Volume 3, Number 3, October 2007

Constraint Programming News

volume 3, number 3, Oct 2007

            <h4>Editors: <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~jlee/">Jimmy Lee</a> (events, career news) <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/info/perso/permanents/monfroy/">Eric Monfroy</a> (profiles, publications) <br />
              <a target="_blank" href="http://4c.ucc.ie/~tw/">Toby Walsh</a> (news, reports)</h4>
          </center>

  <h2>Contents</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#news">news</a>: ACP news, call for proposals for ACP summer school </li>
    <li><a href="#publications">publications</a>: Constraint journal, special issues</li>
    <li><a href="#events">events</a>: forthcoming conferences and workshops</li>
    <li><a href="#career">career news</a>:  job adverts </li>
    <li><a href="#reports">reports</a>: 1st workshop on autonomous search </li>
  </ul>
  <h2><a name="news" id="news">News</a></h2>
  <h3>Association for Constraint Programming</h3>
  <div align="justify">This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during  the months July-September 2007.
  </div>
  <h4>2007 EC elections</h4>
  <div align="justify">To increase the level of security in the election process, a new election   software was developed by Pedro Meseguer. It includes the generation of   passwords, the use of encryption for vote confirmation and the duplication   of votes in different servers in real time.
  </div>
  <p align="justify"> The 2007 ACP EC elections took place in August-September 2007. There were   two open slots. The call for candidates was sent out in early July, with   deadline July 30. Three candidates were presented. </p>
  <p align="justify"> While the ACP rules state that the ACP secretary should run the elections,  this time the secretary (Pedro Meseguer) was one of the candidates, so   the EC decided to have the elections run by another member of the EC.  Jean Charles Regin voluntereed to run them but was unable to   accomplish the task, so Barry O'Sullivan accepted to run them. </p>
  <p align="justify"> The call for votes was sent out on August 22. The election period ran   from August 22 to September 15, 2007. Among the candidates, the elected   ones are Pedro Meseguer and Thomas Schiex. They will remain in the EC for   a 3 year term. </p>
  <h4>Call for 2008 CP Summer School</h4>
  <div align="justify">The call for bids for the 2008 Summer School  was sent out on September 11.   The deadline for bids is October 30 (earlier than previous years to give   more time to the school organizers).
  </div>
  <p align="justify"> Members of the CP community who are interested in organizing the 2008 CP  summer school should send a proposal to Jimmy Lee (<a href="mailto:jlee@cse.cuhk.edu.hk" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">jlee@cse.cuhk.edu.hk</a>)  by October 30th, 2007, containing at least the following information: </p>
  <ul>
    <li> 1. topic of the school </li>
    <li> 2. location </li>
    <li> 3. dates </li>
    <li> 4. organizers </li>
    <li> 5. provisional budget</li>
  </ul>
  <ul>
  </ul>
  <h4 align="justify">Resignations</h4>
  <div align="justify">Jean-Charles Regin, Frederic Benhamou and Narendra Jussien resigned from   their positions in the EC. Meinolf Sellman and Laurent Michel, who could   have one seat in the EC as CP 2007 co-chairs, decided not to take this seat.
  </div>
  <h4 align="justify">New ACP bylaws</h4>
  <div align="justify">In these three months, the EC finalized the discussion, started almost one   year ago, on a new version of the ACP bylaws. This discussion has been led   by Mike Trick and was carried on within a  subcommittee of the EC.  The main goals of the new bylaws were: a full elected EC, more power  to the General Assembly, and a clearer membership procedure.
  </div>
  <p align="justify"> The EC proposal for new bylaws was discussed at the ACP general assembly,   during the CP 2007 conference, and was approved by the assembly   without any opposing vote. The new version of the bylaws will be posted   soon on the ACP web site. </p>
  <h4 align="justify">CP 2007</h4>
  <div align="justify">The CP 2007 conference took place in Providence, RI, USA, on   September 22-27, 2007. It was colocated with ICAPS 2007.  The conference was very successful, with 172 participants to CP and   210 to ICAPS. The program of CP 2007 included 52 paper presentations   (of which 9 were application papers), 14 posters, 3 tutorials,   3 invited lectures, and 6 solver presentations. The conference   received 165 submissions, of which 143 to the general track and 22   to the application track. The EC would like to thank Meinolf Sellmann,   Laurent Michel, Christian Bessiere, and the whole program committee   for their hard work.
