About CPAIOR

The aim of the CPAIOR conference series is to bring together interested researchers from constraint programming (CP), artificial intelligence (AI) and operations research (OR) to present new techniques or new applications in combinatorial optimization, and to provide an opportunity for researchers in one area to learn about techniques in the others. A main objective of this conference series is to give researchers the opportunity to show how the integration of techniques from different fields can lead to interesting results on large and complex problems.

Typically, papers presented at CPAIOR actively combine, integrate, or contrast approaches from more than one of the areas. High quality papers from a single area are usually also welcome. Finally, application papers showcasing CP/AI/OR techniques on innovative and challenging applications or experience reports on such applications have been strongly encouraged.

After a successful series of five CPAIOR international workshops in Ferrara (Italy), Paderborn (Germany), Ashford (United Kingdom), Le Croisic (France), and Montreal (Canada), in 2004 CPAIOR became a conference with the first meeting held in Nice (France) with more than 100 participants. In the subsequent years, CPAIOR was held in Prague (Czech Republic), Cork (Ireland), Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France), Pittsburgh (USA), Bologna (Italy), and Berlin (Germany), while the upcoming meeting takes place in Nantes (France).

Proceedings of this peer-reviewed conference are usually published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. In some cases, a selection of papers is published in a special issue of a journal after another round of rigorous reviewing.

Upcoming Conference

• CPAIOR 2012: 9th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 28 - June 1, 2012, Nantes, France.
  This conference will be preceded by a Master Class on Scheduling, and a day of workshops.

  Program Chairs: Narendra Jussien, Nicolas Beldiceanu, and Eric Pinson
  Conference Chairs: Narendra Jussien and Thierry Petit

Past Conferences

• CPAIOR 2011: 8th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 23-27, 2011, Berlin, Germany. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6697.
  This conference was be preceded by a Master Class on Search Strategies, and a day of workshops.

  Program Chairs: Tobias Achterberg and J. Christopher Beck
  Conference Chairs: Timo Berthold, Ambros M. Gleixner, Stefan Heinz, and Thorsten Koch

• CPAIOR 2010: 7th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, June 16-18, 2010, Bologna, Italy. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6140.
  This conference was be preceded by a two-day Master Class on Experimental Evaluation of Algorithms and Benchmarking and a day of workshops.

  Program Chairs: Andrea Lodi, Michela Milano, and Paolo Toth
  Conference Chairs: Marco Gavanelli and Andrea Roli

• CPAIOR 2009: 6th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 29-31, 2009, Pittsburgh, PA. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5547.
  This conference was preceded by a two-day Tutorial on Constraint Programming and Integrated Methods and a workshop.

  Program Chairs: John Hooker and Willem-Jan van Hoeve

• CPAIOR 2008: 5th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 20-23, 2008, Paris, France. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5015.
  This conference was preceded by a Master class on Modeling Practical Problems: The OR/CP interface and included a day of workshops.

  Program Chairs: Laurent Perron and Michael Trick
  Conference Chairs: François Fages and Laurent Perron

• CPAIOR 2007: 4th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 23-26, 2007, Brussels, Belgium. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4510.
  This conference was preceded by a Master class on Constraint-Based Scheduling.

  Program Chairs: Laurence Wolsey and Pascal Van Hentenryck

• CPAIOR 2006: Third International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 30-June 2, 2006, Cork, Ireland. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3990.
  This conference was preceded by a Master Class on Modelling and Solving for Uncertainty and Change.

  Program Chairs: Chris Beck and Barbara Smith
  Conference Chair: Barry O'Sullivan

• CPAIOR 2005: Second International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 29 - June 1, 2005, Prague, Czech Republic. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3524.
  This conference was preceded by a Master Class on Metaheuristics and Constraint Programming.
  Selected papers appeared in Constraints 11(4), 2006.

  Program Chairs: Roman Barták and Michela Milano

• CPAIOR 2004: First International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, April 20-22, 2004, Nice, France. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3011.
  This conference was preceded by a Master Class on Graph Theory and Constraint Programming.

  Program Chairs: Jean-Charles Régin and Michel Rueher

Preceding Workshops

• CPAIOR 2003: Fifth International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, May 8-10, 2003, Montreal, Canada.
  Selected papers appeared in Computers and Operations Research 33(10), 2006.

  Organizers: Michel Gendreau, Gilles Pesant, and Louis-Martin Rousseau

• CPAIOR 2002: Fourth International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, March 25-27, 2002, Le Croisic, France.
  This workshop was preceded by a School on Optimization. The school notes formed the basis of the book Constraint and Integer Programming - Toward a Unified Methodology, M. Milano (ed.), Kluwer, 2004.

  Organizers: Narendra Jussien and François Laburthe

• CPAIOR 2001: Third International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, April 8-10, 2001, Ashford, UK.
  Selected papers appeared in Annals of Operations Research 118, 2003.

  Organizers: Carmen Gervet and Mark Wallace

• CPAIOR 2000: Second International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, March 8-10, 2000, Paderborn, Germany.
  Selected papers appeared in Annals of Operations Research 115, 2002.

  Organizers: Ulrich Junker, Stefan Karisch, and Stefan Tschöke

• CPAIOR 1999: First International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, 1999, Ferrara, Italy.
  The proceedings are available online.

  Organizers: Filippo Focacci, Andrea Lodi, Michela Milano, and Daniele Vigo

Steering Committee

Nicolas Beldiceanu (École des Mines de Nantes, France)
Bernard Gendron (Université de Montréal and Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, Canada)
John Hooker (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Michela Milano (Università di Bologna, Italy)
George Nemhauser (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Gilles Pesant (École Polytechnique de Montréal and Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, Canada)
Jean-Charles Régin (Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France)
Michael Trick (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Pascal Van Hentenryck (Brown University, USA)
Mark Wallace (Monash University, Australia)

References

• Pascal Van Hentenryck and Michela Milano. Hybrid Optimization - The Ten Years of CPAIOR. Springer, 2011.

• John Hooker. Integrated Methods for Optimization. Springer, 2007.

• Pascal Van Hentenryck and Laurent Michel. Constraint-Based Local Search. MIT Press, 2005.

• Michela Milano (ed.). Constraint and Integer Programming - Toward a Unified Methodology, Kluwer, 2004.

• Philippe Baptiste, Claude Le Pape, and Wim Nuijten. Constraint-Based Scheduling - Applying Constraint Programming to Scheduling Problems. Kluwer, 2001

• John Hooker. Logic-Based Methods for Optimization: Combining Optimization and Constraint Satisfaction. Wiley, 2000.

• Vijay Chandru and John Hooker. Optimization Methods for Logical Inference. Wiley, 1999.

Finally, a website containing success stories of hybrid CP/AI/OR solution methods is maintained by Tallys Yunes.

Contact

This site is maintained by Willem-Jan van Hoeve. Please send comments and suggestions to vanhoeve@andrew.cmu.edu.