New Director for UCC Cork Constraint Computation Centre
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New Director for UCC Cork Constraint Computation Centre
29.07.2011
The UCC Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) announces the retirement of its founding Director, Professor Gene Freuder, and the appointment of a new Director, Professor Barry O’Sullivan. 4C is a computer science research laboratory whose mission is to help computers help people make better decisions for more effective use of individual, industry and government resources.

Professor Freuder has been appointed Emeritus Professor at UCC and will become Chair of the 4C Advisory Board. Professor Freuder came to Ireland in the fall of 2001 as the recipient of one of the first Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Fellow Awards. He was recruited by Professor James Bowen of UCC, and 4C built upon Professor Bowen’s successful UCC Constraint Processing Group. 4C currently comprises around 50 academics, staff, and students, housed in the new UCC Western Gateway Building. Professor Freuder also helped to establish the CTVR SFI CSET and the ITOBO SFI SRC. While in Ireland Professor Freuder has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

 

4C has received numerous awards for its academic achievements, and has been awarded close to 30M euro in research funding. It has worked with local industry, receiving two it@cork Awards for collaborative projects (with Abtran and TreeMetrics). It has worked with multi-national industry, helping to attract three research labs to Ireland (Bell Labs, EMC, and UTRC). It has spun off two companies (Keelvar and ThinkSmart).

 

Professor O’Sullivan has long served as Associate Director of 4C, and was recently appointed UCC Professor of Constraint Programming. He is President of the international Association for Constraint Programming, Coordinator of the European ERCIM Working Group on Constraints, and Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Association of Ireland. He is the Principal Investigator of an SFI project on New Paradigms in Constraint Programming: Applications in Data Centres, with supplementary funding for collaboration with the Health Service Executive, and the UCC Principal Investigator of a recently approved European FP7 project on Engineering the Policy-Making Life Cycle. Professor O’Sullivan established the George Boole School Computer Laboratories project, which won an it@cork Excellence in Education Leaders Award for Scoil Chlochair Mhuire. Professor O'Sullivan became Director of 4C on June 1, 2011.

 

Professor Freuder: “UCC is very fortunate to have one of the world’s top computer scientists in constraint programming to take over leadership of 4C. Professor O’Sullivan played a key role in building 4C from the start, and I am confident that 4C will go on to even greater success under his leadership.”

 

Professor O’Sullivan: "4C is extremely grateful to Professor Gene Freuder, who has helped it achieve so much as its founding director. It will be a challenge to live up to his legacy, but I'm looking forward it. I'll also enjoy working on the next phase of 4C's evolution with the wonderful team of academics, principal investigators, support staff, researchers and students at the centre."


Picture:  Professor Barry O'Sullivan



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