AVISPA Research Group

AVISPA gathers together researchers from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana at Cali and the Universidad del Valle, as well as from recognized european academic institutions such as the The French Acoustics/Music Research Institute (IRCAM) and the École Polytechnique of Paris.
AVISPA has been ranked as "A", the highest quality qualification given to research groups by COLCIENCIAS (the Colombian Agency for Science and Technology Development).
Starting 2008, AVISPA will be an INRIA Associate Team with the FORCES project.

Detailed information is available in this page.

AVISPA aims at defining computational models that allow to understand the nature and the behavior of complex systems as the observation of the evolution and interaction of their processes. From a more practical standpoint, AVISPA seeks to verify the effectiveness of the proposed models by building applications intended to solve real problems in

• the sciences (e.g. modelling and verification of complex biological systems)
• the engineering (e.g. modelling and solving of scheduling/logistics problems, verification of communication protocols)
• the arts (e.g. formal languages and tools for computer music)

AVISPA focuses on the idea of interaction understood as the interchange/accumulation of information, as proposed by V. Saraswat in its concurrent constraint programming (ccp) model.

See AVISPA’s profile on Colciencias Scienti.

See the AVISPA Poster (in Spanish) for a non-technical introduction to our research interests.

1. To devise models of concurrent processes that integrate different programming paradigms and that appropriately represent complex systems. Our interest is the (possibly automated) verification of fundamental properties of systems arising in areas such as distributed systems, systems biology, computer security and computer music.
2. To develop formalisms and tools for modelling and solving combinatorial problems, using techniques from (concurrent) constraint programming. Such tools could be useful in a wide variety of fields, including planning, resource assignment, musical composition, among many others.
3. To conceive and implement software tools for supporting multimedia interaction, mainly in the form of concurrent constraint-based tools and languages. We are particularly interested in developing software that supports the process of generating complex musical material while enacting rich forms of musical interactions.

• Prof. Camilo Rueda, Department of Science and Engineering of Computing, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali. Email: crueda at cic.puj.edu.co.
• Prof. Juan F. Díaz, School of Computer Science, Universidad del Valle. Email: jdiaz at eisc.univalle.edu.co.
• Dr. Frank D. Valencia, CNRS Associate Research Scientist at LIX, École Polytechnique. Email: frank.valencia at lix.polytechnique.fr.
• Dr. Gerard Assayag, Musical Representations Team, CNRS UMR Stms,IRCAM Paris. Email: assayag at ircam.fr.

• Dr. Luis O. Quesada. PostDoc Researcher at the Cork Constraint Computation Centre, Ireland.
• Dr. Gerardo M. Sarria M. Assistant Professor at Department of Science and Engineering of Computing, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali.

• Alejandro Arbelaez, Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique, CNRS-Université Paris-Sud.. Supervisors: Youssef Hamadi (MSR) and Marc Schoenauer (INRIA Futurs / Université Paris Sud).
• Jesús Aranda. Comète Team, LIX, École Polytechnique / Universidad del Valle. Thesis Subject: Expressiveness and Logic in Concurrency; Supervised by C. Palamidessi, Juan F. Díaz and Frank D. Valencia
• Alberto Delgado, IT University of Copenhagen. Thesis subject: Constraint optimization problems in the shipping industry; Supervised by Rune M. Jensen.
• Hugo A. López. Universitá di Trento, Italia. Email: hugo.lopez at dit.unitn.it.
• Julian E. Gutierrez. Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science (LFCS). School of Informatics. University of Edinburgh, UK. Email: J.E.Gutierrez at ed.ac.uk
• Carlos Olarte. Comète Team, LIX, École Polytechnique. Thesis Subject: Secure Concurrent Constraint Programming; Supervised by C. Palamidessi and Frank D. Valencia
• James J. Ortiz. Universidad del Valle. Thesis Subject: Design and Distributed Implementation of the Probabilistic Asynchronous Pi-Calculus for Modelling of Biological and Distributed Problems; Supervised by Frank D. Valencia.
• Jorge A. Pérez. Department of Computer Science, University of Bologna, Italy. Email: perez at cs.unibo.it

• Gustavo Gutiérrez, Department of Computing Science and Engineering, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Email: ggutierrez at cic.puj.edu.co. Working in Project GeOZ
• Salim Perchy, Universidad Javeriana - Cali. Email: ysperchy at cic.puj.edu.co. Working in Project REACT
• Andrés Aristizabal, Universidad Javeriana - Cali. Email: andresaristi82 at gmail.com. Working in Project FORCES

• Rocío Segovia Jiménez, Student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Constraint-based rule association model for the generation of suggestions for a digital library.
• Iván Andrés Tamayo García, Student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Optimization of UMTS networks using constraint programming and GECODE.
• Ángela Villota Gómez, Student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Models of biological systems using concurrent constraint process calculi.
• Michael F. Martínez R. Thesis topic: Verification of VHDL design properties using NTCC.

• Andres F. Alban, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Management system for Sport Events.
• Andrés F. Barco, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Interleaved Execution of Propagators and Threads in the Mozart System. Working in Project GeOZ.
• Maryury C. Barrera, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Constraint programming models of the Colombian electricity market.
• Jorge I. Castaño, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Constraint programming models of the Colombian electricity market.
• Federico Escobar Rodriguez, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Constraint programming models for scheduling at academic institutions.
• Gustavo A. Gómez, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: GeOz Profiling. Working in Project GeOZ
• Francisco J. Peña, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Implementing a constraint-based prototype for solving job-shop scheduling.
• Mauricio Toro, student at the Universidad Javeriana - Cali. Thesis topic: Probabilistic Extension to the Concurrent Constraint Factor Oracle Model for Music Improvisation.
• Juan C. Vallejo, student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Vehicle routing using constraint programming and scheduling techniques.

