Call for Papers

Thirtieth Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, CP 2024

September 2-6, 2024, Girona, Spain

The CP conference is the premier international event for presenting research in all aspects of computing with constraints, including, but not restricted to: theory, algorithms, environments, languages, models, systems, and applications. CP 2024 will be the 30th edition of the CP conference and will be held in the historic city of Girona on the University of Girona campus, September 2-6, 2024.

The conference welcomes submissions that advance the state of the art of fundamental constraint-based technologies, as well as those that seek connections with other domains: for example, operations research, satisfiability, computational biology, configuration and design, computer music, entertainment, sport, cybersecurity, and AI in its broader context.

Tracks

Besides the main technical track, CP 2024 especially encourages submission to three additional specialized tracks: Application track, CP and Machine Learning track and CP and Quantum Computing track. A paper may only be submitted to either the main technical track or at most one specialized track. Special track papers will undergo the same review and publication process as that of the main technical track.

Application Track

The Application track of the International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming targets papers that showcase the practical applications of constraint programming. These include innovative uses in various fields, such as operations research, machine learning, computational sustainability, and cybersecurity. The track is particularly interested in contributions that demonstrate the effectiveness of constraint programming in solving real-world problems, highlighting advancements in technology and applications that extend beyond traditional approaches.

In Essence, if the main track focuses on the scientific contributions made “to” CP, the Application track focuses on scientific contributions made “with” CP.

CP and Machine Learning Track

This track is dedicated to papers using machine learning approaches to improve CP solvers (e.g., learning branching heuristics, leveraging past data, solving quickly sub-problems, etc.) and, on the other side, to papers using CP to improve machine learning algorithms (e.g., providing guarantees on predictions, constraining the search space of the optimization algorithm, etc.).

CP and Quantum Computing Track

As the development of quantum computers is gaining momentum, the Constraint Programming and Quantum Computing track aims at encouraging the cross-fertilization between these two fields, both in the use of quantum computing in order to solve constrained optimization problems and in the use of constraint programming to tackle problems in the design and implementation of quantum systems.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to: quantum algorithms for constraint satisfaction and optimization problems, constraint formulations in QUBO and Ising models, experiments with Quantum Annealing and Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm for solving constraint problems, design and development of quantum, quantum-inspired and hybrid solvers, Constraint Programming for optimizing quantum circuits.

Important Dates

  • Abstract registration: 18/04
  • Paper submission: 23/04 26/04
  • Author rebuttal: 29/05-02/06
  • Final notification: 20/06
  • Camera Ready: 01/07
  • Conference: September 2-6, 2024

Dates should be considered as Anywhere on Earth (AoE).

Submission Instructions

The submission Web page for CP2024 is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cp2024.

Papers should be submitted in the form of a PDF file following LIPIcs guidelines. Authors should carefully follow the formatting instructions and keep to the style defined by LIPIcs. Papers should also be readable in black and white.

To open the conference more widely, two types of submissions are expected:

  • Full papers, that can use up to 15 pages (references and appendices excluded).
  • Short papers, that can use a maximum of 8 pages (references and appendices excluded).

Short papers cover early results or results that can be adequately reported in 8 pages. They must nonetheless respect the quality expectations of the conference. Both full and short papers should attract a wide audience and will be allocated time for presentation during the conference.

Appendices may be included and will not contribute towards the total page count, although the program chair reserves the right to limit the number of pages in extreme cases. Supplemental material (for example, experimental results or code) may be referenced, but only if this can be done in a manner which would not reveal the authors' identities (see below on the double-blind review process). Papers should be self-contained and be comprehensible without reference to either appendices or supplemental material. Authors should not place elements essential to their paper in either appendices or supplemental material and indeed it will be left to the discretion of each reviewer whether they refer to this material or not.

Submissions exceeding the page limits or improperly formatted will be rejected without review.

To facilitate reviewing management, authors who intend to submit a paper to CP 2024 should submit an abstract of up to 150 words, summarizing the contribution of the paper, by the 18th of April, 2024. The paper submission must be completed by the 23rd of April, 2024.

All papers will go through a double-blind reviewing process, meaning that authors and reviewers are mutually anonymous. For this reason, submitted papers should not contain author names, affiliations, or links to identifying websites. References to the authors' own papers should be cited in such a way so as to avoid revealing the authorship of the paper.

A given paper must be submitted to one track only. When necessary, the Program Chair may move a submission to a more suitable track.

Submitted papers must not appear in, be accepted for, or be under review for a journal or another peer-reviewed conference with archived conference proceedings. Submissions that have appeared at workshops or other meetings and have not been formally published or have appeared only in highly shortened form (e.g., abstracts) can be submitted as papers.

Proceedings

Accepted papers will appear in conference proceedings published by LIPIcs. The proceedings will be available at the time of the conference.

Journal Publications

High quality accepted papers will be invited to submit a journal version to Constraints.

Top papers from CP 2024 will be invited to the award-winning paper tracks in Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ) or Journal of Artifical Intelligence Research (JAIR) (more information).

Other Information

Questions about the paper submission process may be addressed to the Program Chair, Paul Shaw (cp2024@easychair.org).