1. Course Administration
Welcome
Course
Foundations of Constraint Processing, CSCE 421/821
Instructor
Berthe Y. Choueiry (Shu-we-ri)
Class: Mon/Wed/Fri AvH 108
Recitation: Mon AvH 108
Office hour: Wed/Fri AvH 360
Volunteer GTAs
Daniel Geschwender Wed: AvH 123 (pod)
Anthony Schneider Thu: AvH 123 (pod)
Robert Woodward Thu AvH 123 (pod)
Attendance sheet
Please check your name
Course Administration

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

3. Course Administration
Meetings
Regular class
AvH 108, Mon/Wed/Fri 3:30—4:20 pm
Recitation
Avh 108, Mon 4:30—5:20 pm, scheduled as necessary
Discuss homework, take quizzes, discuss projects
Lectures will be given
By instructor
By visitors
TBA
Occasionally, presentations by students
Course Administration

4. Course Administration
Communications
Course WebPage: handouts & detailed schedule
Blackboad: 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

5. Course Administration
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 ( ) for absence is mandatory
Course Administration

6. Expectations 2 Collaboration policy Prompt response to notifications
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/F /
If you drop the class, let me know ASAP
Course Administration

7. Course Administration
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

8. Special for Undergrads
You can ask to replace project w/ more homework
Course Administration

9. Course Administration
Projects
A list of possible projects is forthcoming, will include
Implement the game of Clue
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

10. 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 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)
Write a chapter of a “textbook” (20% total)
* Restrictions apply (deadlines, max number per student)
Course Administration

11. Course Administration
Important dates
Regularly check schedule on the web (3 times/week)
Fri, Aug 26
Pretest over 235 material
Wed, Oct 26
Project must be chosen, use handin
Wed, Nov 16
Progress report on projects due, use handin
Fri, Nov 18
First deadline for extra-credit work: 1 presentation, 2 summaries, 1 chapter write-up must be done by this date
Fri, Dec 2
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), chapter write-up (Max 2) must be done by this date
Course Administration

12. Important Dates (cont.)
Regularly check schedule on the web (2, 3 times/week)
Mon, Nov 28; Wed, Nov 30; Fri Dec 2
Quizzes may be given during class or recitation
Dead week & Mon, Dec 14
Project presentations
Some presentations could be scheduled in evenings if necessary
Fri, Dec 9 (midnight)
Projects code & defense slides (when applicable) due, use handin
Course Administration

13. Course Administration
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
Papers from: WWW, course web-page, library, electronic reserves, instructor, etc.
Course Administration

14. Course Administration
More resources
Web
Check links:
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

15. Course Administration
Your future: Jobs!!
Commercial companies: Ilog, i2 Technologies, Trilogy, PeopleSoft/Red Pepper, Carmen Systems (Sweden), etc.
Prestigious research centers: NASA Ames, Microsoft Research (Cambridget), PARC, JPL, SRI International, BT Labs (UK), Ilog (IBM?), etc.
Start your own: Selectica, Seibel, Parc Technologies Ltd, In Time Systems Inc, Blue Pumpkin, etc.
Academic:
Constraint languages
Modeling, constraint representation, reasoning & propagation mechanisms
Dedicated reasoning: diagnosis, planning & scheduling, design, configuration, Case-Based Reasoning, etc.
Course Administration