  </div>
  <p align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
  <h2><a name="publications" id="publications">Publications</a></h2>
  <h3><a href="http://ai.uwaterloo.ca/%7Evanbeek/Constraints/constraints.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Constraint journal:</a></h3>
  <div align="justify">The contents of the most recently completed issue and forthcoming papers  are listed below.  Links to the authors' final versions of these papers  (no subscription required) and to the final published versions  (subscription required) can be found <a href="http://ai.uwaterloo.ca/%7Evanbeek/Constraints/constraints.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">here</a>.
  </div>
  <p> <strong>Volume 12, Issue 4 (2007)</strong> </p>
  <ul>
    <li> <strong>A Constraint-Based Approach for Annotating Music Scores with Gestural  Information </strong> <br />
      Daniele P. Radicioni and Vincenzo Lombardo <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> An Analysis of Arithmetic Constraints on Integer Intervals </strong> <br />
      Krzysztof R. Apt and Peter Zoeteweij <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Automatic Generation of Redundant Models for  Permutation Constraint Satisfaction Problems </strong> <br />
      Y.C. Law, J.H.M. Lee, and Barbara M. Smith <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Maxx: Test Pattern Optimisation with Local Search over an Extended Logic </strong> <br />
      Francisco Azevedo <br />
    </li>
  </ul>
  <strong>Forthcoming Papers</strong>
  <p> <strong>Special Issue on Bioinformatics and Constraints.</strong> <br />
    Guest Editors: Agostino Dovier, Alessandro Dal Palu, Sebastian Will </p>
  <ul>
    <li> <strong> Constraint Programming in Structural Bioinformatics. </strong> <br />
      Pedro Barahona and Ludwig Krippahl. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Modelling biological networks by action languages via answer set programming </strong> <br />
      Susanne Grell, Victoria J. Nikiforova, Torsten Schaub, Joachim Selbig. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Modeling Biological Systems in Stochastic Concurrent Constraint Programming </strong> <br />
      Luca Bortolussi and Alberto Policriti. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> DARN! A soft constraint solver for RNA motif localization </strong> <br />
      Christine Gaspin, Thomas Schiex, Matthias Zytnicki. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Efficient Sequence Alignment with Side-Constraints by Cluster Tree  Elimination </strong> <br />
      Sebastian Will, Anke Busch and Rolf Backofen. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Mendelian error detection in complex pedigrees using weighted constraint  satisfaction techniques </strong> <br />
      Marti Sanchez, Simon de Givry, Thomas Schiex. <br />
    </li>
    <li> <strong> Boosting Haplotype Inference with Local Search </strong> <br />
      Ines Lynce, Joao Marques-Silva, Steve Prestwich. </li>
  </ul>
  <h3>Special issues:</h3>
  <strong>Recent Advances in Constraints:     Post-proceedings of the CSCLP'07 workshop </strong>
  <p align="justify"> This book will continue a series edited by LNAI since 2002 as  post-proceedings of the annual workshop on Constraint Solving and  Constraint Logic Programming CSCLP of the ERCIM Working Group on  Constraints. </p>
  <p align="justify"> Many of the papers presented at CSCLP'07 are of interest to a wider  audience and the intention of this book is to make them more widely  accessible.  Authors of papers that have been presented at the workshop  are therefore invited to submit final versions that take into account the  discussion at the workshop for this volume. </p>
  <p align="justify"> In addition, we give an opportunity for other papers to appear in this  volume, even when they have not been presented at the workshop. </p>
  <p align="justify"> All submissions will be peer-reviewed. Submission of a paper implies  implicit agreement to review several other submissions by the deadline. </p>
  <p> Important dates: </p>
  <p> Oct. 26th, 2007: papers due <br />
    Dec. 14th, 2007: reviews due <br />
    Jan. 12th, 2008: notification <br />
    Feb. 15th, 2008: final papers due <br />
    Papers should be formatted in Springer LNCS style and should not exceed  15 pages in that format. </p>
  <p> Please submit papers in .pdf format by e-mail to: <a href="mailto:Sylvain.Soliman@inria.fr" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Sylvain.Soliman@inria.fr</a> before October 26th. </p>
  <p> <strong>Special Issue on Ant Colony Optimization of Swarm Intelligence</strong> </p>
  <p> Guest editors: <br />
    Karl Doerner, Universitaet Wien, Austria <br />
    Daniel Merkle, Universitaet Leipzig, Germany <br />
    Thomas Stuetzle, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium </p>
  <p> Submission </p>
  <p align="justify"> All researchers are invited to submit original work on topics relevant  for this special issue of the new journal Swarm Intelligence  (<a href="http://www.springer.com/11721" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.springer.com/11721</a>), which is published by Springer Verlag. </p>
  <p> Submission deadline: November 1, 2007 <br />
    Tentative publication: Summer 2008 </p>
  <p align="justify"> Authors should submit their manuscripts to the Swarm Intelligence  Editorial Manager at <a href="http://www.editorialmanager.com/swrm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.editorialmanager.com/swrm</a>. Please, select  &quot;Special Issue on Ant Colony Optimization&quot; as the article type. When  submitting a paper, please send at the same time also an email to Thomas  Stuetzle (stuetzle nospam <a href="http://ulb.ac.be" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ulb.ac.be</a>) with paper title and author list to  inform about the submission. </p>
