Fadi A. Aloul, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering
American University of Sharjah, UAE
Agere/SRC Research Fellow
IEEE UAE GOLD Chair

Email: faloul ‘at’ aus.edu


I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering in 2003 from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor under the supervision of Prof. Karem Sakallah. My research interests include Design Automation, Optimization, and IT & Network Security (My research summary can be found here). I am also currently interested in studying the general IT security awareness in UAE (see the IEEE GCC'07 paper below).

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Resume, Professional Activities, Awards, Teaching, Education, Publications, Tutorials, Patents, Invited Talks, Tools, Benchmarks, News, Links

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Curriculum Vitae

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Professional Activities

• Invited Speaker at
• Middle East IT Security Conference (MEITSEC'08), Dubai, UAE, November 2008.
• National Security Summit Middle East (NSS'08), Dubai, UAE, October 2008.
• Hacker Halted Conference (H@cker|Halted’08), Dubai, UAE, October 2008.
• 4th ICT Security Forum (ICT’08), Damascus, Syria, July 2008.
• E-Commerce Middle East Summit (E-Commerce’08), Dubai, UAE, May 2008.
• Middle East IT Security Conference (MEITSEC’07), Sharjah, UAE, November 2007.
• Pakistan’s Cyber Security Conference (PAKCON’07), Karachi, Pakistan, July 2007.
• Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, January 2007.
• Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon, July 2005.
• Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2005.
• Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington, December 2003.
• Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington, May 2003.

• Invited Tutorialist at
• IEEE International Symmetry Conference (ISC’07), Edinburgh, Scotland, 2007.
• IEEE Innovations in Information Technology (IIT’06), Dubai, UAE, 2006.
• International Conference on Modeling, Simulation, and Applied Optimization (ICMSAO’05), Sharjah, UAE, 2005.

• Conference Organization
• Track Chair (Computer Engineering) at the IEEE 3^rd International Conference on Modeling, Simulation, and Applied Optimization, (ICMSAO’09), Sharjah, UAE, 2009.
• Co-Chair of the 8^th International Workshop on Symmetry and Constraint Satisfaction Problems, (SymCon'08), Sydney, Australia, 2008.
• Local Organizer at the 7^th International Conference on New Software Methodologies, Tools, and Techniques, (SoMeT’08), Sharjah, UAE, 2008.
• Local Organizer and Session Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, (AICCSA’06), Sharjah, UAE, 2006.
• A/V Chair of the ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS’03), Anaheim, CA, 2003.

• Technical Program Committee (TPC) member of

o 5^th Southern Programmable Logic Conference (SPL’09), Sao Carlos, Brazil, 2009

o IEEE International Conference on Information Science, Technology and Applications (ISTA'09), Kuwait, 2009

o 11^th ACM/SIGDA PhD Forum at the Design Automation Conference (DAC’08), Anaheim, CA, 2008.

o IEEE International Design and Test Workshop (IDT’08), Monastir, Tunis, 2008.

o 7^th International Workshop on Symmetry and Constraint Satisfaction Problems (SymCon’08), Sydney, Australia, 2008.

o IEEE Innovations in Information Technology, (IIT’08), Al-Ain, UAE, 2008.

o 10^th ACM/SIGDA PhD Forum at the Design Automation Conference (DAC’07), San Diego, CA, 2007.

o IEEE International Design and Test Workshop (IDT’07), Cairo, Egypt, 2007.

o 7^th International Workshop on Symmetry and Constraint Satisfaction Problems (SymCon’07), Providence, RI, 2007.

o IEEE Innovations in Information Technology, (IIT’07), Dubai, UAE, 2007.

o IEEE Innovations in Information Technology, (IIT’06), Dubai, UAE, 2006.

o 9^th ACM/SIGDA PhD Forum at the Design Automation Conference (DAC’06), San Francisco, CA, 2006.

o ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS’06), Vail, Colorado, 2006.

o 8^th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT’05), St. Andrews, Scotland, 2005.

o 8^th ACM/SIGDA PhD Forum at the Design Automation Conference (DAC’05), Anaheim, CA, 2005.

o International Symposium on Wireless Systems and Networks (ISWSN’05), Bahrain, 2005.

o ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS’05), Lake Arrowhead, CA, 2005.

o 7^th ACM/SIGDA PhD Forum at the Design Automation Conference (DAC’04), San Diego, CA, 2004.

o ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS’04), San Diego, CA, 2004.

o 6^th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT’03), Portofino, Italy, 2003.

o 5^th International Workshop on Soft Constraints (CP03-SOFT), County Cork, Ireland, 2003.

o ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Logic and Synthesis (IWLS’03), Anaheim, CA, 2003.

