Neil Yorke-Smith | Algorithmics | EEMCS

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Publications

Neil Yorke-Smith is an Associate Professor of Socio-Technical Algorithmics in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). His research focuses on intelligent decision making in complex socio-technical situations, with a particular interest in agent-based methodologies and behavioural factors in automated planning and scheduling. He has been a Visiting Scholar at St Edmund's College, Cambridge and at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School and at RMIT University. Previously, Dr Yorke-Smith was a faculty member at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon; before that he was a Research Scientist at SRI International, USA and lectured at Stanford University. Dr Yorke-Smith has consulted in Silicon Valley, Europe, and the Middle East. He holds a doctorate degree from Imperial College London, where his thesis research focused on handling uncertainty in business and engineering applications of constraint-based optimisation.

Selected publications by year are listed below. Papers in journals and strongly-refereed conferences, which are regarded as archival, are identified by the title in boldface. Other papers appear either in edited books or in lightly-refereed conferences, symposia, or workshops, or as unrefereed contributions.

2019

Saur, R.; La Poutre, H.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Combined Heat and Power Markets by Double-Sided Auction Mechanisms. Proceedings of 9th IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe Conference (ISGT-Europe'19). Bucharest, Romania. Sept.-Oct. 2019 (to appear).
Defines a market mechanism for combined bids in a dual-commodity market.
He, L.; de Weerdt, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Tabu-Based Large Neighbourhood Search for Time/Sequence-Dependent Scheduling Problems with Time Windows. Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS'19). Berkeley, CA. July 2019 (to appear). PDF
Combines tabu search and ALNS for scheduling with complex dependencies.
Wallace, M. and Yorke-Smith, N. Cyclic Hoist Scheduling: Experiments with Modern Solvers. Presented at: 16th International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research (CPAIOR'19). Thessaloniki, Greece. June 2019.
Reports computational experiments on hybridisation for the CHSP.
Telang, P.; Singh, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Coupled Operational Semantics for Goals and Commitments. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 65. May 2019. PDF
Describes formally how the goals and commitments of agents in a multiagent system are synchronized.

2018

Dastani, M.; Torroni, P.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Monitoring Norms: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 33. 2018. PDF | DOI
Reviews concepts of norm monitoring, with a focus on multi-agent systems.
van Tilburg, J. and Yorke-Smith, N. Strategies for the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma in a Natural Environment. Presented at: 30th Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence (BNAIC'18). 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, November 2018. PDF
Shows that some popular strategies for the IPD game are less successful as the environment becomes more realistic.
Yorke-Smith, N. GoCo: Planning Expressive Commitment Protocols (journal abstract). Presented at: 30th Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence (BNAIC'18). 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, November 2018. PDF
Summarizes the journal paper GoCo: Planning Expressive Commitment Protocols.
Hugtenburg, S. and Yorke-Smith, N. Delftse Foundations of Computation. TU Delft Open Textbook, August 2018. ISBN 978-94-6366-083-9. PDF | DOI
Textbook for a first-quarter course in theoretical computer science.
Meneguzzi, F.; Magnaguagno, M. C.; Singh, M. P.; Telang, P. R.; and Yorke-Smith, N. GoCo: Planning Expressive Commitment Protocols. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 32(4), July 2018. PDF | DOI
Presents an algorithm for commitment-based planning with a centralized mediating agent.
Srour, F. J. and Yorke-Smith, N. On Collusion and Coercion: Agent Interconnectedness and In-Group Behaviour. Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'18), Stockholm, Sweden, July 2018. PDF ©2018 IFAAMAS
Studies corrupt behaviour in an organisational context, in the martime customs domain.
Picascia, S.; Termos, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Initial Results from an Agent-Based Simulation of Housing in Urban Beirut. Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'18), Stockholm, Sweden, July 2018. PDF ©2018 IFAAMAS
Gives initial outcomes from a simulation of rent-gap theory for Beirut. Also appeared at IJCAI'18 ABMUS workshop.
Piao, L.; de Vries, L.; de Weerdt, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Electricity Market for Direct Current Distribution Systems: Exploring the Design Space. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM'18), Lodz, Poland, June 2018. PDF
Defines a design space for DC distribution markets.
He, L.; de Weerdt, M.; Yorke-Smith, N.; Liu, X.; and Chen, Y. Tabu-Based Large Neighbourhood Search for Time-Dependent Multi-Orbit Agile Satellite Scheduling. Proceedings of the ICAPS'18 Scheduling and Planning Applications Workshop, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2018. PDF
Describes a hybrid TS-ALNS approach for a complex satellite scheduling problem.
Yorke-Smith, N. On Learning from Human Expert Knowledge for Automated Scheduling. Proceedings of the ICAPS'18 Workshop Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2018. PDF
Argues for combining knowledge engineering and data mining for scheduling.
Yorke-Smith, N. Evaluating a Knowledge-Based Scheduling Assistant (journal abstract). Presented at: ICAPS'18 Workshop Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2018. PDF
Summarizes the journal paper Evaluating Knowledge Systems: Experiences with a User-Adaptive Intelligent Agent. (Longer version than the summary presented at BNAIC'17).
Srour, F. J. and Yorke-Smith, N. An Initial Study of Agent Interconnectedness and In-Group Behaviour. Post-proceedings of AAMAS'17 Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, LNCS 10798, Springer, May 2018. PDF | DOI ©2018 Springer
Begins to study corrupt behaviour in an organisational context, in the martime customs domain. (Extended version of workshop paper.)
Roberts, M.; Borrajo, D.; Cox, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. (eds). Special Issue on Goal Reasoning. AI Communications, 31(2), March 2018. DOI ©2018 IOS Press
Introduces a collection of papers from the IJCAI'16 Goal Reasoning workshop.

