DAI-List Digest Wednesday, 30 December 1992 Issue Number 101 Topics: CFP for AAAI-93 Workshop on AI in Collaborative Design CFP for IJISAFM Special Issue CFP for AAAI-93 Workshop on Modeling in the Large CFP for Schemas, NNets, and DAI CFP for IJCAI-93 Workshop on Dynamically Interacting Robots Administrivia: Please send submissions to DAI-List@mcc.com. Send other requests, such as changes in your e-mail address, to DAI-List-Request@mcc.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:56:14 +1100 From: fay@chomsky.arch.su.EDU.AU (Fay Sudweeks) Subject: AAAI-93 Workshop on AI in Collaborative Design CALL FOR PARTICIPATION THE AAAI-93 WORKSHOP ON AI IN COLLABORATIVE DESIGN Design is recognized as being among the most complex of the intelligent human endeavors. AI in design has helped to develop renewed interest in design research and design computing by providing a symbolic approach to modeling complex recognition and decision making. Until recently, most AI in design research considered design as an activity carried out by a single person and provided support tools for the individual. Design, today, is rarely carried out by an individual working alone, but by individuals or groups working collaboratively. AI addresses models of problem solving for both individual and multiagent activities, and consequently has the potential to shape this developing field. This workshop is of particular interest at this time because there is an increasing focus on the use of AI in design environments but a lack of comprehensive models for collaborative design. AI provides representation and reasoning paradigms which have extended the use of computers in design beyond graphical CAD and numerical analysis towards knowledge-based systems. Current developments in collaborative design focus on communication among individuals or processes across multiple domains, where collaboration can occur among homogeneous or heterogeneous design views. Where AI-based design process models address an individual's multiple views, AI-based collaborative design must focus on merging and communication multiple views across multiple individuals. The organizers of this workshop provide two distinct perspectives on the topic of AI in collaborative design. One perspective is to view it as an AI problem, the other is to view it as a design problem. This workshop will bring together AI researchers and professionals interested in design problem solving and design researchers and professionals who use AI techniques. Objectives: The main objectives of this workshop are to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of artificial intelligence in collaborative design, to discuss state-of-the-art experimental research, and to set a new agenda for future research and development in the field. The workshop will focus on the following issues: * DAI in collaborative design * languages for communication and cooperation * representation and communication of design intent * intelligent user interfaces for groupwork * intelligent synchronous multimedia interaction * models for developing groupware * symbolic approaches to visual reasoning * recognition of emergence of new properties Format of the Workshop: The workshop is designed to have a round-table format. Up to four presentations selected from the submitted papers will be given. The presentations will act as catalysts for discussion. Attendance at the workshop will be restricted to people who submit papers. The number of attendees will be limited. Submission Details: Four copies of either full papers (maximum 20 pages) or extended abstracts (approximately 5 pages) should be sent either electronically or as hard copy to: Fay Sudweeks Workshop Manager Department of Architectural and Design Science University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Fax: +61-2-692 3031 Phone: +61-2-692 2328 Email: fay@chomsky.arch.su.edu.au Timetable: Notification of intention to participate As soon as possible Full papers or extended abstracts due March 12, 1993 Notification of acceptance April 2, 1993 Revised, camera-ready copy due April 30, 1993 Workshop Chairs: John S. Gero Design Computing Unit University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Fax: +61-2-692 3031 Phone: +61-2-692 2328 Email: john@archsci.arch.su.edu.au Mary Lou Maher Design Computing Unit University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Fax: +61-2-692 3031 Phone: +61-2-692 4108 Email: mary@archsci.arch.su.edu.au Workshop Committee: Mark Fox University of Toronto msf@ie.utoronto.ca Barbara Hayes-Roth Stanford University bhr@hpp.stanford.edu D. Sriram Massachusetts Institute of Technology sriram@athena.mit.edu NOTIFICATION FORM -- AAAI-93 Workshop on AI in Collaborative Design [Please return as soon as possible.] I INTEND TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS WORKSHOP. Proposed title of my paper/abstract:____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Title (Prof/Dr/Mr/Ms):___________ Given name:______________________ Family Name:__________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Email:__________________________________________________________________ Fax:___________________________________ Phone:__________________________ Please return to: FAY SUDWEEKS Conference Manager, AAAI-93 Workshop on AI in Collaborative Design Department of Architectural and Design Science University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia Email: fay@archsci.arch.su.edu.au Fax: +61-2-692-3031 Phone: +61-2-692-2328 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 12:05:03 PST From: gasser@morue.usc.edu (Les Gasser) Subject: CFP - IJISAFM Special Issue The International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management (IJISAFM) is a refereed journal published by John Wiley. A special issue on "Mathematical and Computational Models of Organizations: Models and Characteristics of Agent Behavior," is being co-edited by Professors Kathleen Carley (Kathleen.Carley@centro.cs.cmu.edu -- Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University), Les Gasser (Gasser@morue.usc.edu -- University of Southern California), Daniel O'Leary (oleary@mizar.usc.edu -- School of Business, University of Southern California), and Michael Prietula (mp2j@andrew.cmu.edu -- Carnegie Mellon University, Graduate School of Industrial Administration). Questions regarding the issue can be directed to any of the co-editors. The focus of papers can be on any aspect of mathematical and computational models of organizations, with particular interest in multiple agent models. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 1. Under what conditions does an organization exhibit learning/intelligence greater than the sum of its agents. 2. How does organization theory relate to mathematical and computational models of organizations? 3. How sophisticated do our models of intelligent agents need to be to generate realistic organizational results. 4. What does organization theory gain by using more sophisticated models of intelligent agents? 5. How should different types of agents be organized? 6. What is the impact on organizational behavior of different types of negotiation strategies among agents? 7. What is the empirical behavior of mathematical approaches? A broad base of research approaches are appropriate for consideration. As with all papers for the journal, four copies should be submitted to Daniel E. O'Leary IJISAFM School of Business University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-1421 phone 213-740-4856 The deadline for papers is February 28, 1993. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 10:53:47 CST From: Life is not merely syntax Subject: AAAI Workshop on Modeling in the Large AAAI-93 Workshop on Modeling in the Large July 11-12, 1993 Call for Participation This workshop will seek to bring together three diverse groups of people with the explicit goal of developing shared methodologies for building and using large expressive models. 1. There are practitioners in industry who are attempting to build models of large, complex and evolving systems. Traditional industry practice emphasizes disciplined approaches, formal development methodologies, and stepwise validation in the development process. This practice is often realized by the user of "simpler" model representations such as, E-R, IDEF, Data Flow or OO. 2. There are AI practitioners who define and use rich representational frameworks. Since the work pushes the state-of-the-art, AI models are small and focused on particular aspects of what needs to be modeled. Recently, however, some attempts have been made to build models in the large using richer representations. 3. Those with experience in knowledge engineering methods tend to focus on methodologies of acquiring and validating knowledge. Such methods tend to be task-specific and domain-focused. Here too, the issue of scaling up to large, complex and evolving models begun to emerge. This workshop follows closely two successful workshops: 1991 AAAI Workshop on AI in Enterprise Integration and the First Annual Conference on EI Modeling Technology (ICEIMT). The proposed workshop will attempt to focus on blending the practical experience base of enterprise modelers with richer methods of knowledge representation and knowledge acquisition for a fertile interchange of information. Models in the large typically tend to be o Enterprise Model- i.e. how an enterprise is organized, how it functions, including material flow, information flow, financial flow, decision making and goal setting etc.. An Enterprise Model could be that of an "as-is" enterprise or a "to-be" one. The term "enterprise" in this context applies to an organization that conducts business by providing products or services; hence it could be a company, university, department, division, partnership or whatever. o Models for supporting concurrent design and engineering. o Design knowledge capture in large projects (e.g., the NASA Space Station program.) Models that have been attempted vary in richness from data models, information flow models to full semantic or logic models. The richness of models determines the multitude of uses to which a model can be put. Hence the development of semantically rich models that permit reasoning over the model structure and contents are of great interest and importance now. AI, knowledge representation, and knowledge engineering methods have much to contribute to this effort. Topics considered include: ENTERPRISE MODELING Formalism easy to learn, teach, and use Methods for dealing with scale up Dealing with consensus reality Dealing with how organization changes while modeling is in progress Learning and adaptation in organizations Open system hypothesis Capturing Mission, Strategies, Goals and Plans Reasoning about Policies and Procedures Performance indicators at unit and aggregate levels Product & Process integration Concurrent Design and Engineering Business Process Re-engineering Business process simulation Justification of expense and effort of modeling to executive management MODEL REPRESENTATION Frame, logic-based, and Description logics Semantics of key constructs like part/wholes, flows and teleology Actor systems DAI techniques, including negotiation Reasoning Methods: formal and heuristic Three Schema view -Use of separate representation for communication with content experts, discussion among modelers, and computer representation Relation to Object Oriented Models, Semantic Data Models, etc. KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING METHODOLOGIES Knowledge Engineering -Sources of models: interviews, manuals, observations -Modeling "consensus reality" -Model integration and validation -Model consistency checking -How to tailor the "purpose" of modeling into the "methods" of