LaSh 2014 - 4th International Workshop on Logic and Search (LaSh 2014)

The purpose of the LaSh workshops is to foster scientific exchange on subjects related to languages for representing, and methods for solving, computationally challenging search problems. The scope includes study of relevant logics, algorithms, and logic-based systems, and also study of other languages and systems from the viewpoint of logic, broadly construed.
Hard combinatorial search and optimization problems abound in science, engineering, and other areas. Examples include planning, scheduling and configuration problems. Several communities have developed general purpose solving technologies for such problems, supported by declarative modelling or specification languages. These include answer set programming (ASP) from knowledge representation (KR), constraint solvers and modelling languages from constraint programming (CP), and integer linear programming (ILP) solvers and algebraic modelling languages from mathematical programming. Other relevant areas include propositional satisfiability (SAT), satisfiability modulo theories (SMT), and representation langauges based on classical logic and FO(ID).
Differences in emphasis notwithstanding, these share the same purpose. Indeed, there are many similarities in solving technologies, and increasing exchange between the areas both in solving and representational issues. From a logical point of view, whether a given language or system is described in logical terms or not, we have languages which define some class of structures, and systems whose purpose is to compute structures in the class. Logic may be seen as an explicit basis for building systems, as an analytic tool, or as a formal approach to viewing the diversity of systems more uniformly.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Logics relevant to the study of search and optimization problems
Languages for representation, specification and modelling
Methods for reasonining about or with specifications
Grounding and related language transformation methods
Expressiveness and complexity of logics and languages
Ground Solvers and their languages: SAT, ASP, SMT, FlatZinc, etc.
New or extended ground solver languages: SAT+Cardinality, SAT+TC, etc.
Design of systems, solvers, and related tools
Approximation, tractable problem classes, etc.
Proof systems and inference methods underlying solvers.
Comparisons of different langauges or methods in abstract or formal terms
Interesting applications, either as case studies or challenges
Benchmark problems and instance collections