2017

Yorke-Smith, N. Evaluating Intelligent Knowledge Systems (journal abstract). Presented at: 29th Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence (BNAIC'17). Groningen, Netherlands, November 2017. PDF
Summarizes the journal paper Evaluating Knowledge Systems: Experiences with a User-Adaptive Intelligent Agent.
Berry, P.; Donneau-Golencer, T.; Duong, K.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Evaluating Knowledge Systems: Experiences with a User-Adaptive Intelligent Agent. Knowledge and Information Systems, 52(2), August 2017. PDF | DOI ©2017 Springer
Reflects in retrospect on lessons learned in evaluating an adaptive decision aid.
Logan B.; Thangarajah, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Progressing Intention Progression: A Call for a Goal-Plan Tree Contest. Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'17), Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 2017. PDF
Calls for an international competition on which intention an autonomous agent should progress next and how it should be progressed.
Srour, F. J. and Yorke-Smith, N. On Collusion and Coercion: A Study of Agent Interconnectedness and In-Group Behaviour. Working Notes of AAMAS'17 Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 2017. PDF
Begins to study corrupt behaviour in an organisational context, in the martime customs domain.
Picascia, S.; Termos, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Data-Driven Agent-Based Simulation: A Case Study of West Asian Urban Dynamics. Working Notes of AAMAS'17 Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Urban Systems, Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 2017. PDF
Discusses the challenges of obtaining data for one agent-based simulation.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Aborting, Suspending, and Resuming Goals and Plans in Intelligent Agents. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 31(2), March 2017. PDF | DOI
Details an operational semantics for coherent aborting, suspending, and resuming of tasks.
Dastani, M.; van der Torre, L.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Commitments and Interaction Norms in Organisations. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 31(2), March 2017. PDF | DOI
Innovates with a unified and generic approach to monitoring agent actions and enforcing institutional norms.
Picascia, S. and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards an Agent-Based Simulation of Housing in Urban Beirut. Post-proceedings of AAMAS'16 Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Urban Systems, LNCS 10051, Springer, January 2017. PDF | DOI ©2017 Springer
Develops an abstract simulation of rent-gap theory for Beirut. (Extended version of workshop paper.)

2016

Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Novel Recommendation Model Regularized with User Trust and Item Ratings. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 28(7), July 2016. PDF | DOI ©2016 IEEE
Improves recommendation performance by incorporating both explicit and implicit user trust.
Guo, G., Zhang, J., and Yorke-Smith, N. A Novel Evidence-based Bayesian Similarity Measure for Recommender Systems. ACM Transactions on the Web, 10(2), May 2016. PDF | DOI ©2016 ACM
Defines a more accurate similarity measure and proves its utility across a set of real world data sets.
Srour, F. J. and Yorke-Smith, N. Assessing Maritime Customs Process Re-Engineering using Agent-Based Simulation. Proceedings of 15th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'16), Singapore, May 2016. PDF ©2016 IFAAMAS
Evaluates insights from an agent-based simulation of maritime customs processes.
Picascia, S. and Yorke-Smith, N. Migration, Refugees, and Urban Dynamics: Towards an Agent-Based Simulation of Housing in Urban Beirut. Working Notes of AAMAS'16 Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Urban Systems, Singapore, May 2016. PDF
Develops an abstract simulation of rent-gap theory for Beirut.

2015

Dechesne, F.; Ghorbani, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. (eds). Special Issue on Agent-Based Modelling for Policy Engineering. AI & Society, 30(3), August 2015. PDF | DOI ©2014 Springer
Introduces a collection of papers from the AMPLE workshop series.
Guo, G.; Zhang J.; Sun, Z.; and Yorke-Smith, N. LibRec: A Java Library for Recommender Systems. Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP'15), Demonstration Track. Dublin, Ireland. July 2015. PDF
Describes a reusable library for researchers in recommender systems.
Meneguzzi, F.; Telang, P. R.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Planning Uncertain Commitment Protocols. Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'15), Istanbul, Turkey, May 2015. PDF ©2015 IFAAMAS
Sketches an algorithm for commitment-based planning with a centralized mediating agent.
Harland, J.; Thangarajah, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Estimating the Progress of Maintenance Goals. Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'15), Istanbul, Turkey, May 2015. PDF ©2015 IFAAMAS
Outlines a computational mechanism for estimating the level of completeness of maintenance goals.
Srour, F. J. and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Agent-Based Simulation of Maritime Customs. Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'15), Istanbul, Turkey, May 2015. PDF ©2015 IFAAMAS
Overviews the design of an agent-based simulation of maritime customs processes.
Chaudhri, V.; Heymans, S.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Reasoning About Interruption of Biological Processes. Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, 12, April 2015. PDF | DOI ©2015 Elsevier
Presents an approach to hypothetical reasoning over a knowledge base.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Leveraging Multiviews of Trust and Similarity to Enhance Clustering-based Recommender Systems. Knowledge-Based Systems, 74, January 2015. PDF | DOI ©2014 Elsevier
Proposes to use trust information, both explicit and implicit, together with similarity information, to improve personalized recommendations.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. TrustSVD: Collaborative Filtering with Both the Explicit and Implicit Influence of User Trust and of Item Ratings. Proceedings of 29th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'15), Austin, TX, January 2015. PDF
Develops an improved collaborative filtering method by using both explicit and implicit trust as well as item ratings.