modeling Information Engineering Methodology -Expansion of this to technical domains -OO extensions to IE Relation to OOA/OOD/OBA/SADT etc. Significance: In the corporate computing circles the topic of Enterprise Integration and Enterprise Modeling are of great interest and multiple million dollar efforts are beginning. However, the formalisms chosen for many of the modeling methods utilize simple data flow graphs and hierarchical system views of the world. Knowledge representation and Knowledge engineering techniques of the past 25 years have much to contribute to these efforts. Yet, no discipline and methodology appears to be emerging from the AI efforts. It appears timely to capitalize on a wonderful opportunity to target AI techniques in the service of Enterprise Modeling. Format: The workshop is planned for a day and a half with presentations of papers and invited talks, open discussions and 2 panels. Several "joint" presentations will be given in intersection areas. About 40 people are expected to be invited. All participants will be selected based on expected contributions to the cross-fertilization among several topics, rather than strength or experience in one topic. Submission requirements: Interested participants should send in a position paper of 4 to 5 pages by electronic mail (preferred) or hardcopy. This should cover thoughts on important and interesting areas of concern for "Modeling in the Large" with particular emphasis on disciplined methodologies. A brief statement of relevant background or experience of the author should be included. Papers should be received by the workshop chair by March 12 1993. Notification of acceptance will by on April 2. Camera-ready copies are required by April 30. Please send your submissions to N.S. Sridharan ("Sri") Intel Corporation, MS-CH2-23 5000 W. Chandler Boulevard Chandler, AZ 85226 (602) 554 3324 (602) 554 7116 fax NSridharan@faois.intel.com Organizing Committee: Robert Filman Intellicorp H. Firdman ("Eric") Pacific Bell Neil Iscoe EDS Research V. Jagannathan ("Juggy") CERC, West Virginia University Jim Schmolze Tufts University J. Tenenbaum ("Marty") Enterprise Integration Technologies Gerry Williams Andersen Consulting ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 11:39:51 PST From: gasser@morue.usc.edu (Les Gasser) Subject: CFP for Schemas, NNets, and DAI SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS: INTEGRATING SYMBOLIC AND SUBSYMBOLIC APPROACHES TO COOPERATIVE COMPUTATION A workshop sponsored by the Center for Neural Engineering University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520 April 13th and 14th, 1993 Program Committee: Michael Arbib (Organizer), John Barnden, George Bekey, Francisco Cervantes-Perez, Damian Lyons, Paul Rosenbloom, Ron Sun, Akinori Yonezawa To design complex technological systems and to analyze complex biological and cognitive systems, we need a multilevel methodology that combines a coarse-grain analysis of cooperative or distributed computation (we shall refer to the computing agents at this level as "schemas") with a fine-grain model of flexible, adaptive computation (for which neural networks provide a powerful general paradigm). Schemas provide a language for distributed artificial intelligence, perceptual robotics, cognitive modeling, and brain theory which is "in the style of the brain", but at a relatively high level of abstraction relative to neural networks. The proposed workshop will provide a 2-hour introductory tutorial and problem statement by Michael Arbib, and sessions in which an invited paper will be followed by several contributed papers, selected from those submitted in response to this call for papers. Preference will be given to papers which present practical examples of, theory of, and/or methodology for the design and analysis of complex systems in which the overall specification or analysis is conducted in terms of schemas, and where some but not necessarily all of the schemas are implemented in neural networks. A list of sample topics for contributions follows, where a hybrid approach means one in which the abstract schema level is integrated with neural or other lower level models: Schema Theory as a description language for neural networks Modular neural networks Linking DAI to Neural Networks to Hybrid Architecture Formal Theories of Schemas Hybrid approaches to integrating planning & reaction Hybrid approaches to learning Hybrid approaches to commonsense reasoning by integrating neural networks and rule- based reasoning (using schema for the integration) Programming Languages for Schemas and Neural Networks Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming for Distributed AI and Neural Networks Schema Theory Applied in Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, Robotics, AI and Neuroscience Prospective contributors should send a hard copy of a five-page extended abstract, including figures with informative captions and full references (either by regular mail or fax) by February 15, 1993 to Michael Arbib, Center for Neural Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA [Tel: (213) 740-9220, Fax: (213) 746-2863, arbib@pollux.usc.edu]. Please include your full address, including fax and email, on the paper. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by email no later than March 1, 1993. There are currently no plans to issue a formal proceedings of full papers, but revised versions of accepted abstracts received prior to April 1, 1993 will be collected with the full text of the Tutorial in a CNE Technical Report which will be made available to registrants at the start of the meeting. [A useful way to structure such an abstract is in short numbered sections, where each section presents (in a small type face!) the material corresponding to one transparency/slide in a verbal presentation. This will make it easy for an audience to take notes if they have a copy of the abstract at your presentation.] Hotel Information: Attendees may register at the hotel of their choice, but the closest hotel to USC is the University Hilton, 3540 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007, Phone: (213) 748- 4141, Reservation: (800) 872-1104, Fax: (213) 748- 0043. A single room costs $70/night while a double room costs $75/night. Workshop participants must specify that they are "Schemas and Neural Networks Workshop" attendees to avail of the above rates. The registration fee of $150 includes a copy of the abstracts, coffee breaks, and a dinner to be held on the evening of April 13th. Those wishing to register should send a check for $150, payable to Center for Neural Engineering, USC, together with the following information to Paulina Tagle, Center for Neural Engineering, University of Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA. SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS Center for Neural Engineering, USC April 13 - 14, 1992 NAME: ___________________________________________ ADDRESS: _________________________________________ PHONE NO.: _______________ FAX:___________________ EMAIL: ___________________________________________ I intend to submit a paper: YES [ ] NO [ ] ------------------------------ From: kanazawa@cs.ubc.ca (Keiji Kanazawa) Subject: IJCAI Workshop on Dynamically Interacting Robots Date: 09 Dec 92 22:36:14 GMT Call for Papers Dynamically Interacting Robots IJCAI-93 Workshop Chambery, France August 28, 29, or 30, 1993 This one-day workshop brings together researchers interested in the issues and challenges in controlling multiple interacting robots. Our goal is to illuminate issues in dynamic situated agency arising from the interaction of multiple agents. The technology for experimentation with robot societies is rapidly becoming available; the workshop provides an opportunity to identify key issues, vocabulary, and directions for future research. The focus of the workshop is experimental work. We hope to assess theories for controlling multiple interacting robots, and to share experiences in implementing robot societies. The dynamics inherent in multirobot domains, coupled with the opportunities for reasoning about the possible actions of other robots, leads to new theories for control and planning in multiple robot systems. We welcome perspectives for controlling robot societies at the individual and group level. The robot societies may be engaged in cooperative, competitive, or individual activities, or combinations thereof. The workshop provides a forum for discussions of the special challenges involved with the control of a group of robots in real-time, especially in the context of advances made in distributed AI, theories of situated activity, robot control, decision theoretic methods, and adaptive behavior. One of our aims is to identify clearly the issues involved in robot societies, and how they might distinguish this research program from distributed AI in general. * Issues of Interest Implemented Systems: Descriptions of and lessons from implemented systems. Which issues arise from the group dynamics as opposed to implementation concerns? Languages/Architectures: What kind of languages are needed for describing group level behavior, including group dynamics and task description? Can we extend existing languages such as GAPPS or the subsumption architecture for robust control of a collection? Domains: What are good and bad domains for studying interacting robots? What is and isn't ``cheating''? Is central control to be frowned on? Does communication have to be direct, or can it be mediated? Is simulating some sensing and communication acceptable? Active Perception: Do different sensory requirements arise in collective robotics? How does sensing ability influence group dynamics and vice versa? Planning: To what extent should robots that could potentially interact plan their actions and interactions? When is planning a particularly good, or bad, idea? What forms should plans take, and what algorithms lead to those forms of plans? Communication: What is the role of communication in interacting robots? What are appropriate forms of communication? Modeling: How should robots model each other in their domain? How are such models constructed and used? Learning: How can we exploit group dynamics and interaction in learning? Does cooperation or competition enhance or inhibit learning? Those wishing to present their work should submit 5 copies of a short paper (approximately 5 pages) as well as a one-page statement of research interests and bibliography. Those wishing to participate only should submit 5 copies of a one-page research statement and bibliography. All submissions should include an e-mail address, a telephone number, and a mailing address. Prospective participants are encouraged to contact members of the program committee with any questions or comments. Submissions should be sent to arrive by February 26, 1993 to: Keiji Kanazawa Department of Computer Science University of British Columbia 6356 Agricultural Road Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z2 +1-604-822-3061 (tel) The notification date for acceptances is April 1, 1993. The deadline for final manuscripts for inclusion into working notes will be June 1, 1993. * Conference Registration Registration for the main conference of IJCAI-93 is required to participate in a workshop. The registration fee for each workshop is 300FF (about US $60). Information about IJCAI-93 can be obtained from the IJCAI mail server ijcai-serv@imag.fr with message body "send General-infos". * Program Committee Ronald C. Arkin (arkin@cc.gatech.edu) Rodney A. Brooks (brooks@ai.mit.edu) Edmund Durfee (durfee@engin.umich.edu) John Hallam (john@aifh.ed.ac.uk) Keiji Kanazawa (kanazawa@cs.ubc.ca) ------------------------------ End of DAI-List Digest Issue #99 ********************************