K. Brent Venable

K. Brent Venable currently holds a joint appointment as associate professor of computer science at Tulane University and research scientist at IHMC. Her main research interests are within artificial intelligence and regard, in particular, constraints, preferences, temporal reasoning and computational social choice. In particular, her research is dedicated to providing a solid framework for the design and deployment of intelligent systems able to reason about preferences. Before joining Tulane and IHMC, she was a tenured assistant professor of computer science at the University of Padova, Italy. She received her doctorate in computer science and also the Laurea Magna cum Laude in Mathematics from University of Padova. Dr. Venable is the co-author of a book, “A Short Introduction to Preferences: Between Artificial Intelligence and Social Choice”, Morgan & Claypool (2011), and has published over seventeen journal papers and sixty conference papers. Dr. Venable maintains a lively collaboration with several research centers, among which NICTA and NASA Ames.

Research Interests

Preferences in AI: compact preference representation formalisms, such as, soft constraint problems and CP-nets, uncertainty in preferences, preference elicitation; Computational Social Choice: computational aspects of multi-agent preference aggregation; Temporal Reasoning: quantitative temporal constraint-based models for handling uncertainty and preferences in scheduling; Stable matching Problems in the context of AI: local search approaches, incomparability in the preferences; Constraint-based optimization.

Publications

2012

[c52] Local Search for Designing Noise-minimal Rotorcraft Approach Trajectories. R. Morris, M. Pegoraro, K.B. Venable, J. Lindsay. Emerging Application paper at {\em Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-12)}. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. July 24 -26, 2012.

[c51] Influence and aggregation of preferences over combinatorial domains. N. Maudet, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable. Short Paper to appear in AAMAS 2012. Valencia, Spain. June 4-8, 2012.

[c50] Bribery in voting over combinatorial domains is easy. N. Mattei, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable. Short Paper to appear in AAMAS 2012. Valencia, Spain. June 4-8, 2012.

[w10] Bribery in Voting Over Combinatorial Domains Is Easy, N. Mattei, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable. International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics (ISAIM 2012), Fort Lauderdale, January 2012.

[c49] Automated Design of Noise-Minimal, Safe Rotorcraft Trajectories, J. Lindsay, R.A. Morris, K.B. Venable. 68th American Helicopter Society Annual Forum & Technology Display on May 1-3, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas.

[c48] Simulation to Support Local Search in Trajectory Optimization Planning, J. Lindsay, R.A. Morris, K.B. Venable. IEEE Aerospace Conference. Big Sky Montana. March 3-10, 2012.

2011

[c47] Temporal preferences, K.B. Venable. Invited contribution to TIME 2011, Luebeck, Germany, September 2011. PDF

[b1] A Short Introduction to Preferences: Between Artificial Intelligence and Social Choice, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2011.

[w9] Weights in stable marriage problems increase manipulation opportunities, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proc. IJCAI 2011 workshop on social choice and AI, Barcelona, July 2011. PDF

[w8] Influencing and aggregating agents' preferences over combinatorial domains, N. Maudet, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proc. IJCAI 2011 workshop on social choice and AI, Barcelona, July 2011. PDF

[c46] Weights in stable marriage problems increase manipulation opportunities, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Toby Walsh, Proc. TARK 2011. PDF

[w7] Designing Noise-Minimal Rotorcraft Trajectories, R.A. Morris, K.B. Venable, J. Lindsay, 7th International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space (IWPSS-11) June 8th - 10th, 2011. ESOC/ESA, Darmstadt, Germany. PDF

[c45] The next best solution, R. Brafman, E. Pilotto, F. Rossi, D. Salvagnin, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Nectar paper in Proc. AAAI 2011. To appear. PDF

[c44] Multi-agent soft constraint aggregation via sequential voting, G. Dalla Pozza, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proc. IJCAI 2011. To appear. PDF

[c43] Procedural fairness in stable marriage problems, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proc. AAMAS 2011. To appear. PDF

[c42]Possible and necessary winners in voting trees: majority graphs vs. profiles, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proc. AAMAS 2011.To appear. PDF

[c41] Stable marriage problems with quantitative preferences,M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings the 3rd International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2011), SciTePress, to appear. PDF

[c40] A local search approach to solve incomplete fuzzy and weighted CSPs, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh,Proceedings the 3rd International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2011), SciTePress, to appear.PDF

[c39]Multi-agent soft constraint aggregation: a sequential approach, G. Dalla Pozza, K.B. Venable, F. Rossi, Proceedings the 3rd International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2011), SciTePress, to appear.PDF

[j15]Manipulation complexity and gender neutrality in stable marriage procedures, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 22(1): 183-199 (2011). PDF

2010

[w6] Multi-agent soft constraint aggregation: a sequential approach, G. Dalla Pozza, K.B. Venable, F. Rossi, Proceedings of the CP'10 Workshop on Preferences and Soft Constraints (SOFT 2010), St Andrews, Scotland, September 2010. PDF

[w5] A local search approach to solve incomplete fuzzy and weighted CSPs, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of the CP'10 Workshop on Preferences and Soft Constraints (SOFT 2010), St Andrews, Scotland, September 2010. PDF