2014

Chaudhri, V. K.; Elenius, D.; Goldenkranz, A.; Gong, A.; Martone, M.; Webb, W.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Comparative Analysis of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Requirements across a Range of Life Sciences Textbooks. Journal of Biomedical Semantics, 5, December 2014. Full text | DOI
Investigates how a smart techbook prototype generalizes to multiple biomedical textbooks.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; Thalmann, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Leveraging Prior and Posterior Ratings for Recommender Systems in E-Commerce. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 13(6), November-December 2014. PDF | DOI ©2014 Elsevier
Obtains pre-purchase product ratings from users from virtual product experiences and uses them to enhance recommendation performance.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; Thalmann, D.; Basu, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. ETAF: An Extended Trust Antecedents Framework for Trust Prediction. Proceedings of 6th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM'14), Beijing, China, August 2014. PDF
Forms a personalized trust metric accounting for both local and global trustworthiness of users and the active user's propensity to trust.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Quantifying the Completeness of Goals in BDI Agent. Proceedings of 21st European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI'14), Prague, Czech Republic, August 2014. PDF
Details a computational mechanism for estimating the level of completeness of goals.
Harland, J.; Morley, D.; Thangarajah, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. An Operational Semantics for the Goal Life-Cycle in BDI Agents. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 28(4), July 2014. PDF | DOI
Elaborates the life-cycle of goals in a BDI-style agent in an operational semantics that includes proactive maintenance goals, abort and suspend, and sub-goaling dynamics.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Quantifying the Completeness of Goals in BDI Agent. Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'14), Paris, France, May 2014. PDF ©2014 IFAAMAS
Outlines a computational mechanism for estimating the level of completeness of goals.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; Thalmann, D.; Basu, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. From Ratings to Trust: an Empirical Study of Implicit Trust in Recommender Systems. Proceedings of 29th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC'14), Gyeongju, Korea, March 2014. PDF
Compares empirically approaches to implicit trust computation from the literature.

2013

Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; Thalmann, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Prior Ratings: A New Information Source for Reccomender Systems in E-Commerce. Proceedings of 7th ACM Recommender Systems Conference (RecSys'13), Hong Kong, China, October 2013. PDF
Obtains pre-purchase product ratings from users from virtual product experiences.
Chung, K. S. K.; Komashie, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Envisioning Complexity in Healthcare Systems using Discrete Event Simulation and Social Network Analysis. Proceedings of 5th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM'13), Demonstration Track. Niagara Falls, Canada. August 2013. PDF
Demonstrates computation of social network metrics based on a discrete event simulation of a healthcare system.
Guo, G.; Zhang, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Novel Bayesian Similarity Measure for Recommender Systems. Proceedings of 23rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'13), Beijing, China, August 2013. PDF
Introduces a more accurate similarity measure useful for cold-start situations in recommender systems and other tasks.
Yorke-Smith, N.; Heymans, S.; and Chaudhri, V. Responding to Hypothetical Questions in an Intelligent Tutoring Agent. Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'13), Saint Paul, MN, May 2013. PDF ©2013 IFAAMAS
Overviews an approach to reasoning about interrupted domain processes using default reasoning over process graphs.
Dastani, M.; van der Torre, L.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Monitoring Interaction in Organisation. Post-proceedings of AAMAS'12 Workshop on Coordination, Organization, Institutions and Norms (COIN'12), LNCS 7756, Springer, April 2013. PDF ©2013 Springer
Suggests a unified, rule set independent, approach to monitoring commitment-based communication acts and enforcing commitement-based institutional norms. (Extended version of workshop paper.)

2012

Telang, P. R.; Yorke-Smith, N.; and Singh, M. P. Relating Goals and Commitment Semantics. Post-proceedings of ProMAS'11, LNCS 7217, Springer, October 2012. PDF ©2012 Springer
Describes how the goals and commitments of an agent are synchronized. (Extended version of workshop paper.)
Kwong, H. and Yorke-Smith, N. Detection of Imperative and Declarative Question-Answer Pairs in Email Conversations. AI Communications, 25(4), September 2012. PDF | DOI ©2012 IOS Press
Expands the scope and power of automated question detection and question-answer pairing in email threads.
Chaudhri, V.; Heymans, S.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Process Interruption Reasoning. Proceedings of QR'12 Workshop on Deep Knowledge Representation Challenge. Playa Vista, CA, July 2012. PDF
Presents an approach to reasoning about interrupted domain processes using default reasoning over process graphs.
Dastani, M.; van der Torre, L.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Programming Approach to Monitoring Communication in an Organisational Environment. Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS'12), Valencia, Spain, June 2012. PDF ©2012 IFAAMAS
Suggests a unified, rule set independent, approach to monitoring commitment-based communication acts and enforcing commitement-based institutional norms.
van Riemsdijk, M. B. and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Reasoning with Partial Goal Satisfaction in Intelligent Agents. Post-proceedings of ProMAS'10, LNCS 6599, Springer, April 2012. PDF ©2012 Springer
Proposes a model of agency with a metric-based notion of partial satisfaction of goals. (Extended version of workshop paper.)
Harb, H.; Srour, F. J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Case Study in Model Selection for Policy Engineering: Simulating Maritime Customs. Advanced Agent Technology: Post-proceedings of the AAMAS'11 Workshops, LNCS 7068, Springer, February 2012. PDF ©2012 Springer
Analyzes modelling methodologies for maritime customs processes. (Extended version of workshop paper.)
Yorke-Smith, N.; Saadati, S.; Myers, K.; and Morley, D. The Design of a Proactive Personal Agent for Task Management. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 21(1), February 2012. PDF | DOI ©2012 World Scientific
Presents a BDI-based agent cognition model designed to support proactive assistance, employing a meta-level layer to identify potentially helpful actions and determine when it is appropriate to perform them.

2011

Berry, P.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. PTIME: Personalized Assistance for Calendaring. ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, 2(4), 40:1-40:22, July 2011. PDF | DOI ©2011 ACM
Describes the methodology, model, design, implementation, and evaluation of an intelligent, personalized calendaring assistant.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Operational Behaviour for Executing, Suspending, and Aborting Goals in BDI Agent Systems. Post-proceedings of DALT'10, LNCS 6619, Springer, July 2011. PDF ©2011 Springer
Elaborates the life-cycle of goals in a BDI-style agent, towards a semantics that includes proactive maintenance goals, abort and suspend, and sub-goaling dynamics. (Extended version of workshop paper.)
Refanidis, I.; Alexiadis, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Beyond Calendar Mashups: Intelligent Calendaring. Proceedings of ICAPS'11 System Demonstrations, Freiburg, Germany, June 2011. PDF
Demonstration of SelfPlanner 2, a system for helping to schedule both the events and the tasks of an individual.
Yorke-Smith, N. Reducing Incentives for Agent Collaboration. Proceedings of AAMAS'11 Workshop on Collaborative Agents -- Research and Development, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2011. PDF
Argues that collaboration is not always favourable.
Telang, P. R.; Yorke-Smith, N.; and Singh, M. P. A Coupled Operational Semantics for Goals and Commitments. Proceedings of AAMAS'11 Workshop on Programming Multi-Agent Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2011. PDF
Describes how the goals and commitments of an agent are synchronized.
Harb, H.; Srour. F. J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Case Study in Model Selection for Policy Engineering: Simulating Maritime Customs. Proceedings of AAMAS'11 Workshop on Agent-based Modeling for Policy Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2011. PDF
Analyzes modelling methodologies for maritime customs processes.
Yorke-Smith, N. The Success of Genre in Interaction Fiction. Jackson-Mead, K. and Wheeler, J. R. (ed). IF Theory Reader. > Transcript On Press, February 2011. PDF
Essay on the role of genre in the success of works of interactive fiction.
Castillo, L.; Cortellessa, G.; and Yorke-Smith, N. (eds). Special Issue on Scheduling and Planning Applications: Selected Papers from the SPARK Workshop Series. Computational Intelligence, 27(1), February 2011. DOI ©2011 Wiley
Introduces a collection of papers from the SPARK workshop series.
Leigh, L. and Yorke-Smith, N. An Adaptation of the Bass New Product Diffusion Model for Multiple Purchases of Capital Items. Proceedings of 10th International Marketing Trends Conference, Paris, France, January 2011. Abstract | PDF
Augments the Bass model with multiple stages of purchases.