  <p> A page with up-to-date information regarding the special issue is  maintained at <a href="http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/%7Estuetzle/SI_ACO.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~stuetzle/SI_ACO.html</a>. </p>
  <p> <strong>Lecture Notes on Artifical Intelligence:   Special Issue on Recent Advances in Constraint Handling Rules</strong> </p>
  <p> Editors: <br />
    Thom Fruehwirth (Thom.Fruehwirth at <a href="http://uni-ulm.de" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">uni-ulm.de</a>) <br />
    Tom Schrijvers (Tom.Schrijvers at <a href="http://cs.kuleuven.be" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">cs.kuleuven.be</a>) </p>
  <p> Submissions </p>
  <p align="justify"> Revised and enhanced versions of papers published at the Workshops on  Constraint Handling Rules and other occasions that have not appeared in  archival journals are eligible for submission.Papers describing  important past research in this area which have not been published in  archival journal papers are also solicited.  New work, surveys and  comparison of state of the art techniques are also solicited. None of the  submissions should have been published in any form prior to 2002. </p>
  <p align="justify"> When submitting already published papers with minor changes only, authors  are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance with the previous  publisher by obtaining a written permission to republish. </p>
  <p align="justify"> For any doubt regarding the appropriateness of the topic of a paper for  this special issue please email one of the editors. </p>
  <p align="justify"> Papers should be written in English, and formatted using the LaTeX style  files developed by Springer Verlag for LNCS. They can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/index.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/index.html</a> </p>
  <p align="justify"> To submit please send your paper in pdf format only to both editors. For  further information, please look at: <a href="http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/%7Etoms/chr_lncs_collection" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~toms/chr_lncs_collection</a> </p>
  <p align="justify"> First call for papers: September, 2007 <br />
    Submission: December 15, 2007 <br />
    Notification: April 1, 2008 <br />
    Final version due: June 1, 2008 </p>
  <p align="justify"> <strong>Journal of Symbolic Computation:   Special Issue on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation</strong> </p>
  <p align="justify"> Guest Editors: <br />
    Carlos D'Andrea &amp; Bernard Mourrain </p>
  <p align="justify"> Submission: </p>
  <div align="justify">
    <ul>
      <li> All the papers will be refereed according to the JSC standards. </li>
      <li> Papers should be submitted to <a href="http://www.easychair.org/jsc-issac07/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.easychair.org/jsc-issac07/</a> </li>
      <li> DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 30, 2007 </li>
      <li> The format is pdf. Please prepare your manuscript by using the JSC     style files, which are available from the JSC home pages at <a href="http://www4.ncsu.edu/%7Ehong/jsc.htm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www4.ncsu.edu/~hong/jsc.htm</a>. </li>
      <li> Notification of acceptance: around end of February 2008. </li>
      <li> The final versions should be sent in by the end of March 2008,    with tex sources, in the same way as the initial submission. </li>
      <li>
        The special issue is expected to appear by the time of ISSAC 2008.</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <h3 align="justify">Books</h3>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <div align="justify">Since 2005, ISTE Ltd translates and publishes books written by   french and european researchers from the Hermes/Lavoisier french   publishing company. As of January 1st, ISTE and John Wiley &amp; Sons   Inc. will jointly publish those books. Both trademarks will be   present and the cover and will be dispatched by ISTE in Europe   and Maghreb and John Wiley in the rest of the world. This is a   good opportunity for european and french research works to widely spread. </div>
      </li>
  </ul>
  <p>&nbsp;</p>
  <h2><a name="events" id="events">Events</a></h2>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www1.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/databases/INAP/2007/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">INAP 2007</a>, International Conference on Applications of Declarative  Programming and Knowledge Management, October 4-6, 2007, University of  Wuerzburg, Germany.  Deadline for Submission: July 1, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.lpar.net/2007/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">LPAR 2007</a>,   The 14th International Conference on Logic for Programming  Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning, 15th-19th October 2007, Yerevan,  Armenia. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.nordicmps.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">2nd Nordic Optimization Symposium</a>,   October 18-20, 2007, Oslo, Norway. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://4c.ucc.ie/KCCP07" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">KCCP-07</a>,   K-CAP 2007 WORKSHOP: Knowledge Capture and Constraint Programming  (held in conjunction with KCAP 2007), October 28, 2007, Whistler, BC,  Canada.  