DAI-List Digest Wednesday, 4 August 1993 Issue Number 129 Topics: CFP for Second Feature Interaction Workshop CFP for Second International Conference on AI Planning Systems Registration for CKBS-SIG Workshop CFP for TIME-94 CFP for 10th IEEE Conf. on AI for Applications (CAIA-94) DAI at Australian AI'93 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. Back issues of DAI-List can be obtained via anonymous ftp from the DAI Archives at ftp.einet.net (192.147.157.225). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: H.Velthuijsen@research.ptt.nl (Velthuijsen H.) Subject: CFP 2nd Feature Interaction Workshop Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1993 11:56:49 +0200 (MET DST) Included is a Call for Participation for the 2nd International Workshop on Feature Interactions in Telecommunications Software Systems. This CFP is posted here since Distributed Artificial Intelligence has been shown to provide useful technology for solving part of the feature-interaction problem, and the organizers of the workshop would welcome further contributions from that field. Further information on the feature-interaction problem can be obtained from several papers in the August issues of IEEE Computer and IEEE Communications Magazine. One paper in that issue of Computer deals with the relation between DAI and the feature-interaction problem specifically. An abstract for that paper is also included. Please contact me if you want additional information on the relation between DAI and the feature-interaction problem. Hugo Velthuijsen. PTT Research Phone: +31 70 332 6258 P.O. box 421 Fax: +31 70 332 6477 2260 AK Leidschendam, Email: H.Velthuijsen@research.ptt.nl The Netherlands Distributed Artificial Intelligence for Run-Time Feature-Interaction Resolution Hugo Velthuijsen ABSTRACT A feature in a telecommunications system is a package of functionality incrementally added to a service to enhance or modify it. A feature may interact with its environment in a way that interferes with the feature's desired operation. A feature's environment may include the telecommunications system, other features and services, as well as other instances of the same feature. The feature-interaction problem deals with the detection, prevention, and resolution of undesired feature interactions. The feature-interaction problem has many different instances. This article argues that some instances lend themselves to a distributed artificial intelligence approach. The use of DAI techniques in current telecommunications systems appears quite natural in light of two trends in the way these systems are designed: the distribution of functionality and the incorporation of "intelligence". There are two basic ways to introduce agents into a telecommunications system. In certain cases, it is feasible to encapsulate services or features in agents. DAI techniques for dealing with interactions among agents can than be used to detect and deal with interactions among the encapsulated services or features. Agents can also be used to represent a user's or network provider's notion of what is "desirable" operation of services and features. DAI negotiation techniques may help in finding an acceptable way to operate when conflicts arise over what is desirable. The author illustrates the relevance of DAI techniques to the feature-interaction problem by discussing existing work (LODES, TEAM-CPS, Multistage Negotiation, and Negotiating Agents) that addresses one or more instances of the problem. Additionally, he identifies the kind of cooperation and coordination that the feature-interaction problem requires and the interesting research problems it poses to the field of distributed artificial intelligence. CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Second International Workshop on Feature Interactions in Telecommunications Software Systems Amsterdam, The Netherlands May 9-10, 1994 DESCRIPTION This workshop is the second in a series, whose mission is to encourage researchers from a variety of computer science specialties (software engineering, protocol engineering, distributed artificial intel- ligence, formal techniques, software testing, and distributed systems, among others) to apply their techniques to the feature interaction problem that arises in building telecommunications software systems (see the back page for a description of the problem). We welcome papers on avoiding, detecting, and/or resolving feature interactions using either analytical or structural approaches. Submissions are encouraged in (but are not limited to) the following topic areas: - Classification of feature interactions. - Modeling, reasoning, and testing techniques for detecting feature interactions. - Software platforms and architecture designs to aid in avoiding, detecting, and resolving feature interactions. - Tools and methodologies for promoting software compatibility and extensibility. - Mechanisms for managing feature interactions throughout the service life-cyle. - Management of feature interactions in PCS, ISDN, and Broadband services, as well as IN services. - Management of feature interactions in various of the operations support functions such as Service Negotiation, Service Management, and Service Assurance. - Feature