2010

Refanidis, I. and Yorke-Smith, N. A Constraint Based Approach to Scheduling an Individual's Activities. ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, 1(2), 12:1-12:32, November 2010. Abstract | PDF ©2010 ACM
Presents a preference model and algorithm for combined scheduling of an individual's calendar events and to-do tasks.
Srour, F. J.; Harb, H.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Maritime Customs Negotiation with Corrupt Agents. Presented at: INFORMS Annual Meeting 2010, Austin, TX, November 2010. Abstract
Models the customs negotiation process in the presence of corrupt actors.
Bui, H. H. and Yorke-Smith, N. Efficient Variable Elimination for Semi-Structured Simple Temporal Networks with Continuous Domains. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 25(3), 337-351, September 2010. Abstract | PDF ©2010 Cambridge University Press
Applies belief propagation for solving structured and semi-structured Simple Temporal Problems over continuous domains.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. On the Life-Cycle of BDI Agent Goals. Proceedings of ECAI'10, Lisbon, Portugal, August 2010. Abstract | PDF
Elaborates the life-cycle of goals in a BDI-style agent, towards a semantics that includes proactive maintenance goals, abort and suspend, and sub-goaling dynamics.
Anouze, L. A. and Yorke-Smith, N. Optimal National Resource Allocation for Multi-Factor Development: Cross-Country Analysis Based on DEA. Presented at: 24th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO XXIV), Lisbon, Portugal, July 2010.
Articulates recommendations for national resource allocation based on peer analysis.
Chu, G.; Petrie K. E.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Constraint Programming to Solve Maximal Density Still Life. Adamatzky, A. (ed). Game of Life Cellular Automata. Springer, July 2010. PDF ©2010 Springer
Reviews the Maximum Density Still Life problem and describes CP approaches that lead to its solution.
Planken, L.; de Weerdt, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Incrementally Solving STNs by Enforcing Partial Path Consistency. Proceedings of ICAPS'10, Toronto, Canada, May 2010. Abstract | PDF ©2010 AAAI
Solves Simple Temporal Networks incrementally with a new algorithm based on Partial Path Consistency.
Venable, K. B.; Volpato, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Weak and Dynamic Controllability of Temporal Problems with Disjunctions and Uncertainty. Proceedings of ICAPS'10 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems, Toronto, Canada, May 2010. Abstract | PDF
Specifies the first algorithms for determining Weak and Dynamic Controllability of a DTPU.
van Riemsdijk, M. B. and Yorke-Smith, N. Towards Reasoning with Partial Goal Satisfaction in Intelligent Agents. Proceedings of AAMAS'10 Workshop on Programming Multi-agent Systems, Toronto, Canada, May 2010. Abstract | PDF
Proposes a model of agency with a metric-based notion of partial satisfaction of goals.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Operational Behaviour for Executing, Suspending, and Aborting Goals in BDI Agent Systems. Proceedings of AAMAS'10 Workshop on Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies, Toronto, Canada, May 2010. Abstract | PDF
Elaborates the life-cycle of goals in a BDI-style agent, towards a semantics that includes proactive maintenance goals, abort and suspend, and sub-goaling dynamics.

2009

Weber, J. and Yorke-Smith, N. Designing for Usability of an Adaptive Time Management Assistant. AI Magazine 30(4), 103-110, Winter 2009. Abstract | PDF ©2009 AAAI
Describes the iterative design process of an AI-based mixed-initiative calendaring tool.
Jameson, A.; Spaulding, A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. (eds). Special Issue on Usable AI. AI Magazine 30(4), Winter 2009. DOI ©2009 AAAI
Introduces a collection of papers from the CHI Workshop on Usable AI.
Refanidis, I. and Yorke-Smith, N. On Scheduling Events and Tasks by an Intelligent Calendar Assistant. Proceedings of ICAPS'09 Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems, Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2009. Abstract | PDF
Opens a new domain for scheduling tools: combined scheduling of an individual's calendar events and to-do tasks.
Kwong, H. and Yorke-Smith, N. Detection of Imperative and Declarative Question-Answer Pairs in Email Conversations. Proceedings of IJCAI'09, Pasadena, CA, July 2009. Abstract | PDF ©2009 IJCAI
Expands the scope and power of automated question detection and question-answer pairing in email threads.
Berry, P.; Donneau-Golencer, T.; Duong, K.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Evaluating User-Adaptive Systems: Lessons from Experiences with a Personalized Meeting Scheduling Assistant. Proceedings of IAAI'09, Pasadena, CA, July 2009. Abstract | PDF ©2009 AAAI
Accounts lessons learned in the task of formally evaluating a system that performs preference learning.
Yorke-Smith, N.; Saadati, S.; Myers, K.; and Morley, D. Like an Intuitive and Courteous Butler: A Proactive Personal Agent for Task Management. Proceedings of AAMAS'09, Budapest, Hungary, May 2009. Abstract | PDF ©2009 IFAAMAS
Presents a BDI-based agent cognition model designed to support proactive assistance, employing a meta-level layer to identify potentially helpful actions and determine when it is appropriate to perform them.
Berry, P.; Donneau-Golencer, T.; Duong, K.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Mixed-Initiative Negotiation: Facilitating Useful Interaction Between Agent/Owner Pairs. Proceedings of AAMAS'09 Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Multiagent Systems, Budapest, Hungary, May 2009. Abstract | PDF
Positions multi-agent negotiation in the context of mixed-initiative decision making in order to build user-agent trust.
Castillo, L.; Cortellessa, G.; and Yorke-Smith, N. The 2008 Scheduling and Planning Applications Workshop (SPARK'08). AI Magazine 30(1), 119-120, Spring 2009. Abstract | PDF ©2009 AAAI
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Certainty Closure: Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Uncertain Data. ACM Transactions on Computational Logic 10(1), 3:1-3:41, January 2009. Abstract | PDF | DOI ©2009 ACM
Defines a non-probabilistic framework for data uncertainty in constraint programming based on the concept of enclosing unknown values. Demonstrates the applicability of the framework on a case study in network diagnosis.

