CE884 Constraint Satisfaction For Decision Making, 2009-2010

Lecturer: Professor Edward Tsang / x2774 / Skype: bracil.net Class tutor: Abdullah Al-Sheddy /

Timetables:

• Lectures: Fridays 2-3:50pm, Room 6.106 (the first lecture will take place on Friday 22 January 2010)
• Classes: Mondays 5:00-5:50pm Room 5N.7.21 (the first class will take place on Monday 1st February 2010)

Slides:

• Overview lecture (pdf, 156K)
• Problem Reduction (pdf, 87K)
• Complete Search Methods (pdf 259K)
• Stochastic Search (pdf 396K)

Industrial Talk by James Borrett, Global Optimum, 19 February 2010 (Presentation)

Exercises and Assignments (on-line submission only):

• Assignment 1 Friday 26 February 2010 (week 21) 11:59:59
• Assignment 2 Friday 26 March 2010 (week 25) 11:59:59

References:

• E P K Tsang, Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction, Academic Press, 1993 (On-line)
• F Rossi, P van Beek & T Walsh (ed), Handbook of Constraint Programming, Elsevier, 2006
• Rashidi, H. and Tsang, E.P.K., Vehicle Scheduling in Port Automation, VDM Verlag, 2010 (new book, demonstrating constraint satisfaction formulations in port automation)
• Edgar Galvan's class material, 2006-07
• http://www.bracil.net/CSP links to other major research sites

Software:

• Backmarking Algorithm by Luis Vargas, 2002-03 (Installation shield, 23MB)
• Learning Nogoods Algorithm by Cesareo Gutierrez Casorran, 2002-03 (Java programs, 176K)
• Constraint solving system ZDC developed in the CACP Project at University of Essex

Student Supports:

• For technical consultation, please contact Edward Tsang, course supervisor
• For non-academic problems, advices are available from Professional Counselling services