Constraint Programming News
<h3 align="center">volume 9, number 0, January, 2013</h3>
Editors:
Jimmy Lee (events,
career news)
Eric
Monfroy (profiles, publications)
Toby Walsh (news,
reports)
<p></p>
<p>Due to unforeseen circumstances, there was no 4th issue of the
Constraint Programming News (v8n3) in 2012.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#news">news</a>: ACP EC Report, other news</li>
<li><a href="#journals">journals</a>: Constraints Journal, Special issues</li>
<li><a href="#publications">publications</a>: thesis, software</li>
<li><a href="#events">events</a>: forthcoming conferences and
workshops</li>
<li><a href="#career">career news</a>: jobs</li>
</ul>
<br/><br/>
<h2><a name="news"><b>NEWS</b></a></h2>
<p><b>REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING</b></p>
<p><a href="http://www.4c.ucc.ie/a4cp/">http://www.4c.ucc.ie/a4cp/</a></p>
<p>This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months
July-October 2012.</p>
<p>The 2012 ACP Executive Committee comprises the following people, in
alphabetical order (officers identified): </p>
<ul>
<li>Yves Deville</li>
<li>John Hooker</li>
<li>Jimmy H.M. Lee - Secretary</li>
<li>Barry O'Sullivan - President</li>
<li>Thomas Schiex - Treasurer</li>
<li>Helmut Simonis</li>
<li>Peter Stuckey</li>
<li>Roland Yap</li>
</ul>
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.
<p></p>
<p><strong>ACP.1. Results of the 2012 Executive Committee Elections
</strong></p>
<p>As reported before the CP conference, three new EC members have been elected
to replace those whose terms expire at the end of 2012. On behalf of the ACP,
the EC would like to congratulate Pierre Flener, Willem-Jan van Hoeve and Guido
Tack, on their election to the Executive Committee. The EC would also like to
thank John Hooker, Barry O'Sullivan and Peter Stuckey for their contributions
to the ACP and the CP community at large during their past terms of office.
According to ACP Bylaw 4.8, Barry O'Sullivan will serve as Past President on
the new ACP Executive Committee as a non-voting member. The new EC, which will
begin operation in January, 2013, consists of the following members (in
alphabetical order): </p>
<ul>
<li>Yves Deville</li>
<li>Pierre Flener</li>
<li>Willem-Jan van Hoeve</li>
<li>Barry O'Sullivan (ex-officio, non-voting)</li>
<li>Thomas Schiex</li>
<li>Helmut Simonis</li>
<li>Guido Tack</li>
<li>Roland Yap</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><strong>ACP.2. Comment on CP 2012</strong></p>
<p>On behalf of the ACP, the Executive Committee would like to congratulate the
various people responsible for making CP 2012 in Quebec City such a wonderful
success. A very special thanks goes to Gilles Pesant and Claude-Guy Quimper
(Conference Chairs), Michela Milano (Program Chair), Helmut Simonis
(Applications Track Chair), Barry O'Sullivan (Multidisciplinary Track
Chair),Meinolf Sellmann (Workshop ), Michele Lombardi and Stanislav Zivny
(Doctoral Program Chairs), Louis-Martin Rousseau (Sponsorship Chair), and the
members of the various programme committees. </p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>ACP.3. ACP Summer School 2012</strong></p>
<p>This year the ACP summer school takes place 24-28 September 2012 in
Wroclaw,Poland. It was organized by the Institute of Computer Science
University of Wroclaw by Krzysztof Apt, Witold Charatonik, and Leszek
Pacholski. The subject of the school was the theory and practice of constraint
programming. The school was very well attended. For details please see: <a
href="http://acpss2012.ii.uni.wroc.pl">http://acpss2012.ii.uni.wroc.pl</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>The programme included talks from:</p>
<ul>
<li>Andrei Bulatov (Constraints: Counting and Approximation) Simon Fraser
University, Burnaby, Canada <a href="http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~abulatov/">http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~abulatov/</a> </li>
<li>Witold Charatonik(Set Constraints) Wroclaw University, Poland <a href="http://www.ii.uni.wroc.pl/~wch/">http://www.ii.uni.wroc.pl/~wch/</a>
<li>Agostino Dovier (Constraint Programming and Biology) Udine University, Italy
<a href="http://sole.dimi.uniud.it/~agostino.dovier/">http://sole.dimi.uniud.it/~agostino.dovier/</a> </li>
<li>Willem Jan van Hoeve (Operations Research Techniques in Constraint Programming) Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, USA <a href="http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/vanhoeve/">http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/vanhoeve/</a></li>
<li>Peter Jeavons (Constraints and Complexity) University of Oxford, UK <a href="http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/peter.jeavons/">http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/peter.jeavons/</a> </li>
<li>Michele Lombardi (Resource Allocation and
Scheduling) University of Bologna, Italy <a href="http://ai.unibo.it/people/MicheleLombardi">http://ai.unibo.it/people/MicheleLombardi</a>
</li>
</ul>
The ACP would like to sincerely thank the organisers for running such an
excellent school this year.
<p></p>
<p><strong>ACP.4. ACP Summer School 2013</strong></p>
The 2013 ACP Summer School will take place on the 6th-11th of January 2013
in ANU's Kioloa Costal Campus (Kioloa, New South Wales, Australia). The chair
of the Summer School is Toby Walsh, who is working with a local arrangements
committee comprising Phil Kilby, Peter Stuckey, Abdul Sattar, Sylvie Thiebaux,
Pascal Van Hentenryck, and Mark Wallace. The School is organized by the
Optimisation Research Group at NICTA. The theme of the school is solving large scale combinatorial optimisation problems in practice. The topics covered will
include: introduction to constraint programming, modelling, integer programming,
global constraints, uncertainty, vehicle routing, scheduling, supply networks
and research skills. Lecturers include Simon Dunstall, Phil Kilby, Pascal van
Hentenryck, Martin Savelsbergh, Peter Stuckey, Mark Wallace and Toby Walsh. For
more information please see: <a href="http://go.to/cpschool">http://go.to/cpschool</a>
<p></p>
The ACP would like to wish Toby and his team every success with the summer
school.
