ERCIM Working Group on Constraints

by Krzysztof Apt

---

Constraints have recently emerged as a research area that combines researchers from a number of fields, including Artificial Intelligence, Programming Languages, Symbolic Computing and Computational Logic. Constraint programming has been successfully applied in numerous domains. Recent applications include computer graphics (to express geometric coherence in the case of scene analysis), natural language processing (construction of efficient parsers), database systems (to ensure and/or restore consistency of the data), operations research problems (like optimization problems), molecular biology (DNA sequencing), business applications (option trading), electrical engineering (to locate faults), circuit design (to compute layouts), etc. The ERCIM Working Group on Constraints was founded in the fall of 1996. In the meantime it comprises 14 ERCIM institutes.

The objectives of the ERCIM Constraints working group is to bring together ERCIM researchers that are involved in research on the subject of Constraints. Its aims are:

• to promote research on this subject within the ERCIM institutions
• facilitate the exchange of information
• coordinate efforts in technology transfer
• facilitate the exchange of researchers for short and long visits.

Research groups of other ERCIM institutes that are interested in joining the working group are requested to contact the chairman.

Next Workshop

The next workshop of the group will be a joint meeting with the COMPULOG Network area on constraints. It will take place on 27-28 October in Schloss Hagenberg, Austria, just before the Constraint Programming (CP97) conference which will take place at the same site (see http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/conferences/CP97/ ).

The documentation concerning the first workshop that took place in January in Paris can be found via the home page of the Working Group at

http://www.cwi.nl/projects/ercim-wg.html.

Please contact:
Krzysztof R. Apt - CWI
Tel: + 31 20 592 4135
E-mail: apt@cwi.nl