[w4] Stable marriage problems with quantitative preferences. M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Computational Social Choice (COMSOC 2010), Dusseldorf, Germany, September 2010. PDF

[w3] Local Search for Stable Marriage Problems. M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Computational Social Choice (COMSOC 2010), Dusseldorf, Germany, September 2010. PDF

[w2] Finding the next solution in constraint- and preference-based knowledge representation formalisms, R. Brafman, F. Rossi, D. Salvagnin, K. B. Venable, and T. Walsh, Proceedings of the ECAI'10 Multidisciplinary Workshop on Advances in Preference Handling (MPREF 2010), Lisbon, Portugal, August 2010.PDF

[w1] Local search for stable marriage problems with ties and incomplete lists. M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of the ECAI'10 Multidisciplinary Workshop on Advances in Preference Handling (MPREF 2010), Lisbon, Portugal, August 2010.PDF

[c38] Male optimal and unique stable marriages with partially ordered preferences. M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Collaborative Agents - REsearch and development (CARE 2009/2010), Springer LNAI 6066, to appear. PDF

[j14] Uncertainty in bipolar preference problems, S. Bistarelli, S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, In Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Taylor & Francis, to appear. PDF

[j13] Incompleteness and Incomparability in Preference Aggregation: Complexity Results, S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, Y. Walsh, In Artif. Intell.- Special Issue on Representing, Processing, and Learning Preferences: Theoretical and Practical Challenges, Elsevier, to appear. PDF

[c37] Male optimality and uniqueness in stable marriage problems with partial orders. M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of AAMAS 2010, pag.1387-1388, IFAAMAS, 2010. PDF

[c36] Local search algorithms on the Stable Marriage Problem: Experimental Studies. M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of ECAI 2010, pag. 1085-1086, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications vol.215, IOS Press, 2010. PDF

[c35] Finding the Next Solution in Constraint- and Preference-Based Knowledge Representation Formalisms. R.I. Brafman, F. Rossi, D. Salvagnin, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of KR 2010, AAAI Press, 2010. PDF

[c34] Local Search for Stable Marriage Problems with Ties and Incomplete Lists, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of PRICAI 2010, LNCS 6230, pag. 64-75, Springer, 2010. PDF

[j12] Interval-valued soft constraint problems, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, N. Wilson, Ann. Math. Artif. Intell. 58(3-4): 261-298 (2010). PDF

[j11] Elicitation strategies for soft constraint problems with missing preferences: Properties, algorithms and experimental studies, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B Venable, T. Walsh, Artif. Intell. 174(3-4): 270-294 (2010). PDF

[j10] From soft constraints to bipolar preferences: modelling framework and solving issues, S. Bistarelli, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell. 22(2): 135-158 (2010).PDF

[j9] Soft constraint problems with uncontrollable variables, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell. 22(4): 269-310 (2010). PDF

2009

[c32] Manipulation and gender neutrality in stable marriage procedures. M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of AAMAS 2009, pag. 665-672, IFAAMAS, 2009. PDF

[c31] Compact Preference Representation in Stable Marriage Problems. E. Pilotto, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of ADT 2009, LNCS 5783, pag. 390-401, Springer, 2009. PDF

[c30] Preference Aggregation over Restricted Ballot Languages: Sincerity and Strategy-Proofness. U. Endriss, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of IJCAI 2009, pag. 122-127, IJCAI, 2009. PDF

[j8] Aggregating Partially Ordered Preferences, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, J. Log. Comput. 19(3): 475-502 (2009). PDF

2008

[c29] Elicitation Strategies for Fuzzy Constraint Problems with Missing Preferences: Algorithms and Experimental Studies, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of CP 2008, LNCS 5202, pag. 402-417 , Springer, 2008. PDF

[c28] Robust Solutions in Unstable Optimization Problems, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, R. Dechter, CSCLP 2008, pag. 116-131, LNCS 5655, Springer, 2008. PDF

[c27] Dealing with Incomplete Agents' Preferences and an Uncertain Agenda in Group Decision Making via Sequential Majority Voting, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of KR 2008, pag. 571-578, AAAI Press, 2008. PDF

j[7] Preferences in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, AI Magazine 29(4): 58-68 (2008). PDF

j[6] Comparing the notions of optimality in CP-nets, strategic games and soft constraints. K.Z. Apt, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Ann. Math. Artif. Intell. 52(1): 25-54 (2008). PDF

j[5] Fuzzy conditional temporal problems: Strong and weak consistency, M. Falda, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Eng. Appl. of AI 21(5): 710-722 (2008). PDF

2007

c[26] Dealing with Incomplete Preferences in Soft Constraint Problems, M. Gelain, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of CP 2007, LNCS 4741, pag.286-300 , Springer, 2007. PDF

c[25] Uncertainty in Bipolar Preference Problems, S. Bistarelli, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of CP 2007, LNCS 4741, pag. 782-789, Springer, 2007. PDF

c[24] Strong Controllability of Disjunctive Temporal Problems with Uncertainty, B. Peintner, K.B. Venable, N. Yorke-Smith, Proceedings of CP 2007, LNCS 4741, pag. 856-863, Springer, 2007. PDF

