Holger H. Hoos - Böcker

Stochastic local search (SLS) algorithms are among the most prominent and successful techniques for solving computationally difficult problems in many areas of computer science and operations research, including propositional satisfiability, constraint satisfaction, routing, and scheduling. SLS algorithms have also become increasingly popular for solving challenging combinatorial problems in many application areas, such as e-commerce and bioinformatics.Hoos and St�tzle offer the first systematic and unified treatment of SLS algorithms. In this groundbreaking new book, they examine the general concepts and specific instances of SLS algorithms and carefully consider their development, analysis and application. The discussion focuses on the most successful SLS methods and explores their underlying principles, properties, and features. This book gives hands-on experience with some of the most widely used search techniques, and provides readers with the necessary understanding and skills to use this powerful tool. Provides the first unified view of the field Offers an extensive review of state-of-the-art stochastic local search algorithms and their applications Presents and applies an advanced empirical methodology for analyzing the behavior of SLS algorithms A companion website offers lecture slides as well as source code and Java applets for exploring and demonstrating SLS algorithms

The 7th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satis?ab- ity Testing (SAT 2004) was held 10-13 May 2004 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The conference featured 9 technical paper sessions, 2 poster sessions, as well as the 2004 SAT Solver Competition and the 2004 QBF Solver Evaluation. It also included invited talks by Stephen A. Cook (University of Toronto) and Kenneth McMillan (Cadence Berkeley Labs). The 89 participants represented no less than 17 countries and four continents. SAT 2004 continued the series of meetings which started with the Workshops on Satis?ability held in Siena, Italy (1996), Paderborn, Germany (1998) and Renesse, The Netherlands (2000); the Workshop on Theory and Applications of Satis?ability Testing held in Boston, USA(2001);theSymposiumonTheoryandApplicationsofSatis?abilityTesting held in Cincinnati, USA (2002); and the 6th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satis?ability Testing held in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy (2003). The International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satis?ability Testing is the primary annual meeting for researchers studying the propo- tional satis?ability problem (SAT), a prominent problem in both theoretical and applied computer science.SAT lies at the heart of the most important open problem in complexity theory (P vsNP) and underlies many applications in, among other examples, arti?cial intelligence, operations research and electronic design engineering. The primary objective of the conferences is to bring together researchersfromvariousareasandcommunities,includingtheoreticalandexp- imental computer science as well as many relevant application areas, to promote collaboration and the communication of new theoretical and practical results in SAT-related research and its industrial applications.

Stochastic local search (SLS) algorithms enjoy great popularity as powerful and versatile tools for tackling computationally hard decision and optimization pr- lems from many areas of computer science, operations research, and engineering. To a large degree, this popularity is based on the conceptual simplicity of many SLS methods and on their excellent performance on a wide gamut of problems, ranging from rather abstract problems of high academic interest to the very s- ci?c problems encountered in many real-world applications. SLS methods range from quite simple construction procedures and iterative improvement algorithms to more complex general-purpose schemes, also widely known as metaheuristics, such as ant colony optimization, evolutionary computation, iterated local search, memetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search and variable neighborhood search. Historically, the development of e?ective SLS algorithms has been guided to a large extent by experience and intuition, and overall resembled more an art than a science. However, in recent years it has become evident that at the core of this development task there is a highly complex engineering process, which combines various aspects of algorithm design with empirical analysis techniques and problem-speci?c background, and which relies heavily on knowledge from a number of disciplines and areas, including computer science, operations research, arti?cial intelligence, and statistics. This development process needs to be - sisted by a sound methodology that addresses the issues arising in the various phases of algorithm design, implementation, tuning, and experimental eval- tion.