2008

Peintner, B.; Viappiani, P.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Preferences in Interactive Systems: Technical Challenges and Case Studies. AI Magazine 29(4), 13-24, Winter 2008. Abstract | PDF ©2008 AAAI
Surveys the role preferences have in Interactive Artificial Intelligence systems in both reasoning and interaction with the user.
Berry, P.; Donneau-Golencer, T.; Duong, K.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Emma: An Event Management Assistant. Proceedings of ICAPS'08 System Demonstrations, Sydney, Australia, September 2008. Abstract | PDF
Demonstration of an adaptive personalized calendar management agent.
Bui, H. H.; Tyson, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Efficient Message Passing and Propagation of Simple Temporal Constraints: Results on Semi-Structured Networks. Proceedings of CP/ICAPS'08 Joint Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems, Sydney, Australia, September 2008. Abstract | PDF
Reports experimental results on belief propagation for solving semi-structured Simple Temporal Problems over continuous domains.
Meuleau, N.; Morris, R. A.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Variable Elimination Approach for Optimal Scheduling with Linear Preferences. Proceedings of CP/ICAPS'08 Joint Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems, Sydney, Australia, September 2008. Abstract | PDF
Develops a tractable elimination function to apply Bucket Elimination to solve temporal CSPs with piecewise linear constraints on temporal preferences over continuous domains.
Bui, H. H.; Cesari, F.; Elenius, D.; House, N.; Morley, D.; Myers, K. M.; Natarajan, S.; Saadati, S.; Yeh, E.; and Yorke-Smith, N. CALO Workflow Recognition and Proactive Assistance. AAAI-08 AI Video Competition, Chicago, IL, July 2008. Abstract | AVI (93M)
Short video shows how a CALO agent provides potentially helpful suggestions according to your work context, including your current desktop activity.
Berry, P.; Bulka, B.; Peintner, B.; Roberts, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Neptune: A Mixed-Initiative Environment for Planning and Scheduling. Proceedings of FLAIRS'08, Coconut Grove, FL, May 2008. Abstract | PDF
Describes the design of a mixed-initiative system for integrated hierarchical planning and scheduling, Neptune.
Bui, H. H.; Cesari, F.; Elenius, D.; Morley, D.; Natarajan, S.; Saadati, S.; Yeh, E.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Context-Aware Personal Desktop Assistant. Proceedings of AAMAS'08 Demonstration Track, Estoril, Portugal, May 2008. Abstract | PDF ©2008 IFAAMAS
Demonstration of a personal assistant agent that provides potentially helpful suggestions according to your work context, including your current desktop activity.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Suspending and Resuming Tasks in Intelligent Agents. Proceedings of AAMAS'08, Estoril, Portugal, May 2008. Abstract | PDF ©2008 IFAAMAS
Develops a principled approach to suspending and resume tasks in a BDI-based agent, formalized in the CAN agent language.
Weber, J. S. and Yorke-Smith, N. Time Management with Adaptive Reminders: Two Studies and Their Design Implications. Working notes of CHI'08 Workshop: Usable Artificial Intelligence, Florence, Italy, April 2008. Abstract | PDF
Reports initial findings from a pair of user studies into how people manage their time, and how they could benefit from an adaptive reminder system.

2007

Peintner, B.; Venable, K. B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Strong Controllability of Disjunctive Temporal Problems with Uncertainty. Proceedings of CP'07, Providence, RI, September 2007. Abstract | PDF ©2007 Springer
Refines the semantics of DTPU constraints and gives the first algorithm to determine Strong Controllability of a DTPU.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Soft COP Model for Goal Deliberation in a BDI Agent. Proceedings of CP'07 Workshop on Constraint Modelling and Reformulation, Providence, RI, September 2007. Abstract | PDF
Models the BDI goal deliberation process as a soft Constraint Optimisation Problem.
Berry, P.; Moffitt, M. D.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. The Design of a User-Centric Scheduling System for Multi-Faceted Real-World Problems. Proceedings of ICAPS'07 Workshop on Moving Planning and Scheduling Systems into the Real World, Providence, RI, September 2007. Abstract | PDF
Describes the design of a mixed-initiative scheduling system, Pisces.
Bui, H. H.; Tyson, M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Efficient Message Passing and Propagation of Simple Temporal Constraints. Proceedings of AAAI 2007 Workshop on Spatial and Temporal Reasoning, Vancouver, Canada, July 2007. Abstract | PDF
Investigates belief propagation for solving structured Simple Temporal Problems over continuous domains.
Berry, P.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. A Preference Model for Over-Constrained Meeting Requests. Proceedings of AAAI 2007 Workshop on Preference Handling for Artificial Intelligence, Vancouver, Canada, July 2007. Abstract | PDF
Presents a MAUT model for user meeting scheduling preferences that balances expressiveness with amenability for elicitation, reasoning, and learning.
Thangarajah, J.; Harland, J.; Morley, D.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Aborting Tasks in BDI Agents. Proceedings of AAMAS'07, Honolulu, HI, May 2007. Abstract | PDF ©2007 ACM
Presents extensions to the CAN agent language to enable a BDI-based agent to reason over goal and plan aborts and fails in a unified way.
Myers, K. and Yorke-Smith, N. Proactive Behavior of a Personal Assistive Agent. Proceedings of AAMAS'07 Workshop on Metareasoning in Agent-Based Systems, Honolulu, HI, May 2007. Abstract | PDF
Presents a BDI-based agent cognition model designed to support proactive assistance, employing a meta-level layer to identify potentially helpful actions and determine when it is appropriate to perform them
Yorke-Smith, N. (ed). Interaction Challenges for Intelligent Assistants: Papers from the AAAI Spring Symposium. AAAI Technical Report SS-07-04, March 2007. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA. Abstract
The symposium asked: what are most useful paradigms, methodologies, and implementations for human interaction with intelligent artificial assistants?
Berry, P.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Bringing the User Back into Scheduling: Two Case Studies of Interaction with Intelligent Scheduling Assistants. Proceedings of AAAI 2007 Spring Symposium on Interaction Challenges for Intelligent Assistants, Stanford, CA, March 2007. Abstract | PDF ©2007 AAAI
Speaks for the importance of the user in two scheduling applications.
Myers, K. and Yorke-Smith, N. Proactivity in an Intentionally Helpful Personal Assistive Agent. Proceedings of AAAI 2007 Spring Symposium on Intentions in Intelligent Systems, Stanford, CA, March 2007. Abstract | PDF ©2007 AAAI
Argues that personal assistive agents should be able to reason about acting proactively, with care, to help their user.

