REU Supplement Request to RI: Small: Automated Optimization of Programs and Processing Tools in Answer Set Programming (UK account number 3200001595)

The main goal of the project is to develop automated, integrated methods and algorithms to optimize answer set programs, select appropriate solvers, and optimally configure their parameters, each task mindful of and informed by the two others. One of the main components of the project is to implement, evaluate, enhance a set of software tools to support these tasks. The primary assignment for the undergraduate mentees} selected for funding will be to contribute to this task by researching, evaluating, and implementing tools to support generation of multiple equivalent rewritings of an answer-set program, and in designing and running experiments aiming at the efficacy of these encodings on a broad range of test problems. The request is for funding for two students for the University of Kentucky component of the project. The students will study program rewriting techniques (aggregate introduction and rewriting), as well as models to predict the effectiveness of encodings on particular problem instance. They will also build repositories of test cases, benchmarks and examples to be used in the experiments.