<p><strong>ACP.5. ACP Distinguished Service Award 2012 -- Professor Eugene Freuder</strong></p>
The selection committee for this award was chaired by John Hooker.
The other members were Krzysztof Apt, Yves Deville, Jimmy Lee (ex officio),
Michela Milano (ex officio), and Peter Stuckey. The committee recommended that
this year's award go to Professor Eugene Freuder. Gene's citation reads as
follows: "For contributions to the field of constraint programming through
sustained service, including his central role in the creation of the CP
research community, its primary conference, professional association, flagship
journal, and a leading research institute." Gene was nominated by Francesca
Rossi. The ACP would like to congratulate Gene.
<p><strong>ACP.6. ACP Doctoral Research Award 2012</strong></p>
This year's committee responsible for selecting the winning candidate for this
award was chaired by Roland Yap. The members of the committee were John Hooker
and Thomas Schiex. The recipient of the award was Geoffrey Chu for his
doctoral dissertation entitled "Improving Combinatorial Optimization".
Geoffrey was nominated by Peter Stuckey (Melbourne). On behalf of the
ACP, the Executive Committee would like to once again congratulate Geoffrey
on his achievement.
<p></p>
Nina Narodytska, nominated by Toby Walsh, received an honourable mention
for her dissertation entitled "Reformulation of Global Constraints."
<p><strong>ACP.7. CP 2013 Conference</strong></p>
The CP 2013 conference will be held in Uppsala, Sweden. The Conference Chairs
for the conference will be Mats Carlsson, Pierre Flener, and Justin Pearson.
Details of the conference can be found at: <a href="http://cp2013.a4cp.org">http://cp2013.a4cp.org</a>
<p><strong>ACP.8. CP 2013 Program Chair</strong></p>
The ACP is delighted to announce that the CP 2013 Program Chair will be
Christian Schulte (KTH, Sweden).
<p><strong>ACP.9. Expressions of Interest in Hosting and CP 2014 and CP 2015</strong></p>
The ACP likes to plan CP conferences two years in advance. We are therefore
interested in hearing expressions of interest from those who are considering
hosting the conference in 2014 and 2015. A formal call for proposals will be
issued early in the new year. In the meantime please consider discussing
organising the conference with the ACP Secretary at <a href="mailto:secretary@a4cp.org">secretary@a4cp.org</a>
<br />
<br />
<p><strong>CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: ICAPS Awards: Influential Paper, Best Dissertation</strong></p>
<p>Call for Nominations: ICAPS Influential Paper Award</p>
<p>This award honors the authors of a significant and influential paper in
any area of automated planning and scheduling. It will be given during
the ICAPS conference.</p>
<p>Papers that qualify for the award are those published in one of the ICAPS
family of conferences (ICAPS, ECP, EWSP, AIPS) at least 10 years before
the year of the current conference (i.e, up to 2003 for this year's
award).</p>
<p>The recipients of the 2013 award will receive a certificate, 500 USD and
one complimentary registration to the ICAPS 2013 conference.</p>
<p>The award committee is requesting nominations of candidate papers.</p>
The nomination material should include:
<ul>
<li> the reference of the nominated paper, </li>
<li> the reasons in favor of the nomination, </li>
<li> either a URL from which the paper can be retrieved or a copy of the
paper itself. Please contact the committee if this last requirement
causes any difficulties.</li>
</ul>
Nominations should be emailed to the following address:
<a href="mailto:icaps-awards-committee@googlegroups.com">icaps-awards-committee@googlegroups.com</a>
<p>Submission deadline: 15 January 2013</p>
<p>--------------------------------</p>
<p><strong>Call for Nominations: ICAPS Best Dissertation Award</strong></p>
<p>This award honors an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation in any area of
automated planning and scheduling. It will be given during the ICAPS
conference.</p>
<p>PhD dissertations that were completed and filed in 2011 or 2012 will be
considered for the ICAPS 2013 Best Dissertation Award. The recipient will
receive a certificate and 500 USD.</p>
<p>The award committee is requesting nominations of candidate PhDs.</p>
<p>The nomination material should include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li> a CV of the candidate with a complete list of publications,</li>
<li> a copy of the dissertation,</li>
<li> a nomination letter by the PhD advisor (this letter must specify the
completion/filing date of the dissertation)</li>
<li>two additional recommendation letters or a copy of the request for
such letters. If a request is submitted in lieu of the actual
recommendation letter, the letter itself must be received by 15
February 2013.</li>
</ul>
<p>Nominations should be emailed, either as a single PDF file or a ZIP
archive of several PDF files, to the following address:
<a href="mailto:icaps-awards-committee@googlegroups.com">icaps-awards-committee@googlegroups.com</a> </p>
<p>Submission deadline: 31 January 2013</p>
<p>A word of caution: it is possible to postpone asking recommenders for
their letters until the very last minute (31 January), leaving them only
two weeks to get the letters in to the committee. This seems to us to be
a high-risk strategy. We urge nominators to request these letters as
soon as possible, since the recommenders may need to familiarize
themselves with the contents of the thesis. Nominators are responsible
for ensuring that the letters of recommendation are submitted by the
final deadline. The committee will not solicit missing letters, nor will
it review incomplete nomination packets. </p>
<p>The dissertation should preferably be written in English. However, we
