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Topic · Computer Networks and Communications

Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization

Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization is a research topic within Computer Networks and Communications. Science Explorer counts 16k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on distributed constraint optimization problems and algorithms, including topics such as random satisfiability, local search, spatial reasoning, algorithm selection, phase transitions, soft constraints, temporal reasoning, and graph coloring.

  • Constraint Optimization
  • Distributed Algorithms
  • Random Satisfiability
  • Local Search
  • Spatial Reasoning
  • Algorithm Selection
  • Phase Transitions
  • Soft Constraints
  • Temporal Reasoning
  • Graph Coloring
Research works
16k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
26% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization

Which countries lead Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (386 and 371 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 386 works
  2. 2 United States 371 works
  3. 3 Germany 152 works
  4. 4 France 146 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 91 works
  6. 6 India 88 works
  7. 7 Canada 83 works
  8. 8 Italy 72 works
  9. 9 Japan 62 works
  10. 10 Spain 46 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 25.8%United States: 24.8%Germany: 10.1%France: 9.8%6 others listed: 29.5%26%largest
China386 · 25.8%United States371 · 24.8%Germany152 · 10.1%France146 · 9.8%6 others listed441 · 29.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Carnegie Mellon University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 53 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 20 works
  3. 3 Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 19 works
  4. 4 TU WienAustria 18 works
  5. 5 McGill UniversityCanada 16 works
  6. 6 Ben-Gurion University of the NegevIsrael 10 works
  7. 7 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 10 works
  8. 8 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 9 works
  9. 9 University of TorontoCanada 9 works
  10. 10 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization include Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey E. Hinton and Amos Tversky.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Geoffrey E. Hinton Canada 454k citations
  3. 3 Amos Tversky United States 327k citations
  4. 4 Li Fei-Fei United States 225k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization?

The most cited paper in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization is "A Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths" (Peter Hart, Nils J. Nilsson, Bertram Raphael, 1968), with 12,723 citations. Next come "Tabu Search—Part II" (5,669) and "Tabu Search—Part I" (5,076).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths Peter Hart, Nils J. Nilsson, Bertram Raphael · IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics 1968 12,723
2 Tabu Search—Part II Fred Glover · INFORMS journal on computing Feb 1990 5,669
3 Tabu Search—Part I Fred Glover · INFORMS journal on computing Aug 1989 5,076
4 Variable neighborhood search Nenad Mladenović, Pierre Hansen · Computers & Operations Research Nov 1997 4,232
5 Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words Jill H. Larkin, Herbert A. Simon · Cognitive Science 3 Jan 1987 3,630
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research done?

The largest centres of Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), Shanghai (China) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Vienna.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 83 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 41 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 29 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 25 works
  5. 5 ViennaAustria 23 works
  6. 6 MontrealCanada 22 works
  7. 7 PittsburghUnited States 20 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 18 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 18 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 18 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ViennaAT · 22.9 works5.1×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization than the world average.

See Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization on the map

Where is the best place to study Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization?

Among universities, judged by research, Carnegie Mellon University, TU Wien and University of Oxford score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 9.23333%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of OxfordUniversity of TorontoCarnegie Mellon Univ…TU Wien
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States 69.911.1%24.8×18 -44.4%
2TU WienAustria 64.45.6%32.5×18 +1.5%
3University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 64.217.0%4.0×10 -2.0%
4University of TorontoCanada 47.511.7%2.5×9 -27.0%
5McGill UniversityCanada 44.62.7%8.9×16 -
6RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 43.213.5%6.3×9 +230.5%
7Eindhoven University of TechnologyNetherlands 41.011.3%12.8×8 +102.5%
8Ben-Gurion University of the NegevIsrael 34.54.4%16.0×10 -39.6%
9KU LeuvenBelgium 32.45.8%4.9×8 +3.1%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization, country by country

Is Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2002. The fastest-growing topics are Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0061% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization0.010% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization9.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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