EPSRC-Royal Society fellowship engagement (2013): Combining Constraints and Verification
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
Please refer to attached Royal Society application
Planned Impact
Please refer to attached Royal Society application
People |
ORCID iD |
| Christopher Jefferson (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Akgun, O.
(2014)
Breaking conditional symmetry in automated constraint modelling with CONJURE
in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications
Akgün Ö
(2016)
Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
Caldwell J
(2015)
Generalized Support and Formal Development of Constraint Propagators
Caldwell J
(2017)
Generalized support and formal development of constraint propagators
in AI Communications
Gent I
(2018)
Complexity of n-Queens Completion (Extended Abstract)
GENT I
(2018)
A review of literature on parallel constraint solving
in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming
Gent I
(2014)
Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
Gent I
(2017)
Complexity of n-Queens Completion
in Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
Gent I.
(2015)
S-Crucial and Bicrucial Permutations with Respect to Squares
in Journal of Integer Sequences
Gent I.P.
(2018)
Complexity of n-queens completion
in IJCAI International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
| Description | Many problems can be expressed as a series of constraints, expressing different considerations which interlock in complex ways. Given a method of solving a problem, we want to be able to automatically verify that this method does indeed accurately solve our problem. There are many different ways a computer program can fail to solve a problem, as modern computer systems are built from many complicated interlocking parts. This grant investigated how we can represent these kinds of problems as a system of constraints. The major contribution of the project was significantly improving how well computer system which solve constraints perform, by looking for structure in the problem. |
| Exploitation Route | Our improvements to constraint reasoning and solving will allow constraint solving to be used for a much larger range of problems than ever before, including verification, modelling, planning and scheduling problems. |
| Sectors | Electronics,Retail,Transport |
| URL | https://savilerow.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/ |
| Description | A Constraint Modelling Pipeline |
| Amount | £886,923 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P015638/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Learning, Optimising Compiler for Computational Group Theory |
| Amount | £250,001 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RGF\EA\181005 |
| Organisation | St. Andrews University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Modelling and Optimisation with Graphs |
| Amount | £673,092 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P026842/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | Travel Grant |
| Amount | £5,453 (GBP) |
| Organisation | German Research Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Title | GAP Profiler |
| Description | An extension to the 'GAP' programming language, which allows the time taken by each line of code in a program to be measured |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Improvements in performance of code. GAP's testing now checks, and aims to improve, the percentage of the codebase which is tested (which before could not be measured) |
| URL | https://github.com/gap-packages/profiling |
| Description | Halle University Computational Group THeory |
| Organisation | Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg |
| Department | Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Close research collaboration with Rebecca Waldecker's group in mathematics |
| Collaborator Contribution | Two currently published journal papers (included in this submission), with further work in review. |
| Impact | Jefferson C, Jonauskyte E, Pfeiffer M, Waldecker R. (2019). Minimal and canonical images. Journal of Algebra, Jefferson C, Pfeiffer M, Waldecker R. (2019). New refiners for permutation group search. Journal of Symbolic Computation, |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Title | Ferret |
| Description | A library for the 'GAP' system, which allows orders of magnitudes improved performance for many problems involving backtrack search. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | 2 journal papers currently being finished about this content |
| URL | https://github.com/gap-packages/ferret |
| Title | Images |
| Description | Find minimal and canonical images of objects in permutation groups |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | 1 journal paper about to be submitted, already 2 other research groups using this software. |
| URL | https://github.com/gap-packages/images |
| Description | GAP Invited Talk (SPLS) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Gave an invited talk at SPLS, the Scottish Programming Language Symposium, on my research into type systems for mathematical programming |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited talk (Halle University) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Teaching computational group theory to both undergraduates or postgraduates |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |