Lecture 7

The lecture given by Martina Seidl intrigued me to a great extent, because the
subject that was discussed by the guest lecturer is what I am very familiar with.
The reason I am extremely familiar with this topic, is because the guest lecturer
was my professor in propositional logic. I know many things related to
propositional logic, for it is composed of concepts that is very easy to
understand, but a little tricky when it comes to applying the rules to given real-
world problems. The lecture was about how many researches in the field of logic
attend so-called “competitions”, which can be quite fun. In fact, I have had some
experience with this by completing the lab exercises for the course on logic in AI.
The focal point of this lecture is, therefore, about the competitions, as well as
how it relates to the main tools of propositional logic, such as SAT solvers. There
are certain requirements for the solvers, which include being fast, correct,
stable, configurable and maintained. Obviously, the goal of such competitions is to
give some insight into SAT solvers, and also to make the tools easier to use. Such
competitions also promote the notion of developing solving tools. Most importantly,
these competition want researchers to be able to document and archive tools and
benchmarks.

Essentially, he lecture was quite suitable for the target audience,

especially for those who have indeed chosen logic in their first semester, because
it is very easy for such people to understand the concepts explained by the guest
lecturer. Personally, I never knew about these competitions that take place, and I
would like to know in much more detail how these competitions really take place. On
the other hand, the lecture was very easy to understand from my perspective,
because the style of the presentation was such that it was well-structured.