Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Ringwelski

Fields of interest

I am interested in practical combinatorial problems such as:

• What is the best sequence to perform these tasks?
• How do I best assign these tasks to my machines and employees?
• Which route should my vehicles take to minimize travel times?

However, a computer can only very rarely calculate truly satisfactory solutions because important correlations are only known to an experienced dispatcher. I am therefore interested in methods of designing interactive systems that ideally combine the possibilities of modern computers with the specialist knowledge of their users.  

Core competencies

Decision support:
Good decisions are based on comprehensive consideration of data, personal experience and intelligence. I research systems in which this interaction results in optimal decisions. Computers visualize possibilities, calculate proposed solutions and compute "what-if" scenarios. Users can then make informed decisions. My particular expertise lies in creating hybrid systems from all current solution methods that ideally complement the user's expertise.

Optimization:
Use of methods from artificial intelligence, mathematical programming and operations research to calculate optimal or very good solutions for combinatorial problems. My special focus is on the application of hybrid systems that fulfill the performance requirements of practical applications  and at the same time implement software properties (anytime, dynamic, completeness)  according to the possibilities of the state of the art

Practical semester

I only supervise internships that fulfill the following requirements in addition to the formal criteria from the examination regulations

1. The internship takes place in a company of sufficient size.
2. You have a designated supervisor whom you have met before the start of the internship and who will supervise you throughout your internship.
3. You will work on a task relevant to computer scientists

You can find details of the requirements and procedure here

Future theses

I expect my students to be highly motivated and open to the way I work. I have summarized these in short cover letters on the right in the documents section of this page, as well as tips on how to write a good thesis and what you can do wrong. 

Professional background

Diploma in computer science at the Technical University of Berlin under the supervision of Hartmut Ehrig

Doctorate in Engineering Sciences, at the Technical University of Berlin under the supervision of Stefan Jähnichen

Postdoctoral Fellow of the Embark Initiative of the Irish Department of Research, under mentor Eugene Freuder

Over 10 years experience in research and development at Fraunhofer FIRST, the Cork Constraint Computation Center, Microsoft Research Cambridge and
mercateo.com

Over 7 years of teaching experience at the Technical University of Berlin, the Berlin University of Cooperative Education, the State Academy of Studies Bautzen and the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz

Professor of Fundamentals of Computer Science / Software Systems at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (since 09/05)

2009-2012 Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Awards and honors

Postdoctoral Fellow of the Embark Initiative of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology under the 2002 call for proposals

Participant in the round of the best 10 of the German Internet Prize 2006 with the system BestBasket, which was developed in cooperation with Mercateo.com

Best Paper Award together with Anna Prenzel, ICEIS 2012

Voluntary activities

Board member of the Volkshochschule Görlitz e.V. for over 10 years

Developer of the free Garmin Windsurfing app since 2017

Chairman of the Surfverein Berzdorfer See e.V. since 2021

Anna Prenzel, Georg Ringwelski, Models for Human Computer Interaction in Scheduling Applications In Enterprise Information Systems, Cordeiro, José and Maciaszek, Leszek A. and Filipe, Joaquim (Eds.), Springer LNBIP Vol 141. p. 155-171, 2013

Anna Prenzel and Georg Ringwelski. Design of Human-Computer Interfaces in Scheduling Applications. Proc. 14th International Conference on Enterprose Information Systems. ICEIS 2012. best paper award.

Anna Prenzel and Georg Ringwelski. Statistical Evaluation of the Usability of Decision-Oriented Graphical Interfaces in Scheduling Applications. Proc. 4th Workshop "Declarative Modeling and Efficient Optimization", GI Annual Conference 2012

Anna Prenzel and Georg Ringwelski. Optimization - application-oriented. In W. Honekamp (ed.) Computer Science at the Frontier. ReDiRoma 2011. ISBN 978-3-86870-393-1

Steve Dillan, Anna Prenzel and Georg Ringwelski. Evaluating a Practical Decision Support System from a Usability Perspective. In Heiß, Pepper, Schlinghoff, Schneider "Computer Science 2011". Springer LNI 192. ISSN 1617-5468

Anna Prenzel and Georg Ringwelski. Description of a Practical, Benders' Cut Inspired VRP System. Proc. International Workshop on Innovative Scheduling and other Applications using CP-AI-OR (ISA 2011). Computer Science Report 01/11 of Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus. ISSN: 1437-7969.

