Barbara M. Smith
Professor in Computing Science
Department of Computing & Mathematical Sciences,
School of Computing and Engineering,
University of Huddersfield,
Huddersfield,
West Yorkshire,
HD1 3DH,
United Kingdom.
email: b.m.smith @ hud.ac.uk
telephone (direct): (+44) (0) 1484 472147
telephone (internal): 2147
telephone (messages): (+44) (0) 1484 472150
fax: (+44) (0) 1484 421106
I moved to the University of Huddersfield in April, 2001, where I am a member
of the Artform research group.
Before moving to Huddersfield, I was a Senior Lecturer in the
School of Computing
at the University of Leeds, where I led the
Constraint Programming and
Operational Research Group,
combining AI and OR interests.
I am a founding member of
APES, an informal research group set up in 1995 with members at the
Universities of Leeds and Strathclyde. The group currently has about two
dozen members, at the
Universities of Huddersfield, Cork, Leeds, Glasgow,
St. Andrews, Strathclyde, York, Waterloo and Alberta. We are
interested in constraint programming and related fields of AI, specifically in Algorithms, Problems and
Empirical Studies.
The APES group holds a workshop about twice a year to meet and exchange ideas.
The latest was held at Grange-over-Sands (notable for its complete lack of sand) from April 7th to 9th 2003. The meeting was attended by 17 members of the group, with a guest appearance from Steve Linton, University of St Andrews. Click on the thumbnail for a group photo.
APESgroup1.jpg
325.58 KB
Research Interests
My current research interests are principally in:
- constraint satisfaction problems and how to solve them;
- modelling problems in constraint programming, including issues such as
choosing between alternative models, dealing with
symmetry, adding implied constraints, choosing heuristics;
- practical applications of constraint programming, especially to
scheduling.
Current Projects
-
Problem Reformulation and Search, with Glasgow (Patrick Prosser, Evgeny Selensky) and St Andrews (Ian Gent) (funded by EPSRC)
-
Constraint Programming, Search and Symmetry (started October 2001) with Karen Petrie and Ian Gent, Tom Kelsey, Steve Linton and Ursula Martin at the University of St Andrews (funded by EPSRC)
-
Efficient Consistency Checking for Applied Planning Systems (started February 2002) with Tien Ba Dinh and Lee McCluskey (funded by the University of Huddersfield)
-
Graceful Graphs. As part of the research on symmetry in constraint satisfaction problems, Karen Petrie and I have recently worked on graceful labellings of graphs. Constraint programming has proved to be a very useful approach for studying graceful graphs and we have found several new results. This work is still in progress; follow the link to see our results to date, and an introduction to graceful graphs and our research on this topic.
Modelling - constructing efficient CSP models of the problems we want to solve - is an important element of all of the above projects. It is also a principal focus of my research in its own right.
Talks
Solve Your Problem Faster - by changing the model
An invited talk on Modelling at the ERCIM/CologNet Workshop
on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming, held at University College, Cork, June 2002.
(PowerPoint slides)
(The slides have been slightly revised to make them easier to read by themselves.)
Constraint Programming in Practice: Scheduling a Rehearsal
An introductory talk at the
Workshop on Applications of Constraint Programming in Scheduling, University
of Huddersfield, September 9 - 10, 2003.
(Powerpoint slides)
(Paper)
A list of recent papers, some available on-line.
PhD Students
- Karen Petrie. (Constraint Programming, Search and Symmetry)
- Tien Ba Dinh. (Efficient Consistency Checking for Applied Planning Systems)
- Paula Sturdy. (Evolving Variable Ordering Heuristics)
Karen and Tien were both accepted for summer internships in 2003, in the Planning and Scheduling Group at NASA Ames Research Center, California.
Past PhD Students
Dan Black successfully defended his thesis (on Search in Weighted Constraint Satisfaction Problems) in March 2003 and graduated in July.
Colin
Layfield (Thesis title: A Constraint Programming Pre-processor for Duty Scheduling)
was awarded his PhD in 2002. After 7 years in the U.K., he returned to Canada in summer 2003.
(Abstract)
(Thesis)
Elias de Oliveira (Thesis title: Solving single-track railway scheduling problems by constraint
programming ) was awarded his PhD in 2001. He has now returned to the Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo in Brazil.
(Abstract)
(Thesis)
Alan Smith (Thesis title: Scheduling a Steelplant Using Constraint
Programming) and Suniel
Curtis (Thesis title: Constraint Satisfaction Approaches to Bus
Driver Scheduling)
were both successfully examined in May 2000.
Alan works for Corus at Redcar, Teesside.
(Abstract)
Suniel is now working for Paragon Simulation in Birmingham.
(Abstract)
(Thesis)
Stuart Grant completed a PhD on Phase transitions in Constraint Satisfaction
Problems in 1997. He is now working for Imagine Broadband in London.
(Abstract)
(Thesis)
Links & Events for Constraint Programming Researchers
- CSPLib: a problem library for constraints
Relevant Workshops
Forthcoming Conferences
-
CP 2003 September 29 - October 3, 2003, Kinsale, Ireland.
2003 Workshops
Teaching Interests
I introduced a final year module in Constraint Satisfaction and Constraint
Programming at Leeds, which I taught for five years. I am teaching a similar module at Huddersfield in 2003-4.
I am also teaching a final year module in O.R. and Systems Modelling Applications.
Canalside West
The Computing side of the School of Computing & Engineering is housed in a converted textile mill: for photos of the building and a short account of its history, click here. It is on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which was re-opened on May 1st 2001, after being closed for several decades, and runs through the Huddersfield campus.
BMS September 2003