INTRODUCTION

Constraint Programming (CP) is a powerful technology for solving combinatorial problems of both theoretical and practical interest. In recent years considerable progress has been made in modelling and solving problems with constraints. However, as more problems become practically solvable, harder problems emerge to pose fresh challenges. New aspects of old problems may also become of interest, such as preferences among solutions, the robustness of solutions under uncertainty, and strategies for handling over-constrained problems. There is therefore an increasing need for new search heuristics, modelling principles, filtering algorithms, symmetry breaking methods, and learning techniques. Progress can also be made by bridging the gap between CP and the other communities such as Operations Research, Boolean Satisfiability, Planning, Machine Learning, Evolutionary Computation, Decision Theory, and Mathematics. This workshop will address a range of issues in the modelling and solving of problems, with the aim of enriching the efficiency, usability and the expressiveness of the CP tools. It will be of interest both to academics in the AI community and to industrial users of CP technology. Workshop topics include, but are not limited to:

• modelling principles
• filtering algorithms
• complete, incomplete and hybrid search heuristics
• comparison of alternative models, search algorithms and their combinations
• problem symmetry
• integration of methods from other fields
• optimisation and over-constrained problems
• real-life applications
• preferences
• uncertainty and robustness
• constraint acquisition and validation
• explanations

PROGRAMME

• 0900-0915 Welcome
• 0915-1000 Invited talk: Global Grammar Constraints Toby Walsh (joint work with Claude-Guy Quimper)
• 1000-1030 Coffee
• 1030-1100 Expressing General Problems as CSPs J. Charnley, S. Colton
• 1100-1130 Constraint Programming Models for Graceful Graphs B. Smith
• 1130-1200 Rooted Tree and Spanning Tree Constraints P. Prosser, C. Unsworth
• 1200-1230 Robust Controllability of Temporal Constraint Networks Under Uncertainty H. C. Lau, J. Li, R. H. C. Yap
• 1230-1430 Lunch
• 1430-1500 Comparison of Two Constraint Programming Algorithms for Computing Leximin-Optimal Allocations S. Bouveret, M. Lemaitre
• 1500-1530 General Symmetry Breaking Constraints T. Walsh
• 1530-1600 Coffee
• 1600-1630 Scheduling Personal Time Using Squeaky Wheel Optimization I. Refanidis, D. Gkemitzis, G. Stephanides
• 1630-1700 Discussion and closing

PARTICIPATION

At least one author of each submission accepted for presentation must attend the workshop to present the contribution. Attendance is limited to active participants only. Workshop attendees need not register for the main ECAI conference.

SUBMISSIONS

To submit a paper to the workshop, please e-mail to s.prestwich@cs.ucc.ie a PS or PDF file in LNCS conference style. Papers should not exceed 8 pages. The organising committee will acknowledge all submissions. If a submitted paper is not acknowledged within two working days, please contact the workshop chair. All submissions will be reviewed and those that present a significant contribution to the workshop topics will be accepted for publication in the workshop proceedings. The proceedings will be available electronically [here] and in hard copy on the day of the workshop.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Paper submission deadline (CLOSED): 22 April 2006
• Notification of authors: 10 May 2006
• Camera ready version deadline: 24 May 2006
• Registration deadline: 18 May 2006
• Workshop dates: 29 August 2006

ORGANISATION

Organising committee

Programme Committee