NEWS: Due to the several requests, the submission deadline has been extended to April 6

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The RCRA group (Knowledge Representation & Automated Reasoning) of the
AI*IA (Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence)
http://rcra.aixia.it

organises the

18th RCRA workshop:
Experimental evaluation of algorithms for solving
problems with combinatorial explosion (RCRA 2011)

IJCAI 2011 workshop

Barcelona, Spain, 17-18 July 2011

RCRA group web site: http://rcra.aixia.it/
Workshop web site: http://rcra.aixia.it/rcra2011
e-mail: rcra2011@gmail.com

* ______________________________________________________________________ *

This event follows the series of the RCRA (Knowledge Representation
and Automated Reasoning) annual meetings, held since 1994.
The success of the previous events shows that RCRA is becoming a major
forum for exchanging ideas and proposing experimentation methodologies
for algorithms in artificial intelligence.

* ______________________________________________________________________ *

As in previous editions (http://rcra.aixia.it/publications), authors of
papers orally presented at the workshop will have the opportunity to participate
to the selection of a special issue that will appear on an International journal.

The workshop will take place in Barcelona, Spain in July 2011, in
association with IJCAI 2011 (http://ijcai-11.iiia.csic.es/).


IMPORTANT DATES (EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE)
* Abstract submission: 3 April 2011
* Submissions to the RCRA workshop: 6 April 2011
* Notification of acceptance/reject: 8 May 2011
* Final version due: 25 May 2011
* RCRA workshop: 17-18 July 2011


AIMS AND SCOPE
Many problems in Artificial Intelligence show an exponential explosion of the
search space. Although stemming from different research areas in AI, such
problems are often addressed with algorithms that have a common goal: the
effective exploration of huge state spaces. Many algorithms developed in one
research area are applicable to other problems, or can be hybridised with
techniques in other areas. Artificial Intelligence tools often exploit or
hybridise techniques developed by other research communities, such as
Operations Research.
In recent years, research in AI has more and more focussed on experimental
evaluation of algorithms, the development of suitable methodologies for
experimentation and analysis, the study of languages and the implementation of
systems for the definition and solution of problems.

Scope of the workshop is fostering the cross-fertilisation of ideas stemming
from different areas, proposing benchmarks for new challenging problems,
comparing models and algorithms from an experimental viewpoint, and, in
general, comparing different approaches with respect to efficiency, problem
modelling, and ease of development.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Experimental evaluation of algorithms for
o knowledge representation
o automated reasoning
o planning
o scheduling
o machine learning
o model checking
o boolean satisfiability (SAT)
o constraint programming
o constraint satisfaction
o quantified boolean formulae and quantified constraints
o modal logics
o logic programming
o disjunctive logic programming
o temporal reasoning
o combinatorial optimization
* Definition and construction of benchmarks
* Experimentation methodologies
* Metaheuristics
* Algorithm hybridisation
* Static analysis of combinatorial problems
* Languages and systems for definition and solution of problems
* Comparisons between systems and algorithms
* Application experiences


WORKSHOP CHAIRS
* Marco Gavanelli, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy
* Toni Mancini, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy

WORKSHOP PROGRAM COMMITTEE
* Marco Alberti – Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
* Tolga Bektas, University of Southampton, UK
* Francesco Calimeri – University of Calabria, Italy
* Agostino Dovier – University of Udine, Italy
* Esra Erdem – Sabanci University, Instanbul, Turkey
* Wolfgang Faber – University of Calabria, Italy
* Pierre Flener - Uppsala University, Sweden
* Scott E. Grasman - Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA
* Angel Juan – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Henry Kautz - University of Rochester, USA
* Daniel Le Berre – Université d'Artois, Lens Cedex, France
* Inês Lynce – INESC-ID, Lisboa, Portugal
* Marco Maratea – University of Genova, Italy
* Joao Marquez-Silva - University College Dublin, Ireland
* Michela Milano - University of Bologna, Italy
* Massimo Narizzano – University of Genova, Italy
* Angelo Oddi - ISTC-CNR, Roma, Italy
* Gilles Pesant – University of Montreal, Canada
* Pilar Pozos Parra - Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco, Tabasco, Mexico
* Steve Prestwich – University College Cork, Ireland
* Helena Ramalhinho Dias Lourenço – Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
* Daniel Riera i Terrén – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Fabrizio Riguzzi – University of Ferrara, Italy
* Rubén Ruiz Garcìa – Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain
* Alessandro Saetti – University of Brescia, Italy
* Andrea Schaerf – University of Udine, Italy
* Bart Selman - Cornell University, USA
* Helmut Simonis - University College Cork, Ireland
* Mirek Truszczyński – University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA


HOST ORGANIZATION
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
(http://in3.uoc.edu)

LOCAL COMMITTEE
* Angel Juan – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Daniel Riera i Terrén – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Josep Jorba – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Helena R. Lourenço – Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
* David Masip – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Joan M. Marques – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
* Joan A. Pastor – IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain



SUBMISSIONS
Authors are invited to submit either original papers, or papers that appear on
conference proceedings.

Publications showing negative results are welcome, provided that the approach
was original and very promising in principle, the experimentation was
well-conducted, the results obtained were unforeseeable and gave important
hints in the comprehension of the target problem, helping other researchers to
avoid unsuccessful paths.

At the time of submission, authors are requested to clearly specify whether their
submission is original or already published.

Workshop submissions must be in PDF format, do not exceed 15 pages, and should be
written in LaTeX, using the RCRA 2011 style available on the workshop web site.
Page for submissions:

http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcra2011

Submissions will be reviewed by at least three members of the
program committee.


SELECTION FOR THE POST-PROCEEDINGS
Few weeks after the workshop, authors of papers orally presented at the
workshop will have the opportunity to participate to the selection for the
post-proceedings by submitting an extended version of their work.

As in previous editions (http://rcra.aixia.it/publications), workshop
post-proceedings will appear in a special issue of an International
journal, provided that a sufficient amount of high quality papers is collected.

All candidate articles must be original: they cannot have already been published
in journals, and must contain significant additional material with respect to any
formal publication.

Such papers will go through a second formal selection process, and will be
reviewed by at least three reviewers. The selection process will be kept very
short, and at most one re-submission stage will be allowed.
Hence, authors are invited to work on their paper mainly before the
workshop date.