Candidatura PEx - Zugzwang

Filling Application Form

General Data

• Title: Induction of Stochastic Answer Set Programs by Algebraic Means
• Project Acronym: IAM
• Keywords: (
• Main Scientific Area (Sci Domain + Sci Area + Sci sub-area):
• Timetable: (Start date + duration)

Institutions

• Principal Contractor: (NIPC; Research Unit; description; competencies)
• Collaborative Institutions: (All in the Portal de Ciência e Tecnologia?)

Research Team

• Principal Investigator (name; role; ciencia Id; ciencia vitae in english)
• PI narrative CV:
  • Contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
  • Contributions to the development of individuals and/or research teams
  • Contributions to the research community and the broader society
  • Selected outputs and/or activities
  • Why would this grant be timely for me, at this point in my career path and/or in my research?
• Members: (email; institution)
• Hirings: (type (contract or scholarship); institution associated with the hiring)
• Consultants: (email; framework fo participation)
• Team CV synopsis: (justify the framework and competencies of the research team and its coherence with the proposed work plan)
  • team scientific activity last 5 years
  • most relevant scientific achievements
  • demonstrate competence in the area

Work Plan

• Abstract. summary in portugues and english; analysis state of the art; main goals; knowledge and skills in the group; strategy and methodologies; novelty; expected results.
• State of the art and Objectives. overview of PI research field; state of the art in connection with ground-breaking nature and potential impact; references to PI previous work:
  • To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges?
  • To what extent are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art (e.g. novel concepts and approaches or development between or across disciplines)?
• Research plan and methods.
  • To what extent is the outlined scientific approach feasible bearing in mind the originality and/or ground-breaking potential of the proposed research?
  • To what extent are the proposed research methodology and working arrangements appropriate to achieve the goals of the project?
  • To what extent are the proposed timelines, resources, and PI´s commitment adequate and properly justified?
• Bibliographic references. (references cited in the state of art and in the research plan and methods)
• Past publications. (five publications; articles, books or monographs published or accepted for publication, authored or co-authored by the PI and the members of the research team)
• Tasks.
  • Task denomination, concise and self-explanatory
  • Task description and expected results
  • objectives in the context of the project
  • methodologies and approaches
  • expected results and preconditions to subsequent tasks
  • link to other tasks (?)
  • role of each partner and institution
  • justification for the needed resources (human and material)
  • Assigned team members.
  • Person*month person's percentage dedication * task duration in months
  • Start date; duration (in months) -no period without tasks
  • Deliverables; delivery dates (essential for effective project monitoring)
  • type (report; data management plan; websites; etc)
  • Lump sums are paid based on evidence and results showing achieved deliverables and budged
  • Budgets.
  • Overall cost justification of the task
    • breakdown by budget item detail of how this value is obtained
    • estimates must meet eligibility criteria of N.4 from "Public Announcement of the Call"
  • Amount requested for the task
    • Include 25% overheads
    • Consistent with the Principal Contractor Budget table in application form
    • Ensure "total amount of funding requested by institution" = "total costs of the tasks in which the institution participates"
• Project timeline and management. list of milestones, the timeline and the description of the management structure
  • Milestones list
  • milestone = objective achieved; phase completed; result obtained
  • include what can be demonstrated or reported on that date
  • up to 6 milestones
  • select tasks associated with the milestone
  • mark milestones on the timeline.
  • Timeline
  • start with the available spreadsheet
  • upload "timeline.pdf"
  • Indicate partner responsible for task; acronyms of partners involved
  • Management project management structure: coordination; meetings; reporting structure
• Ethical issues. are any ethical issues identified in the project?
• 2030 Agenda. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • identify one, or up to a maximum of three, of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and justify how the application fits into the selected SDGs.
• Other projects. Projects approved through peer review, led by the PI and started less than 5 years ago, completed or in progress should be listed. Additionally, please detail all projects, led by the PI, submitted and under peer-review evaluation.
• Attachments. additional documents corresponding to formulas, schemes, diagrams, graphics, images and support letters.