Youssef Hamadi and Georg Ringwelski. Boosting Distributed Constraint
Satisfaction. Journal of Heuristics, 17(3):251-279, 2011

Steve Dillan and Georg Ringwelski. Using Constraint Propagation to Improve the Usability of an Intelligent Decision Support System. Proc. International Workshop on Innovative Scheduling and other Applications using CP-AI-OR (ISA 2011). Computer Science Report 01/11 of Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus. ISSN: 1437-7969.

Andreas Schulz and Georg Ringwelski. A Workforce-Scheduling Application Using a CP-AI-Hybrid. Proceedings 22nd Workshop on (Constraint) Logic Programming (WLP), 2008 

Georg Ringwelski.BestBasket, an Application for Efficient Indirect e-Procurement in Small and Mid-size Businesses. in "INFORMATIK 2008 - Beherrschbare Systeme Dank Informatik" Lecture Notes in Informatics 133/134, Springer Verlag, ISSN 1617-5468, 2008

Chris Beck, Tom Carchrae, Eugene Freuder, Georg Ringwelski. A Space-efficient Backtrack-free Representation for Constraint Satisfaction Problems. accepted for International Journal of Artificial Intelligence Tools (IJAIT) vol. 17 No 4, 2008.

Georg Ringwelski and Youssef Hamadi. Boosting Distributed Constraint Satisfaction. Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. P .v.Beek, Ed. p. 549-562 Springer LNCS 3709. 2005.

Georg Ringwelski. An Arc-Consistency Algorithm for Dynamic and Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems. Artificial Intelligence Review. 24(3-4). p. 431-454 ISSN 0269-2821 (paper), ISSN 1573-7462 (online). 2005

Georg Ringwelski and Youssef Hamadi. Multi-Directional Searches with Aggregation. Microsoft Technical Report 29/2005. Also published at the Workshop for Distributed Constraint Reasoning, IJCAI'05, Edingbourgh.

Georg Ringwelski, Armin Wolf. Global Production Planning in Multiple Facilities with the DISCS library. inProc. W(C)LP 05, 2005.  

Georg Ringwelski, Matthias Hoche. Impact and Cost-oriented Propagator Scheduling for Faster Constraint Propagation in Proc. W(C)LP 05, 2005.

C. Beck, T. Carchrae, E. Freuder and G. Ringwelski. Backtrack-Free Search for Real-Time Constraint Satisfaction. In Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, Toronto, October 2004. Springer LNCS 3258. 

Georg Ringwelski. Incremental Constraint Propagation for Interleaved Distributed Backtracking. 5th Int'l Workshop on Distributed Constraint Reasoning, Toronto, September 2004. 

Georg Ringwelski. An Arc-Consistency Algorithm for Dynamic and Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems. 15th Irish Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS 2004), Castlebar, September 2004. ISBN1-902277-89-9.

Georg Ringwelski and Richard J. Wallace. Constraint Processing with Reactive Agents. In FLAIRS 2004, AAAI Press, Miami, May 2004.

Georg Ringwelski. Modeling the User's Constraint Domain. 18th WLP, Berlin February 2004.

Georg Ringwelski. Dynamic Distributed Constraint Processing in Two Agent Layers. 14th INAP conference, Berlin, March 2004. 

Georg Ringwelski, Ole Boysen, Kathleen Steinhoefel. Metaheuristics as Generic Search Procedures for Constraint Programming. In: ERCIM/CologNet Workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming, Budapest, 2003.

Georg Ringwelski. Complex Constraint Domains. In 14th Irish Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS 2003). Poster. Dublin, 2003.