accept dissertations not written in English if they are submitted
together with the following documents that must be written in English: an
extended abstract of the dissertation, a series of papers that cover
the key results of the dissertation and a document that describes the
mapping from the papers to the chapters of the dissertation. Students who
did not win an award last year can be nominated again if they are still
eligible this year.</p>
<p>More information on the ICAPS conference series can be found at the
following URL: <a href="www.icaps-conference.org">www.icaps-conference.org</a>.</p>
<p><strong>ICAPS-13 Doctoral Consortium Call for Participation</strong></p>
23rd International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling
<p><a href="http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/">http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/</a>
June 10-14, 2013, Rome, Italy</p>
<u>Doctoral Consortium - Call for Participation</u>
<p> The Organizing Committee of the 23rd International Conference on
Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 2013) invites Ph.D. students
to apply for the Doctoral Consortium. The aim of the Doctoral
Consortium is to provide a forum for students to discuss their PhD
work-in-progress with other students and senior researchers working
in similar areas, get mentorship by senior researchers in the field,
career guidance, research skill advice, and accelerated cohesion
with the ICAPS community.</p>
<p>
The Doctoral Consortium will be a full day workshop on June 9th, one day
prior to the 5-day conference format. The DC participants will also
present posters during the main ICAPS conference, in a session open to
all ICAPS participants.</p>
<p>Students accepted in the Doctoral Consortium are eligible for partial
financial support.</p>
<p><u>Application Procedure</u></p>
Applicants should submit:
<ul>
<li>A dissertation abstract (not a paper) of at most 6 pages, using AAAI
style.</li>
<li>A CV.</li>
<li>A short recommendation letter from PhD supervisor verifying applicants
enrollment in a PhD program.</li>
</ul>
<p>To both DC chairs, Emma Brunskill (ebrunskill at cs dot cmu dot edu)
and Ioannis Refanidis (yrefanid at uom dot gr).</p>
<p>For any questions or problem, please contact the DC chairs.</p>
<p><u>Important Dates</u></p>
<ul>
<li>Submission deadline: February 8, 2013 </li>
<li>Notification date: March 8, 2013</li>
<li>Final versions due: April 5, 2013</li>
<li>Doctoral Consortium: June 9, 2013</li>
</ul>
<p><u>Doctoral Consortium Co-Chairs:</u></p>
<ul>
<li>Emma Brunskill, Carnegie Mellon University, US</li>
<li>Ioannis Refanidis, University of Macedonia, Greece</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: 9th Int Summer School of the Assoc of Constraint
Programming, Jan 2013 (Summer in OZ!)</strong></p>
Call For Participation: <br />
9th International Summer School of the Association of Constraint<br />
Programming <a href="http://go.to/cpschool">http://go.to/cpschool</a><br />
Kioloa Beach<br />
New South Wales<br />
Australia<br />
6th to 11th January, 2013
<p>The theme of the school is solving large scale combinatorial optimisation
problems in practice. To apply, please complete the form at:
<a href="http://acpshcool.wufoo.com/forms/registration-form">http://acpshcool.wufoo.com/forms/registration-form</a> </p>
<p>Applications will be considered as they are received so you are
encouraged to apply as soon as possible.</p>
Lectures are planned to include:
<ul>
<li>Modelling (Mark Wallace, Monash and NICTA): an introduction to modelling
in Zinc, with hands-on experience in the computer lab;</li>
<li>Constraint programming (Peter Stuckey, Melbourne and NICTA): an
introduction to using a modern constraint toolkit, with insights about
how to get the most out of them;</li>
<li>Global constraints (Toby Walsh, NICTA and UNSW): an introduction to
global constraints, what they are and why they are your best friend; </li>
<li>Integer and mixed-integer programming (Martin Savelsbergh, Newcastle): an
introduction to modelling and solving large scale optimisation problems
using (mixed) integer programming;</li>
<li>Parameterized complexity (Mike Fellows, Charles Darwin): an introduction
to using tools from computational complexity to understand the
approximability of optimisation problems;</li>
<li>Handling uncertainty (Pascal Van Hentenryck, Melbourne and NICTA): an
introduction to modelling problems involving uncertainty;</li>
<li>Vehicle routing (Phil Kilby, ANU and NICTA): an introduction to solving
this very important class of problems;</li>
<li>Column Generation and Scheduling (Menkes van den Briel, NICTA): an
introduction to solving this important solving technique and its
application to an important class of problems;</li>
<li>Supply networks (Simon Dunstall, CSIRO): an introduction to decision
support tools for managing supply networks;</li>
<li>Consulting for industry (Andrew Verden, NICTA): insights into solving
optimisation problems in practice based on the experience of many real
world consulting gigs;</li>
<li>Research skills (Toby Walsh, NICTA and UNSW): lectures, discussion groups
and exercises on writing papers, reviewing, managing your supervisor and
research ethics.</li>
<li>We will also run a modelling competition throughout the school with a
small prize for the best solution. Students will also be given an
opportunity to present their own work and receive feedback from the
lecturers.</li>
</ul>
<p>The programme will run from Monday morning to Friday afternoon.
Participants shoukd arrive Sunday night and depart Friday afternoon (5
nights). We will have a welcome barbecue on Sunday evening, and an
excurison on Wednesday afternoon to a local attraction.</p>
<p>The school will run at ANU's seaside conference retreat at Kioloa.
Accommodation is in bunkhouse cottages of 4-8 people, with shared
bathrooms. Weather in January is pleasant, with average daytime highs of
24 degrees centigrade and average nightime lows of 18 degrees.</p>
<p>The nearest international airport is Sydney. Kioloa is a 3 1/2 hour drive
south of Sydney. Whilst there are public buses, we will run a bus from
Sydney on Sunday afternoon and from Kioloa on Friday after lunch to make
people's travel easier and to start the Summer School experience earlier.</p>
<p>Registration, accommodation and food will be provided free to all persons
attending. Attendees therefore just need to get themselves to Sydney.</p>
<br /><br /><br /><br />
<h2><a name="journals"><b>JOURNALS</b></a></h2>
<p><strong>CONSTRAINTS journal</strong></p>
Latest Issue: Volume 17, Number 4 / October 2012
<ul>
<li>LS(Graph): a constraint-based local search for constraint optimization on
trees and path. Quang Dung Pham, Yves Deville and Pascal Van Hentenryck</li>
<li>Solving the quorumcast routing problem by constraint programming
Quang Dung Pham and Yves Deville</li>
<li>Interval-based projection method for under-constrained numerical systems
Daisuke Ishii, Alexandre Goldsztejn and Christophe Jermann</li>
<li>A complexity perspective on entailment of parameterized linear constraints
Pavlos Eirinakis, Salvatore Ruggieri, K. Subramani and Piotr Wojciechowski</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Special Issue of the European Journal on Computational Optimization on
Constraint Programming Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization.</strong></p>
<p>NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE : January 15, 2013</p>
<p>Combinatorial Optimization is at the heart of many real-world
applications, while at the same time it is a vibrant and intellectually
challenging field of research. Some well-known application areas of
combinatorial optimization are vehicle routing, employee scheduling,
strategic planning, (financial) asset optimization, production
scheduling, timetabling, to name just a few. In this world with ever-more
available digital information, the developments in the field of
combinatorial optimization are increasingly more important to our
society.</p>
<p>The different contexts in which combinatorial problems arise have led to
a variety of solution techniques. For example, in Operations Research
(OR), the traditional application areas include logistics, supply chain
management, and resource allocation problems, while the solution
methodology is most often based on integer linear programming, or more
generally mathematical programming. On the other hand, the field of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has historically studied applications such
as motion planning, pattern recognition, and learning. Most solution
methods in AI for combinatorial optimization utilize specialized search
algorithms and constraint reasoning techniques.</p>
<p>Based on a systematic search procedure and constraint propagation,
Constraint Programming (CP) has been the main paradigm for the
integration of techniques from OR and AI in the last decade. It has
fostered the development of new methodologies such as logic-based Benders
decomposition and CP-based column generation while providing a framework
for state-of-art algorithms for solving both challenging new
applications, such as radio therapy planning (IMRT), and fundamental
combinatorial optimization problems such as max-clique or graph coloring. </p>
<p>We invite papers that combine ideas from algorithmic combinatorics,
mathematical programming, and artificial intelligence in the context of
Constraint Programming Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization. Papers,
in the EJCO format, should be submitted online at
<a href="https://www.editorialmanager.com/ejco/">https://www.editorialmanager.com/ejco/</a>
and selecting article type SI:
Constraint Programming Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization.</p>
Guest Editors:
Willem-Jan van Hoeve (<a href="mailto:vanhoeve@andrew.cmu.edu">vanhoeve@andrew.cmu.edu</a>)
Louis-Martin Rousseau (<a href="mailto:Louis-Martin.Rousseau@cirrelt.ca">Louis-Martin.Rousseau@cirrelt.ca</a>)
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Special Issue on Scheduling in Healthcare Systems
JOURNAL OF APPLIED OPERATIONAL RESEARCH (JAOR).</strong></p>
Guest Editor:<br />
Tomas Eric Nordlander<br />
SINTEF ICT, <br />
<a href="mailto:tomas.nordlander@sintef.no">tomas.nordlander@sintef.no</a><br />
<p>Many Healthcare providers have suffered a crisis of poor quality and
inefficiency with rapidly increasing costs. Healthcare delivery faces
complex scheduling needs and stands to gain from advances in scheduling
technology and understanding. The purpose of this special issue is to
provide academics and practitioners an opportunity to share the most
recent developments in the area of scheduling in healthcare systems. The
special issue will cover the general area of scheduling with particular
emphasis on healthcare applications, including, but not limited to</p>
<ul>
<li> Automation</li>
<li> Expert Systems</li>
<li> Exact Methods and Optimization</li>
<li> Heuristics and Metaheuristics</li>
<li> Machine Scheduling</li>
<li> Patient Scheduling</li>
<li> Personnel Scheduling</li>
<li> Rescheduling and Shift Timetabling</li>
<li> Queuing, Simulation and Uncertainty</li>
</ul>
Submission Deadline: 15-Sep-2013
<p>Paper Submission</p>
<p>Authors should submit their manuscripts in MS Word via email to
<a href="mailto:jaor@tadbir.ca">jaor@tadbir.ca</a>. Each submission will be assigned
an identification code. Please quote this in all correspondence. By
submitting a manuscript you certify that the contribution is original
work and has not been published or under consideration for publishing
elsewhere and that no part of the material breaches any right of others.
All articles will be peer reviewed by at least two anonymous referees.
Authors are advised to ensure that they have conformed to JAOR's script
requirements detailed at <a href="http://www.tadbir.ca/jaor/authors.htm">http://www.tadbir.ca/jaor/authors.htm</a> </p>
<br /><br /><br /><br />
<h2><a name="publications"><b>PUBLICATIONS</b></a></h2>
<p><strong>Habilitation Thesis</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Frédéric Lardeux, Université d'Angers, France.<br />
Algorithmes autonomes et modélisations de problèmes<br />
<a href="http://www.info.univ-angers.fr/~lardeux/">http://www.info.univ-angers.fr/~lardeux/</a></li>
<li>Florent Madelaine, Université de Clermont, France.<br />
<a href="http://www.isima.fr/~madelain/research/hdr.html">http://www.isima.fr/~madelain/research/hdr.html</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>PhD Thesis</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Nadarajen Veerapen, Université d'Angers, France.<br />
Autonomous Neighborhood and Operator Management for Combinatorial Problem
Solving.<br />
<a href="http://www.info.univ-angers.fr/~veerapen/research">http://www.info.univ-angers.fr/~veerapen/research</a></li>
<li>Marie Pelleau, Université de Nantes, France.<br />
Domaines abstraits en programmation par contraintes<br />
<a href="http://www.lina.univ-nantes.fr/?Marie-Pelleau,1420.html">http://www.lina.univ-nantes.fr/?Marie-Pelleau,1420.html</a></li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Software</strong></p>
<p><strong>New SCIP version released</strong></p>
<p>Dear colleagues,</p>
<p>We are happy to inform you that version 3.0 of the SCIP Optimization
Suite has been released. It is comprised of +SCIP 3.0, SoPlex 1.7, ZIMPL
3.3 and initial releases of GCG 1.0, a generic branch-cut-and-price
solver, and UG 0.7, a parallel framework for mixed integer (non-)linear
programming.</p>
<p>The SCIP Optimization Suite 3.0 provides many new features, performance
improvements, and bug fixes. Some +highlights are: six new presolving and
propagation plugins, an iterative refinement procedure for computing
high-precision +LP solutions, further improved support of MINLP, and
beta-versions of an AMPL and a MATLAB interface. The SCIP +Optimization
Suite can be obtained via <a href="http://scip.zib.de">http://scip.zib.de</a>.</p>
<br />Best regards,<br />
the SCIP team and friends
-------------
<p>Release notes of the individual software packages: </p>
SCIP 3.0: <a href="http://scip.zib.de/doc/html/RELEASENOTES.shtml">http://scip.zib.de/doc/html/RELEASENOTES.shtml</a>
SoPlex 1.7: <a href="http://soplex.zib.de/notes-170.txt">http://soplex.zib.de/notes-170.txt</a>
ZIMPL 3.3: <a href="http://zimpl.zib.de/">http://zimpl.zib.de/</a>
GCG 1.0: <a href="http://www.or.rwth-aachen.de/gcg">http://www.or.rwth-aachen.de/gcg</a>
<br /><br /><br /><br />
<h2><a name="events"><b>EVENTS</b></a></h2>
<p><strong>Conferences</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>LION 2013, 7th Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference, January
7-11, 2013, Catania, Italy.