2006

Rossi, F.; Venable, K. B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Uncertainty in Soft Temporal Constraint Problems: A General Framework and Controllability Algorithms for the Fuzzy Case. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 27, 617-674, December 2006. Abstract | PDF
Presents a formalism where quantitative temporal constraints with both preferences and uncertainty can be defined, showing how three classical notions of controllability (strong, weak, and dynamic), which have been developed for uncertain temporal problems, can be generalized to handle preferences as well.
Moffitt, M. D.; Peintner, B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Multi-Criteria Optimization of Temporal Preferences. Proceedings of CP'06 Workshop on Preferences and Soft Constraints, Nantes, France, September 2006. Abstract | PDF
Premiers an extended framework for disjunctive temporal reasoning in the presence of multiple optimisation criteria, and two initial algorithms to derive favoured solutions.
Morley, D.; Myers, K.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Continuous Refinement of Agent Resource Estimates. Proceedings of AAMAS'06, Hakodate, Japan, May 2006. Abstract | PDF ©2006 ACM
Allows a BDI-based agent to estimate resource consumption of tasks prior to their adoption for execution, and refine those estimates as execution proceeds.
Berry, P.; Conley, K.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; Uribe, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Deploying a Personalized Time Management Agent. Proceedings of AAMAS'06 Industrial Track, Hakodate, Japan, May 2006. Abstract | PDF ©2006 ACM
Reports on the ongoing practical experience designing, implementing, and deploying PTIME, a personalized agent for time management and meeting scheduling in an open, multi-agent environment.
Berry, P.; Albright, C.; Bowring, E.; Conley, K.; Nitz, K.; Pearce, J.; Peintner, P.; Saadati, S.; Tambe, M.; Uribe, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Conflict Negotiation Among Personal Calendar Agents. Proceedings of AAMAS'06 Demonstration Track, Hakodate, Japan, May 2006. Abstract | PDF ©2006 ACM
Demonstration of distributed conflict resolution in the context of personalized meeting scheduling.
Berry, P.; Gervasio, M.; Peintner, B.; Uribe, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Multi-Criteria Evaluation in User-Centric Distributed Scheduling Agents. Proceedings of AAAI 2006 Spring Symposium on Distributed Plan and Schedule Management, Stanford, CA, March 2006. Abstract | PDF ©2006 AAAI
Positions a distributed scheduling task for personalised calendaring as the co-operation of selfish scheduling agents.