Paper submission deadline: July 15, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://ictai07.ceid.upatras.gr" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ICTAI-2007</a>, The 19th IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on TOOLS with ARTIFICIAL  INTELLIGENCE, October 29-31, 2007, Patras, Greece. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"> MIWAI 2007,   1st Mahasarakham International Workshop on AI 2007, November  18-19, 2007, Mahasarakham, Thailand. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.dsic.upv.es/%7Emsalido/workshop-caepia07/index_en.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">CAEPIA 2007</a>,   Workshop on Planning, Scheduling and Constraint Satisfaction,  November, 12-13, 2007, Salamanca, Spain.  Paper submission deadline: July  15, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/conferences/austai/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">AI 2007</a>, Twentieth Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,  2nd-6th December 2007, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.  Deadline for  paper submissions: 13th July 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://epia2007.appia.pt/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=53&amp;Itemid=73" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">STCS 2007</a>,   Workshop on Search Techniques for Constraint Satisfaction (held  at EPIA 2007), 3-7 December, 2007, Guimaraes, Portugal. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://epia2007.appia.pt" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">EPIA 2007</a>,   13th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence, December  3-7, 2007, Guimaraes, Portugal. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION2007bis" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> LION 2007 II</a>, Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference, December  8-13, 2007, Trento, Italy. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://ktiml.mff.cuni.cz/%7Ebartak/PLANSIG2007/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">PlanSIG 2007</a>,   The 26th Workshop of the UK PLANNING AND SCHEDULING Special  Interest Group, December 17-18, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic. Paper  Submission Deadline: October 5, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://isaim2008.unl.edu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ISAIM 2008</a>,    Tenth International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and  Mathematics, January 2-4, 2008, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. </div>
    </li>
    <li> 
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.ist.unomaha.edu/padl2008/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">PADL'08</a>,   Tenth International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative  Languages 2008 (Co-located with ACM POPL'08), January 7-8, 2008, San  Francisco, USA.  Paper submission deadline: August 24, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.program-transformation.org/PEPM08/WebHome" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">PEPM 2008</a>,   ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Program  Manipulation (Co-located with ACM POPL'08), January 7-8, 2008, San  Francisco, USA. Paper Submission Deadline: October 17, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www1.cs.uic.edu/vmcai08/index.php" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">VMCAI'08</a>,   The Ninth International Conference on Verification, Model  Checking and Abstract Interpretation, January 7-9, 2008, San Francisco,  USA. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.sci.unich.it/%7Ebista/organizing/constraint-sac2008/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> SAC 2008</a>,   Track on Constraint Solving and Programming part of the 23rd  Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, March 16 - 20, 2008, Fortaleza,  Ceara, Brazil. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.math.nagoya-u.ac.jp/%7Egarrigue/FLOPS2008/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">FLOPS 2008</a>,   Ninth International Symposium on Functional and Logic  Programming, April 14 - 16, 2008, Ise, Japan. Paper Submission Deadline:  October 10, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.upb.de/cs/SAT08" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">SAT 2008</a>,   11th International Conference on Theory and Applications of  Satisfiability Testing, May 12 - 15, 2008, Guangzhou, P. R. China.  Paper  Submission Deadline: January 18, 2008. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://ktiml.mff.cuni.cz/%7Ebartak/FLAIRS2008" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">FLAIRS 2008</a>,   AI PLANNING AND SCHEDULING A Special Track at the 21st  International FLAIRS Conference, May 15-17, 2008, Florida, USA. Paper  Submission Deadline: November 19, 2007. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.patat2008.ca" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">PATAT 2008</a>,   The 7th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of  Automated Timetabling, August 19 - 22, 2008, Montreal, Canada. Paper  Submission Deadline: January 20, 2008. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/itc2007" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ITC 2007</a>,   The Second International Timetabling Competition (held with PATAT  2008),  August 19 - 22, 2008, Montreal, Canada. Paper Submission Deadline:  January 25, 2008. </div>
    </li>
    <li>
      <div align="justify"><a href="http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/cp2008/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">CP 2008</a>,   14th International Conference on Principles and Practice of  Constraint Programming, Sydney, Australia, September 14 - 18, 2008.        </div>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <h2><a name="career" id="career">Career news</a></h2>
