The main objective of lectures is to cover the required theoretical content of the course, illustrated by as many examples as possible. Lecture attendance is highly recommended in general, and sometimes mandatory (see below). The essential aspects, in the eyes of the head teacher, will be pointed out. Common misunderstandings will be discussed. The slides are not self-contained at all: they are only a support for the lectures, but not equivalent to their much more detailed content, so you ought to take notes. If you miss a lecture, then find other sources, such as the recommended extra material mentioned below or the Coursera on-line courses mentioned under Resources.
There is no planned correspondence between the scheduled lectures and the topics of the course: topic starts and ends need not be aligned with lecture starts and ends, as it all depends on the questions asked during the lectures. Revised slides (change log) may be uploaded any time, with an announcement in Studium. The models and data linked to within the slides are available collectively as the file allModelsData.zip and individually in the folder allModelsData.
| Topic | Slides | Extra Material (recommended) | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction |
slides numbered 1-81 & 89-92 of
T01.pdf; (blackboard notes) |
RealityQuiz.pdf (the link will work in due time) | Pierre Flener |
| Basic Modelling | T02.pdf | Sections 1 to 2.2 of MiniZinc Handbook (read this now!!!) | Pierre Flener |
| Constraint Predicates | T03.pdf | Section 2.3.1 and Section 4.2.2 of MiniZinc Handbook; models in MiniZinc Benchmarks and MiniZinc Challenge; Global Constraint Catalogue & Seeker | Pierre Flener |
| Mon 9 Sep 2024 at 11:15: mandatory guest lecture (normal lecture from 10:15 to 11:00) | Optimisation Problems @ Ericsson | Erik Cervin-Edin of Ericsson | |
| Modelling (for CP & LCG) | T04.pdf | Section 2.7 of MiniZinc Handbook | Pierre Flener |
| Symmetry | T05.pdf | see the bibliography in the slides | Pierre Flener |
| Case Studies | T06.pdf | see the bibliography in the slides | Pierre Flener |
| Solving Technologies | T07.pdf | linearisation of MiniZinc models (the link works from the UU network) | Pierre Flener |
| Reasoning & Search for CP & LCG | T08.pdf | Section 2.5 and Section 4.2.1.2 of MiniZinc Handbook (look for "propagation strength" and "search" annotations) | Pierre Flener |
| Modelling for CBLS (not to be seen in autumn 2024) | T09.pdf | Pierre Flener | |
| Modelling for SAT, SMT, and OMT (not to be seen in autumn 2024) | T10.pdf | Section 2.8 of MiniZinc Handbook | Pierre Flener |
| Modelling for MIP (not to be seen in autumn 2024) | T11.pdf | Pierre Flener |
A missed guest lecture (in case of no force majeure) can be compensated for by a summary of a research paper chosen by the head teacher.
There is no textbook for this course. Links to particularly good tutorials on some topics are given in the Extra Material column of the table above.
For the bigger picture, we recommend the following reference book:
