CS 886: Topics in Artificial Intelligence: Constraint Programming

Schedule

Note: All classes are 9-11:20am. Monday classes are held in DC 3313; Thursday classes are held in MC 2036

Monday, September 10:

    Topic: Overview and preliminaries

    • Constraint programming methodology
    • Constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) framework
    • Examples of modeling and solving CSPs
    • Motivating applications: scheduling, propositional satisfiability, graph coloring

    Slides: .ppt, .pdf

    Background reading:

    • F. Rossi, P. van Beek, T. Walsh. Constraint Programming. Chapter 4 in Handbook of Knowledge Representation. B. Porter, V. Lifschitz, F. van Harmelen (eds.). Elsevier, 2007.

Monday, September 17:

    Topic: Constraint propagation

    • Local consistency: arc (or domain) consistency, unit propagation

    Background reading:

    • C. Bessiere. Constraint propagation. Chapter 4 in Handbook of Constraint Programming, 29-83, Elsevier, 2006.

Thursday, September 20:

    Note: Not the usual room. Held in MC 2036.

    Topic: Constraint propagation (continued)

    • Local consistency: bounds consistency, singleton consistencies, k-consistency
    • Global constraints: alldifferent constraint, global cardinality constraint, regular constraint, sequence constraint

    Background reading:

    • W.-J. van Hoeve and I. Katriel. Global constraints. Chapter 6 in Handbook of Constraint Programming, 169-208, Elsevier, 2006.

Monday, October 1:

    Topic: Constraint propagation (continued)

    Research papers:

    • C. Bessiere, J.-C. Regin, R.H.C. Yap, Y. Zhang. An optimal coarse-grained arc consistency algorithm. Artificial Intelligence, 165:165-185, 2005.
      Presenter: Krishnam Raju Jampani (slides.ppt)
    • F. Bacchus. GAC via unit propagation. Proceedings of CP-2007, Providence, RI, 2007.
      Presenter: Omer Beg (slides.ppt)
    • G. Pesant. A regular language membership constraint for finite sequences of variables. Proceedings of CP-2004, Toronto, 2004.
      Presenter: Divya Karunararan Nair (slides.ppt)
    • W.-J. van Hoeve, G. Pesant, L.-M. Rousseau, A. Sabharwal. Revisiting the sequence constraint. Proceedings of CP-2006, Nantes, France, 2006.
      Presenter: Selvaprabu Nadarajah (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critiques of two different papers from the list of papers for today.

Thursday, October 4:

    Note: Not the usual room. Held in MC 2036.

    Topic: Backtracking search

    • Branching strategies, constraint propagation during search, variable and value ordering heuristics

    Background reading:

    • P. van Beek Backtracking search algorithms. Chapter 4 in Handbook of Constraint Programming, 85-134, Elsevier, 2006.

    Research papers:

    • F. Boussemart, F. Hemery, C. Lecoutre, and L. Sais. Boosting Systematic Search by Weighting Constraints. Proceedings of the ECAI-2004, Valencia, Spain, 2004.
      Presenter: Myung Sub Kim (slides.ppt)
    • A. Zanarini and G. Pesant. Solution Counting Algorithms for Constraint-Centered Search Heuristics. Proceedings of CP-2007, Providence, RI, 2007.
      Presenter: Niv Shaft (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Thursday, October 11:

    Note: Not the usual room. Held in MC 2036.

    Topic: Backtracking search (continued)

    • nogood recording, non-chronological backtracking

    Research papers:

    • U. Junker. QuickXplain: Preferred Explanations and Relaxations for Over-Constrained Problems. Proceedings of the AAAI-2004, San Jose, California, 2004.
      Presenter: Olga Miltchman (slides.ppt)
    • G. Katsirelos and F. Bacchus. Generalized Nogoods in CSPs. Proceedings of AAAI-2005, Pittsburgh, 2005.
      Presenter: Matthew Stephan (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Monday, October 15:

    Topic: Backtracking search (continued)

    • randomization and restart strategies, portfolios

    Research papers:

