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[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email. Please distribute this call to interested parties.] ====================================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION (SoCS 2013) July 11-13, 2013 Leavenworth, WA, USA ====================================================================== SoCS 2013 is the sixth installment of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search. For more information on the event see http://socs13.search-conference.org/. Heuristic search and other forms of combinatorial search are currently very active areas of research in artificial intelligence, planning, robotics, constraint programming, operations research, bioinformatics, and other areas of computer science. SoCS is meant to bring researchers from these areas together to exchange their ideas and cross-fertilize the field. Topics of Interest =================== Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following: Analysis of search algorithms Automated synthesis of lower bounds Bounding and pruning techniques Combinatorial puzzles Continuous problem solving External-memory and parallel search Incremental and active learning in search Meta-reasoning and search Methodology and critiques of current practice Model-based search Random vs. systematic search strategy selection Portfolios of search algorithms Real-time search Search focus in goal-directed problem solving Search space discretization for continuous state-space problems Self-configuring and self-tuning algorithms Symmetry handling Time, memory, and solution quality trade-offs Special Scope This Year: Graph Search Engineering ================================================== Previous SoCS events have provided a special focus on automated planning (2010), search in robotics (2011), and grid-based path planning (2012). This year, SoCS specifically invites submissions from researchers in the algorithm engineering community and related areas that work on graph search problems and other combinatorial search problems that fit the scope of SoCS. In the past, a large part of the audience of SoCS has had an AI background, and SoCS has traditionally collocated with the AAAI and IJCAI conferences. Our aim with this special scope is to build bridges between AI researchers and algorithmicists who work on similar topics and usually present their work at venues like the Symposium on Experimental Algorithmics. Paper Submission ================= We encourage researchers to submit two categories of papers to the symposium: original papers and recently published papers from other venues. * Original papers: we welcome technical papers that report on substantial original research as well as position papers discussing ideas and concepts related to search. Examples of position papers could include thoughtful critiques of the field, historical perspectives and analysis, technical discussions of various implementation techniques, methodological contributions, and insightful reports on new and demanding applications. Please read the section "Requirements for Original Papers" for formatting and submission requirements for original papers. * Previously published papers: in order to foster the exchange of ideas at SoCS, we encourage authors to submit papers describing new research which has been reported in other venues in the last year. Papers that have been accepted for publication at another venue but are not yet officially published can also be submitted in this category. Papers that are currently under review cannot be submitted. Papers in this category are not republished in the SoCS proceedings. However, an extended abstract can be published if the authors desire this. Please read the section "Requirements for Previously Published Papers" for formatting and submission requirements for previously published papers. Papers related to the special scope of this year's symposium are welcome in both categories. SoCS papers should be submitted to: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=socs2013 All submissions must be formatted in AAAI style (http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php). SoCS 2013 is held in cooperation with AAAI and has formal archival proceedings published by AAAI Press. Requirements for Original Papers ================================= Original papers will be carefully peer-reviewed by at least three reviewers. SoCS 2013 will follow a double-blind review process for original papers, and hence authors of original papers are required to omit author information from their submissions and anonymize obvious self-references. Non-anonymous submissions may be rejected without review. Original papers can be submitted as full papers or research abstracts: * Full papers may be up to 8 pages in length, plus an additional page for references only. * Research abstracts may be up to 2 pages in length including references. They should report on ongoing but already mature work. Publication of a research abstract in the SoCS 2013 proceedings generally allows publishing a full paper on the same line of research at SoCS 2014 or other venues. If the work cannot be thoroughly evaluated on the basis of the abstract alone, authors may attach a longer