Awards

Supervised Student Awards

• 1^st place in Microsoft Imagine Cup Gulf Competition, UAE, 2008.
• 1^st place in National Mobile Phone Application Contest (NMAC), UAE, 2008.
• Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE GCC Conference, Bahrain, 2007.
• 3^rd place in the Made-In-Arab World Competition (MIA), Egypt, 2007.
• 2^nd place in National Mobile Phone Application Contest (NMAC), UAE, 2007.
• Short-listed among 4 top participants in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Gulf Competition, UAE, 2007.
• 1^st place in Green Gulf Youth Conference Competition, Sharjah, UAE, 2006.

Awards

• Agere/SRC (Semiconductor Research Corporation) Research Fellowship, 2001-2003
• GANN Fellowship, 2000
• Graduate Student Research Assistantship, 1999-2001
• University of Michigan EECS Summer Fellowship, 1998
• Graduate Student Teaching Assistantship, 1997-1998
• Ranked 1^st among 930 graduating students at Lawrence Technological University (LTU), 1997
• Lawrence Technological University (LTU) Engineering Excellence Award, 1997
• Lawrence Technological University (LTU) Presidential Scholarship, 1995-1997
• Ranked 1^st in graduation from highschool, 1993

Teaching

Courses taught at the American University of Sharjah (AUS):

• NGN110 - Introduction to Engineering & Computing (~700 students/year - Course Coordinator).
• COE210 - Programming I (C++).
• COE221 - Digital Systems.
• COE381 - Operating Systems.
• COE444 - Computer Security.

Education

• Post-Doc 2003 - Computer Science & Engineering - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Ph.D. 2003 - Computer Science & Engineering - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• M.S. 1999 - Computer Science & Engineering - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (GPA 3.82/4.0)
• B.S. 1997 - Electrical Engineering - Lawrence Technological University, Southfield (GPA 4.0/4.0 - Summa Cum Laude)

Publications -
Journals:

1. Solution and Optimization of Systems of Pseudo-Boolean Constraints
   F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), 56(10), 1415-1424, October 2007.
2. Symmetry-Breaking for Pseudo-Boolean Formulas
   F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics (JEA), vol. 12, article 1.3, 2007.
3. Using SAT-Based Techniques in Power Estimation
   A. Sagahyroon and F. Aloul
   Elsevier Microelectronics Journal (MEJ), vol. 38, issues 6-7, 706-715, June-July 2007.
4. Routing in Optical and Non-Optical Networks using Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul, B. Al-Rawi, and M. Aboelaze
   Journal of Communications (JCM), Academy Publishers, 2(4), 49-56, June 2007.
5. The Synthesis of Dependable Communication Networks for Automotive Systems
   N. Kandasamy and F. Aloul
   SAE Transactions Journal of Passenger Cars – Electronic and Electrical Systems, 2006-01-1333, V115-7, 667-674, March 2007.
   ISBN Number: 978-0-7680-1839-4
6. Breaking Instance-Independent Symmetries in Exact Graph Coloring
   A. Ramani, F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), Volume 26, pp. 289-322, August 2006.
7. Efficient Symmetry Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul, K. Sakallah, and I. Markov
   IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), 55(5), pp. 549-558, May 2006.
8. Search Techniques for SAT-based Boolean Optimization
   F. Aloul
   Elsevier Journal of the Franklin Institute, Volume 343, Issues 5-6, pp. 436-447, 2006.
9. MINCE: A Static Global Variable-Ordering Heuristic for SAT Search and BDD Manipulation
   F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS), 10(12), pp. 1562-1596, Dec. 2004.
10. A Comparative Study of Two Boolean Formulations of FPGA Detailed Routing Constraints
    G. Nam, F. Aloul, K. Sakallah, and R. Rutenbar
    IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), 53(6), pp. 688-696, June 2004.
11. Solving Difficult Instances of Boolean Satisfiability in the Presence of Symmetry
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design (TCAD), 22(9), pp. 1117-1137, Sept. 2003.
12. Satometer: How Much Have We Searched?
    F. Aloul, B. Sierawski, and K. Sakallah
    IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design (TCAD), 22(8), pp. 995-1004, Aug. 2003.

