Special Issue of Annals of Operations Research
on
Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial
Intelligence and Operations Research Methods
The integration of techniques from both Operations Research (OR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides a new paradigm for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. As demonstrated by work in scheduling, rostering, vehicle routing, and other problems, constraint programming (CP) provides a powerful means for doing successful integrations of this kind. Nowadays, most industrial CP tools and systems have integrated efficient special purpose techniques from OR for improving problem solving facilities.
The prospect of obtaining improved algorithms and more expressive models by combining CP/OR methods has led to considerable research activity, as recent workshops and conferences have shown. The aim of this special issue is to publish selected papers from the workshop CP-AI-OR'00 (Second International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems) which was held at the University of Paderborn (Germany) on March 8-10, 2000. In addition to selected workshop presentations, we would also like to invite submissions of papers that were not presented at the workshop.
Annals of Operations Research is one of the most renowned journals in the field. A special issue on hybrid CP/AI/OR methods provides an excellent opportunity to make this interesting field of research known to a larger community and to help to establish it in the scientific literature.
AREAS OF INTEREST
As indicated by the title, the topic of the special issue is the integration of methods from AI, CP, and OR for combinatorial problem solving. We have identified the following, non-exhaustive list of interesting subareas for the publication:
REVIEWING
The submitted papers will be peer-reviewed in the same manner as any
other submission to a leading international journal. The major acceptance
criterion for a submission is the quality and originality of the contribution.
SUBMISSION
The deadline for submission is January 31, 2001.
We prefer to receive the contributions in electronic form in a platform-independent format such as postscript or pdf. However, other submission formats will also be accepted. Please email your submissions to following address:
cp-ai-or@upb.de
Ulrich Junker
Stefan Karisch
Torsten Fahle
EDITOR IN CHIEF: Peter L. Hammer, RUTCOR, Rutgers University
GUEST EDITORS
Ulrich Junker
Stefan E. Karisch Torsten Fahle
Ilog S.A.
Carmen Systems Ltd. University of Paderborn
1681, route des Dolines 1800 McGill College
Ave. Fuerstenallee 11
F-06560 Valbonne
Montreal/Canada H3A 3J6 D-33102 Paderborn
ujunker@ilog.fr
stefank@carmen.se tef@uni-paderborn.de