Constraint Processing

Rina Dechter is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Computer Science at UCLA in 1985, a MS degree in Applied Mathematic from the Weizman Institute and a B.S in Mathematics and Ststistics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Her research centers on computational aspects of automated reasoning and knowledge representation including search, constraint processing and probabilistic reasoning. Professor Dechter has authored over 50 research papers, and has served on the editorial boards of: Artificial Intelligence, the Constraint Journal, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and the Encyclopedia of AI. She was awarded the Presidential Young investigator award in 1991 and is a fellow of the American association of Artificial Intelligence.

“To summarize, this book distills well over three decades worth of development in CSP and constraint processing in a single textbook. I wholeheartedly recommend it to students, researchers and practitioners in artificial intelligence, constraint programming and operations research who want to know more about the theory of constraint processing." --Roland H.C. Yap, National University of Singapore, in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming“This book provides a comprehensive and much needed introduction to the field by one of its foremost experts. It is beautifully written and presents a unifying framework capturing a wide range of techniques for processing symbolic, numerical, and probabilistic information.” --Bart Selman, Cornell University“I’ve been waiting a long time for a good theoretical introduction to constraint programming. Rina Dechter’s book is just this. If you want to understand why this technology works, and how to make it work for you, then I recommend you read this book.” --Toby Walsh, Cork Constraint Computation Centre“The book is rigorous but it is not difficult to read. An abundance of examples illustrate concepts and algorithms. The reader is well guided through technical issues, so intuition is never hidden by technicalities.” --Pedro Meseguer, Institut d’Investigació en Intellingència Artificial – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IIIA-CSIC)“An indispensable resource for researchers and practitioners in AI and optimization.” --Henry Kautz, University of Washington“a welcome introduction to the field of constraint satisfaction that will help researchers, educators, and students understand what constraint processing is about. It is a comprehensive book that can be used as a companion for courses on constraint satisfaction especially because the reader does not need to be an expert in the area to understand the text. The introductory character of the book makes it easy to read; nevertheless advanced students and researchers may also find deeper information on some topics there. Rina Dechter is an excellent researcher with contributions in many areas of constraint satisfaction … I strongly recommend reading this book to everyone who wants to know what is behind constraint satisfaction technology and I think that this book should definitely be in the bookshelf of everyone who teaches constraint satisfaction.” --Roman Barták, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

• Preface; Introduction; Constraint Networks; Consistency-Enforcing Algorithms: Constraint Propagation; Directional Consistency; General Search Strategies; General Search Strategies: Look-Back; Local Search Algorithms; Advanced Consistency Methods; Tree-Decomposition Methods; Hybrid of Search and Inference: Time-Space Trade-offs; Tractable Constraint Languages; Temporal Constraint Networks; Constraint Optimization; Probabilistic Networks; Constraint Logic Programming; Bibliography