<a href="http://www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION7/">http://www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION7/</a>
</li>
<li>PADL'13, 15th International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative
Languages, January 21-22, 2013, Rome, Italy.
<a href="http://www.it.uu.se/conf/padl2013/">http://www.it.uu.se/conf/padl2013/</a>
</li>
<li>ICAART 2013, 5th International Conference on Agents and Artificial
Intelligence, February 15-18, 2013, Barcelona, Spain.
<a href="http://www.icaart.org/">http://www.icaart.org/</a>
</li>
<li>ETAPS 2013, The European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of
Software, 16 - 24 March 2013, Rome, Italy.
<a href="http://www.etaps.org/">http://www.etaps.org/</a>
</li>
<ul>
<li> GRAPHITE <a href="mailto:2013@ETAPS">2013@ETAPS</a> 2013, Second Workshop on Graph Inspection and
Traversal Engineering, 24 MARCH, 2013, Rome, Italy. Paper sumbission
deadline: January 6, 2013.
<a href="http://www.win.tue.nl/~awijs/graphite2013/">http://www.win.tue.nl/~awijs/graphite2013/</a>
</li>
</ul>
<li>SAC 2013 (Track on Constraint Solving and Programming), 28th Symposium On
Applied Computing, March 18 - 22, 2013, Coimbra, Portugal.
<a href="http://www.dmi.unipg.it/~bista/organizing/constraint-sac2013/">http://www.dmi.unipg.it/~bista/organizing/constraint-sac2013/</a>
</li>
<li>CPAIOR 2013, Tenth International Conference on Integration of Artificial
Intelligence and Operations Research Techniques in Constraint Programming,
MAY 18 - 22, 2013, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA.
<a href="http://www.cis.cornell.edu/ics/cpaior2013/">http://www.cis.cornell.edu/ics/cpaior2013/</a>
</li>
<li>ICCI 2013, The International Conference on Computational Intelligence, May
22-23, 2013, Berlin, Germany. Paper submission deadline: December 31, 2012.
<a href="http://www.waset.org/conferences/2013/berlin/icci/">http://www.waset.org/conferences/2013/berlin/icci/
</a>
</li>
<li>FLAIRS 2013, 26th International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research
Society Conference, May 22 - 24, 2013, St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA.
<a href="http://www.flairs-26.info/">http://www.flairs-26.info/</a>
</li>
<li>10th ESWC 2013 -- Semantics and Big Data, May 26-30, 2013. Montpellier,
France.
<a href="http://2013.eswc-conferences.org/">http://2013.eswc-conferences.org/</a>
</li>
<li>ICAISC 2013, 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and
Soft Computing, June 9-13, 2013, Zakopane, Poland.
<a href="http://icaisc.eu/">http://icaisc.eu/</a>
</li>
<li>ICAPS 2013, 23rd International Conference on Automated Planning and
Scheduling, June 10th - 14th, 2013, Rome, Italy.
<a href="http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/">http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/</a>
</li>
<ul>
<li> Special Journal Presentation <a href="mailto:Track@ICAPS">Track@ICAPS</a> 2013, 23rd International
Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, June 10th - 14th, 2013,
Rome, Italy. Submission deadline: February 15, 2013
<a href="http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/?page_id=486">http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/?page_id=486</a>
</li>
</ul>
<li> Special Track on Novel <a href="mailto:Applications@ICAPS">Applications@ICAPS</a> 2013, 23rd International
Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, June 10th - 14th, 2013,
Rome, Italy.
<a href="http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/">http://icaps13.istc.cnr.it/</a>
</li>
<li>EURO 2013, 26th European Conference on Operational Research, July 1-4,
2013, Rome, Italy.
<a href="http://euro2013.org/">http://euro2013.org/</a>
</li>
<li>ACAI 2013, International Conference on Advances in Computing & Artificial
Intelligence, July 4 -5, 2013, Punjab, India. Paper submission deadline:
January 30, 2013.
<a href="http://acai.chitkara.edu.in/index.html">http://acai.chitkara.edu.in/index.html</a>
</li>
<li>GECCO-2013, 2013 GENETIC AND EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION CONFERENCE,
Evolutionary Combinatorial Optimization and Metaheuristics (ECOM) Track,
July 06-10, 2013, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Paper submission deadline:
January 23, 2013.