1. FORCES, an international collaboration with INRIA.
2. REACT: Robust theories for Emerging Applications in Concurrency Theory. To be funded by Colciencias, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, IRCAM and the École Polyechnique of Paris.
3. GeOZ - Integrating Gecode into the Mozart Programming System (in collaboration with Peter Van Roy‘s group at the Department of Computing Science and Engineering, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.)
4. The project with the IRCAM’s Music Representation Group
5. Executing JML Specifications. This project is funded by Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali, in collaboration with Timothy Wahls at Dickinson College.

1. COCOS - COnstraints and COncurrency in Security. Check out the web site.
2. Using Process Calculi in Problems in Science and Technology (January 2005 - July 2006). Project funded by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
3. CRISOL: Constraint Research for Innovation in Software Solutions (2002-2005). Project funded by Colciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad del Valle and Parquesoft.
4. AVISPA (Supported by Colciencias)

Some recent publications by AVISPA members are listed below. For a complete publication list (with abstracts and bib entries) at the AVISPA Publications Repository.

1. A. Arbeláez, A. Aristizábal, J. Gutiérrez, H. López, J. A. Pérez, C. Rueda and F. Valencia. Process Calculi to Analyze Emerging Applications in Concurrency. To appear in Matemáticas: Enseñanza Universitaria. Download draft here.
2. M. Falaschi, C. Olarte, C. Palamidessi and F. Valencia. Declarative Diagnosis of Temporal Concurrent Constraint Programs. In Proc. of 23rd International Conference on Logic Programming ICLP 2007.
3. C. Olarte, C. Palamidessi and F. Valencia. Universal Timed Concurrent Constraint Programming. In Proc. of 23rd International Conference on Logic Programming ICLP 2007.
4. J. Gutiérrez, J. A. Pérez, C. Rueda and F. Valencia. Timed Concurrent Constraint Programming for Analyzing Biological Systems. In Proceedings of MeCBIC 2006, Vol 171/2 pp 117-137 of Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, Elsevier.
5. A. Arbeláez, J. Gutiérrez and J. A. Pérez. Timed Concurrent Constraint Programming in Systems Biology. In Newsletter of the Association for Logic Programming. Vol. 19 n. 4, November/December 2006.
6. H. López, C. Palamidessi, J. A. Pérez, C. Rueda and F. Valencia. A Declarative Framework for Security: Secure Concurrent Constraint Programming (Short Abstract) In Proceedings of ICLP 2006.
7. C. Palamidessi, V. Saraswat, F. Valencia and B. Victor. On the Expressiveness of Linearity vs Persistence in the Asynchronous Pi Calculus. In Proceedings of LICS 2006.
8. A. Arbeláez, J. Gutiérrez, C. Olarte and C. Rueda. A Generic Framework to Model, Simulate and Verify Genetic Regulatory Networks. Poster presented at Latin American Informatics Conference CLEI 2006, Santiago de Chile, 2006.
9. E. Monfroy, C. Olarte and C. Rueda. Exploring Process Calculi as a Mechanism to Define Dynamic Enumeration Strategies in Constraint Programming. In Proceedings of Latin American Informatics Conference CLEI 2006, Santiago de Chile, 2006.
10. C. Olarte and C. Rueda. A Stochastic Concurrent Constraint Based Framework to Model and Verify Biological Systems. Clei Electronic Journal Volume 9 : Number 2 : Paper 4., 2006.
11. J. F. Díaz, I. Romero and C. Lozano. Solving the Short Run Economic Dispatch Problem Using Concurrent Constraint Programming. In Proceedings of IFIP AI Symposium 2006.
12. J. Gutiérrez, J. A. Pérez and C. Rueda. Modelamiento de Sistemas Biológicos usando Cálculos de Procesos Concurrentes (Modelling Biological Systems using Process Calculi). Epiciclos Journal, Vol. 4 (1), 79-101. (2005).
13. A. Aristizábal, H. López, C. Rueda and F. Valencia. Formally Reasoning About Security Issues in P2P Protocols: A Case Study. In Proceedings of TFIT 2006, March 2006.
14. C. Rueda and F. Valencia. A temporal concurrent constraint calculus as an audio processing. In Proceedings of SMC 05 (Sound and Music Computing '05), Salerno (Italy), November 2005.
15. A. Delgado, J. A. Pérez and C. Rueda. Implementing an Abstraction Scheme for Soft Constraints. In Proceedings of SARA 2005: Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation, Airth Castle, Scotland, 2005.

• ntccSim: a simulation tool for timed concurrent processes
• XRI: a constraint system for continous domains
• Soft Constraints for Mozart: a set of propagators and distribution criteria for solving problems including fuzzy constraints.
• Mozart: a Mozart version that uses Gecode as the underlying constraint engine (in development).

In this page you can find some introductory readings and links on the areas of interest of AVISPA. See the AVISPA Poster (Spanish) for a non-technical introduction to our research interests.

Here are some topics for thesis work at AVISPA. Notice that they’re are very general, and can be modified/refined according to the interests of the student. In case you’re interested, feel free to send an email to the contact person(s) (or even better, to come to the AVISPA office).

Notice that by “Mozart/Gecode” we mean the Mozart Programming Language (www.mozart-oz.org) enhanced with the Gecode programming library.

Click here for an initial brain-storming

Write us an email to avispa at googlegroups.com. You can also subscribe to the AVISPA list using the box below. The use of your academic email (i.e., ending with “puj.edu.co” or “univalle.edu.co”) is strongly recommended.

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