Constraint applications blog
One of the major centres that SFI funds is the Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C), based in UCC. 4C investigates the area of constraint technology. Constraint technology is a branch of computer science that is interested in looking at problems where you’re trying to find the optimal allocation of scarce resources, where there are certain rules (constraints) governing how those resources can be deployed.
A typical example is that of timetabling. Imagine you have a school with a certain number of teachers, pupils, classrooms and classes to be taught. You have to figure out how to allocate classes to class-rooms and teachers to classes. You will have obvious constraints such as no pupil or teacher can be present in two different classes at the same time, or two classes cannot use the same classroom at the same time. You will have constraints on the courses that the students take, such as all students must take at least three hours of Maths and English per week. You might have a number of additional constraints on the use of rooms such as Science can only be taught in the science lab, Art in the art studio. You get the idea.
Constraint technologies are techniques aimed at figuring out how to model these problems, and then how to arrive at a solution that (i) satisfies all the rules and (ii) optimises some function, such as minimising the number of teacher hours spent.
One of the 4C researchers, Helmut Simonis has recently started a blog describing various industrial applications of constraint technologies that he has developed during his career in the area. The blog provides a fascinating insight into how constraint and scheduling problems in areas such as manufacturing, oil refining, airport stand allocation and poultry transportation planning are tackled and solved.
The descriptions themselves are written very much for the layman, rather than the constraint technology expert, but do include references to the original academic material for those looking for more technical depth.
Highly recommended: http://hsimonis.wordpress.com/.