Book Chapters:

1. Sensor Deployment for Failure Diagnosis in Networked Aerial Robots: A Satisfiability-Based Approach
   F. Aloul and N. Kandasamy
   Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS), SAT 2007, vol. 4501, Springer, 369-376, May 2007.
   ISBN: 978-3-540-72787-3.
2. Pollution Mapper for Urban Gulf Cities
   M. AbuJayyab, S. Al-Ahdab, M. Taji, Z. Al-Hamdani, F. Aloul
   Youth and Environment Research, Gulf Research Center, 59-64, December 2006.
   ISBN 9948-432-67-3
3. Robust SAT-Based Search Algorithm for Leakage Power Reduction
   F. Aloul, S. Hassoun, K. Sakallah, and D. Blaauw
   Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS), PATMOS 2002, vol. 2451, Springer, 167-177, 2002.
   ISBN 3-540-44143-3

Conferences and Workshops:

1. M-Stock: Efficient Stock Monitoring for Mobile Users
   F. Aloul, A. Sagahyroon, N. Salem, O. Al-Omar, and S. Shehada
   3^rd IEEE International Conference on Modeling, Simulation, and Applied Optimization, (ICMSAO), Sharjah, UAE, January 2009.
2. On Detecting Port Scanning using Fuzzy Based Intrusion Detection Systems
   W. Hajj, F. Aloul, and Z. Trabelsi
   IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Crete Island, Greece, August 2008.
3. Mobile RFID Tracking System
   A. Al-Ali, F. Aloul, N. Aji, A. AlZarouni, and N. Fakhro
   3^rd IEEE International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications (ICTTA), Damascus, Syria, April 2008.
4. Routing and Wavelength Assignment in Optical Networks using Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul, B. Al-Rawi, M. Aboelaze
   5^th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, NV, January 2008.
5. Symmetry Breaking in Local Search for Unsatisfiability
   F. Aloul, Ines Lynce, and Steven Prestwich
   7^th International Workshop on Symmetry and Constraint Satisfaction Problems (SymCon), Providence, RI, September 2007.
6. Wireless Security in UAE: A Survey Paper
   A. Kalbasi, O. Alomar, M. Hajipour, and F. Aloul
   4^th IEEE GCC Conference, Bahrain, November 2007.
7. Solving the University Class Scheduling Problem Using Advanced ILP Techniques
   A.Wasfy and F. Aloul
   4^th IEEE GCC Conference, Bahrain, November 2007.
   Won the Best Student Paper Award.
8. Solving Employee Timetabling Problems Using Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul, B. Al-Rawi, A. Al-Farra, and B. Al-Roh
   IEEE Innovations in Information Technology Conference (IIT), Dubai, UAE, November 2006.
9. PolluMap: A Pollution Mapper for Cities
   M. AbuJayyab, S. Al Ahdab, M. Taji, Z. Al Hamdani, and F. Aloul
   IEEE Innovations in Information Technology Conference (IIT), Dubai, UAE, November 2006.
   Won the first place in the Gulf Research Center (GRC) Environmental Competition, 2006.
10. Identifying the Shortest Path in Large Networks Using Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul, B. Al-Rawi, and M. Aboelaze
    IEEE International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE), Mexico, September 2006.
11. Sensor Selection and Placement for Failure Diagnosis in Wireless Sensor Networks: Application to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks
    N. Kandasamy, F. Aloul, and J. Koo
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Orlando, Florida, pp.2182-2187, May 2006.
12. Estimation of the Weighted Maximum Switching Activity in Combinational CMOS Circuits
    F. Aloul and A. Sagahyroon
    IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), Kos, Greece, pp. 2929-2932, May 2006.
13. Maximum Power-Up Current Estimation in Combinational CMOS Circuits
    A. Sagahyroon and F. Aloul
    IEEE Mediterranean Electro-technical conference (MELECON), Malaga, Spain, pp. 70-73, May 2006.
14. The Synthesis of Dependable Communication Networks for Automotive Systems
    N. Kandasamy and F. Aloul
    SAE World Congress (SAE), Detroit, Michigan, Paper No. 2006-01-1333, April 2006.
15. Exciting Stuck-Open faults in CMOS Circuits Using ILP Techniques
    F. Aloul, A. Sagahyroon, and B. Al-Rawi
    IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA), Sharjah, UAE, pp. 409-414, March 2006.
16. Dynamic Symmetry-Breaking for Improved Boolean Optimization
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASPDAC), Shanghai, China, pp. 445-450, January 2005.
17. On Solving Optimization Problems Using Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul
    International Conference on Modeling, Simulation, and Applied Optimization, (ICMSAO), Sharjah, UAE, 2005.
18. A Call Admission Protocol for Cellular Multimedia Networks
    M. Aboelaze and F. Aloul
    6^th World Wireless Congress (WWC), San Francisco, USA, 2005.
19. Current and Future Trends in Sensor Networks: A Survey
    M. Aboelaze and F. Aloul
    IEEE International Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks (WOCN), Dubai, UAE, pp. 551-555, March 2005.
20. Breaking Instance-Independent Symmetries in Exact Graph Coloring
    A. Ramani, F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Paris, France, pp. 324-329, 2004.
21. ShatterPB: Symmetry-Breaking for Pseudo-Boolean Formulas
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASPDAC), Yokohama, Japan, pp. 884-887, 2004.
22. Efficient Symmetry-Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Acapulco, Mexico, pp. 271-282, 2003.
23. Shatter: Efficient Symmetry-Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Design Automation Conference (DAC), Anaheim, California, pp. 836-839, 2003.
24. FORCE: A Fast and Easy-To-Implement Variable-Ordering Heuristic
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI), Washington D.C., pp. 116-119, 2003.
25. Symmetry-Breaking for Pseudo-Boolean Formulas
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Symmetry on Constraint Satisfaction Problems (SymCon), County Cork, Ireland, pp. 1-12, 2003.
26. Generic ILP versus Specialized 0-1 ILP: an Update
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, California, pp. 450-457, 2002.
27. Improving the Efficiency of Circuit-to-BDD Conversion by Gate and Input Ordering
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), Freiburg, Germany, pp. 64-69, 2002.
    