Indicators

• Expected Output Indicators.
  • outputs should be realistic and achievable and include publications, communications, reports, organization of seminars, advanced training and others.
  • used to evaluate the adequacy of the final results to the results foreseen in the application
• Dissemination
  • plan for disseminating results and promoting knowledge and scientific dissemination
  • plan for disseminating knowledge transfer
  • included in the expected indicators and include actions for
  • disseminating scientific culture,
  • promoting and disseminating knowledge,
  • technical/scientific publications,
  • conferences,
  • seminars,
  • forums, and
  • actions aimed at target sectors, or
  • others

Budget

• filled in by item
• global values and justification of budgetary needs declared for each task
• account the funding limit and the basic eligibility criteria

• Lump Sum budget information will serve exclusively for the evaluation of the reasonableness and feasibility of the project

• Principal Contractor fill in the requested funding for each budget category along with the corresponding justification.

• Funding Plan Global Budget and Funding Plan tables that are automatically filled out

Statement of Commitment

• Mark the respective check box.

Validate and Submit

• The presence of errors prevents the submission of the application.

After Submission

Is this to be done by me?

Statement of Commitment from the Principal Contractor

• available on myFCT for the respective agreement by the highest authority of the institution or someone delegated by them after the deadline for submitting applications and until 5:00 PM, Lisbon time, of March 1st, 2024 - WHAT?
• Portal de Ciência e Tecnologia (PCT)

Delegation of Access in the PCT

Acceptance of Applications in myFCT

Tarefas

• [ ] Prepare the application carefully and timely.
• [ ] Read carefully the instructions provided in this Guide and in the Application form.
• [ ] Learn about the structure of the Application form before beginning filling it in. Read all the sections of the Application form in advance, in order to have an idea of what is being asked and to have the necessary time to gather all the information required for submission.
• [ ] Make sure that all the institutions to be included in the application are available on the Application form. If they are not on the list, they have to be added through the Registration of Institutions form via the Portal de Ciência e Tecnologia (available only in Portuguese). It can take up to two working days for a new institution to become available once the form is filled.
• [ ] Contact the researchers to be included in the application team in advance and ask them to register on the CIÊNCIA ID platform and to provide the applicant with the CIÊNCIA ID registration email address.
• [ ] Make sure an updated version of CIÊNCIAVITAE is available and ensure that the same goes for all members associated to the research team of the project.
• [ ] Make sure that each Institution selected in the application form has a team member associated.
• [ ] Prepare the Lump Sum funding of the application carefully and adequately.
• [ ] Ensure that the URL addresses of bibliographical references or other relevant material remain active throughout the decision-making process.
• [ ] Do not assume that the form and rules for submission of this application are the same as those used in other FCT programs or by other funding Agencies.
• [ ] Do not wait until the last minute to validate and make any corrections to the application. There is a myFCT validation process, to detect possible errors in your application, which can implicate corrections and the need for extra time. Please repeat this validation process regularly.
• [ ] Plan and complete the application process as early as possible. Only in this way FCT will be able to provide the best possible assistance.
• [ ] Visit the FCT website regularly for updated information regarding the Call.
• [ ] Write the application in such a way as to convince the panel of experts that the ideas presented deserve to be funded.Write the application in such a way as to convince the panel of experts that the ideas presented deserve to be funded.
• [ ] It is important to describe the institutions involved in the project and their respective skills and contribution to the development of the project.
• [ ] Remember that the application represents a commitment, not only from the Principal Investigator, but also from the entire research team.
• [ ] Be realistic in terms of expectations and, if the proposal is approved, make sure that the research team is able to carry it out as planned in the application.
• [ ] Read the Guide for Peer Reviewers carefully to understand how the application will be evaluated and make sure that the application addresses those crucial points.
• [ ] Avoid repeating the same text or entire paragraphs in different sections.

Testemunhos

• [ ] Comprovativo de Doutoramento do PI
• [ ] Vínculo Laboras com o Principal Contractor ()

Agenda

title       Zugzwang
dateformat  YYYY-MM-DD

section Milestones
  milestone1    :ms1, 1d
  milestone2    : after ms1, 1d

Avaliação

1. Qualidade científica (A1) e carácter inovador (A2) do projeto numa ótica internacional.
2. Mérito científico do/a IR e da equipa de investigação (B1), incluindo impacto da execução do projeto no desenvolvimento da carreira do IR e/ou da sua investigação (B2).
3. Exequibilidade do programa de trabalhos e dos indicadores de realização propostos (C1), assim como razoabilidade orçamental (C2).