  <ul>
    <li> <strong>Postdoctoral Position at Cork Constraint Computation Centre </strong>
      <p align="justify"> The Centre for Telecommunications Value-chain Research  (CTVR) and the  Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) at University College Cork,  Ireland, have a vacancy for a postdoctoral researcher to work on  optimisation problems in wireless networking. Strong programming skills  are necessary. Experience in the one or more of the following areas will  be required: distributed computing, distributed constraint optimisation,  multi-agent systems, constraint programming, local search, optimisation  algorithms, combinatorial auctions and game theory.  Knowledge of  wireless networking would be an advantage. </p>
        <p align="justify"> CTVR (<a href="http://www.ctvr.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.ctvr.ie</a>) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institution research  centre funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Its aim is to develop  breakthrough research in areas relevant to the telecommunications  industry, with particular emphasis on the economic context and value-  chain impact of the research. The centre is led by Trinity College  Dublin, and involves five technology strands: Emerging Networks, Radio  Frequency, Photonics, Test &amp; Reliability, and Optimisation &amp; Management.  The Optimisation and Management strand is led by 4C, working with UCD,  and involves collaborative research and development in optimisation,  decision support and business management in telecommunications. Sample  projects include protocols for negotiating access to spectrum commons,  optimised fault detection in optical networks, distributed coordination  in supply chains, stochastic inventory management, demand forecasting,  the economic impact of dynamic spectrum, and optimisation of backhaul  networks for cellular systems. </p>
        <p align="justify"> The Cork Constraint Computation Centre (<a href="http://www.4c.ucc.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.4c.ucc.ie</a>) at University  College Cork is one of the leading academic centres of constraint  programming research in the world. The centre has about 50 members,  including academics, research staff and students, from over a dozen  countries and collaborates with researcher </p>
        <p align="justify"> Open position: Research Scientist in applied optimization at SINTEF </p>
        <p align="justify"> There is currently an open position for a research scientist in applied  optimization at SINTEF ICT in Oslo, Norway. For details, see: <a href="http://www.sintef.no/content/page61____12955.aspx" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.sintef.no/content/page61____12955.aspx</a> </p>
        <p align="justify"> <strong> Dynamic System Analysis &amp; Uncertainty Research Position in Decision  Support Systems Project </strong> </p>
        <p align="justify"> Also available in same project:<br />
          - one year position in Human Computer<br />
          - two year position in Psychology of Decision Making<br />
          For details see <a href="http://4c.ucc.ie/creeds/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://4c.ucc.ie/creeds/</a> </p>
        <p align="justify"> The Cork Constraint Computation Centre (<a href="http://4c.ucc.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://4c.ucc.ie</a>) is seeking  candidates for a one-year appointment beginning in 2008 connecting  dynamic systems and uncertain reasoning with constraint satisfaction  problems and constraint programming. This position is part of an  EU-funded project, &quot;Constraint Reasoning Extended to Enhance Decision  Support&quot; (CREEDS), which began in July, 2006. The purpose of CREEDS is to  allow 4C to extend the scope of its research activities into the field of  Decision Support Systems; this will include exploring the integration of  constraint programming and decision support and devising new methods to  support decision making, which can be guided by theoretical treatments of  decision making. </p>
        <p align="justify"> Eligibilty: </p>
        <p align="justify"> The applicant must have a Ph.D. or four years of research experience  since obtaining a university degree and have expertise in relevant areas,  such as forecasting, prediction, simulation or reasoning under  uncertainty. In addition, any experience in constraint programming would  be an advantage.EU-requirements: The applicant must not have worked or  studied in Ireland for more than 12 months during the past 3 years.  Preference will be given to Researchers from the EU, Associated States,  and to researchers that have resided more than 4 years in the EU or  Associated states.(Associated states are: Norway, Switzerland, Turkey,  Iceland, Israel, Croatia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,  Liechtenstein.) </p>
        <p align="justify"> Job description: </p>
        <p align="justify"> The researcher will work with and train 4C staff members in the course of  carrying out research related to decision support systems. The research  responsibilities involve: </p>
    </li><li>  working on the development of applications in the area of decision  support; </li>
    <li>  examination of relations between the researcher's own area of expertise  and work conducted at 4C and in constraint programming generally. This  will entail production of deliverables in the form of documents that  may be written up for workshop, conference, or journal submission.  Critiques, surveys, and proposals may also be written up as Technical  Reports; </li>
    <li> leading a &quot;talks and seminars&quot; program in the relevant area of  expertise.