    
28. Satometer: How Much Have We Searched?
    F. Aloul, B. Sierawski, and K. Sakallah
    Design Automation Conference (DAC), New Orleans, Louisiana, pp. 737-742, 2002.
29. Solving Difficult SAT Instances in the Presence of Symmetry
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Design Automation Conference (DAC), New Orleans, Louisiana, pp. 731-736, 2002.
    
    
30. Search-Based SAT Using Zero-Suppressed BDDs
    F. Aloul, M. Mneimneh, and K. Sakallah
    Design, Automation, and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Paris, France, pp. 1082, 2002.
    
    
31. Symmetry-Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability: The Mysteries of Logic Minimization
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Symmetry on Constraint Satisfaction Problems (SymCon), Ithaca, New York, pp. 37-46, 2002.
    
    
32. ZBDD-Based Backtrack Search SAT Solver
    F. Aloul, M. Mneimneh, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), New Orleans, Louisiana, pp. 131-136, 2002.
    
    
33. Efficient Gate and Input Ordering for Circuit-to-BDD Conversion
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), New Orleans, Louisiana, pp. 137-142, 2002.
    
    
34. PBS: A Backtrack Search Pseudo-Boolean Solver
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Symposium on the Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT), Cincinnati, Ohio, pp. 346-353, 2002. [Slides]
    
    
35. A Tool for Measuring Progress of Backtrack Search Solvers
    F. Aloul, B. Sierawski, and K. Sakallah
    Symposium on the Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT), Cincinnati, Ohio, pp. 98-105, 2002.
    
