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).
Since 2008, AVISPA is an INRIA Associate Team with the FORCES project.

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. Nestor Cataño. Assistant Professor at Departamento de Matemática e Engenharias, Universidade da Madeira, Portugal.
• Dr. Gerardo M. Sarria M. Assistant Professor at Department of Science and Engineering of Computing, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali.
• Dr. Carlos Olarte. Assistant Professor at Department of Science and Engineering of Computing, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali.
• Dr. Jesús Aranda. Comète Team, LIX, École Polytechnique.

• Alejandro Arbelaez, Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique, CNRS-Université Paris-Sud.. Supervisors: Youssef Hamadi (MSR) and Marc Schoenauer (INRIA Futurs / Université Paris Sud).
• 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
• 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
• Mauricio Toro, Computer Science Laboratory of Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux I, France. Email: mtoro at labri.fr
• Andrés A. Aristizábal P., Comète Team, LIX, École Polytechnique. Email: andresaristi at lix.polytechnique.fr

• 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 F. Barco, Universidad del Valle. Working in Project GeOZ.

• 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 André 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, Student at the Universidad Javeriana. Thesis topic: Verification of VHDL design properties using NTCC.
• Diana P. Hermith Ramírez, Student at the Universidad Javeriana. Thesis topic: Modeling Cellular Transmembrane signaling system through interaction with G-Proteins by using Concurrent Constraint Process Calculi.
• Víctor Rivera, Student at the Universidad Javeriana - Cali. Thesis topic: Specifying Preferences in Anonymization Methods (SPAM).

• Gustavo A. Gómez, Student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: GeOz Profiling. Working in Project GeOZ
• Luis Fernando Pino, Student at the Universidad del Valle. Thesis topic: Analysis of the reachability problem in fragments of pi-calculus. Working in Project FORCES

1. REACT+: Robust theories for Emerging Applications in Concurrency Theory. Funded by Colciencias, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, IRCAM and the École Polyechnique of Paris.
2. WESP. Funded by CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) and FCT (the Portuguese Science Foundation), and involves people from University of Madeira, Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon, CMU (Carnegie Mellon University), PUJ (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) and the Portuguese end-user organisation SAPO/Portugal Telecom.
3. FORCES, an international collaboration with INRIA.
4. 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.)
5. The project with the IRCAM's Music Representation Group
6. Executing JML Specifications. This project is funded by Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali, in collaboration with Timothy Wahls at Dickinson College.

1. REACT: Robust theories for Emerging Applications in Concurrency Theory. Funded by Colciencias, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, IRCAM and the École Polyechnique of Paris.
2. COCOS - COnstraints and COncurrency in Security. Check out the web site.
3. Using Process Calculi in Problems in Science and Technology (January 2005 - July 2006). Project funded by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
4. CRISOL: Constraint Research for Innovation in Software Solutions (2002-2005). Project funded by Colciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad del Valle and Parquesoft.
5. AVISPA (Supported by Colciencias)

For a complete publication list (with abstracts and bib entries) look at the AVISPA Publications Repository.

• 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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