Workshop on
Configuration

Representing and solving Configuration problems have always been subjects of interest for applying and developing AI techniques because powerful knowledge-representation models are necessary to capture the great variety and complexity of configurable product models, and efficient reasoning methods are required to provide intelligent interactive behavior in configurator software, such as solution search, satisfaction of user preferences, optimization, diagnosis, etc.

Today, the number, the diversity and the complexity of configurable products available on the market is growing, expanding from conventional equipment configuration to software configuration, or service configuration, such as loans, insurance, travel packages, and so forth. Configuration is more than ever a challenging area for applying novel AI techniques since more and more sophisticated reasoning tasks are delegated to the configurator software; the software must thus integrate product-assembly knowledge along with customer classification, adaptive sales strategies, and customer assistance. This integration becomes particularly critical for e-business applications where customers directly configure products through the Web with no human assistance and without a deep knowledge of the products they are buying.

This workshop continues the series of Configuration workshops started at the AAAI 1996 Fall Symposium and continued at AAAI'99, ECAI 2000, IJCAI 2001 and ECAI 2002. The previous workshops were particularly successful since they had each more than 40 participants representing academia, end users and the major configurator vendors.

The workshop gives AI researchers from different areas (e.g. description logics, constraint satisfaction, nonmonotonic reasoning, logic programs, case-based reasoning, ontologies, planning), real-application developers, and industrial configurator vendors the opportunity to exchange needs, ideas, work, methods, experiments, use-cases, and benchmarks related to the various problems met by configuration applications: theory, knowledge representation, reasoning, optimization, diagnosis, solution repair, interactivity, ontology, cooperative processes, etc.

The goal of this IJCAI workshop on configuration is to promote high-quality research in configuration and to strengthen the interaction between industry and research. The workshop is intended for researchers and product developers interested in this area and more generally in the application of AI techniques to real problems and the research fostered by it. Submissions are sought from the researchers and developers working with the wide range of applicable AI technologies that complement each other.

The workshop will be a one day event. Accepted submissions are organized as panels according to topics with short introductory presentations by panel members, allowing ample time for discussion to stimulate a workshop-like event.

Program

	Satisfaction Guaranteed
	E.C.Freuder, T.Carchrae, J.C.Beck
	Solving Methods for Conditional Constraint Satisfaction
	E.Gelle, M.Sabin
	The Logic of ILOG (J)Configurator: Combining Constraint Programming with a Description Logic
	U.Junker, D.Mailharro

	Dynamic Problem Decomposition in Configuration
	L.Anselma, D.Magro
	Modifying configurations with model finding
	G.Schenner, G.Fleischanderl
	Extending Cluster Tree Compilation with non-Boolean variables in Product Configuration: a Tractable Approach to Preference-based Configuration
	B.Pargamin

	User-Adaptive Configuration of Products and Services
	L.Ardissono, G.Friedrich, A.Goy, M.Holland, G.Petrone, C.Russ, R.Schäfer
	Recognizing User Intentions in Incremental Configuration Processes
	T.Krebs, T.Wagner, W.Runte
	Generating Personalized Recommendations in a Model-Based Product Configurator System
	R.Stegmann, M.Koch, M.Lacher, T.Lekner, V.Renneberg
	User-Involved Preference Elicitation
	P.Pu, B.Faltings, M.Torrens

	A Tool for Comparing Configurable Products
	M.Heiskala, A.Anderson, V.Huhtinen, J.Tiihonen, A.Martio
	Developing Constraint-based applications with spreadsheets
	A.Felfernig, G.Friedrich, D.Jannach, C.Russ, M.Zanker
	A Koala-based Ontology for Configurable Software Product Families
	T.Asikainen, T.Soininen, T.Männistö

Organizing Committee

Daniel Mailharro (Chair)
ILOG S.A.
9 rue de Verdun, 94253 Gentilly Cedex, France
Fax: +33 1 49 08 35 10
dmailharro@ilog.fr

Prof. Michel Aldanondo
Ecole des Mines d'Albi Carmaux, France

Prof. Eugene  Freuder
University College Cork, Ireland

Prof. Gerhard Friedrich
University Klagenfurt, Austria

Dr. Ulrich Junker
ILOG S.A., France

Prof. Timo Soininen
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

Prof. Markus Stumptner
University of South Australia, Australia

Program Committee

Michel Aldanondo,    Ecole des Mines d'Albi Carmaux, France 
Claire Bagley,            Oracle, USA
Ronen I.Brafman,       University of Beer-Sheva, Israel
David Brown,            Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA 
Boi Faltings,               Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland 
Alexander Felfernig,  University Klagenfurt, Austria
Cipriano Forza,           Universita di Padova, Italy
David Franke,             Trilogy, USA 
Felix Frayman,            Felix Frayman Consulting, USA
Esther Gelle,               ABB Corporate Research Ltd., Switzerland 
Albert Haag,               SAP AG, Germany 
Dietmar Jannach,        University Klagenfurt, Austria
Ulrich Junker,             ILOG S.A., France 
Daniel Mailharro,       ILOG S.A., France 
Tomi Männistö,          Helsinki University of Technology, Finland 
Klas Orsvärn,             Tacton AB, Sweden 
Barry O'Sullivan,       University College Cork, Ireland
Carsten Sinz,              University of Tubingen, Germany
Timo Soininen,           Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Markus Stumptner,     University of South Australia, Australia 
Pietro Torasso,           Universita di Torino, Italy

Topics

Submissions describe novel and previously unpublished research (possibly in progress) or experiences with AI in configuration-related areas, including but not limited to:

1. Configuration problems and models
   • Configuration problems typology
   • Knowledge representation & acquisition
   • Fuzzy and incomplete knowledge
   • Knowledge base validation, diagnosis
   • Interaction with Product Data Management systems
   • Standardization of catalog exchange format
2. Reasoning methods
• Constraint Satisfaction Problems and its extensions
• Preference based reasoning
• Descriptive logics, Rules, Case-based reasoning
• Local search, Genetic algorithms, Neural networks
• Problem decomposition
• Optimization
• Multi-criteria optimization
• Symmetry breaking
• Cooperative configuration processes
• Re-configuration of existing systems
• Explanations
• Bench mark proposals
3. Interactivity & e-business
• Personalization
• Ontology
• Intelligent man machine interaction
• Machine learning
• Client/Server architecture, Configuration server
• Configuration Web service
• Distributed configurators
4. Integration with other modules
• Product Data Management
• CAD
• Pricer
• ERP, Process configuration
5. Applications & Tools
• Application reports
• Case studies
• Real world challenges