Georg Ringwelski. Asynchronous Constraint Solving - A Generic Execution Model for Adaptive Incremental Constraint Processing. Dissertation, TU Berlin, 2003.

Hans Schlenker and Georg Ringwelski. POOC - a Platform for Object-Oriented Constraint Programming. In: Recent Advances in Constraints, B. O'Sullivan (Ed), pp. 159-171, Springer LNAI 2672, ISBN 3-540-00986-8, January 2003.

Georg Ringwelski. Posting and Retracting Constraints in Asynchronous Solvers. In: Second International Workshop on User-Interaction in Constraint Satisfaction (UICS02), B. O'Sullivan, E. Freuder (Eds.), pp. 92-108, Ithaca, USA, September 2002.

Hans Schlenker and Georg Ringwelski. Global Data Structures for CLP in SICStus. In: 17th Workshop on Logic Programming (WLP), Technical Report of the TU Dresden, Dresden, December 2002

Georg Ringwelski. Integrating Search Objects in Asynchronous Constraint Solving. In: Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP2002, P. van Hentenryck (Ed.), p. 761, Lecture Notes for Computer Science 2470, ISBN 3-540-44120-4, Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York, September 2002

Georg Ringwelski and Hans Schlenker. Distributed Constraint Satisfaction with Asynchronous Solvers. In: ERCIM/CologNet Workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming, K.R. Apt, F.Fages, E. Freuder, B. O'Sullivan, F.Rossi, T. Walsh (Eds.), pp. 211-221, Cork, Ireland, June 2002.

Georg Ringwelski. Object-Oriented Constraint Programming with j.cp. In: MICAI 2002 - Advances in Artificial Intelligence, C. Coello Coello, A. Albornoz, L. Sucar, O. Battistutti (Eds.), pp. 194-203, Lecture Notes for Artificiel Intelligence 2313, ISBN 3-540-43475-5, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, April 2002.

Georg Ringwelski. Distributed Constraint Satisfaction with Cooperating Asynchronous Solvers. In: Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP2001, T. Walsh (Ed.), p. 777, Lecture Notes for Computer Science, ISBN 3-540-42863-5, Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York, November 2001. 

Georg Ringwelski. A New Execution Model for Constraint Processing in Object-Oriented Software. In: International Workshop on Functional and Constraint Logic Programming (WFLP01). M. Hanus (Ed.), Technical Report of the University of Kiel No. 2017, Kiel, September 2001.

Georg Ringwelski and Hans Schlenker. Type Inference in CHR Programs for the Composition of Constraint Systems. In: WLP 2000 15th Workshop on Logic Programming and Constraint Systems, S. Abdennadher, U. Geske, D. Seipel (Eds.), pp. 137-146, GMD Report 110, ISBN 3-88457-972-X, Berlin, August 2000.

Georg Ringwelski and Hans Schlenker. Using Typed Interfaces to Compose CHR Programs. CP00 Workshop on Rule-Based Constraint Reasoning (RcoRP00), Singapore, August 2000.

Hans Schlenker and Georg Ringwelski. New Reasons for the Introduction of Concurrency in Prolog. In: Workshop Concurrency, Specification and Programming (WCS&P2000), H. Burkhard, L. Czaja, A. Skowron, P. Starke (Eds.), pp. 241-243, Informatik-Bericht Nr. 140 der Humbolt Universität zu Berlin, ISSN 0863-095X, Berlin, October 2000.

Georg Ringwelski, Armin Wolf and Ulrich Geske. Implementation of built-in constraints for finite value ranges in Minerva. GMD Report 100, ISSN 1435-2702, Birlinghofen, May, 2000.

Georg Ringwelski, Armin Wolf and Ulrich Geske. An approach for low-level finite-domain constraints in Minerva. In: 14th Workshop Logical Programming, F. Bry, U. Geske. D. Seipel (Eds.), pp. 89-100, GMD Report 90 , ISBN 3-88457-971-1, Würzburg, January 2000.

Multi-ordered distributed constraint search, us patent no. 7472094 since 2008