Program
Our 5-day program is designed as an intensive learning retreat. Each day begins with lectures and tutorials on key topics in artificial intelligence. In the afternoons, we’ll have hands-on exercises and problem-solving sessions. For the evenings, we’ve prepared social gatherings, hackathons and challenges to solve before the next day.
3rd Nov
06:00-07:00 Arrivals
Participants arriving from Europe and the US.
10:00 🚌 Bus departure
Group bus departs Southern Cross Station (Charlotte Street) for the venue. Approx. 2-hour journey.
11:00-13:00 📋 Check-in, registration and morning tea
Settle in with tea and coffee as you register and collect your welcome pack. Morning tea served on-site at the Foyer.
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Lunch served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
14:00-15:30 Introduction to classical planning and PDDL
An introduction to classical planning, covering the basics of PDDL (Planning Domain Definition Language) and its applications in AI planning.
Presenter Nir Lipovetzky
15:30-16:00 🫖 Afternoon tea
Take a break with afternoon tea at the Foyer.
16:00-17:30 Hands-on PDDL lab
A practical session where you will work with PDDL to create and solve planning problems. This hands-on lab will help you apply the concepts learned in the previous session.
Presenter Nir Lipovetzky, Mor Vered
17:30-18:00 Configuration and setup
Prepare for the week ahead by installing and configuring software environments.
4th Nov
07:30-08:20 Breakfast
Breakfast served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
09:00-10:30 Modelling with MiniZinc
An introduction to modelling problems using MiniZinc, a powerful language for modelling and solving combinatorial optimisation problems. Guido will give an overview of the MiniZinc system and present the basics of how to use it to model and solve complex problems.
Presenter Guido Tack
10:30-11:00 🫖 Morning tea
Morning tea served on-site at the Foyer.
11:00-13:00 Guided session
In this session, you will work in small teams to turn problem descriptions into models and solutions. We will have experts in the room who will help you get started, and you will get feedback on your models along the way from our automatic evaluation system.
Presenter Guido Tack
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Lunch served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
14:00-15:30 Deep dive: MiniZinc for scheduling, packing, and routing
Expanding on the morning session, we will look at more advanced modelling techniques, focusing on real-world problems and solution methods.
Presenter Guido Tack
15:30-15:45 Afternoon tea
Afternoon tea served on-site.
16:00-18:00 Hands-on MiniZinc lab
Similar to the first modelling practice session, you will use your new knowledge and skills to work in a small team on modelling and solving a realistic optimisation problem with MiniZinc.
Presenter Guido Tack
19:30-21:30 🍝 Banquet dinner and social events
Enjoy a hearty meal and interact with peers at the Churchill/Flinders Room.
Evening Modelling competition
We will give you a set of challenging problems to model and solve. Work in a team and track your progress on the live leaderboard!
5th Nov
07:30-08:20 Breakfast
Breakfast served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
09:00-10:30 Introduction to Robot Planning and Planning under Uncertainty
This session will discuss the basics of Robot Motion Planning, followed by planning in continuous and hybrid (continuous-discrete) domain. Next, we will introduce uncertainty in robotics and three related sequential decision making under uncertainty frameworks: Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), Partially Observed Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs), and Reinforcement Learning (RL).
Presenter Hanna Kurniawati
10:30-11:00 🫖 Morning tea
Morning tea served on-site at the Foyer.
11:00-13:00 Hands-on exercise
Work in groups to identify suitable framing and modelling of several robotics scenarios.
Presenter Hanna Kurniawati
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Lunch served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
14:00-15:30 Further Planning under Uncertainty
We'll discuss more on scalability issues in generating policies for MDPs, POMDPs, and RL, and existing methods that alleviate some of the issues. We will discuss sampling-based off-line and on-line solvers for MDP and POMDP, as well as several basic RL techniques.
Presenter Hanna Kurniawati
15:30-15:45 Afternoon tea
Afternoon tea served on-site.
16:00-18:00 Hands-on exercise
Writing on-line solvers for MDP and POMDP.
Presenter Hanna Kurniawati
Evening 🎬 Movie night and code challenge
Watch a movie together at the Churchill/Flinders Room. Work on a challenge problem that ties up your knowledge from the day.
6th Nov
07:30-08:20 Breakfast
Breakfast served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
9:00-11:00 Introduction to Pathfinding and Heuristic Search
An introduction to decision-making problems, Pathfinding and Heuristic Search.
Presenter Daniel Harabor
11:00-12:30 Hands-on lab
Hands-on experimentation with A* and its variants in the context of the Robot Runners Framework.
Presenter Daniel Harabor
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Lunch served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
14:00-15:30 Introduction to Multi-Agent Pathfinding
Introduction to Multi-Agent Pathfinding (MAPF) problems, where multiple agents must navigate a shared environment without colliding.
Presenter Daniel Harabor
16:00-18:00 Hands-on lab
Hands-on experimentation with landmark MAPF techniques in the context of the Robot Runners Framework, including Prioritised Planning and Large-Neighbourhood Search.
Presenter Daniel Harabor, Mor Vered
19:30 🍕 Pizza and hackathon
Have a pizza and participate in the a minature version of the League of Robot Runners competition.
7th Nov
07:30-08:20 Breakfast
Breakfast served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
09:00-10:00 Check out
Check out from the accommodation.
10:30-11:00 🫖 Morning tea
Morning tea served on-site at the Foyer.
11:00-13:00 🎗️ Closing session & awards
Celebrate the week’s achievements. Final presentations and awards for the competition. Hear from the winning teams about their approaches.
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Lunch served on-site at the Watermark Restaurant.
14:00 Departure
Return bus to Southern Cross Station.