Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction: The Classic Text - Tapa blanda

This seminal text of Computer Science, the most cited book on the subject, is now available for the first time in paperback. Constraint satisfaction is a decision problem that involves finite choices. It is ubiquitous. The goal is to find values for a set of variables that will satisfy a given set of constraints. It is the core of many applications in artificial intelligence, and has found its application in many areas, such as planning and scheduling. Because of its generality, most AI researchers should be able to benefit from having good knowledge of techniques in this field. Originally published in 1993, this now classic book was the first attempt to define the scope of constraint satisfaction. It covers both the theoretical and the implementation aspects of the subject. It provides a framework for studying this field, relates different research, and resolves ambiguity in a number of concepts and algorithms in the literature. This seminal text is arguably the most rigorous book in the field. All major concepts were defined in First Order Predicate Calculus. Concepts defined this way are precise and unambiguous.

The author Edward Tsang holds a first degree in Finance and a MSc and PhD degree in Computer Science. He is the Director of Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents (CCFEA), an interdisciplinary research centre which he co-founded in October 2002. He has international reputation in artificial intelligence. He is well known for his research in constraint satisfaction (a branch of combinatorial optimisation for decision support and scheduling) and computational finance and economics. His book on constraint satisfaction is the most cited literature on the subject. He founded the Technical Committee in Computation Finance and Economics in IEEE's Computational Intelligence Society in 2004. Edward Tsang's research is highly industry-relevant. He has given consultation to GEC Marconi, British Telecom, Honda Europe, Causeway, Old Mutual Asset Managers, Allianz RAS and other organizations.