    • T. Hulubei and B. O'Sullivan. Search Heuristics and Heavy-Tailed Behaviour. Proceedings of CP-2005, Sitges, Spain, 2005.
      Presenter: Jun Fung (slides.ppt)
    • M. Milano and W.J. van Hoeve. Reduced Cost-Based Ranking for Generating Promising Subproblems. Proceedings of CP-2002, Ithaca, NY, 2002.
      Presenter: Zijie Li (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Monday, November 5:

    Topic: Backtracking search (continued)

    Research papers:

    • L. Xu, F. Hutter, H.H. Hoos, and K. Leyton-Brown. SATzilla-07: The Design and Analysis of an Algorithm Portfolio for SAT. Proceedings of CP-2007, Providence, RI, 2007.
      Presenter: Albert Choi (slides.ppt)
    • C.P. Gomes, W.-J. van Hoeve, A. Sabharwal, and B. Selman. Counting CSP Solutions Using Generalized XOR Constraints. Proceedings of the AAAI-2007, Vancouver, 2007.
      Presenter: Mahmoud Fouz (slides.pdf)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Monday, November 12:

    Topic: Local search

    • Iterative improvement, non-improving steps, tabu search, local search for constraint optimization problems

    Background reading:

    • H.H. Hoos and E. Tsang. Local search methods. Chapter 5 in Handbook of Constraint Programming, 135-168, Elsevier, 2006.

    Research papers:

    • P. Van Hentenryck and L. Michel. Synthesis of Constraint-Based Local Search Algorithms from High-Level Models. Proceedings of the AAAI-2007, Vancouver, 2007.
      Presenter: Marshall Hahn (slides.ppt)
    • P. Van Hentenryck and Y. Vergados. Population-Based Simulated Annealing for Traveling Tournaments. Proceedings of the AAAI-2007, Vancouver, 2007.
      Presenter: Shahab Mohsen (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Monday, November 19:

    Topic: Modeling

    • Alternative models, auxiliary variables, implied constraints, dominance constraints, reformulations, combining models (slides.ppt)

    Background reading:

    • B.M. Smith. Modelling. Chapter 11 in Handbook of Constraint Programming, 377-406, Elsevier, 2006.

    Research papers:

    • I. Dotu, A. del Val, and M. Cebrian. Redundant Modeling for the QuasiGroup Completion Problem. Proceedings of CP-2003, Kinsale, Ireland, 2003.
      Presenter: Mehrdad Nojoumian (slides.ppt)
    • N. Nethercote, P.J. Stuckey, R. Becket, S. Brand, G.J. Duck, G. Tack. MiniZinc: Towards a standard CP modelling language. Proceedings of CP-2007, Providence, RI, 2007.
      Presenter: Kate Kinnear (slides.ppt)

    Due:

    • Critique of one of the papers from the list of papers for today.

Monday, November 26:

    Topic: Modeling

    • Alternative models, auxiliary variables, implied constraints, dominance constraints, reformulations, combining models (slides.ppt)

    Research papers:

    • B. M. Smith. Symmetry and Search in a Network Design Problem. Proceedings of CP-AI-OR-2005, Prague, 2005.
      Presenter: Sayyid Hasan Riyaz
    • A.M. Frisch, C. Jefferson, and I. Miguel. Symmetry Breaking as a Prelude to Implied Constraints: A Constraint Modelling Pattern. Proceedings of the ECAI-2004, Valencia, Spain, 2004.
      Presenter: Abdul Jalil Mohamed

Monday, December 17:

    Presentations of course projects. Each presentation will be 25 minutes (20 minute talk, 5 minutes for questions at the end):

    • Niv Shaft and Myung Sub Kim
    • Jun Fung and Matthew Stephan
    • Marshall Hahn and Kate Kinnear
    • Divya Nair and Mehrdad Nojoumian
    • Olga Miltchman and Shahab Mohsen

Friday, December 21:

    Presentations of course projects (continued):

    • Raju Jampani
    • Albert Choi
    • Zijie Li
    • Omer Beg and Mahmoud Fouz
    • AbdulJalil Mohamed and Sayyid Riyaz