2012 Quarter 2

REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

http://www.4c.ucc.ie/a4cp/

This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months April-June 2012.

The 2011 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

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 - http://www.a4cp.org - 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. ACP Executive Committee Elections 2012

As set out in the new by-laws there will be elections for three new EC members in 2012. The elected terms of John Hooker, Barry O'Sullivan, and Peter Stuckey end in 2012. As set out in the bylaws an Election Committee has been formed chaired by Jimmy Lee. Nominations for candidates will be managed by that committee. Members of the association can nominate candidates. The committee will also proactively seek nominations. The formal text of the call for nominations has been circulated, and is attached below for your convenience. Please consider putting forward candidates for the election, referring to the call text for details and deadlines.

ACP.3. CP Conference 2012

The ACP EC would like to extend an invitation to all members of the CP community to attend the CP 2012 conference in Quebec City, Canada. A sincere thanks goes to Michela Milano, whose job as PC Chair has taken much of her time recently as she finalised the conference proceedings. We wish Gilles Pesant and Claude-Guy Quimper, Conference Chairs, and their team every success as they prepare for the conference in October.

Web: http://www.cp2012.org

ACP.4. Advance Notice of the ACP General Assembly at CP 2012

The 2012 General Assembly of the Association for Constraint Programming will take place during the main technical programme of the conference. Further details will be circulated to members once the final conference programme is known. All members of the ACP are invited to attend.

ACP.5. 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 - http://www.ii.uni.wroc.pl/en - 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:

Web: http://acpss2012.ii.uni.wroc.pl/

ACP.6. ACP Summer School 2013

The ACP is delighted to announce that the 2013 ACP Summer School will be organized by the Optimisation Research Group at NICTA. The local arrangements committee consists of Phil Kilby, Peter Stuckey, Abdul Sattar, Sylvie Thiebaux, Pascal Van Hentenryck, Mark Wallace, and Toby Walsh (chair). The theme of the school is solving large scale combinatorial optimisation problems in practice. The school is intended for PhD students and postdocs, and will include both introductory and advanced material. Topics covered include: introduction to constraint programming, modelling, integer programming, global constraints, uncertainty, vehicle routing, scheduling, supply networks and research skills. Lecturers include Simon Dunstall, Mike Fellows, Phil Kilby, Pascal van Hentenryck, Martin Savelsbergh, Peter Stuckey, Mark Wallace and Toby Walsh. The school will be held at ANU's seaside conference retreat at Kioloa Kioloa on the New South Wales coast, 3 1/2 hours drive south of Sydney.

Web: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~tw/school

ACP.7. ACP Distinguished Service Award 2012

This year a strong field of nominees was received for the ACP Distinguished Service Award. A committee is being established by the EC for selecting the winning candidate.

ACP.8. ACP Doctoral Research Award 2012

A strong field of nominations has been received for the ACP Doctoral Research Award. A committee established by the EC is responsible for selecting the winning candidate for this award. Members from the general community are recruited to serve as reviewers and make recommendations on the overall winner. This year's committee is chaired by Roland Yap.

ACP.9. Call for Bids for CP-2013

We are issuing the Call for Bids for CP 2013. [ Please see the attached call ]

2012 election to the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming (ACP)

Call for candidates

Deadline: July 29, 2012

We seek nominations for candidates for election to the Executive Committee (EC) of the ACP. Candidates must be an ACP member and nominated by a member of the ACP or a member of the Election Committee. Nominated persons must agree to be a candidate and must write an election statement that will be posted on the ACP election site.

Please send your nominations to Jimmy Lee to arrive by midnight (California time) on July 29, 2012.

The Executive Committee of the ACP decides the venue of the annual CP international conference, as well as its program and conference chairs. It also organizes other activities such as the CP doctoral programme, the CP summer school, the CP newsletter, web sites, etc. Finally, it retains the surplus from CP conferences and re-invests it in other activities of the CP research community. The current elected members of the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming are as follows.

  • President: Barry O'Sullivan (Elected 2008-2012)
  • Treasurer: Thomas Schiex (Elected 2011-2014)
  • Other members:
    • Yves Deville (Elected 2011-2014)
    • John Hooker (Elected 2008-2012)
    • Helmut Simonis (Elected 2011-2014)
    • Peter Stuckey (Elected 2006-2012)
    • Roland Yap (Elected 2011-2014)

In addition, Jimmy Lee and Pedro Meseguer are ex-officio and non-voting members of the Executive Committee serving as Secretary and Conference Coordinator respectively.

Bylaw 5 of the ACP Bylaws (see www.a4cp.org) dictates the election procedure and rules. In this election year, we have the following outgoing members of the Executive Committee.

  • Barry O'Sullivan
  • John Hooker
  • Peter Stuckey

Their terms will end by the end of 2012. Therefore, we shall run an election for three new regular members to a four-year term.

The ACP EC has appointed the following Election Committee:

  • (Chair) Jimmy Lee, Secretary of the ACP
  • Yves Deville
  • Barry O'Sullivan
  • Helmut Simonis
  • Peter Stuckey

for the current election exercise.

Any member of the ACP not already an elected or ex officio member of the EC starting January, 2013, can stand for election to the EC. One is a member of the ACP if one of the following conditions applies:

  • Under the membership rule that was effective before the new ACP bylaws were accepted, all delegates of CP07 are members of the ACP.

  • One can register online at:

http://4c110.ucc.ie/acp/a4cp/user/register

to become a member.

Elections will take place electronically in August, 2012. Results will be posted on the ACP web site before CP 2012.

The full rules are set out in the ACP website at www.a4cp.org.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS TO HOST CP-2013

We invite proposals to host the 19th International Conference on the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-2013). Proposals are due on or before September 1st, 2012. 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 in 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.