This research is centered round the use of multi-modal reasoning to improve workforce scheduling, particularly in the nursing domain. The two key paradigms being investigated are Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and Constraint Logic Programming (CLP).

The aim is to find ways of storing previous schedule solutions as cases held as partially instantiated and generalised CLP descriptions. Similarity measures will be used to extract all or parts of these descriptions for use in the generation of new schedules.

The reason for this choice of multi-modal reasoning is to increase the possibilities for adaptation and learning within the system. Of particular interest is that ability of case-based reasoning to reflect expertise or preferences that are not explicitly expressed.