2011 Quarter 1

REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

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

This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months January-March 2011.

ACP.1. The 2011 ACP Executive Committee

The 2011 ACP Executive Committee comprises the following people, in alphabetical order (officers identified):

  • Yves Deville
  • John Hooker
  • Jimmy H.M. Lee - Secretary
  • Barry O'Sullivan - President
  • Thomas Schiex - Treasurer
  • Helmut Simonis
  • Peter Stuckey
  • Roland Yap

This year, since new members of the EC have joined (Yves Deville and Helmut Simonis), the EC had to revisit the officier positions. The EC unanimously agreed that the current officers remain in position until the next election of EC members.

ACP.1. Association for Constraint Programming LinkedIn Group

The ACP have established a LinkedIn group for the association to help promote our research and activities through this professional social network platform. On behalf of the Association for Constraint Programming, the EC would like to invite everyone interested in our field to join this group. We hope it will provide you with an ideal forum for keeping people updated about what you're doing, and help you network with both academic and industry-based colleagues. We would like to acknowledge Guido Tack for the suggestion that we should create this group.

ACP.2. ACP Summer School 2011

The ACP Summer School 2011 will be held in Turunç (Turkey) from Monday 27th June to Friday 1st July, and it is organized by Pierre Flener, Justin Pearson, and Christian Schulte. The objective of this advanced-level summer school is to study integration opportunities between CP solvers and the solvers of some other constraint-solving technologies, namely mixed integer programming (MIP), global (numerical) optimisation, Boolean satisfiability (SAT), and stochastic local search (SLS). Each speaker will focus on inference & relaxation, search, modelling, and implementation. This year's lecturers include Ian Gent, John Hooker, Michel Rueher, and Pascal Van Hentenryck.

Web: http://www.gecode.org/events/acp-summerschool-2011

ACP.3. Call for Bids for CP-2013

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

ACP.4. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Research Excellence Award 2011.

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2011 ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming, which will be presented at CP 2011 in Perugia, Italy, in September 2011. The purpose of this award is to celebrate those CP researchers who have made exceptional and very influential research contributions to CP with their work. The call for nominations is included in this edition of the CP-News. Past winners of this award can be found at:

http://www.4c.ucc.ie/a4cp/awards/research-excellence-award

ACP.5. Call for Nominations: for the ACP Doctoral Research Award 2011.

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2011 ACP Doctoral Research Award, which will be presented at CP 2011 in Perugia, Italy, in September 2011. The ACP Doctoral Research Award is awarded every year to a promising young researcher working in the area of constraint programming and who defended his/her thesis between January and December of the previous two years. The call for nominations for this award is included in this edition of the CP-News. Past winners of this award can be found at:

http://www.4c.ucc.ie/a4cp/awards/doctoral-research-award

ACP.6. Sponsorships

The ACP has sponsored the 2011 ERCIM Workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming to the value of €1500. Details of this event can be found at:

http://csclp2011.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk

ACP.7. CP Conference 2011

The ACP-EC looks forward to seeing you in Perugia for CP 2011 in September - http://www.dmi.unipg.it/cp2011/


CALL FOR PROPOSALS TO HOST CP-2013

We invite proposals to host the 19th International Conference on the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-2013). Proposals are due on or before June 1st, 2011. These proposals will be evaluated by the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming and a decision made for the site shortly afterwards.

The CP conferences are the premier international conferences on constraint programming. They have been held annually since 1995. CP 2012 will be held in Quebec City (Canada), while CP 2011 will be held in Perugia (Italy). Previous CP conference have been held in St. Andrews (Scotland), Lisbon (Portugal), Sydney (AUS), Providence RI (USA), Nantes (France), Sitges (Spain), Toronto (Canada), Kinsale (Ireland), Cornell (USA), Paphos (Cyprus), Singapore, Alexandria (USA), Pisa (Italy), Schloss Hagenberg (Austria), Cambridge (USA), and Cassis (France).

Proposals should be up to two pages of plain text and should address the following numbered topics: * 1. Proposal for conference chair(s). * 2. Local CP community support. * 3. University, government and industry support, especially financial. * 4. Proposed dates, and flexibility around these dates. * 5. Co-located events that might be held alongside CP. * 6. Conference and exhibition facilities (CP typically attracts between 200 and 250 delegates). * 7. Accommodation and food services. * 8. Site accessibility, attractiveness, and desirability. * 9. Previous experience in running conferences and workshops. * 10. Provisional budget.

If available, please include URLs to any additional information (e.g. web site for the conference venue or hotel).

Guidelines for the CP conference organization, as well as the duties of the conference chair(s), can be found on the ACP web site.

Proposals should be sent to the secretary of the Association for Constraint Programming committee preferably by email to secretary@a4cp.org. In preparing a proposal, please feel free to address questions (e.g. regarding the suitability of the proposed dates) to the same address, or to any member of the ACP Executive Committee.


CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE

Association for Constraint Programming

AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING 2011

OVERVIEW

The Executive Committee of the ACP invites nominations for the 2011 ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming, which will be presented at CP 2011 in Perugia, Italy, in September 2011. The purpose of this award is to celebrate those CP researchers who have made exceptional and very influential research contributions to CP with their work.

The award recipient will give a plenary talk at CP 2011. The costs for his/her participation to the conference will covered by the ACP.

ELIGIBILITY

Nominations for this award are invited from members of the ACP.

NOMINATION PROCESS

A nomination package consists of a nomination form from one nominator, and reference forms from at least 2 references.

Typically, a nominator is somebody who knows the nominee very well, and locates the references, ensuring that they do their parts in time to produce a convincing nomination package. Ideally, a reference is a well known member of the CP community who has never had a very close relationship with the nominee, but who can speak with authority for him or her.

