Foundations of Constraint Processing - CSCE 421/821

1. Welcome • Course • Foundations of Constraint Processing, CSCE 421/821 • Instructor • Berthe Y. Choueiry (Shu-we-ri) • Class: Mon/Wed/Fri 3:30—4:20 @ AvH 111 • Recitation: Wed 4:30-5:20 @ AvH 111 • Office hour: Mon/Fri 4:30—5:30 @ AvH 360 • Undergrad TAs • Khang Nhat Phan: Wed: 4:30—5:30 @ SRC • Trieu Hung Tran: Thu: 3:30—4:30 @ SRC • Attendance sheet • Please check your name Course Administration

2. Pre-requisites • Pre-requisites • Contact instructor • Track • Undergrads • CS: Foundations, AI • CE: Applications • Grad CS students: Theory track • 3 credit-hours • Intensive course • Students: Committed, motivated, collegial, independent Course Administration

3. Communications • Course WebPage: handouts & detailed schedule • Canvas: for grades. Check regularly and alert us about grading errors within 7 calendar days. • Piazza: For a quick response, send your questions to Piazza. • handin: homework, projects, reports, etc. • Wiki: You can upload the Excel file of the results of your homework on the wiki and check the results of others so that you can debug your code. • Anonymous Suggestion Box (also via Piazza) • Your Catch: Share your ideas and good pointers with class • Good pointers will be listed on the web under “Your catch” Course Administration

4. Expectations I • Mastery of pre-requisite's material • Effort outside classroom • 9 hours of work outside classroom, if you have pre-requisites • If you spend more time, let me know • Attendance • Sign-up sheet circulated for attendance • Attendance of lectures (& recitation) is mandatory • Absence: maximum 6 sessions (including recitation) • Prior notification (Piazza) of absence is mandatory Course Administration

5. Expectations 2 • Collaboration policy • Do discuss everything with others • But do it on your own • Always acknowledge sources & help received • Wiki page is set up for exchanging information • Prompt response to notifications • Piazza • Posted on web: cse.unl.edu/~cse421 cse.unl.edu/~choueiry/S19-421-821/ • If you drop the class, let me know ASAP Course Administration

6. Grading • Pretest: 2% • Quizzes: 28%, cannot not be made up • Assignments: 40% • Programming and pen+paper • Turned-in on due date, before lecture • Delay penality: 20% per day, starting first minute after deadline • You may use any programming language acceptable to GTA’s • Project: 30% • Individual (preferred) or in small teams (if really necessary) • ( mid-term)  ( final) • Feedback: • Glossaries and HWK will be graded • Grades will be posted on Blackboard • Need more feedback? Please, let us know how Course Administration

7. Projects • A list of possible projects is forthcoming, will include • Implement some combinatorial puzzle • Implement and evaluate an algorithm • Model and solve a (simple) practical problem • Investigate an advanced theoretical concept • Conduct a critical literature survey (at least 3 papers), etc. • Alternatives • Propose your own project and discuss it with instructor • At the end of project, you must submit with handin: • Project report: <lastname>-report.ext • Slides: <lastname>-defense.ext • Code: <lastname>-code.tar Course Administration

8. Improving your grades* • Do the glossaries: weekly & final (8% total) • Must be typewritten, alphabetically sorted • Goal: entice you to do required reading • Collect bonus points • 100% attendance • Find bugs in slides, in lectures • Fill the course evaluation @ end of course • Be vocal in class, solve “riddles”, etc. • Do extra work • Present a research paper (10% per presentation) • Write a critical summary of a research paper (5% per summary) *Restrictions apply (deadlines, max number per student) Course Administration

9. Important dates Regularly check schedule on the web (3 times/week or more) • Fri, Jan 11: Pretest over 235 material • Mon, Mar 8: Project must be chosen, use handin • Wed, Apr 3: Progress report on projects due, use handin • Fri, Apr 5: First deadline for extra-credit work: 1 presentation, 2 summaries, 1 chapter write-up must be done by this date • Fri, Apr 19 • Final glossary due • Project reports due in print and using handin • Second deadline for extra-credit work: All paper presentations (Max 2), summaries (Max 4) must be finished by this date • Week 15, April 15—19: Quizzes may be given during class or recitation • Dead week, Apr 22—26, and Thu, May 2nd • Project presentations • Some presentations could be scheduled in evenings if necessary • Fri, Apr 26 (midnight) • Projects code & defense slides (when applicable) due, use handin Course Administration

10. Course material • Content of the course • Introduction: definition and practical examples • Foundations and basic mechanisms • Advanced solving techniques • Extensions to the problem definition • Alternative approaches to solving the problem • Course support • New textbook by Dechter (available at bookstore). Will not be followed linearly, but should be used for reference. • Book by Tsang (on reserve at LL, available on-line, out of print) • Constraint Networks, ebook by Lecoutre @ http://iris.unl.edu • Papers from: WWW, course web-page, library, electronic reserves, instructor, http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/, etc. Course Administration

11. More resources • Web • Check links: www.cse.unl.edu/~choueiry/S18-421-821 • Benchmark problems • Association for Constraint Programming • Conferences • CP, AIOR, IJCAI, ECAI, NCAI (AAAI), FLAIRS... • Workshops in parallel to conferences • Journals • Constraints, AIJ, JACM, Annals of AI+Math, etc. Course Administration

12. Your future: Jobs!! • Commercial companies: IBM, Google, Workday, etc. • Prestigious research centers: NASA Ames, Microsoft Research (Cambridge), JPL, BT Labs (UK), Ilog (IBM?), etc. • Start your own: Cosling (Choco) • Academia • Constraint languages • Modeling, constraint representation, reasoning & propagation mechanisms • Dedicated reasoning: diagnosis, planning & scheduling, design, configuration, Case-Based Reasoning, etc. Course Administration