Academic Interests

Propositional Satisfiability

My main interest in this area of artificial intelligence is the boolean satisfiabilty problem, also known as the SAT problem. Given an arbitrary boolean propositional formula (this uses only the connectives AND, OR, NOT, IMPLIES and IFF), the goal is to find an assignment of truth values to the variables in the formula which makes it true. A vast array of real-world problems can be represented as SAT problems, including those related to planning and scheduling, network design and program optimisation. Click here for information about the satiafiability solver that I have been working on in my spare time.

Constraint Satisfaction

This area of artificial intelligence is very closely related to that of propositional satisfiability. In fact, any constraint satisfaction problem can be converted into an equivalent SAT problem. Conversely, a SAT problem can be viewed as a collection of constraints over the variables in the formula. For my third year AI project at university, I created a program that fits different sized crates onto a cargo bay. Click here for more information about it.

Agent Based Programming

An agent generally only has partial information about the environment in which it exists. It has a series of goals that it must complete, and to do so quickly and efficiently it must communicate with other agents. Each agent may have different abilities and it may also be the case that no single agent has the individual capabilities required to complete its own goals. Applications include package routing on the Internet as well as more obvioulsy in systems that attempt to replicate or replace human operators. The only work that I have done in this area is on the classic Wumpus World problem. Click here for more information.

Web Page Design

At the moment my skills only extend as far as programming in HTML (this web site is the best example of my work). I will teach myself more advanced techniques as this site grows I start to experiment with additional features.

Algorithm Design and Optimisation

My interest in this subject area covers specialised algorithms for applications including sorting, search and more informed algorithms used in linear programming. A related topic, which I am just as interested in, is that of abstract data types (ADTs) and their implementation and optimisation. I've yet to include examples from either area on my web site.

Computer Aided Draughting

This was my second choice of career to follow before I decided on artificial intelligence and computer science. It is an area that I have always enjoyed, and have done work experience with GEC Marconi Avionics (now BAE Systems) in computer aided draughting.