News Journal on Planning and Scheduling

A first paper has been submitted since the previous issue of the News Journal. This paper is now open to public discussion for a period of three months and your contributions are invited. Please visit the review section to find more about the paper and the debate.

I am happy to announce that two additional names have been added to the list of editorial board members: Welcome Mark Drummond and Jim Hendler!

I received many positive and encouraging responses since the first release of this News Journal. Many thanks to all of you!! I hope you will continue to enjoy reading the News Journal and Electronic Colloquium and to contribute your announcements to both.

Finally, I am now looking forward to receiving further paper submissions. You will find the call here and you are invited to comply.

Susanne Biundo
(area editor)

Austin Tate
Representing Plans as a Set of Constraints -
The < I-N-OVA > Model

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to representing and manipulating plans based on a model of plans as a set of constraints. The < I-N-OVA > ( Issues - Nodes - Orderings/Variables/Auxiliary) model is used to characterise the plan representation used within O-Plan and to relate this work to emerging formal analyses of plans and planning. This synergy of practical and formal approaches can stretch the formal methods to cover realistic plan representations, as needed for real problem solving, and can improve the analysis that is possible for production planning systems.
< I-N-OVA > is intended to act as a bridge to improve dialogue between a number of communities working on formal planning theories, practical planning systems and systems engineering process management methodologies. It is intended to support new work on automatic manipulation of plans, human communication about plans, principled and reliable acquisition of plan information, and formal reasoning about plans.

Remarks:
This paper was previously a conference paper at AIPS-96.
There are detailed models and suggestions for the usage of < I-N-OVA > on the Web available via this page.

Date of Submission:   August 21, 1997

The following articles, which have previously been received, have been accepted by the ETAI after confidential review, thereby achieving proof of high journal quality.

Austin Tate
Representing Plans as a Set of Constraints - The < I-N-OVA > Model

Can we Bridge Refinement-based and SAT-based Planning Techniques?
This challenge problem is described in a paper by Rao Kambhampati, which has been presented as a "challenge paper" at this year's IJCAI. An introduction into the problem and its discussion can be found on Rao's page.

Adaptive Web Sites: An AI Challenge by Perkowitz and Etzioni.

The RoboCup Synthetic Agents Challenge 97 by Kitano et al.

ECP-97:   Fourth European Conference on Planning.
The conference will be held from September 24th to 26th in Toulouse, France. The preliminary program schedule and registration information are now available. The list of papers is included in the bibliograhy of the Electronic Colloquium.

KR-98:   Sixth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning.
The conference will be held from June 2nd to 5th in Trento, Italy.
Deadlines: electronic abstracts due: November 26, 1997 · extended abstracts due: December 1, 1997.

AIPS-98:   Fourth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems.
The conference will be held from June 7th to 10th at Carnegy Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
Deadlines: workshop proposals due: October 14, 1997 · conference papers due: December 9, 1997.

AAAI-98:   Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
The conference will be held from July 26th to 30th in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Deadlines: electronic title page due: January 20, 1998 · papers due: January 22, 1998.

ECAI-98:   Thirteenth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
The conference will be held from August 23th to 28th in Brighton, UK.
Deadlines: workshop and tutorial proposals due: November 1, 1997 · technical papers due: January 23, 1998.

Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space, organised by Steve Chien, to be held from October 28th to 30th in Oxnard, CA, USA.

Industrial Constraint-Directed Scheduling, organised by Andrew Davenport and Chris Beck, to be held in conjunction with the Third International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-97) on November 1st at Schloss Hagenberg, Austria.

Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation, and Approximation (SARA-98), organised by Tom Ellman, to be held from May 9th to 12th in Pacific Grove, California, USA.
Deadline for the submission of research summaries and extended abstracts is January 20, 1998.

This section provides current offers as well as access to sites where relevant jobs are regularly announced. It invites your submissions.

ShivaSoft Inc., a scheduling-software developer in Edmonton, Canada, is currently looking for candidates to fill a research position. They are particularly interested in acquiring more expertise in constraint programming. More about this offer ...

Many job offers in planning, scheduling, and constraint reasoning can be found on this page.

Job openings at the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) at the University of Edinburgh are always announced on this page. They include occasional positions and studentships in the Knowledge-Based Planning Group at AIAI.

ShivaSoft Inc.

Research Position - Intelligent Scheduling

ShivaSoft Inc. is a leading developer of advanced planning and scheduling systems for manufacturing companies. The Shiva(tm) system has been successfully installed in numerous large companies in the automotive, metals, repetitive manufacturing, and process industries.

To maintain our technical leadership in a very competitive marketplace we require a highly motivated researcher to join our Edmonton based development team. The position offers an excellent opportunity for those interested in applying academic training to complex manufacturing scheduling models. Demonstrated expertise in the following areas is essential:

- Constraint logic programming
- Genetic algorithms
- Mathematical techniques for optimization
- Hybrid approaches to real scheduling problems

A Ph.D. in a related area of study is preferred. The position also requires:
- Experience in software development and working with software developers
- Good verbal and written communication skills

ShivaSoft's reputation for technical excellence and innovative yet practical solutions is a result of its dedicated personnel and informal, creative atmosphere.
Competitive salary and benefits are offered. This is a permanent position, and opportunities exist for career development in research and other functional areas. ShivaSoft Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.

Send your resume marked "Research" to: HR Manager. e-mail: resume@shivasoft.com, fax: (403) 423 0414
Please direct inquires regarding this position to either vasu@shivasoft.com or john@shivasoft.com.

ShivaSoft Inc.
#455 Phipps McKinnon Building
10020 101A Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 3G2
URL: http://www.shivasoft.com

The following publications have appeared since the previous issue.