[DMANET] CfP AAAI-15 Workshop on Planning, Search, and Optimization: PlanSOpt

CALL FOR PAPERS

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AAAI-15 Workshop on Planning, Search, and Optimization: PlanSOpt

Austin, Texas, 25-26 January 2015

http://org.nicta.com.au/plansopt-15

Submission deadline: October 14, 2014

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Mainstream AI planning and heuristic search have traditionally been
concerned with finding paths through a state transition system. The
objective is typically to find either a feasible solution or an
optimal solution to a fairly restricted objective function (e.g.,
minimize plan length or the sum of the costs of actions in a plan).

While there have been pioneering efforts at using optimization for
planning (notably in compilation approaches to mixed integer
programming and constraint programming), there has been significant
renewed interest in a number of areas, including:

- formulating heuristic generation and selection as an optimization
problem

- linear programming as a basis for search heuristics in classical
planning

- hybridization of optimization approaches (e.g,. linear, mixed
integer linear, constraint, and non-linear programming) and
planning to solve more expressive problems involving time,
resources, and complex systems (e.g., the electricity grid)

- adaptation of optimization methods to design planning and search
algorithms that continually improve plan quality as time permits

The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in AI
planning, search, and optimization to investigate both problems and
solution approaches. We encourage applications of optimization
technology to planning/search problems, applications of traditional
planning/search technology (e.g., variations of A* search) to
optimization problems, and hybrid approaches that combine planning and
optimization.

SUGGESTED TOPICS

- Planning with time and/or resources
- Planning over complex systems
- Optimization over complex systems
- Optimization-based search heuristics
- Optimization techniques for planning and search (e.g. local search)
- Decomposition approaches for planning and search (e.g. column
generation, Benders Decomposition/Planning Modulo Theory)
- Anytime plan quality optimization
- AI-style search for optimization problems and solvers
- Reasoning about complex objective functions (e.g. requiring
multi-objective, bi-level, robust, or adversarial optimization or
search)
- Understanding, comparing, and combining the modelling approaches
from AI and optimization
- Hybrid and cross-over applications
- Comparing planning/search and optimization approaches on problems to
which both are applicable
- Search algorithms for graphical models, in particular weighted
counting and constraint satisfaction queries
- Exploitation of symmetries in search, in particular comparison of
such approaches in CP, MIP, and counting queries

WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop will include invited talks, presentations of accepted
contributions, and discussion. It will also feature tutorials about
planning and search for optimization researchers and about optimization
for planning and search researchers. It is expected that attendees
will have open minds and will engage in discussions in the spirit of
developing a mutual understanding of both problems and solution
approaches of interest to all backgrounds.

SUBMISSIONS

Papers should be accessible to researchers from AI planning, search,
and optimization. Work that only focuses on AI planning or search
without an aspect of optimization are not suitable. Conversely,
however, as our goal is to attract researchers from optimization, work
that is focused on optimization but that introduces problems or uses
techniques that the authors believe are of interest to the AI planning
and search communities are expressly encouraged.

Two paper formats are solicited:
- full-length papers (up to 8 pages in AAAI format)
- challenge or position papers (2 pages in AAAI format).

We welcome papers submitted to the main AAAI conference and papers
reporting research already published provided they align squarely with
the workshop topic.

Papers should be submitted in PDF to EasyChair. All papers will be peer
reviewed.
Paper Submission website:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=plansopt2015

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission: October 14, 2014
Notification: November 14, 2014
Final paper: November 25, 2014
Early Registration: November 28, 2014
Late Registration: January 2, 2014
Workshop: 25-25 January, 2015

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

J. Christopher Beck (University of Toronto)
Robert Holte (University of Alberta)
Thorsten Koch (TU Berlin / Zuse Institute Berlin)
Sylvie Thiebaux (Australian National University & NICTA)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Peter van Beek (University of Waterloo)
John Chinneck (Carleton University)
Amanda Coles (Kings College London)
Rina Dechter (University of Calfornia, Irvine)
Stefan Edelkamp (University of Bremen)
Alex Fukunaga (University of Tokyo)
Malte Helmert (University of Basel)
Laurent Michel (University of Connecticut)
Gilles Pesant (Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal)
Ted Ralphs (Lehigh University)
Chris Rayner (University of Alberta)
Dan Steffy (Oakland University)
Wheeler Ruml (University of New Hampshire)


--
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing. -- Albert Einstein
______________________________________________________________________
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Koch / Technische Universität Berlin
www.zib.de/koch / and
koch@zib.de / Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB)
_____________________/ Takustraße 7, 14195 Berlin, Germany
and also Phone +49-30-84185-213, Fax -269
KOBV : Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund Berlin Brandenburg
digiS: Servicestelle Digitalisierung des Landes Berlin
______________________________________________________________________
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