Interactions and their potential impact on system Security and Safety. - Environments and automated tools for related problems in other software systems. - Management of Feature Interactions in various proposed architectures such as TMN, INA, ROSA, CASSIOPEIA, SERENITE, or PLATINA. FORMAT We hope to promote a dialogue among researchers in various related areas, as well as the designers and builders of telecommunications software. To this end, the workshop will have sessions for paper presentations, including relatively long discussion periods. Panel discussions and tool demonstrations are also planned. ATTENDANCE Workshop attendance will be limited to 90 people. Attendance will be by invitation only. Prospective attendees are asked to submit either a paper (maximum 5000 words) or a single page description of their interests and how they relate to the workshop. About 16-20 of the attendees will be asked to present talks. We will strive for an equal mix of theoretical results and practical experiences. Papers will be published in a conference proceedings. SUBMISSIONS Please send five copies of your full original paper or interest description to: Wiet Bouma PTT Research, Dr. Neher Laboratories PO Box 421 or St. Paulusstraat 4 2260 AK Leidschendam 2264 XZ Leidschendam The Netherlands The Netherlands E-mail: L.G.Bouma@research.ptt.nl Tel: +31 70 332 5457 FAX: +31 70 332 6477 IMPORTANT DATES: November 15, 1993: Submission of contributions. January 15, 1993: Notification of acceptance. February 15, 1993: Submission of camera-ready versions. WORKSHOP COCHAIRPERSONS Wiet Bouma & Hugo Velthuijsen (PTT, The Netherlands) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Chair: E. Jane Cameron (Bellcore, USA) Jan Bergstra (CWI and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Ralph Blumenthal (Bellcore, USA) Kong Eng Cheng (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia) Bernie Cohen (City University of London, UK) Fulvio Faraci (CSELT, Italy) Robert France (Florida Atlantic University, USA) Steve German (GTE, USA) David Gill (MITRE, USA) Richard Kemmerer (UCSB, USA) Eric Kuisch (PTT Research, The Netherlands) Victor Lesser (University of Massachusetts, USA) Yow-Jian Lin (Bellcore, USA) Luigi Logrippo (University of Ottawa, Canada) Robert Milner (BNR, UK) Leo Motus (Tallinn Technical University, Estonia) Jacques Muller (CNET, France) Jan-Olof Nordenstam (ELLEMTEL, Sweden) Stott Parker (UCLA, USA) Henrikas Pranevitchius (Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania) Lynne Presley (Bellcore, USA) Jean-Bernard Stefani (CNET, France) Greg Utas (BNR, Canada) Yasushi Wakahara (KDD R&D Laboratories, Japan) Ron Wojcik (BellSouth, USA) Pamela Zave (AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA) WORKSHOP STATEMENT The feature interaction problem has been a major obstacle to the rapid deployment of new telephone services. Telecommunications software is huge, real-time, and distributed; adding new features to a telecommunication system, like adding new functionalities to any large software system, can be very difficult. Each new feature may interact with many existing features, causing customer annoyance or total system breakdown. Traditionally, interactions were detected and resolved on a feature by feature basis by experts who are knowledgeable on all existing features. As the number of features grows to satisfy diverse needs of customers, managing feature interactions in a single administrative domain is approaching incomprehensible complexity. In a future marketplace where features deployed in the network may be developed by different operating companies and their associated vendors, the traditional approach is no longer feasible. How to detect, resolve, or even prevent the occurrence of feature interactions in an open network becomes an important research issue. The feature interaction problem is not unique to telecommunications software; similar problems are encountered in any long-lived software system that requires frequent changes and additions to its functionality. Techniques in many related areas appear to be applicable to the management of feature interactions. Software methodologies for extensibility and compatibility, for example, could be useful for providing a structured design that can prevent many feature interactions from occurring. Formal specification, verification, and testing techniques, being widely used in protocol engineering and software engineering, contribute a lot to the detection of interactions. Several causes of the problem, such as aliasing, timing, and the distribution of software components, are similar to issues in distributed systems. Cooperative problem solving, a promising approach for resolving interactions at run time, resembles distributed planning and resolution of conflicting subgoals among multiple agents in the area of distributed artificial intelligence. This workshop aims to provide an opportunity for participants to share ideas and experiences in their respective fields, and to apply their expertise to the feature interaction problem. ------------------------------ From: kris@cs.uchicago.edu (Kris Hammond) Subject: AI Planning Systems - Call for Papers Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 