Scalable Knowledge Representation and Solving

我建议发展表示复杂模块化系统的理论基础，一种高级编程语言来指定这种系统，以及寻找解决方案的算法。这项研究将帮助企业和其他组织处理越来越多的信息和越来越复杂的任务（包括组合优化）。由于问题的复杂性，建议的研究将从三个方向进行：

I propose to develop theoretical foundations for representing complex modular systems, a high-level programming language to specify such systems, and algorithms for finding solutions. The research will help businesses and other organizations to deal with an increasing amount of information and with increasingly complex tasks (including combinatorial optimization). Because of the complexity of the problem, the proposed research will proceed in three directions: 1) Develop a scalable knowledge representation formalism that supports modular high-level (declarative) problem solving; 2) Develop a computational framework with parameters to control its expressive power and the computational complexity of finding solutions; 3) Develop algorithmic techniques for solving and synthesizing modular systems. The scientific progress will be measured both in theoretical results and in the development and thorough evaluation of prototype systems. One of the core deliverables will be an adaptation of the technological ideas by a potential industrial partner. The proposed research has potential to contribute to the theory of computing, through developing new techniques for complexity analysis, and to technology, by offering a language with associated tools, that allows one to combine different solvers and (potentially only partially visible) databases for solving problems of a new magnitude.