Sébastien Tabary

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Research activities:

I have joined the second research axis of the CRIL laboratory. This axis deals with "Inference and decision process".

I focus on all aspects of Constraint Programming and specifically on solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). CSPs are problems that can be expressed using a finite set of variables (with an associated domain) and a finite set of constraints (with an associated relation). Proposed efficient algorithms for finding a solution (or all solutions) to these problems is at the heart of my researches. I work on several areas for improvement:

  • Learning techniques
  • Search and resolution techniques
  • Inference and propagation algorithms
  • Symmetry breaking methods

More recently I extended my research topics to the domain of Weighted Constraint Satisfaction Problems (WCSPs). WCSPs is an extension of the classical CSPs framework in which preferences among solutions can be expressed (using weighted constraints). In particular, I am interested in cross-fertilization approaches between CSPs and WCSPs fields.

Another key point of my research is the use and the adaptation of CP to other research fields. In the context of GDL games, a first idea is to use a SCSP (Stochastic CSP) representation to model some game rules and to develop a SCSP solver to play (well) to these games.

Software:

Take a look at :
  • Woodstock: a computer player of General Game Playing (GGP) and several GDL games
  • AmPharoS: an adaptative parallel SAT Solver
  • Abscon: a CSP/WCSP solver written in Java

PhD. Students:

  • Nicolas Szczepanski (2014-2017), "SAT en Parallèle"
  • Eric Piette (2013-2016), "Une nouvelle approche au General Game Playing dirigée par les contraintes"
  • Nicolas Paris (2011-2014), "Intégration de techniques CSP pour la résolution du problème WCSP"