COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT PSU CS410/510SPS: Scheduling, Planning, and Search Date: Spring, 1999 Time: Tuesday, Thursday 1400-1550 Instructor: Bart Massey Location: Portland State University A few weeks ago, Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy came by to talk about technologies that will drive computing over the next few years. He listed 5 technologies as examples of what the next wave of software will be like: 1. Simulations 2. Constraints and Constraint Satisfaction 3. Knowledge Engineering 4. Genetic Algorithms 5. Alpha-Beta Search I was careful to write them down, since they collectively represent a lot of what I do for a living. :-) My Spring seminar, CS410/510SPS, will cover topics 2 and 5 thoroughly, 1 and 3 somewhat, and might perhaps touch on 4. The course explores methods for the solution of constraint satisfaction and related problems using search techniques, in the context of real-world problems such as resource-bounded scheduling, enterprise planning, classical planning, and one- and two-player games. The emphasis is on coding projects, and on reading and reporting on selected literature. The course will concentrate on techniques drawn from the artificial intelligence literature, but will also include relevant work from the operations research, core computer science, and mathematics communities. Questions I have helped to tackle in the past which are likely to recur in this course include: + How to optimally schedule the 575 tasks involved in building an airplane. (Also, why this is hard!) + How to instruct a robot to optimally restack blocks into new piles. (Also, why this is nontrivial!) + How to solve a crossword puzzle, without reading the clues. + How to reformulate a problem so that it can be tackled using search. + How to prove that a problem will become intractably difficult as it gets large. The course will be a lot of work, but should also be a great deal of fun for all concerned. A tentative course syllabus is available at http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~bart/cs510sps As noted there, this course is intended for those familiar with computer programming, algorithms, and data structures at the level of a graduate or advanced undergraduate student. Please e-mail me if you have questions or concerns about the course. Hope to see you there! Bart Massey bart@cs.pdx.edu