O mérito do projeto é obtido através de:

MP =  0,40 (0,50 A1 + 0,50 A2) + 
      0,35 (0,60 B1 + 0,40 B2) + 
      0,25 (0,50 C1 + 0,50 C2)​​​

Questões

2024-01-05 - Next Research Lines

After the base-setting work of "An Algebraic Approach to Stochastic ASP" these are the next tasks to consider. Is summary:

1. Logic Programming - Stratified & Non-stratified programs
2. Computer Science - Inductive Logic Programming
3. Software - Integration with Potassco and other frameworks
4. Applications

Line 1: Logic Programming - Stratified & Non-stratified programs

Line 1a - Logic Programs Structure and Properties

Stratified & non-stratified programs are quoted in the "CREDAL" papers as important classes of logic programs.

Minimal example of a non-stratified program.

The following annotated LP, with clauses $c_1, c_2, c_3$ respectively, is non-stratified (because has a cycle with negated arcs) but no head is disjunctive:

0.3::a.                 % c1
b :- not c, not a.      % c2
c :- not b.             % c3

This program has three stable models: $$ \begin{aligned} m_1 &= \set{ a, c } \cr m_2 &= \set{ \neg a, b } \cr m_3 &= \set{ \neg a, c } \end{aligned} $$

We should investigate What are stratified programs and why are they important? and how does our approach deals with such programs?

Line 1b - Investigate the expressiveness of PASP

Consider:

• Recursion
• Variables,
• Functional symbols,

Line 1c - The equivalence relation

Previous work defines one specific equivalence relation in the events associated to a ASP program to score that program but other equivalence relations can provide more effective scoring algorithms.

Consider the cases where only $s \subseteq e$ and $e \subseteq s$. Or other refinements. Also consider the inconsistent and independent events.

Line 1d - Stability of the error function

Consider alternative error functions. See statistics, Kullback-Leibler divergence

Line 2: Computer Science - Inductive Logic Programming

Proceed from scoring programs to support genetic algorithms or other program space exploration methods.

Scoring programs, as described in our paper, is just a step into Inductive Logic Programming. To go further, we need to explore algorithms that:

1. Use background knowledge, expressed as a PLP.
2. Consult positive examples that should be soft induced.
3. Consult negative examples that should be soft excluded.
4. Generate PLPs that are scored.
5. Recombine the best scored into a new population, using recombination rules.

In order to do that, PLPs must be expressed as data structures to be manipulated. Also recombination rules must investigated before become formally expressed and supported with adequate methods.

Line 3: Software - Integration with Potassco and other frameworks

Support annotated programs with zugzwang semantics.

• Bayesian Networks (BII Alice)
  • Generate an annotated asp program from a bayesian network and run it trough clingo.
  • Recover the stable models from the previous ste and compute the respective probabilities.
• Program Manipulation
  • Annotated ASP program representation and a parser.

Line 4: Applications

Apply zugzwang to a few showcases, besides the theoretic corner stones (non-stratified, disjunctive, bayes networks), preferably based in real world scenarios, with complex structure and large datasets.

• (Stochastic) Plan Generation
• Yale-Shooting Problem
• (Stochastic) Situation Calculus
• Frame Problem
• Latent Facts - and core assumptions.
• Given a Bayesian Network (or a Markov Networks):
  • Represent it. (done for BNs; MNs?)
  • Solve the common probability tasks: join (done), marginals, conditionals, parameter learning, inferring unobserved variables, sample generation, etc.
• Given a solved ASP specification:
  • What is the marginal probability of the atom a? (done)
  • What other probability queries are important to consider?
• Given an unsolved ASP specification:
  • What is the probability (distribution?) of the probabilistic fact a?
  • What other questions are relevant? E.g. the distribution family of a fact?
• Given a solved ASP specification and a set of samples:
  • How do the probabilities inferred from the specification match the ones from the empiric distribution? (done might see alternative approaches)
• Given two solved ASP specification and a set of samples:
  • Which specification best describes the empiric distribution? (done)

