Heuristic search and combinatorial optimization are currently very active areas of research. For example, researchers investigate how to search in real-time, how to search with limited (possibly external) memory, how to solve sequences of similar search problems faster than with isolated searches, how to improve the runtime of the searches over time, how to trade-off between the runtime and memory consumption of the search and the resulting solution quality, and how to focus the searches with sophisticated heuristics such as pattern databases. Their results are published in different conferences such as IJCAI, AAAI, ICAPS, NIPS, ICRA, and IROS. The International Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS) is meant to bring these researchers together to exchange their ideas and cross-fertilize the field. Thus, in addition to seeking separate answers to questions like how to design more accurate memory-based heuristics, more I/O-efficient disk-based search algorithms, or more efficient clause-learning strategies, the symposium will stimulate thoughts on combining various techniques originated from different areas of search.
SoCS is targeting researchers in all fields that use combinatorial search, including artificial intelligence, robotics, constraint programming, operations research and bioinformatics. The symposium's scope includes both complete and incomplete methods. Work discussing a specific application domain (for example, robotic motion planning, constraint programming, planning, ...) is welcomed, as long as the emphasis is on the search strategy employed and a serious effort is made to suggest how the ideas might be relevant in another domain.
Relevant Topics
- Analysis of search algorithms
- Continuous problem solving
- External-memory and parallel search
- Incremental and active learning in search
- Meta-reasoning and search
- Methodology and critiques of current practice
- Model-based search
- Meta-reasoning and search
- Random vs systematic search strategy selection
- Pattern databases
- Portfolios of search algorithms
- Real-time search
- Search focus in goal-directed problem solving
- Search space discretization for continuous state-space problems
- Self-configuring and self-tuning algorithms
- Time, memory, and solution quality tradeoffs
- ... and all other topics related to combinatorial search and path planning
Attendence will be limited to those who have either a regular
technical paper (AAAI style, 6 pages preferred, 8 pages maximum) or
short research statement (2 pages maximum) accepted. Papers will be
carefully peer-reviewed by multiple reviewers and low-quality or
off-topic papers will not be accepted.
If you are interested in SoCS, please join the search-list on google groups. We gratefully acknowledge funding for the symposium series in 2007 from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
SoCS-09 is organized in cooperation with SARA (Symposium on Abstraction,
Reformulation, and Approximation). SARA is focussed on abstraction,
while SoCS is focussed on search. The last day of SARA and the first
day of SoCS will be an overlap day on the use of abstraction in
search. It will be possible to register for either or both symposia.
Organizers
Contact Email