18:49:08 GMT ************* CALL FOR PAPERS ************* SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AI PLANNING SYSTEMS The University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois June 15th -17th, 1994 ******************************************* CONFERENCE CHAIR Austin Tate - Edinburgh University PROGRAM CHAIR Kristian Hammond - University of Chicago We are pleased to invite contributions for the Second International Conference on AI Planning Systems, to be held at The University of Chicago, June 15th - 17th, 1994. This conference will be aimed at bringing together researchers attacking different aspects of the planning problem and related issues. In addition to AI researchers, others working on planning-related issues are also encouraged to contribute and attend. Of special interest are papers discussing the integration of differing approaches to planning or the integration of planning and other AI technologies. Topics of Interest Include: APPLICATIONS - Empirical studies of existing planning systems; domain-specific techniques; heuristic techniques; scheduling systems. ARCHITECTURES - Real-time support for planning and control; mixed-initiative planning and user interfaces. ENVIRONMENTAL AND TASK MODELS - Analyses of the dynamics of environments, tasks, and domains with regard to different models of planning and execution. FORMAL MODELS - Reasoning about knowledge, action, and time; search methods and analysis of algorithms; formal characterization of existing planners. INTELLIGENT AGENCY - Resource-bound reasoning; distributed problem solving; integrating reaction and deliberation. LEARNING - Learning in the context of planning and execution; learning new plans and operators. MEMORY-BASED APPROACHES - Case-based planning; plan and operator learning and reuse; incremental planning. PLANNING AND PERCEPTION - Integration of planning and perceptual systems. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ISSUES - Analyses of goal-directed behavior; neurophysiological studies concerning planning; connectionist planning systems. REACTIVE SYSTEMS - Environmentally driven devices/behaviors; reactive control; behaviors in the context of minimal representations. ROBOTICS - Motion and path planning; planning and control; planning and perception. REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION TIMETABLE - The conference will take place June 15th - 17th,1994, at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Authors must submit 5 copies of their papers (no electronic or Fax transmissions) by Tuesday December 14th, 1993. Notification of receipt will be sent to the first (or designated) author soon thereafter. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be mailed by February 18, 1994. Authors will need to provide camera ready copy by March 8, 1994. APPEARANCE - Papers should be printed on 8.5" x 11" (or, if necessary, A4) sized paper, with 12 point type. Letter quality print is required. (Normally, dot-matrix printout will be unacceptable unless truly of letter quality. Exceptions will be made for submissions from countries where high quality printers are not widely available.) LaTeX 12pt article style will be acceptable. TITLE PAGE - Each copy of the paper must include a title page, separate from the body of the paper. This should contain (i) Title, (ii) Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all authors, and (iii) An abstract of 100-200 words. LENGTH - Papers should be submitted in 12 point text filling roughly 5.5" x 7.5" per page (LaTeX article style with 12 point text is acceptable). Papers should be no more than 12 pages including figures, tables, diagrams, and references. Short papers (5 pages or less) may be submitted for review as posters. All papers will be included in the conference proceedings. DEMONSTRATIONS - Participants wanting to give computer and/or video taped demonstrations should send a two page abstract describing their contribution to the same address by February 22, 1994. These abstracts should include a separate title page with a (i) Program name and (ii) Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all authors. Demonstrations will be held in concert with the conference's poster session. PANELS - Researchers interested in organizing panels should get hold of the program chair as soon as possible. All submissions should be sent to: AIPS-94 c/o Kristian Hammond Department of Computer Science University of Chicago 1100 East 58th Street Chicago, IL 60637 For more information, email to: hammond@cs.uchicago.edu ------------------------------ From: "Martyn Fletcher" Subject: Registration for CKBS-SIG workshop Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 16:45:10 +0100 (BST) Call For Registration Workshop on Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems September 8-10, 1993, Keele University. The UK Special Interest Group on Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems (CKBS-SIG(UK)), sponsored by the UK Department of Trade and Industry, invites you to register for a workshop to be held at Keele University from September 8th to 10th 1993. The topics addressed within the workshop are expected to include (partial list): * An arbitration protocol for interagent