IntCP 2005 - 2nd CFP (we apologize for possible multiple reception of this call)
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                CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION

                      IntCP 2005 workshop
  Interval Analysis and Constraint Propagation for Applications
              http://liawww.epfl.ch/Events/IntCP2005/

                      Melia Sitges Hotel
                   Sitges (Barcelona) Spain 
                       1st October 2005

                  Held in conjunction with the
          Eleventh International Conference on Principles 
         and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2005) 
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* Important Dates:
------------------
04 Jul 2005 - Submission deadline
29 Jul 2005 - Notification of acceptance
01 Aug 2005 - Early registration deadline
16 Aug 2005 - Final camera-ready copies
01 Oct 2005 - Workshop day

* Description and goals:
------------------------

Since most physical laws are formulated as numerical constraints, problem
areas
that use physical models usually involve such constraints (e.g., robotics,
control). Moreover, todays computing systems are more and more embedded into
their physical environment (modern cars contain thousands of
microprocessors),
resulting in models of the total system that contain numerical constraints
in an
essential way. Constraint propagation solvers are appealing for solving
numerical problems because they can guarantee two essential properties:

 * _completeness_ which means the ability to find all solutions if any, or
else
 to prove that there are no solutions to the problem,
 * _rigor_ which means that the rounding errors due to floating-point
 computation can be rigorously controlled.

These two properties are essential in many practical applications. For
instance,
real-world problems often have a continuum of solutions which express a
spectrum
of equally relevant choices, as the possible moving areas of a mobile robot,
the
collision regions between objects in mechanical assembly, or different
alternatives of shapes for the components of a kinematic chain. These
alternatives must be identified as completely and rigorously as possible.

Moreover, constraint propagation techniques can flexibly incorporate
relaxation
techniques and the handling of preferences. This is also an important
feature
since many applications lead to over-constrained problems.

However, while constraint propagation solvers have proven particularly
efficient
in solving challenging instances of numerical problems with nonlinear
constraints, they do not yet have enough appeal in many practical problem
areas.
One of the reasons is that they generally provide representation of the
solution
set that are either prohibitively verbose or poorly informative. Recent
advances
have shown however that this matter of fact was not an intrinsinc limitation
and
that constraint propagation can be considerably improved by incorporating
techniques from interval analysis and global optimization.

One of the goals of this workshop is to explore the complementarity of
different
approaches and how it can be used to produce _practical_ powerful solvers.
Other
topics often relevant in applications are:

 * integrating uncertainty that can, for example, be modeled, by logical
 quantifiers,
 * exploiting specific problem structure, for example in the case of
discrete
 time, continuous state systems,
 * handling mixture of discrete and continuous problem variables, 
 * developing specific techniques for inequality constraints or problems
with a
 huge number of discrete solutions,
 * improving solution selection by means of preferences or solution space
 "browsing"

We seek contributions that address such questions, and present relevant
software
tools, algorithms, theoretical results, or applications of constraint
propagation and interval analysis techniques oriented toward real-world
problems.


* Workshop format:
------------------
This is a half-day workshop, open to the entire community . Its aim is to
provide a forum where researchers currently working in this area can discuss
their most recent ideas and developments and think together about the most
promising new directions. We particularly encourage the presentation of work
that bridge the gap between theory and practice.

* Submissions:
--------------
People wishing to give a talk should submit an extended abstract of at least
2
pages. Submissions must be formatted using LNCS packages (see CP formatting
instructions). The title page should include the name, address, telephone
number
and electronic mailing address for each author. Please, email all
submissions in
postscript or pdf format to :

                        intcp-sub@mpi-sb.mpg.de

by July 04th 2005, specifying the name of the contact author in the message.

At least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop to
present the paper.

The accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings, which will be
distributed to the participants.

* Reviewing process:
--------------------
Submissions will be reviewed by at least one committee member, and will be
selected on the basis of their contribution to the topic of the workshop.
Authors will receive feedback in the form of reviewers' comments.

* Accomodation/Registration:
----------------------------
Accomodation is provided by the hosting conference CP 2005. All workshop
attendees must pay the workshop fee. It is however possible to attend the
workshop without paying the CP 2005 regular registration fee.

Please note that a single registration fee provides entry to all CP and ICLP
workhops.

* Committee:
------------

 - FrÃ©dÃ©ric Goualard, University of Nantes, France.
 - Tim Hickey, Brandeis University, USA.
 - Luc Jaulin, ENSIETA Brest, France.
 - Christophe Jermann, University of Nantes, France (co-organizer).
 - Jean-Pierre Merlet, National Institute for Informatics and Control,
France.
 - Stefan Ratschan, Max-Planck Institut fÃ¼r Informatik, Germany
(co-organizer).
 - Djamila Sam-Haroud, EPFL, Switzerland (co-organizer).
 - Josep Vehi, University of Girona, Spain.

* Contacts:
-----------
Send questions about the workshop to : intcp-oc@mpi-sb.mpg.de