<a href="http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2013">http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2013</a>
</li>
<li>SAT 2013, 16th International Conference on Theory and Applications of
Satisfiability Testing, July 8-12, 2013 Helsinki, Finland. Abstract
deadline: February 1, 2013. Paper deadline: February 8, 2013.
<a href="http://sat2013.cs.helsinki.fi/">http://sat2013.cs.helsinki.fi/</a>
</li>
<li>AAAI 2013, The Twenty-Seventh AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
July 14 - 18, 2013, Bellevue, Washington, USA. Abstract submission
deadline: January 19, 2013. Paper submission deadline: January 22, 2013.
<a href="http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai13.php">http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai13.php</a>
</li>
<ul>
<li> AAAI 2013, Special Track on "Computational Sustainability and AI",
Deadlines: January 19, 2013: Electronic abstracts due, January 22, 2013:
Electronic papers due.
<a href="http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2013/aaai13csaicall.php">http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2013/aaai13csaicall.php</a>
</li>
</ul>
<li>IJCAI 2013, 23rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
August 3-9, 2013, Beijing, China. Abstract submission deadline: January 26,
2013. Paper submission deadline: January 31, 2013.
<a href="http://ijcai13.org/">http://ijcai13.org/</a>
</li>
<li>MISTA 2013, 6th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference,
27-30 August 2013, Gent, Belgium. Paper submission deadline: January 31,
2013.
<a href="http://www.schedulingconference.org/">http://www.schedulingconference.org/</a>
</li>
<li>LPNMR 2013, 12th International Conference on Logic Programming and
Nonmonotonic Reasoning, September 15-19, 2013, Corunna, Spain.
<a href="http://lpnmr2013.udc.es/">http://lpnmr2013.udc.es/</a>
</li>
<li>FroCoS 2013, 9th International Symposium on Frontiers of Combining Systems
Nancy, France, September 18-20, 2013. Submission Deadlines: 15 Apr 2013
(Abs.), 22 Apr 2013 (Paper).
<a href="http://frocos2013.loria.fr/">http://frocos2013.loria.fr/</a>
</li>
<li>JFPC 2013, Neuvièmes Journées Francophones de Programmation par Contraintes,
12-14 June 2013, Aix en Provence, France. Submission Deadlines: 25 Feb 2013
(Abs.), 4 March 2013 (Paper).
<a href="http://www.lsis.org/jfpc-jiaf2013/">http://www.lsis.org/jfpc-jiaf2013/</a>
</li>
</ul>
<br /><br /><br /><br />
<h2><a name="career"><b>CAREER NEWS</b></a></h2>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>PhD and Postdoc Openings in Geometric Computing</strong></p>
<p>We are pleased to announce the opening of up to 5 PhD and 4 Postdoc
positions in Geometric Computing, within the new project GeomComp
(<a href="http://erga.di.uoa.gr/projects/main.html#thales">http://erga.di.uoa.gr/projects/main.html#thales</a>)</p>
This is a 4-year project, involving 3 research groups in the following
institutions:
<ul>
<li>National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Department of
Informatics and Telecommunications, Faculty members: Ioannis Emiris,
Dimitrios Gunopulos. The group includes also Leonidas Palios,
Theocharis Malamatos and Euripides Markou, collaborating faculty
members from University of Ioannina, University of Peloponnese, and
University of Central Greece, respectively.</li>
<li>National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering. Faculty members: Panagiotis
Kaklis, Alexandros Ginnis.</li>
<li>Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Crete.
Faculty member: Menelaos Karavelas. The group includes also Vassilis
Samoladas, collaborating faculty member from Technical University of
Crete.</li>
</ul>
The project also involves collaboration with our external partners, who
include:
<ul>
<li>Leonidas Guibas, Stanford University, USA.</li>
<li>Evanthia Papadopoulou, University of Lugano, Switzerland.</li>
</ul>
GeomComp is part of the Thales program of the Greek Ministry of
Education, funded by EU and Greek funds. The groups above are involved in
competitive and exciting EU projects and maintain a high international
visibility; the corresponding institutions provide a very
competitive research environment. The aim of GeomComp is to employ a
modern, multi-disciplinary approach, at the intersection of Computer
Science, Engineering, and Computational Mathematics. We expect to deliver
top-level algorithmic results for representative and important problems
in Geometric Computing, along with robust implementations (often
integrated in the CGAL library), leading to the practical solution of
specific, critical applications. In particular, research will involve:
<ul>
<li>Computational Geometry and generalizations: convex geometry with
extensions to higher dimensions and nonlinear objects, visibility with
linear obstacles with extensions to nonlinear obstacles, Voronoi
diagrams in 2D with extensions to 3D and curved objects,
nearest-neighbor queries with extensions to data-mining, approximate
geometric optimization with extensions to massive data.</li>
<li>Non-linear Computational Geometry and Geometric Design, including the
development of the required mathematical tools.</li>
<li>Critical applications in structural bioinformatics, molecular modeling,
and industrial design, such as VLSI and ship design.</li>
</ul>
These are full-time positions and funding is guaranteed initially for two
years (PhD) or one year (Postdoc). Funding is extendable for at least 1
more year based on satisfactory academic progress. The preferred starting
date is October 1, 2012, however it is negotiable with each institute.
<p>BACKGROUND: </p>
<p>The applicants should have (or be bound to have by the starting date) a
MSc degree in computer science, mathematics, or related discipline.
Applicants with a strong background in computational geometry and/or
geometric design will be preferred. Candidates must be comfortable with
writing and speaking in English.</p>
<p>TO APPLY: Applicants should send an email to Euripides Markou
(<a href="mailto:emarkou@ucg.gr">emarkou@ucg.gr</a>) including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Full CV, including Contact details of at least 2 references.</li>
<li>PhD candidates: A cover letter to specify their preferred area(s) of
research. There is possibility that a PhD student is co-advised by
2 faculty members from different institutes.</li>
<li>Postdoc candidates: A statement of their research interests (1-2
pages).</li>
</ul>
<p>There is no deadline for applying, but the applications will be processed
as they come. For further inquiries please email <a href="mailto:emarkou@ucg.gr">emarkou@ucg.gr</a>.</p>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>PHD POSITIONS IN OPTIMISATION @ NICTA VRL MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY &
VICTORIAN UNIVERSITIES</strong></p>
<p>National ICT Australia (NICTA) is Australia's Information and
Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA is
offering scholarships for exceptional PhD students working in the
priority area of Optimisation at a number of Victorian universities.
