Helsinki University of Technology, 
     Laboratory for Theoretical Computer Science

Advanced Constraint Programming Techniques for Large Structured Problems (ACPT)

A research project (number 211025) funded by Academy of Finland
Jan 1, 2005 - Dec 31, 2007

Project leader: Prof. Ilkka Niemelä

Research Personnel: Keijo Heljanko, Tomi Janhunen, Tommi Junttila, Toni Jussila, Timo Latvala, Tommi Syrjänen, Heikki Tauriainen, Misa Keinänen, Matti Järvisalo, Emilia Oikarinen, Antti Hyvärinen

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Summary: This project proposal is a continuation of a project "Applications of Rule-Based Constraint Programming" funded by the Academy of Finland where we have developed implementation methodology for a new kind of declarative rule-based constraint programming paradigm and studied its applications in two challenging areas: symbolic model checking and product configuration. The Smodels system developed in the project has played a major role in the international breakthrough of the paradigm and the system is used in numerous research groups world-wide nowadays.

The objective of this proposal is to develop a high-level modeling language and advanced constraint-based search techniques for solving challenging search problems which involve complex structured constraints and large data sets and which potentially require significant computing resources to be solved. Such problems arise in such fields as computer aided verification, testing, design automation and bioinformatics. Our central goal is to develop methodology using which domain specialists with even limited computer science background can solve computationally challenging search problems by exploiting advanced computing platforms such as GRIDs when necessary. The approach builds on our previous work on constraint propagation techniques and involves basic research on advanced search algorithms combining systematic and randomized techniques.

Publications of the project

For software and theses see the home page of the computational logic group.