2005

Myers, K. and Yorke-Smith, N. A Cognitive Framework for Delegation to an Assistive User Agent. Proceedings of AAAI 2005 Fall Symposium on Mixed-Initiative Problem Solving Assistants, Arlington, VA, November 2005. Abstract | PDF ©2005 AAAI
Presents a BDI-based framework for a cognitive agent that acts as an assistant to a human user by perfoming tasks on her behalf.
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Closures of Uncertain Constraint Satisfaction Problems. Proceedings of CP'05 Workshop on Quantification in Constraint Programming, Sitges, Spain, October 2005. Abstract | PDF
Investigates the characteristics of a relevant solution to an uncertain CSP, according to the nature of the data uncertainty and the outcome sought in the application.
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Uncertain Constraint Optimisation Problems. Proceedings of CP'05 Workshop on Preferences and Soft Constraints, Sitges, Spain, October 2005. Abstract | PDF
Develops an extension of the uncertain CSP for optimisation problems with data incompleteness or errors.
Berry, P.; Myers, K.; Uribe, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Task Management under Change and Uncertainty: Constraint Solving Experience with the CALO Project. Proceedings of CP'05 Workshop on Constraint Solving under Change and Uncertainty, Sitges, Spain, October 2005. Abstract | PDF
Puts forward the challenges to constraint programming, not restricted to change and uncertainty, that arise in task management in the CALO intelligent user assistant project.
Morris, R. A.; Dungan, J.; Edgington, W.; Williams, J.; Carlson, C.; Fleming, D.; Wood, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Coordinated Science Campaign Scheduling for Sensor Webs. Proceedings of i-SAIRAS'05, Munchen, Germany, September 2005. Abstract | PDF
Describes the DESOPS software architecture for coordinated planning, scheduling and execution of Earth-orbiting science campaigns.
Venable, K. B. and Yorke-Smith, N. Disjunctive Temporal Planning with Uncertainty. Proceedings of IJCAI'05, Edinburgh, UK, August 2005. Abstract | PDF ©2005 IJCAI
Introduces the semantics of the DTPU model: disjunctive temporal constraints with controllable and uncontrollable time-points.
Yorke-Smith, N. Exploiting the Structure of Hierarchical Plans in Temporal Constraint Propagation. Proceedings of AAAI'05, Pittsburgh, PA, July 2005. Abstract | PDF ©2005 AAAI
Describes the sibling-restricted propagation algorithm for HTN temporal inference and its strong performance on real-world plans.
Guettier, C. and Yorke-Smith, N. Enhancing the Anytime Behaviour of Mixed CSP-Based Planning. Proceedings of ICAPS'05 Workshop on Planning under Uncertainty for Autonomous Systems, Monterey, CA, June 2005. Abstract | PDF
Investigates the anytime performance of solving a full observability mixed CSP. Proposes algorithmic enhancements to improve the anytime behaviour w.r.t. plan completeness and plan executability.
Berry, P.; Gervasio, M.; Uribe, T.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Mixed-Initiative Issues for a Personalized Time Management Assistant. Proceedings of ICAPS'05 Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Planning And Scheduling, Monterey, CA, June 2005. Abstract | PDF
Discusses the collaborative human/agent decision process in the PTIME project.
Morris, R. A.; Morris, P.; Khatib, L.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Temporal Planning with Preferences and Probabilities. Proceedings of ICAPS'05 Workshop on Constraint Programming for Planning and Scheduling, Monterey, CA, June 2005. Abstract | PDF
Introduces the Simple Temporal Problem with Preferences and Probabilities, and outlines two decision problems with STP3s for planning. Also appeared at IJCAI'05 M-PREF workshop.

2004

Rossi, F.; Venable, K. B.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Controllability of Soft Temporal Constraint Problems. Proceedings of CP'04, Toronto, Canada, September 2004. Abstract | PDF ©2004 Springer
Shows how temporal constraint networks with both preferences and uncertainty can be dynamically controlled.
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Tight and Tractable Reformulations for Uncertain CSPs. Proceedings of CP'04 Workshop on Modelling and Reformulating Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Toronto, Canada, September 2004. Abstract | PDF
Defines two sufficient conditions for constraint classes that guarantee a tight and tractable reformulation of a uncertain CSP, to derive its full closure.
Petrie, K. E.; Smith, B. M.; and Yorke-Smith, N. Dynamic Symmetry Breaking in Constraint Programming and Linear Programming Hybrids. Proceedings of STAIRS'04, Valencia, Spain, August 2004. Abstract | PDF
Integrates symmetry breaking during search with LP-CP hybrids. Case study on the maximum density still life problem.
Yorke-Smith, N. Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Uncertain Data. PhD thesis, IC-Parc, Imperial College London, June 2004. Abstract
A framework and case studies for reliably modelling and solving constraint problems with incomplete and erroneous data.

2003

Yorke-Smith, N. and Guettier, C. Towards Automatic Robust Planning for the Discrete Commanding of Aerospace Equipment. Proceedings of 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Houston, TX, October 2003. Abstract | PDF ©2003 IEEE
Applies reasoning about data uncertainty to constraint-based control of aerospace equipment.
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Certainty Closure: A Framework for Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Uncertainty. Proceedings of CP'03, Kinsale, Ireland, September 2003. Abstract | PDF ©2003 Springer
Defines a framework for data uncertainty in constraint programming, together with practical resolution forms. Illustrates the framework with two diverse case studies.
Yorke-Smith, N.; Venable, K. B.; and Rossi, F. Temporal Reasoning with Preferences and Uncertainty. Proceedings of IJCAI'03, Acapulco, Mexico, August 2003. Abstract | PDF ©2003 IJCAI
Introduces a more expressive model for simple temporal problems, combining existing models for preference and for contingency in a new formalism.

2002

Riera, D. and Yorke-Smith, N. An Improved Hybrid Model for the Generic Hoist Scheduling Problem. Annals of Operations Research 115, 173-191, September 2002. Abstract | PDF ©2002 Springer
Builds on an existing hybrid CP-LP model for multi-hoist, multi-track hoist scheduling problems, to yield more robust computational results without sacrificing expressiveness.
Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. On Constraint Problems with Incomplete or Erroneous Data. Proceedings of CP'02, Ithaca, NY, September 2002. Abstract | PDF ©2002 Springer
Summarises the need to tackle data uncertainty in CP, and presents a case study of an enclosure approach in computer networking.

2001

Yorke-Smith, N. and Gervet, C. Data Uncertainty in Constraint Programming: A Non-Probabilistic Approach. Proceedings of AAAI 2001 Fall Symposium on Using Uncertainty within Computation, Cape Cod, MA, November 2001. Abstract | PDF ©2001 AAAI
Demonstrates why non-probabilistic reasoning about data uncertainty is suitable for a diagnosis problem in computer networking.

Full curriculum vitae available on request.

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