NICTA offers both full and top-up scholarships on top of base
scholarships at Victorian Universities, including the University of
Melbourne, RMIT University and Monash University</p>
<p>Optimisation<p>
<p>The optimisation research group at NICTA VRL, led by Professor Pascal Van
Hentenryck, at the University of Melbourne is recognised as a world-class
team with pioneering contributions in fields such as constraint
programming, hybrid optimisation, and planning. The group currently
offers attractive PhD scholarships for high-calibre students interested
in contributing to their research effort. The group focuses on grand
challenges in disaster management, future energy systems, and multi-modal
supply chains. Fundamental and applied research is conducted in
continuous and discrete optimisation, decision making under uncertainty,
simulation and 3D-visualisation, and algorithmic decision theory.
Optimisation and decision-support platforms are being developed that will
bring unprecedented support for decision making in complex environments.</p>
<p>NICTA Optimisation Research Group homepage:
<a href="http://www.nicta.com.au/research/optimisation">http://www.nicta.com.au/research/optimisation</a>
</p>
<p>For further information please contact Pascal Van Hentenryck,
Optimisation Research Group Leader: <a href="mailto:pvh@nicta.com.au">pvh@nicta.com.au</a>
</p>
<p>Application procedure:</p>
<p>Please follow the instructions at
<a href="http://www.nicta.com.au/education/scholarships/victoria_research_lab">http://www.nicta.com.au/education/scholarships/victoria_research_lab</a>
</p>
<p>Applications and questions should be directed to
<a href="mailto:vrlschols@lists.nicta.com.au">vrlschols@lists.nicta.com.au</a></p>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Postdoctoral Positions in Cognitive Systems</strong></p>
<p>Two postdoctoral positions are available for researchers who have
backgrounds and interests in cognitive systems that exhibit integrated,
high-level reasoning. Training and experience in applied logic,
rule-based systems, or symbolic computing would be useful for both
positions.</p>
<p>One project, based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, focuses on
knowledge-guided, meta-level control of inference and problem solving,
with an emphasis on reasoning about other agents' mental states. This
position is available immediately.</p>
<p>The other project, based at the Institute for the Study of Learning and
Expertise in Silicon Valley, California, focuses on using knowledge to
guide compositional modeling in scientific domains and transferring such
knowledge across modeling tasks. This position will be available starting
in September.</p>
<p>For more information about the projects and positions, please contact Pat
Langley <a href="mailto:patrick.w.langley@gmail.com">patrick.w.langley@gmail.com</a>.
</p>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Post-Doctoral Position in Constraints,
National University of Singapore
(availability from Jan 2013)</strong></p>
<p>The Constraint group at the Department of Computer Science, National
University of Singapore (NUS) has a opening at the post-doc level and
also at the research assistant level.</p>
<p>Post-doc applicants should have a PhD in Computer Science with research
experience in constraints. Implementation experience is an important
asset. The post-doc position is to look at the interaction between
global constraints and table constraints. We are also looking at the use
of sophisticated data structures and representations. However, there is
flexibility in investigating related areas in constraint solving.</p>
<p>Applicants for the research assistant position should have a good honours
degree or an MSc. Ideally, the research assistant should also be pursuing
a PhD at NUS.</p>
<p>
Both positions are available from January, 2013 onwards. Appointments
will initially be for one year with the possibility of extension for
another two years.</p>
Please direct inquiries and applications to:<br />
Professor Roland Yap<br />
School of Computing<br />
National University of Singapore <br />
13 Computing Drive<br />
Singapore 117417<br />
Republic of Singapore<br />
E-mail: <a href="mailto:ryap@comp.nus.edu.sg">ryap@comp.nus.edu.sg</a>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Constraint Programming Jobs, University of Dundee, Scotland</strong></p>
<p>The University of Dundee launched a new scheme called Dundee Fellows see:
<a href="http://www.dundee.ac.uk/dundeefellows/">http://www.dundee.ac.uk/dundeefellows/</a></p>
<p>
These are a series of permanent academic jobs. This is to bring in a
series of excellent academics onto permanent contracts (subject to the
completion of 3 year probation) into any research area within the College
of Art, Science and Engineering. These staff will be labelled as Dundee
Fellows during their first 5 years, over which time they will receive
enhanced staff development and a research focus to their duties, while
automatically moving to a regular academic contract (lecturer, senior
lecturer, reader or professor) at the end of these 5 years. These will be
independent researchers (and not postdocs under supervision). Their
teaching load will start low, and will gradually increase over the first
5 years, to phase them into teaching.</p>
<p>
The area of Argumentation Technology contains Constraint Programming. If
you are interested than please do email Karen Petrie at:
<a href="mailto:karenpetrie@computing.dundee.ac.uk">karenpetrie@computing.dundee.ac.uk</a>.</p>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>Postdoc opening: Department of Informatics and Telecommunications,
University of Athens, Greece</strong></p>
<p> We announce the opening of a Postdoc position in the framework of the
new project ESPRESSO: Exploiting Structure in Polynomial Equation and
System Solving in Geometric and Game Modeling, see
<a href="http://erga.di.uoa.gr/projects/main.html#espresso">http://erga.di.uoa.gr/projects/main.html#espresso</a>.</p>
<p>
The project is coordinated by Ioannis Emiris, in collaboration with:
<ul>
<li> Elias Koutsoupias, University of Athens, and Oxford University, UK</li>
<li> Bernard Mourrain, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France</li>
<li> Peter Bro Miltersen, Aarhus University, Danemark</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>This is a full-time position for up to 2 years; the salary is about 2300
Euro gross. The project started on October 1, 2012, its duration is 3
years, funded in the framework of the Excellence ("Aristeia") program,
by EU and the Greek Ministry of Development.</p>
<p> The aim of ESPRESSO is to study important problems in polynomial
equation and system solving, and design efficient algebraic algorithms
with applications in geometric modeling and computational game theory.
