Hello All,

  Just a quick reminder that the deadline for this year's Symposium
on Combinatorial Search is quickly approaching (April 15). The call is
in the body of the message below.

Sorry for the cross-posting,
Jordan

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION (SoCS-2012)
July 19-21, 2012
Niagara Falls, Canada
===================

SoCS'12 is the Fifth installment of the The International Symposium on
Combinatorial Search. For more information on the event see
http://www.socs12.org/. Heuristic search and other forms of
combinatorial search are currently very active areas of research in
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Planning and other areas of
Computer Science. The International Symposium on Combinatorial Search
(SoCS) is meant to bring researchers in such areas together to
exchange their ideas and cross-fertilize the field.


Topics of Interest
===================

SoCS is targeting researchers and submissions in all fields that use
combinatorial search, including artificial intelligence, planning,
robotics, constraint programming, operations research and
bioinformatics. Overall, the main focus of SoCS is on the design of
novel heuristic search methods, analysis of existing heuristic search
methods and their applications. More specifically, 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
Pattern databases
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: Path Planning Competition
=======================================

Previous SoCS events have provided special focus to Automated Planning
and Robotics. This year, SoCS-2012 will include a special session on
path planning and will be hosting the 2012 Grid-Based Path Planning
Competition (GPPC) organized by Nathan Sturtevant. A call for
participation in the competition can be found at
http://movingai.com/GPPC/index.html. Each competition entry will have
a lightly-reviewed 1-page description in the SoCS proceedings.

We invite all researchers who use grid-based search to participate in
the competition and/or submit their work to SoCS-2012. We are also
interested in position papers covering aspects of grid-based search.


Submission Information
=======================

We encourage researchers and attendees of SoCS to submit papers to the
symposium. Submissions should be in AAAI format and up to 8 pages long
---see http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php. Submissions
should report on substantial, original and new research.

We also encourage submissions of position papers which are intended
for the discussion of ideas and concepts related to search. Examples
could include thoughtful critiques of the field, historical
perspectives and analysis, technical discussions of various
implementation techniques, methodological contributions, insightful
reports on new and demanding applications, and papers related to the
challenge area of this year’s conference. Position papers can be up to
8 pages in length.

Submissions will be carefully peer-reviewed by at least three reviewers.

SoCS papers should be submitted to:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=socs2012


Multiple Submissions
=====================

In order to foster the exchange of ideas at SoCS, we encourage authors
to submit papers describing new research which has been accepted to
other venues. Authors
should clearly indicate where a paper has been or will be published
both in the paper (preferably in the running title) and should also
send an e-mail to the conference chairs. Such papers will undergo a
light reviewing process in order to ensure that they are of interest
to the SoCS community. These papers will be given two pages in the
proceedings and will be presented at the conference either as a poster
or an oral talk.

The SOCS Proceedings
=====================

SoCS has a formal archival proceedings. However, authors of accepted
papers (who submitted up to eight-page papers) can choose one of the
two following publication options:

* A full paper. Up to eight pages will be allocated in the proceedings
for such papers. Every full paper will be allocated a slot for an oral
presentation. Papers accepted as full papers in the formal SoCS
proceedings cannot be published elsewhere.

* A short paper. Up to two pages will be allocated in the proceedings.
They will be presented as posters at the symposium.

* Papers published in other venues should be clearly labeled
(preferably in the running title) and the conference chairs should be
notified so as to ensure proper reviewing. Two pages will be allocated
in the proceedings for such papers.

* Position papers should be clearly labeled (preferably in the running
title) and the conference chairs should be notified so as to ensure
proper reviewing. Position papers will be allocated up to 8 pages in
the proceedings.


Special Student Activities
===========================
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 special student activities will be found in the
SoCS web page.


Dates and Location
===================

SoCS will be co-located with AAAI 2012 and will take place in Niagara
Falls near Toronto (Canada) and Buffalo (New York). The symposium will
start with a banquet on Thursday July 19 and will finish in the late
afternoon or evening on July 21. Transportation to the AAAI conference
will be provided.

Important Dates
================

Submission deadline: April 15, 2012, 11:59PM UTC-12
Notification: May 15, 2012
Camera-ready version due: June 1, 2012
Early registration deadline: June 4, 2012
Late registration deadline: June 15, 2012
SoCS Conference: July 19-21, 2012
SOCS web site: http://www.socs12.org/


SOCS-2012 chairs
=================

Daniel Borrajo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Ariel Felner, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Richard Korf, University of California Los Angeles, USA
Maxim Likhachev, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Carlos Linares Lopez, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Wheeler Ruml, University of New Hampshire, USA
Nathan Sturtevant, University of Denver, USA

Local Arrangements:
Jonathan Schaeffer, University of Alberta, Canada