Patrick Prosser
Papers
1
Total Citations
5
H-Index
1
About
Patrick Prosser is a foundational figure in constraint satisfaction and combinatorial optimization, with a career defined by elegant algorithmic contributions and rigorous empirical analysis. His research spans constraint programming, graph coloring, and the structure of hard computational problems. Prosser is perhaps best known for developing the AC-3 and AC-4 arc consistency algorithms, which remain cornerstones of constraint propagation, and for pioneering work on the phase transition phenomenon in constraint satisfaction problems—a concept that reshaped how researchers understand problem hardness. His influential papers on backtracking algorithms and constraint propagation have garnered thousands of citations, cementing their place in both textbooks and deployed solvers. Beyond theory, Prosser has applied these ideas to domains like distributed robotics, where he introduced the concept of task variants to enable adaptive software allocation across heterogeneous hardware. A dedicated experimentalist, he championed reproducible benchmarking and open-source implementations, earning him the respect of practitioners and theorists alike. His work continues to inspire new generations of researchers exploring the frontiers of reasoning under constraints.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Task Variant Allocation in Distributed Robotics5 citations · 2016