The hosting group is involved in competitive EU projects and maintains a
high international visibility, while the hosting institution provides an
exciting research environment. The Postdoc researcher is expected to
collaborate with the PhD student working in the framework of ESPRESSO as
well as with the other members of the group.</p>
<p><u>TO APPLY</u><br/>
Applicants should have a PhD degree in computer science, mathematics, or
related discipline, and be fluent in English. There is no firm deadline
for applying; the applications are processed until the position is
filled. Applicants should email the following to <a href="emiris@di.uoa.gr">emiris@di.uoa.gr</a>:
<ul>
<li>Full CV, including publications and contact details of at least 3
references.</li>
<li>Research statement of up to 2 pages.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<br /><br />
<p><strong>POST-DOC RESEARCHER POSITION:
Job reference: MI-PI-46-ARH/2012</strong></p>
<p>
Transverse Activity on Intelligent Robotics,
University of Aveiro, Portugal</p>
<p>Apply by 2012/12/31</p>
<p>In the framework of FP7 project RACE ("3Robustness by Autonomous
Competence Enhancement"), the Institute for Electronics and Telematics
Engineering (IEETA), University of Aveiro, intends to fill, in the near
future, a post- doctoral research position, under a "Contrato a Termo
Resolutivo Certo" (a fixed-term work contract for one year, renewable for
a second year, index 195, about 45,000 euros / year), in the area of
Intelligent Robotics.</p>
<p>The hired person will carry out research work as part of the
participation of the University of Aveiro in the mentioned project,
focusing on experience gathering and conceptualization for learning about
physical objects as well as robot activities. The hired researcher will
also contribute to the integration of diverse functionalities for a
successful participation of UA in the mentioned project.</p>
<p>
To this effect, IEETA is interested in gathering detailed curricula of
potential stakeholders in the mentioned position.</p>
<u>Who can apply?</u>
<p>Candidates should have the following general characteristics:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ph.D. degree in Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Robotics or
related field, and, preferably, post-doctoral experience in these
areas; the ideal candidate should have a background on at least some of
the topics relevant for RACE, namely knowledge representation, AI
planning, machine learning, case-based reasoning and computer vision,
preferably with experience in the application of such techniques to
robotics.</li>
<li>Record of high-quality research in some of the areas relevant for the
position;</li>
<li>Hability for, not only performing high-quality research autonomously,
but also for participating in collaborative research projects and
supervising other researchers, namely at the PhD student level.</li>
</ul>
<u>How to apply?</u>
<p>Applications should be addressed to the Rector of the University of
Aveiro and submitted electronically by 2012/12/31 to the Human Resources
Division of the University of Aveiro (<a href="mailto:sgrhf-concursos@ua.pt">sgrhf-concursos@ua.pt</a> and Cc. to
<a href="mailto:lsl@ua.pt">lsl@ua.pt</a>). Applications must be presented in .pdf format, and must
include the following documents:</p>
<ul>
<li>Detailed curriculum vitae;</li>
<li>Copy of an identification document;</li>
<li>A statement of motivations and objectives of the candidate as far as
this position is concerned; </li>
<li>Copies of certificates of academic qualifications;</li>
<li>The names and contact data of three academic references.</li>
</ul>
<p>The official announcement, with additional information, can be found
here: <a href="https://www.ua.pt/sgrhf/ReadObject.aspx?obj=27068">https://www.ua.pt/sgrhf/ReadObject.aspx?obj=27068</a>
</p>
<u>The RACE project</u>
<p>The overall aim of this EU FP7 project is to develop an artificial
cognitive system able to build a high-level understanding of the world it
inhabits by storing and exploiting appropriate memories of its
experiences. Robot competence is obtained by abstracting and
generalising from experiences, extending task planning and execution
beyond preconceived situations. The project aims to produce the following
key results: (i) Robots capable of storing experiences in their memory in
terms of multi-level representations connecting actuator and sensory
experiences with meaningful high-level structures, (ii) Methods for
learning and generalising from experiences obtained from behaviour in
realistically scaled real-world environments, (iii) Robots demonstrating
superior robustness and effectiveness in new situations and unknown
environments using experience-based planning and behaviour adaptation.
The project developments will be integrated and demonstrated on a PR2
robot, from Willow Garage.
</p>
<p>
The University of Aveiro is involved in the development of modules
concerned with experience gathering, high-level learning about robot
activities and the manipulated objects, and human-robot interaction.</p>
<p>Additional information: <a href="http://project-race.eu/">http://project-race.eu/</a>
</p>
<u>UA and ATRI</u>
<p>
The University of Aveiro is in the top 2% universities in "Times Higher
Education World University Rankings 2011-2012", and is also among the top
100 universities in the world with less than 50 years. UA is attended by
about 15,000 students on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
ATRI/UA has been conducting projects leading to the development of
integrated architectures for intelligent robotic systems. This group is
well known for its successful participation in many robotic competitions
(RoboCup, Portuguese Robotics Festival, AAAI, SRVC, etc.)</p>
<p>
Additional information:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ua.pt/Default.aspx?lg=en">http://www.ua.pt/Default.aspx?lg=en</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.ieeta.pt/wiki/index.php/Transverse_Activity_on_Intelligent_Robotics">http://wiki.ieeta.pt/wiki/index.php/Transverse_Activity_on_Intelligent_Robotics</a></li>
<li><a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aveiro,_Portugal">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aveiro,_Portugal</a></li>
</ul>
</p>