Tarefas

• [ ] Submeter
• [ ] Redigir
• [ ] Preparar
  • [-] Consultar documentação
  • [ ] Reunir requisitos
  • [ ] Delinear proposta

Memória Externa

• [ ] Irene
• [ ] Salvador

Contributos

Salvador Abreu

Sinopse CV

Salvador is Full Professor at the University of Évora (UE) School of Science and Technology since 2013, Senior Researcher at NOVA LINCS and President of the Scientific Council at the UE Institute for Research and Advanced Training (IIFA). He currently directs the PhD Program in Informatics at UE. He holds a Habilitation in Informatics from the University of Évora (2009), a PhD in Informatics from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (1994), and a BSc in Informatics Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1987). Salvador successfully supervised 9 doctoral theses and is currently directing 3. He was granted an IBM SUR award in 2013 and a JSPS Invitation Fellowship in 2015. He participates or participated as a project member or Principal Investigator in nationally and European funded projects, including OAR, AJACS, STAMPA, JEDI, HORUS, VAPS, BIOECOSYS, AI4EU, EUGREEN and PaCoMoCo.

Miguel Avillex

Sinopse CV

Francisco Coelho

Sinopse CV

Francisco Coelho completed his PhD in Informatics in 2006 at Universidade de Lisboa under the supervision of Helder Coelho on Artificial Intelligence. Is previous formation is on Mathematics, where he has a Master degree in Mathematics, specialty Algebra, with a dissertation about Hilbert's tenth problem and about geometric computation, advised by Prof. Augusto Franco de Oliveira and Prof. José Félix Costa. Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Computer Science department of Universidade de Évora, where he has coordinated more than twenty courses and restructured or proposed other six, to the graduation and master degrees. He is supervising three PhD thesis and two MSc dissertations and has supervised other six completed MSc dissertations. He contributed with software and writing to papers covering a wide range of subjects but mostly about logic and statistical AI. He is integrated member of the Intelligent Systems of the research unit NOVALINCS and member of the scientific team of the High Performance Computing Chair.

Livros

2016, Introdução à Matemática - Álgebra, Análise e Otimização (LIDEL), ISBN:978-989-752-209-3

2010, Teoria da Computação, Computabilidade e Complexidade (Escolar Editora), ISBN:978-972-592-281-1

Artigos em Revista

2021, Carvalho, Dias, Coelho, Neto, Nowakowski, Vinagre, On lattices from combinatorial game theory: infinite case, DOI:10.1007/s00182-020-00715-3

2014, Carvalho, Santos, Dias, Coelho, Neto, Nowakowski, Vinagre, On lattices from combinatorial game theory. Modularity and a representation theorem: Finite case, DOI:10.1016/j.tcs.2014.01.025

2017, Coelho e Neto, A method for regularization of evolutionary polynomial regression, DOI:10.1016/j.asoc.2017.05.047 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.05.047

2008, Mycka, Costa e Coelho, The Euclid abstract machine, DBLP:journals/ijuc/MyckaCC08

Artigos em Atas de Conferências

2015, Coelho e Nogueira, Probabilistic perception revision in AgentSpeak(L), DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-25524-8_44

Software

ALisP, Linguagem de programação usada para exemplificar a matéria de análise sintática na disciplina Autómatos e Linguagens de Programação e fazer a ponte para disciplinas posteriores, como Compiladores. URL:https://home.uevora.pt/~fc/alp/00-sobre_alp/alisp-py-current.zip

mquestions, Biblioteca Python para escrever perguntas para o Moodle, usando YAML e Markdown. URL:https://gitlab.com/mangon/mquestions

xchg, Folhas XSLT para converter ficheiros ProbModelX (pgmx) do OpenMarkov para XMLBIF. URL:https://github.com/fmgc/xchg

Giraldo, Tema visual para o Beamer de acordo com a identidade visual da Universidade de Évora., URL:https://git.xdi.uevora.pt/fc/giraldo

TeseUE, Classe LATEX pluridisciplinar para as teses de mestrado e dissertações de doutoramento da Universidade de Évora. URL:https://git.xdi.uevora.pt/fc/teseue

jard, Ponte entre YAdrone, uma biblioteca Java para o AR.Drone 2.0 e Jason, uma biblioteca Java para o processo de deliberação AgentSpeak(L), baseado em BDI, num GUI JavaFX, URL:https://bitbucket.org/mangon/jard

"Galaxity", a Java system to assess the correction of perceptions of AgentSpeak(L) agents using probabilistic methods, URL:https://bitbucket.org/mangon/galaxity

jpgm, A small Java library to support simple probabilistic graphical models (pgm) computations used in Galaxity, URL:https://github.com/fmgc/jpgm.

