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Marcel Becker
Systems Scientist

No longer a member of RI.

For more information, see my personal homepage.

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My research interests are in artificial intelligence, mixed-initiative problem-solving, software architectures for advanced planning and scheduling, constraint satisfaction, and operations management. My current research focuses on the design and implementation of a flexible software infrastructure for the rapid development of planning and scheduling applications.

The design and development of this infrastructure is based on the latest software architecture and knowledge acquisition principles. The planning and scheduling problem-solving is performed by a set of generic and reusable constraint-satisfaction algorithms that can be easily customized to a number of different problem domains. One of the main components of this problem-solving approach is an advanced visualization tool that allows the dynamic generation and interactive repair of plans and schedules generated by the application. The system and the external user interact in a mixed-initiative mode in which manual and automatic problem-solving activities are transparently integrated.

In terms of applications, this generic software architecture and problem-solving model have been successfuly applied to solve problems in the area of trasportation and logistics, manufacturing, project scheduling, and air campaign planning.

architectures, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, planning, rapid prototyping, and scheduling

• Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory - developing new theories, techniques and software technologies in planning, scheduling and control

• AMC Barrelmaster Scheduling - Integrated management of airlift and tanker missions at the USAF Air Mobility Command.
• OZONE/DITOPS - Configurable/mixed-initiative scheduling systems
• Scheduling and Visualization - This project is investigating the development of next-generation environments for collaborative analysis and management of large-scale schedules.

• Continuous Management of Airlift and Tanker Resources: A Constraint-Based Approach
  S. Smith, M. Becker, and L. Kramer
  Mathematical and Computer Modeling -- Special Issue on Defense Transportation: Algorithms, Models and Applications for the 21st Centry, Vol. 39, No. 6-8, 2004, pp. 581-598. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [179 KB] copyrighted

• Mixed-Initiative Resource Management: The AMC Barrel Allocator
  M. Becker and S. Smith
  Proceedings 5th International Conference on AI Planning and Scheduling, April, 2000. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [167 KB], ps.gz [61 KB] copyrighted

• An Ontology for Multi-Modal Transportation Planning and Scheduling
  M. Becker and S. Smith
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-98-15, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, November, 1997. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [350 KB], ps.gz [204 KB] copyrighted

• Configurability and Reuse in Schedulng System Design
  S. Smith and M. Becker
  Proceedings Workshop on Object-Oriented Methods for Distributed Control Architectures, April, 1997.

• An Ontology for Constructing Scheduling Systems
  S. Smith and M. Becker
  Working Notes of 1997 AAAI Symposium on Ontological Engineering, AAAI Press, March, 1997. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [147 KB], ps.gz [55 KB] copyrighted

• Configurable, Mixed-Initiative Systems for Planning and Scheduling
  S. Smith, O. Lassila, and M. Becker
  Advanced Planning Technology, A. Tate, ed., AAAI Press, May, 1996. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [119 KB], ps.gz [45 KB] copyrighted

• Using DITOPS as a Tool for Mixed-Initiative Schedule Improvement
  M. Becker and S. Smith
  May, 1996.
  Download: pdf [1046 KB], ps.gz [1090 KB] copyrighted

• Configurable Planning and Scheduling Systems
  S. Smith, O. Lassila, and M. Becker
  AI*IA Notizie (Quarterly Publication of the Artificial Intelligence Italian Association), Vol. 9, No. 1, March, 1996, pp. 27-32.

• OZONE Distributed Communication Library
  O. Lassila and M. Becker
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-96-11, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, March, 1996. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [82 KB], ps.gz [33 KB] copyrighted

• An Exploratory Prototype for Air Medical Evacuation Re-Planning
  O. Lassila, M. Becker, and S. Smith
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-96-03, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, February, 1996. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [566 KB], ps.gz [659 KB] copyrighted