[c23] A comparison of notions of optimality in Soft Constraints and Graphical Games, K. Apt, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, CSCLP 2007, LNCS 5129, pag. 1-16, Springer, 2007. PDF

[c22] Winner Determination in Sequential Majority Voting, J.Lang, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of IJCAI 2007, pag. 1372-1377, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. PDF

[c21] Incompleteness and Incomparability in Preference Aggregation, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of IJCAI 2007, pag. 1464-1469, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. PDF

[j4] Solving and learning a tractable class of soft temporal constraints: Theoretical and experimental results, L. Khatib, P.H. Morris, R. Morris, F. Rossi, A.Sperduti, K.B. Venable, AI Comm. 20(3): 181-209, 2007. PDF

2006

[j3] Uncertainty in Soft Temporal Constraint Problems: A General Framework and Controllability Algorithms for the Fuzzy case, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, N. Yorke-Smith, JAIR 27: 617-674, 2006. PDF

[c20] Bipolar Preference Problems: Framework, Properties and Solving techniques, S. Bistarelli, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, CSCLP 2006, LNCS 4651, pag. 78-92, Springer, 2006. PDF

[c19] Computing possible and necessary winners from incomplete partially-ordered preferences, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of ECAI 2006, IOS Press, 2006. PDF

[c18] Bipolar preference problems, S. Bistarelli, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K. Brent Venable, Proceedings of ECAI 2006, IOS Press, 2006.PDF

[c17] Strategic voting when aggregating partially ordered preferences, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, and T. Walsh, Proceedings of AAMAS'06, pag. 685-887, ACM .PDF

[j2] Hard and soft constraints for reasoning about qualitative conditional preferences, C. Domshlak, S. Prestwich, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, T. Walsh, Journal of Heuristics, Special issue on preferences, 12: 263-285, Springer, 2006.PDF

2005

[j1] Aggregating preferences cannot be fair, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable and T. Walsh, Intelligenza Artificiale 2(1): 30-38 (2005). PDF

[c16] Uncertainty in Soft Constraints Problems, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi and K.B. Venable, Proceedings of IAWTIC' 2005, IEEE, 2005.PDF

[c15] CP-nets and Nash equilibria, K. R. Apt, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of CIRAS'05, Elsevier, 2005.PDF

[c14] Disjunctive temporal planning with uncertainty, K.B. Venable, N. Yorke-Smith, Proceedings of IJCAI'05, Morgan Kaufmann, 2005.PDF

[c13] Aggregating partially ordered preferences: possibility and impossibility results, M.S. Pini, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of TARK 2005, ACM Digital Library, 2005.PDF

[c12] Constraint-based Preferential Optimization, S. Prestwich, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of AAAI 2005, Morgan Kaufmann, 2005 .PDF

[c11] Possibility Theory for Reasoning about Uncertain Soft Constraints, M. S. Pini, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, Proceedings of ECSQARU'05, LNCS 3571, Springer, 2005. PDF

2004

[c10] Softly Constrained CP-nets, S. Prestwich, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of CP 2004, LNCS 3258, Springer, 2004. PDF

[c9] Controllability of Soft Temporal Constraint Problems, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, N. Yorke-Smith, Proceedings of CP 2004, LNCS 3258, Springer, 2004. PDF

[c8] mCP nets: representing and reasoning with preferences of multiple agents, F. Rossi, K. B. Venable, T. Walsh, Proceedings of AAAI 2004, AAAI Press / MIT Press, 2004. PDF

2003

[c7] Alpha-dynamic controllability for Simple Temporal Problems with Preferences and Uncertainty, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of CP 2003, Springer LNCS 2833, 2003. PDF

[c6] Soft Constraints for Handling Temporal Preferences, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, Recontres Francophones sur la Logique Flue et ses Applications Cepadues Editions, 2003.

[c5] Temporal Reasoning with Preferences and Uncertainty, F.Rossi, K.B. Venable, N. Yorke-Smith, Proceedings of IJCAI 2003, pag. 1289-1294, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003. PDF

[c4] Tractable Pareto Optimization of Temporal Preferences,L. Khatib, P. Morris, R. Morris and K.B. Venable, Proceedings of IJCAI 2003, pag. 1289-1294, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003. PDF

[c3] Reasoning about soft constraints and conditional preferences: complexity results and approximation techniques, C. Domshlak, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable and T. Walsh, Proceedings of IJCAI 2003, pag. 215-220, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003. PDF

2002

[c2] Ceteris Paribus Statements Represented as Soft Constraints, K.B. Venable, Proceedings of CP 2002,LNCS 2470, pag. 779, Springer Verlag, 2002.

[c1] Solving and Learning Soft Temporal Constraints: an experimental study, F. Rossi, K.B. Venable, A. Sperduti, L. Khatib, P. Morris, R. Morris, Proceedings of CP 2002, LNCS 2470, pag. 249-263, Springer Verlag, 2002. PDF