Genetic Algorithms for Polynomial Regression, Código R para encontrar a melhor regressão polinomial com algoritmos genéticos, URL:https://github.com/jpneto/GenAlgPoly

CGT Toys, Ferramentas para explorar ideias em teoria combinatória de jogos, URL:https://github.com/fmgc/cgtToys

Lattice-Maker, Um conjunto de ferramentas para apresentar reticulados de jogos combinatórios em LaTeX., URL:https://github.com/fmgc/Lattice-Maker

Bruno Dinis

Bruno Dinis completed his PhD in Maths in 2013 at the University of Évora under the supervision of Imme van den Berg on Nonstandard Analysis. After his doctoral studies, he was a postdoc at the Faculdade de Ciências under the supervision of Fernando Ferreira, working on Proof Theory. Bruno Dinis is currently an Assistant Professor at the Universidade de Évora. Co-supervised 1 master's dissertation. He has written over 20 papers on several aspects of logic, for the most part in proof interpretations and its applications (proof mining).

Os artigos mais relevantes (para o projecto) são:

Stateful realizers for nonstandard analysis (with É. Miquey). Logical Methods in Computer Science Volume 19, Issue 2, 2023, pp. 7:1–7:44. doi:10.46298/LMCS-19(2:7) 2023

An algebraic approach to stochastic $\mathrm{ASP}$} (with S.~Abreu and F.~Coelho). Submitted

Um artigo que também considero relevante é:KO 1737/6-2

Strong convergence for the alternating Halpern-Mann iteration in CAT(0) spaces (with P. Pinto). SIAM Journal on Optimization 33(2): 785–815, 2023. doi: 10.1137/22M1511199

Quanto aos projectos a que estou associado, para além dos projectos dos centros (não sei se contam...) sou:

Research Collaborator for Institute for Logic and Data Science -- Bucharest, Romania -- https://ilds.ro/ Collaborator on the DFG project ”Proof Mining in Convex Optimization and Related Areas” ()

Salvador Abreu

Salvador is Full Professor at the University of Évora (UE) School of Science and Technology since 2013, Senior Researcher at NOVA LINCS and President of the Scientific Council at the UE Institute for Research and Advanced Training (IIFA). He currently directs the PhD Program in Informatics at UE.

He holds a Habilitation in Informatics from the University of Évora (2009), a PhD in Informatics from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (1994), and a BSc in Informatics Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1987).

Salvador successfully supervised 9 doctoral theses and is currently directing 3. He was granted an IBM SUR award in 2013 and a JSPS Invitation Fellowship in 2015. He participates or participated as a project member or Principal Investigator in nationally and European funded projects, including OAR, AJACS, STAMPA, JEDI, HORUS, VAPS, BIOECOSYS, AI4EU, EUGREEN and PaCoMoCo.

Selected Publications

[1] Körner, P., Leuschel, M., Barbosa, J., Costa, V.S., Dahl, V., Hermenegildo, M.V., Morales, J.F., Wielemaker, J., Diaz, D., Abreu, S. and Ciatto, G. (2022). Fifty years of Prolog and beyond. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 22(6), 776-858. [2] Codognet, Philippe, Daniel Diaz, and Salvador Abreu. "Quantum and Digital Annealing for the Quadratic Assignment Problem." 2022 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Software (QSW). IEEE, 2022. [3] Eloy, Eduardo, Vladimir Bushenkov, and Salvador Abreu. "Constraint Modeling for Forest Management." International Conference on Dynamic Control and Optimization. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. [4] López, Jheisson, et al. "Weaving of metaheuristics with cooperative parallelism." Parallel Problem Solving from Nature-PPSN XV: 15th International Conference, 2018, Proceedings, Part I 15. Springer International Publishing, 2018. [5] Codognet, P., Munera, D., Diaz, D. and Abreu, S., 2018. Parallel local search. Handbook of parallel constraint reasoning, pp.381-417

