Research Projects at the ANU

At the ANU, students need to complete a range of different research projects, each worth 6, 12, or 24 points, depending on the degree. 6 pts are equivalent to one standard course, which corresponds to 130 hours of work on average (Point 16 Procedure 691). 24 pts is what's expected per semester in total, so if one takes an Honours thesis (24 pts) over two semesters, two other courses should be taken per semester on top of that.

This page first lists the projects I've supervised until the end, and those for which I acted as examiner.

Supervised Projects

  • 2023:
    • S1-S2, 24 pt Honours: An HTN Portfolio Planner (Primary supervisor)
    • S1-S2, 12 pt: Specialized HTN Planning Heuristics (Sole supervisor)
    • S1, 6 pt: Modeling the Rush Hour Game with AI Planning (Sole supervisor)
    • S1, 4 pt: Modeling Assistance in AI Planning (Sole supervisor)
    • three summer projects finishing from 2022, see below
  • 2022:
    • Summer, 6 pt: Classical Model Repair via Integer Linear Programming (ILP) (Primary supervisor)
    • Summer Internship: Heuristics for Special Cases in HTN Planning (Sole supervisor)
    • Summer Internship: Complexity Results for HTN Planning with Time (Sole supervisor)
    • S2, 6 pt: A Total-Order HTN Heuristic based on Integer Linear Programming (ILP) (Primary supervisor)
    • S1-S2, 24 pt Honours: Transforming Partially Ordered HTN Planning Problems to Totally Ordered Problems (Primary supervisor)
    • S1-S2, 12 pt: Modeling a Puzzle Game using Planning and a Constraint Solver (Co-supervisor, i.e. both are primary)
    • S1, 12 pt: Solving the Waiter's Tray Problem via HTN Planning (Sole supervisor)
    • S1, finishing Honours from 2021, see below
    • Summer, finishing from 2021, see below
  • 2021:
    • Summer, 6 pt: Using Planning to Model Multi-Agent Path Finding Problems (Sole supervisor)
    • S2-S1 2022, 24 pt Honours: On dead-end recognition in Sokoban and Planning (Co-supervisor, i.e. both are primary)
    • S2, 12 pt: Hierarchical Planner Selection using Machine Learning (Primary supervisor)
    • S1-S2, 24 pt Honours: Integrating SAT Solvers into Heuristic Search (Secondary supervisor)
    • S1, 6 pt: On the Complexity of HTN Repair, Recognition, and Length-Bounded Plans (Sole supervisor)
    • S1, 12 pt: Solving the Waiter's Tray Puzzle Using Classical Planning (Co-supervisor, i.e. both are primary)
  • 2020,
    • Summer Internship: Complexity Results for Flexible Fully Observable Non-Deterministic (FOND) HTN Planning (Sole supervisor), published at ICAPS'22, won the ICAPS Best Undergraduate Student Paper Award 2022
    • S2, 6 pt: Complexity Results for Fully Observable Non-Deterministic (FOND) HTN Planning (Sole supervisor), published at ICAPS'21, won the ICAPS Best Undergraduate Student Paper Award 2021
    • S2, 6 pt: Solving Minesweeper using Classical Planning with Global State constraints (Secondary supervisor)
    • S2, 12 pt: Solving the Waiter's Tray Puzzle Using Planning (Co-supervisor, i.e. both are primary)
    • S2, 12 pt: Solving Puzzle Games Using Constraint Solvers (Co-supervisor, i.e. both are primary)
    • S1-S2, 24 pt Honours: On the Generation of User-Friendly Plan Linearizations (Primary supervisor)

Examined Projects

In a very few of the projects listed above I also acted as an examiner (not listed below). Below I list those projects that I examined despite not acting as a supervisor.

  • In S2 of 2021, I served as examiner of the following research projects:
    • 24 pt, in the context of heuristic planning for multiple objectives (started in S1)
    • 12 pt, in the context of planning and acting taking moral actions
  • In S2 of 2020, I served as examiner of two research projects
    • 12 pt, in the context of SAT solving and protocol verification
    • 24 pt Honours, in the context of planning under uncertainty