version (up to 8 pages plus 1 page for references), which will be considered by the reviewers but not included in the SoCS proceedings. Such an attachment must also be anonymized. In this case, upload the research abstract as the "paper" and the longer version for the reviewers as the "attachment" in EasyChair. Requirements for Previously Published Papers ============================================= Previously published papers will undergo a light reviewing process in order to ensure that they are of interest to the SoCS community and that the optional extended abstract (see below) meets the required quality standards. Because they are already published, these papers cannot be submitted anonymously. Previously published paper are submitted via the conference's EasyChair submission site just like original papers. Please fill in the original title and a complete and meaningful abstract. The abstract should mention the venue at which the paper was previously published if this is not obvious from the paper itself. Previously published papers may be submitted with or without an original extended abstract. Extended abstracts may be up to 2 pages in length including references. We emphasize that this is an upper limit. A minimal abstract of less than one column is perfectly acceptable. In EasyChair, please submit the extended abstract (if one is provided) as the "paper" and the originally published paper as the "attachment". If the paper is accepted for presentation at the symposium, the extended abstract (if one was submitted) will be included in the SoCS 2013 proceedings. The paper itself will not be reprinted in the proceedings. Travel Support for Students ============================ SoCS is a student-friendly event. We strongly encourage students to attend. In addition, we hope that we will be able to help students with funding for their trip to SoCS, as we have in all previous years. More information on this support will be posted on the SoCS web page later. Dates and Location =================== SoCS will be collocated with AAAI 2013 and SARA 2013 and will take place in Leavenworth, WA, USA. The symposium will start with an opening reception on the evening of July 11 and will finish in the late afternoon of July 13. Transportation to the AAAI conference will be provided at the end of the symposium. The SARA symposium will be held at the same venue as SoCS, and a joint program is planned for July 12 (the second day of technical sessions for SARA and the first day of technical sessions for SoCS). Important Dates ================ Abstract submission deadline: April 4, 2013, 11:59PM UTC-12 Paper submission deadline: April 11, 2013, 11:59PM UTC-12 Notification: May 17, 2013 Early registration deadline: May 22, 2013 Camera-ready papers due: May 31, 2013 Late registration deadline: June 24, 2013 SoCS conference: July 11-13, 2013 (technical program: July 12-13) SoCS web site: http://socs13.search-conference.org/ SoCS 2013 Chairs ================= Conference chairs: Malte Helmert, University of Basel, Switzerland Gabriele Röger, University of Basel, Switzerland Local arrangements: Mausam, University of Washington, USA SoCS 2013 Program Committee ============================ Christer Bäckström, Linköping University, Sweden Roman Barták, Charles University, Czech Republic Hannah Bast, University of Freiburg, Germany Kostas Bekris, Rutgers University, USA J. Benton, Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT) Blai Bonet, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela Daniel Borrajo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Adi Botea, IBM Research, Dublin, Ireland Ethan Burns, University of New Hampshire, USA Rina Dechter, University of California, Irvine, USA Daniel Delling, Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, USA Stefan Edelkamp, University of Bremen, Germany Ariel Felner, Ben-Gurion University, Israel Alex Fukunaga, The University of Tokyo, Japan Hector Geffner, ICREA & Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Carla Gomes, Cornell University, USA Jörg Hoffmann, Saarland University, Germany Robert Holte, University of Alberta, USA Eric Huang, Palo Alto Research Center, USA Frank Hutter, University of British Columbia, Canada Riko Jacob, ETH Zürich, Switzerland Lydia Kavraki, Rice University, USA Philip Kilby, NICTA and Australian National University, Australia Akihiro Kishimoto, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Peter Kissmann, Universität des Saarlandes, Germany Sven Koenig, University of Southern California, USA Richard Korf, University of California at Los Angeles, USA Carlos Linares López, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Robert Mattmüller, University of Freiburg, Germany Martin Müller, University of Alberta, Canada Héctor Palacios, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Wheeler Ruml, University of New Hampshire, USA Lorenza Saitta, Universita del Piemonte Orientale, Italy Roni Stern, Ben-Gurion University, Israel Nathan Sturtevant, University of Denver, USA Jordan Thayer, Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT) Jur van den Berg, University of Utah, USA Toby Walsh, NICTA and UNSW, Australia William Yeoh, New Mexico State University, USA Rong Zhou, Palo Alto Research Center, USA