Universidade de Évora

The University of Évora is a public University organized in 5 Schools: Arts, Sciences and Technology, Social Sciences, Health and human development, Nursing and the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research. Research and Development covers several areas through 18 Research Units, all of them submitted to international evaluation. The University of Évora has established 10 Chairs in Aerospace, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Heritage, Health, High Performance Computer, Iberian studies, UNESCO and Renewable Energies, participates in the National Roadmap of Strategic Research Infrastructures and has several research infrastructures in biodiversity, computer sciences, aerospace engineering, solar energy and heritage. The University fosters a close link with the community, enhanced through the creation of networks, the participation in the Science and Technology Park and by establishing protocols and co-promotion research projects. The main R&D areas are: Applied Mathematics; Chemistry; Culture; Education and Psychology; Healthcare; Geophysics; History; Environment and Sea; Linguistics and Literature; Materials and Surface Science; Social and Political Sciences and Science. The 300 running R&D projects are developed through national and international partnerships, under Horizon Europe, PRIMA, ERASMUS +, LIFE, Creative Europe, Digital Europe Programme, Cost Actions, EIT Health, EIT Urban Mobility, EEA Grants, INTERREG, PT2020, Alentejo2020, COMPETE2020, PRR, FCT or private funding.

Cátedra HPC

The High Performance Computing Chair (HPC) presents itself as a research and development (R&D) infrastructure dedicated to high performance computing that seeks to follow developments towards the digital transition, which enables a more efficient approach to national and European IT strategies, digital innovation for academia, companies and other public-private organizations.

This new research infrastructure, in partnership with the universities of Algarve, Nova de Lisboa and Porto, has as its main objective to promote professional training between academia and industry, enhancing the development and adoption of HPC, HPDA (High Performance Data Analytics) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) by different actors in the region and at national and international levels. At the same time, it enhances the use of local advanced computing infrastructures managed by the HPC-UÉ Center, such as the OBLIVION supercomputer.

Management Structure

The Administrative Services of the University of Évora are responsible for project's financial and administrative management, through its Projects Management Division (DGP). This office is organized in two areas: (i) financial contracts and administrative management and (ii) administrative support to R&D units. They are deep experienced in managing several different financial programs such as Portuguese Government Structural Funds (Portugal 2020, FCT) and Community Funds, such as Erasmus+, H2020, HORIZON EUROPE or Creative Europe.

It is DGP's main task to fulfill all the necessary operations, provide administrative support and reassure the good execution of R&D Units budgets and respective Projects. Furthermore, it is accountable for the execution of all legal and required financial reports.

Each project is the responsibility of a project officer with expertise and experience in project management and finance. The project officer acts as a link between the Responsible Researcher and the rest of the financial team. Is also responsible to process all expenses fulfilling all the current national and European legislations.

The project officer is also in charge of the liaison with FCT (Science and Technology National Agency), European Commission and other donors by elaborating and delivering the financial reports and respective requests for payments, including reassuring all necessary procedures to the validation of expenditures.

The University of Évora owns an information system that allows the researcher to follow the project's financial implementation on a permanent basis.

Task Denomination

• Task description and expected results (4000)

  • Objectives:
  • Methodologies and approaches:
  • Expected results:
  • Preconditions from other tasks:
  • Results to other tasks:
  • Role of each partner and institution:
  • Partner: role
  • Justification for the resources
  • Resource: justification

• Member Person*month

• StartDate Duration

• Deliverables and delivery dates (2500)

  • essential deliverable for effective project monitoring and funding; type: report, etc; ending date

• Budgets (2500)

  • item: cost estimation

• Amount requested for the task

  • total + 25% overheads

Milestone:

• date
• denomination
• description (300)
• tasks

Consider a person with the CV and the PROJECT below.

Explain the timeliness of that project in the context of the current stage of CV, the impact on the person future research lines and development. Career and research development potential may include scientific production, activities and dissemination, team and project leadership, establishment of national or international collaborations/networks, and the ability to enable future research and to attract funding or other resources.

