Automated Reasoning and Its Applications

Book excerpt: The contributors are among the world's leading researchers inautomated reasoning. Their essays cover the theory, software system design, and use of these systems to solve real problems. The primary objective of automated reasoning (which includes automated deduction and automated theorem proving) is to develop computer programs that use logical reasoning for the solution of a wide variety of problems, including open questions. The essays in Automated Reasoning and Its Applications were written in honor of Larry Wos, one of the founders of the field. Wos played a central role in forming the culture of automated reasoning at Argonne National Laboratory. He and his colleagues consistently seek to build systems that search huge spaces for solutions to difficult problems and proofs of significant theorems. They have had numerous notable successes. The contributors are among the world's leading researchers in automated reasoning. Their essays cover the theory, software system design, and use of these systems to solve real problems. Contributors Robert S. Boyer, Shang-Ching Chou, Xiao-Shan Gao, Lawrence Henschen, Deepak Kapur, Kenneth Kunen, Ewing Lusk, William McCune, J Strother Moore, Ross Overbeek, Lawrence C. Paulson, Hantao Zhang, Jing-Zhong Zhang