Nominations and reference forms should follow the form below and should be sent (nomination forms by the nominators, and reference forms by references) by email to secretary@a4cp.org. The textual part of this forms should be a statement of why the nominee deserves the award. The Award Committee is looking for evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the field. Effective letters will therefore emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

TIMEFRAME

The nomination package must arrive at the above address by June 17, 2011. We cannot accept anything received after that date. We will acknowledge receipt of nominations. The decision will be available by mid July.

AWARD COMMITTEE

Every year, an Award Commmittee will decide the award recipient among the nominees, and will include: the president and secretary of the ACP-EC, two previous award receipients, and the program chair of the CP conference where the award will be given.

Members of the award committee cannot be candidates, nor can they support a candidate by being a nominator or a reference.

Enquiries concerning nominations should be directed to the ACP EC Secretary at the address secretary@a4cp.org. More information about the ACP can be found at the ACP web site.

_____________________________ Nomination Form _______________________________

NOMINATION FORM: ACP AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 9 by editing this form directly, and email to secretary@a4cp.org. The email submission must be in plain text (ASCII) and the answer to Question 9 must be limited to 300 words. Regarding Question 9, it is important to show evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the CP field. Effective letters will therefore emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

The information on this form is confidential. Neither the candidate nor the references will be informed of the views you express.

  1. Nominator's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; and email address)
  2. References (list at least 2 people who will submit the reference forms)
  3. Candidate's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; email address; and webpage)
  4. Candidate's Education (highest degree received, field, institution, date)
  5. Record of Professional Experience (list of principal positions held and dates; please briefly describe primary responsibilities for each position)
  6. Professional Recognition (honors, awards, prizes)
  7. Contributions of Record (list 5-10 significant publications, patents, or other contributions)
  8. Noteworthy Public Services (boards, committees, etc)
  9. Please describe, in 300 words or less, the accomplishments of the candidate that, in your opinion, qualify him/her for the ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming.

Answers to the following questions will assist in the evaluation process:

  • Which specific accomplishments made by the candidate merit the Award?
  • Where does the candidate stand in comparison to other scientists in the field of CP?
  • What impacts have the contributions of the candidate had on other fields (AI, OR, computer science, etc.), or on society?
  • If some of the candidate's contributions involved a team effort, what specifically were the candidate's contributions?

_____________________________ Reference Form _______________________________

REFERENCE FORM: ACP AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

Please answer, as completely as possible, Questions 1 to 5 by editing this form directly, and email to secretary@a4cp.org.

The email submission must be in plain text (ASCII) and the answer to Question 5 must be limited to 300 words. Regarding Question 5, it is important to show evidence that the nominee has generated some of the most important and influential work in the CP field. Effective letters will, therefore, emphasize what the nominee has done and why it matters.

The information on this form is confidential. Neither the candidate nor the nominator will be informed of the views you express.

  1. Reference's Name and Affiliation (first, middle, last; address; telephone; fax; and email address)
  2. Nominator's Name
  3. Candidate's Name
  4. A reference is required to have been at "arm's length" from the candidate for the past 6 years, which here means being at a different institution from, not having supervised or been supervised by, and not having done joint work with the candidate. Please declare here any association you have ever had with the candidate.
  5. Please describe, in 300 words or less, the accomplishments of the candidate that, in your opinion, qualify him/her for the ACP award for Research Excellence in Constraint Programming.

Answers to the following questions will assist in the evaluation process:

  • Which specific accomplishments made by the candidate merit the Award?
  • Where does the candidate stand in comparison to other scientists in the field of Constraint Programming?
  • What impacts have the contributions of the candidate had on other fields (AI, OR, computer science, etc), or on society?
  • If some of the candidate's contributions involved a team effort, what specifically were the candidate's contributions?

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE

Association for Constraint Programming

DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARD 2011

OVERVIEW

The ACP Doctoral Research Award will be awarded every year to a promising young researcher working in the area of constraint programming and who defended his/her thesis between January and December of the previous two years. The award, in the form of a certificate, will be presented at the CP 2011 conference, where the winning researcher will present a talk on the topic of his/her doctoral dissertation.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligible doctoral researchers are those who defended their doctoral thesis between January 1, 2009 and December 31st 2010 in the area of constraint programming. The researcher must be a current member of the Association for Constraint Programming.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Nominations must be made by the thesis supervisor, who is responsible for ensuring that the following items are submitted to the secretary of the ACP at secretary@cp-online.org.

  1. A URL to a zip-file containing the following items:
  • A PDF version of the dissertation. No specific language for the dissertation is imposed;

  • A PDF of an extended abstract of the doctoral dissertation, 3-5 pages in length, written in English;

  • PDF versions of each of up to five papers published at international peer-reviewed conferences or journals based on the work reported in the doctoral dissertation;

  • A PDF description, and pointer to, any software or systems developed during the research;

  • A PDF version of a nomination letter from the supervisor of the research.

  1. In addition to the supervisor's nomination letter, two additional letters should be forwarded directly to the secretary of the ACP from two referees, selected by the dissertation supervisor, supporting the submission and stating their assessment of why the thesis should win the award. These letters will not be shown to the research supervisor or the candidate.

TIMEFRAME

Deadline for nominations: Monday 6th June 2011 Notification: Early August 2011

SELECTION

The selection of the winning candidate is based on the originality, impact, and quality of the research work. The evaluation will consider all contributions to the CP community, including publications, software and systems.

The work of the candidates will be reviewed by a committee of researchers selected by the ACP Executive Committee, based on the nominations received.