CV

Francisco Coelho completed his PhD in Informatics in 2006 at Universidade de Lisboa under the supervision of Helder Coelho on Artificial Intelligence. Is previous formation is on Mathematics, where he has a Master degree in Mathematics, specialty Algebra, with a dissertation about Hilbert's tenth problem and about geometric computation, advised by Prof. Augusto Franco de Oliveira and Prof. José Félix Costa.

Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Computer Science department of Universidade de Évora, where he has coordinated more than twenty courses and restructured or proposed other six, to the graduation and master degrees. He is supervising three PhD thesis and two MSc dissertations and has supervised other six completed MSc dissertations.

He contributed with software and writing to papers covering a wide range of subjects but mostly about logic and statistical AI. He is integrated member of the Intelligent Systems of the research unit NOVALINCS and member of the scientific team of the High Performance Computing Chair.

PROJECT

This research aims to overcome the constraints of logical representations in real-world scenarios with probabilistic elements by expanding Probabilistic Logic Programming (PLP) with Stochastic Answer Set Programs (SASP). While current PLP systems like ProbLog provide some solutions, challenges persist in characterizing probability distributions for Answer Set Programs (ASP) with probabilistic facts. The proposed SASP approach introduces an algebraic method to represent uncertainty and integrates evolutionary algorithms for inducing SASP models. The research plan involves theoretical analysis, algorithm development, empirical evaluation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Key objectives include investigating program structure and composition in SASP modeling, developing transformation rules and algorithms, and evaluating hand-coded and induced SASP models on theoretical and real-world cases.

State of the Art: PLP systems like ProbLog address limitations of logical representations with probability distributions. However, characterizing probability distributions for Answer Set Programs extended with probabilistic facts remains challenging. The proposed SASP approach extends ASP, represents uncertainty algebraically, and incorporates evolutionary algorithms for model induction.

Main Goals: Investigate the role of program structure in the utilization of PASP for modeling probabilistic phenomena. Investigate the application of evolutionary algorithms for induction of SASP models based on additional background knowledge and evidence. Evaluate hand-coded or induced SASP models, on theoretical and real-world cases.

Knowledge and Skills: The group possesses expertise in logic, logic programming, and distributed systems. Previous work demonstrates the feasibility and representational power of SASP. Collaboration with an interdisciplinary team ensures diverse perspectives.

Strategy and Methodologies: Theoretical analysis will explore SASP program structure effects on modeling probabilistic phenomena. Algorithm development will focus on transformation rules and efficient exploration of SASP space. Empirical evaluation will assess model performance on various cases. Interdisciplinary collaboration fosters innovation and ensures comprehensive research.

Novelty and Expected Results: The novelty lies in the probabilist semantics of SASP, the resulting score based in evidence and the utilization of that score to induce SASP from background knowledge and evidence. Expected results include improved understanding of SASP modeling, efficient algorithms, and validated SASP models.

Overall, the proposed research addresses critical limitations in probabilistic logic programming with ASP and aims to advance the field through innovative methodologies and interdisciplinary collaboration. The comprehensive research plan, supported by existing expertise and resources, demonstrates a strong potential for significant contributions to the field.

Miguel Publications

Breitschwerdt, D., & de Avillez, M. A. (2021). Non-equilibrium ionisation plasmas in the interstellar medium. Astrophysics and Space Science, 366, 1-21.

Lioen, W., Avillez, M., & Aykanat, S., (2021), "Evaluation of Benchmark Performance", Deliverable 7.4, PRACE Sixth Implementation Phase, Final Report

de Avillez, M. A., Anela, G. J., Asgekar, A., Breitschwerdt, D., & Schnitzeler, D. H. (2020). Electrons in the supernova-driven interstellar medium-Results from self-consistent time-dependent ionic and hydrodynamic evolution of the interstellar plasma. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 644, A156.

Lioen, W., Avillez, M., & Codreanu, V., et al., 2019, “Evaluation of Accelerated and Non-accelerated Benchmarks”, Deliverable 7.5, PRACE Fifth Implementation Phase Project, Final Report