CREEDS hosted researchers will benefit from a broad exposure to constraint programming, including a master's level course offered by the Computer Science Department. Moreover, they will benefit from 4C's active visitor program: we hosts about 20 research visitors a year, for stays ranging from a few days to a few months, from all over the world.

        <p align="justify"> Each incoming researcher will be equipped with a PC and office facilities  and access to the 4C and university computer network. 4C has its own  administrative and systems support staff, plus support from the Computer  Science Department and University administrators. </p>
        <p align="justify"> Location: </p>
        <p align="justify"> The Cork Constraint Computation Centre at University College Cork is one  of the leading academic centres of constraint programming research in the  world. The centre has about 50 staff members, including academics,  research staff and students, from over a dozen countries and collaborates  with researchers from many countries. It, therefore, has considerable  experience absorbing non-Irish and even non-EU researchers into its  organisation. 4C is collaborating on research projects with a number of  companies and has an Industry Associates Program (<a href="http://www.4c.ucc.ie/iap" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.4c.ucc.ie/iap</a>) with  over 50 members. 4C is based in its own building in the centre of Cork  City, a short walk from the main University College Cork campus. </p>
        <p align="justify"> Contact details: </p>
        <p align="justify"> Interested parties can contact either  Rick Wallace (<a href="mailto:r.wallace@4c.ucc.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">r.wallace@4c.ucc.ie</a>) or  Tomas Nordlander (<a href="mailto:t.nordlander@4c.ucc.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">t.nordlander@4c.ucc.ie</a>) or  Nic Wilson (<a href="mailto:n.wilson@4c.ucc.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">n.wilson@4c.ucc.ie</a>). </p>
    </li></ul>
  <h2><a name="reports" id="reports">Reports</a></h2>
  <p><a href="http://research.microsoft.com/constraint-reasoning/Workshops/Autonomous-CP07/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"><strong>First Workshop on Autonomous Search</strong></a> </p>
  <p align="justify"> The first workshop on autonomous search has been held on the   23th of September in Providence (RI), as a side event of the 13th   International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint   Programming (CP 2007). </p>
  <p align="justify"> Ten papers have been submitted and we have selected eight of them   for an oral presentation during the three sessions of this meeting,   which has brought together up to 30 attendants from various research   areas like constraint programming, artificial intelligence and operation   research. </p>
  <p align="justify"> Through this event, we wanted to promote works interested in the dynamic  and autonomous adaptation of search procedures since recent progresses   in the processing of combinatorial problems have demonstrated that   search algorithms can become extremely efficient when they take advantage   of unsuccessful attempts to drive their exploration. For instance in   modern DPLLs, the collect of conflicts feeds the variable selection   heuristic, and the quality of unit propagation controls the use of the   restart strategy. </p>
  <p align="justify"> We believe that a more principled and autonomous approach for search   efficiency has to be started now in Constraint Programming. This   workshop represents a first important step into that direction. </p>
  <p align="justify"> Presented works focused on different algorithmic aspects of combinatorial  search. In order to provide autonomous algorithms to the end-users,   it appears that two main points have to be carefully studied. First,   one has to clearly understand the behaviour of the search mechanisms and,   secondly, one should benefit from dynamic control techniques. Of course,   other important features could be taken into account such as the structure  of the instances and the model's properties. </p>
  <p align="justify"> The proposed approaches cover the two main families of solving techniques   for constrained optimization problems: complete (or exact) methods and   incomplete (or approximate) methods. Since complete methods are mostly   based on a search tree, the automatic control of the resolution process   often relies on the underlying heuristics used to explore these search   trees. Such automatic control can be based on constraints and variables   handling through a dynamic exploration strategy. Concerning incomplete   approaches that rely most of the time on metaheuristics, their control,   and success, is mainly related to the numerous parameters that they involve   (population size, noise, temperature scheme...). Therefore, the proposed   techniques often consist in understanding the role of these parameters in   order to provide an easiest way to set and control them. </p>
  <p align="justify"> As organisers, we hope that this first workshop has opened new prospects for   future works in the new and promising area of Autonomous Search. </p>
  <p align="justify"> Youssef Hamadi, Eric Monfroy and Frederic Saubion </p>