports, security,
healthcare, broadcasting, and many more. Quintiq software plans parcel
deliveries in real time for DHL in more than 40 countries; it schedules trains
throughout Europe; plans the production of 25% of all aluminum produced in the
world; and rosters all air traffic controllers in Canada in two languages,
across five time zones and 150 locations. In
line with our rapid expansion, we are looking for the brightest computer scientists,
algorithms experts and business analysts. Please
check the link. We
also have opening in Europe. Please visit Feel
free to contact me if you are interested or forward it to someone who will be
interested. I will
be available to chat or dicuss further during the ICAPS 2012 conference. With
regards Debdeep
Banerjee debdeep.banerjee@quintiq.comACP.6. Expressions of Interest in Hosting CP 2013 and CP 2014
ACP.7. JSR-331 “Java Constraint Programming API” Update
ACP.8. Memoriam: David Waltz, Columbia University
CALL FOR PROPOSALS TO HOST CP-2013 or CP-2014
Constraints Journal Surveys and Application papers
CP letters publication
CFP: CP 2012 Workshop Programme
CONSTRAINTS Journal Accepted Papers
Recent books
Postdoc position in planning at University Saarbruecken
Postdoc position at LIRMM, Montpellier, France : High Performance Algebraic Computing
PhD position in ICT at University of Trento, Italy.
Open position: Research Director at SINTEF Applied Mathematics
Research Fellow in Automated Planning, University of Huddersfield, UK
Jobs at Quintiq