    
36. Solving Difficult SAT Instances in the Presence of Symmetry
    F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    Symposium on the Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT), Cincinnati, Ohio, pp. 338-345, 2002. [Slides]
    
    
37. Faster SAT and Smaller BDDs via Common Function Structure
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), San Jose, California, pp. 443-448, 2001.
    
    
38. Scalable Hybrid Verification of Complex Microprocessors
    M. Mneimneh, F. Aloul, C. Weaver, S. Chatterjee, K. Sakallah, and T. Austin
    Design Automation Conference (DAC), Las Vegas, Nevada, pp. 41-46, 2001.
    
    
39. A Comparative Study of Two Boolean Formulations of FPGA Detailed Routing Constraints
    G. Nam, F. Aloul, K. Sakallah, and R. Rutenbar
    International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD), Sonoma Wine County, California, pp. 222-227, 2001.
    
    
40. Backtrack Search Using ZBDDs
    F. Aloul, M. Mneimneh, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), Lake Tahoe, California, pp. 293-297, 2001.
    
    
41. MINCE: A Static Global Variable-Ordering for SAT and BDD
    F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), Lake Tahoe, California, pp. 281-286, 2001. [Slides]
    
    
42. An Experimental Study of Satisfiability Search Heuristics
    F. Aloul, J. Silva, and K. Sakallah
    Design, Automation, and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Paris, France, pp. 745, 2000.
    
    
43. An Experimental Evaluation of Conflict Diagnosis and Recursive Learning in Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), Dana Point, California, pp. 117-122, 2000.
    
    
44. Efficient Verification of the PCI Local Bus Using Boolean Satisfiability
    F. Aloul and K. Sakallah
    International Workshop on Logic Synthesis (IWLS), Dana Point, California, pp. 131-136, 2000.

Technical Reports:

1. Solving Difficult Instances of Boolean Satisfiability in the Presence of Symmetry
   F. Aloul, A. Ramani, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   Technical Report CSE-TR-463-02, University of Michigan, September 2002.
   
   
2. Generic ILP versus Specialized 0-1 ILP: An Update
   F. Aloul, I Markov, and K. Sakallah
   Technical Report CSE-TR-461-02, University of Michigan, August 2002.
3. Satometer: How Much Have We Searched?
   F. Aloul, B. Sierawski, and K. Sakallah
   Technical Report CSE-TR-457-02, University of Michigan, June 2002.
4. Faster SAT and Smaller BDDs via Common Function Structure
   F. Aloul, I. Markov, and K. Sakallah
   Technical Report CSE-TR-445-01, University of Michigan, 2001.
   
   
   

Tutorials

1. Invited Tutorial: Symmetry Detection and Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul
   International Symmetry Conference, Edinburgh, UK, January 2007.
2. Information Security: From Theory to Practice
   F. Aloul and A. Khatib
   IEEE Innovations in Information Technology Conference (IIT), Dubai, UAE, 2006.
3. Boolean Satisfiability: Theory and Applications
   F. Aloul
   First International Conference on Modeling, Simulation, and Applied Optimization (ICMSAO), Sharjah, UAE, 2005.
   
   

Patents

1. Methods and Apparatus for Generating Functional Test Programs by Traversing a Finite State Model of an Instruction Set Architecture
   F. Aloul and R. Raimi
   United States Patent 20040078674, Billions of Operations Per Second Inc. (BOPS), Mountain View, California, 2004.
   
   

Invited Talks / Demos

1. Symmetry-Detection and Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul
   Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, January 2007.
   
   
2. Symmetry-Detection and Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul
   Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon, July 2005.
   
   
3. Symmetry-Detection and Breaking for Boolean Satisfiability
   F. Aloul
   Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2005.
   
   
4. Symmetry Breaking for Pseudo-Boolean Formulas
   F. Aloul
   Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington, December 2003.
   
   
5. Scalable Algorithms for Boolean Satisfiability Enabled by Problem Structure
   F. Aloul
   Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington, May 2003.
   
   
6. PBS: A Backtrack-Search Pseudo-Boolean Solver and Optimizer
   F. Aloul, M. Mneimneh, and K. Sakallah
   University Booth, Design Automation Conference (DAC), Anaheim, California, June 2003.