learning * The combination of planning and behaviours for controlling robots * An agent based framework for collaborative architectural design * A knowledge elicitation approach from a team of experts * A Coherent Network Congestion Management System * Representing beliefs via terminological logics * Cooperation Issues in a Holonic Manufacturing System * An integrated distributed scheduler * A multiagent model for natural language processing * A testbed for distributed artificial intelligence * Interoperation support in multidatabase systems A draft workshop proceedings will include draft papers/handouts, as available, of the presentations at the conference. The full papers will be reviewed subsequently following their presentation at the workshop, and those selected will form the final workshop proceedings. Copies of the final proceedings will be mailed to the attendees in due course. Background In CKBS, a number of intelligent computer systems cooperate together to solve problems that cannot be solved otherwise. These applied multiagent systems can be described as the next generation of intelligent systems, with a wide range of industrial application domains, such as air traffic control, telecommunications network management, distributed sensor networks, intelligent manufacturing systems, and so on. The focus of research into CKBS is the blending of techniques from distributed artificial intelligence and distributed databases to provide good solutions to real-world problems. The first international conference on this theme was CKBS'90 held at Keele in October 1990 and was considered by the participants as being a valuable forum for the cross fertilisation of ideas. Following which an international special interest group, CKBS-SIG was formed (managed by the DAKE Centre at Keele) to provide a nucleus for further activities in this arena. Last September the DAKE Centre organised, on behalf of the SIG, the 1992 UK workshop on CKBS to provide a meeting place for researchers from academia and industry. This workshop proved very successful with plenty of discussion among the delegates. The proceedings from which have recently been published (ISBN: 0 952 1789 0 7) and can be obtained from the DAKE Centre for 9.95 pounds. Attendance at the 1993 workshop is welcome from all members of the SIG, as well as from other interested researchers. The activity committee of the workshop consists of: Prof. S. M. Deen (Keele University) [Chairman] Prof. J. Doran (University of Essex) Mr. D. Griffiths (British Telecom) Dr. P. Kearney (Sharp Laboratories, Europe) Prof. E. Mamdani (Queen Mary and Westfield College, London) If you should want any further information about the 1993 workshop, or upon the CKBS-SIG in general, then please contact: Martyn Fletcher DAKE Centre (Computer Science Department), University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U.K. Tel: +44 782 621111 ext 7357 Fax: +44 782 713082 Email: martyn@cs.keele.ac.uk REGISTRATION FORM CKBS-SIG WORKSHOP 1993 Workshop on Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems September 8-10, 1993, Keele University [Note dates are 8 to 10 Sept., not 7 to 9 Sept.] Please note that the workshop is expected to commence with a lunch on Wednesday September 8. Name (including title): ................................................ Affiliation (for badge): ............................................... Address: ............................................................... ............................................................... Tel: ................. Fax: ................. Email: ............... Workshop Registration Fee, includes three lunches, Tea/Coffee, draft workshop proceedings and final workshop proceedings: ** Student (no lunches nor proceedings) 50 pounds O Other 80 pounds O Surcharge for registering after August 31 15 pounds O Conference Dinner (a set menu at Indian restaurant) 19 pounds O Accommodation (Including breakfast) 25 pounds per night in an ordinary student room or 45 pounds per night in a room with en-suite facilities. September 8 25 pounds O 45 pounds O September 9 25 pounds O 45 pounds O Any other nights (state dates) ......................... ......... ......... TOTAL: .............................. pounds ** students from recognised institutions only. Payment must be made payable to the University of Keele, in pounds sterling drawn on a British Bank or by Eurocheque or by Bankers Draft. Cheques must be crossed. Payment can alternatively be made by credit card. Please tick: ACCESS O MASTERCARD O VISA O EUROCARD O Card Number: ....................... Expiry Date: .................. Signature: ........................................................... Please note full payment must accompany the registration form; there is no provision for invoicing. Please send your forms with payment to: Martyn Fletcher DAKE Centre (Computer Science Department), University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U.K. ------------------------------ From: time94@mercury.cs.uregina.ca (TIME-94 Co-chairs) Subject: TIME-94 Call for Papers Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1993 17:26:37 GMT CALL FOR PAPERS TIME-94 An International Workshop on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (in conjunction with FLAIRS-94) Pensacola Beach, Florida, USA May 4, 1994 The purpose of this workshop is to bring together active researchers in the area of temporal representation and reasoning in Artificial Intelligence. Through paper presentations and discussions, the participants will exchange, compare, and contrast results in the area. The workshop is planned as a one-day event to immediately precede FLAIRS-94 (Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Symposium). Workshop participants are encouraged to also submit papers to FLAIRS and attend the conference. The workshop will be conducted as a combination of paper presentations, a poster session, an invited talk, and a panel discussion. The format will provide ample time for discussions and exchange of ideas. The workshop registration fee will be waived for those who register for FLAIRS-94. Submission of high quality papers or extended abstracts describing mature results or on-going work are invited for all areas of temporal representation and reasoning, including, but not limited to: temporal logics and ontologies temporal languages and architectures planning, actions, and events frame problem continuous versus discrete time point versus interval representations temporal knowledge, belief, and uncertainty temporal learning and discovery multiple agents, communication, and synchronization foundational issues and applications To maximize interaction among participants, the size of the workshop will be limited. Accepted papers will be invited for full presentation or a poster presentation. All submissions must be received by December 1, 1993. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the first author (or designated author) on February 1, 1994. Prospective participants should submit 5 copies of a 5-8 page extended abstract to: TIME-94, Department of Computer Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2. For further information and future announcements send email to: time94@cs.uregina.ca. Workshop and Program Co-chairs: Scott Goodwin, University of Regina Howard Hamilton, University of Regina ------------------------------ From: Timothy Finin Subject: CAIA-94: 10th IEEE Conf. on AI for Applications (8/31 deadline) Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 12:13:54 -0400 The 10th IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Applications (CAIA-94) will be held at Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas on March 1-4, 1994. CAIA is devoted to advancing the application of AI techniques to real world problems. This year's conference will emphasize both the development of enabling AI technology and the issues involved in its integration into products and processes. We are also seeking innovative ideas for new application areas and new research and technology transfer paradigms. August 31, is the deadline for submission of papers and proposals for panels, tutorials and workshops. For general information on CAIA-94, including the full Call for Papers, send email to CAIA@CS.UMBC.EDU or try the Gopher server on GOPHER.CS.UMBC.EDU. For registration and additional conference information, contact: CAIA-94, IEEE Computer Society, 1730 Mass. Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20036-1903. Phone: 202-371-1013, Fax: 202-728-0884. ------------------------------ From: huan@medici.trl.OZ.AU (Huan Liu) Subject: DAI at Australian AI'93 Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1993 03:44:11 GMT 1993 AUSTRALIAN JOINT CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI'93 GRAND HYATT HOTEL MELBOURNE, VICTORIA 16-19 NOVEMBER, 1993 On behalf of the organising committee, we are very pleased to invite you to attend AI'93, to be held in Melbourne from November 16th to 19th. The Australia AI conference has grown in stature over the years, and now attracts a growing proportion of papers from throughout the world. This year we have received over 135 papers for consideration, with around 45% coming from overseas. The conference programme features three world-renowned experts in very different fields of expertise. Earl Sacerdoti is known for both his pioneering work in AI, and for his work on technology transfer. Mary O'Kane is renowned for her work in speech recognition. Our third speaker, Chris Wallace, is a preeminent authority in machine learning. So you can be guaranteed a wide variety of invited talks. There is an extensive workshop programme, a wide range of tutorials, and active technical sessions. Conference Co-chairs Dr. Andrew Jennings Dr. Huan Liu Programme Committee Chris Rowles (Co-chair) Assoc. Professor Norman Foo (Co-chair) Technical Programme Topics: * Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition * Knowledge-based Systems * Cognitive Modeling * Knowledge Representation * Robotics and Vision * Qualitative Reasoning * Distributed AI * Automated Reasoning (scheduling, planning) * Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms * Natural Language Tutorial -- Tuesday 16th November Dr. Anand S. Rao (Senior Research Scientist) AAII (Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute) "AGENT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING" For more information, contact Chris Rowles, P.O. Box 249, TELECOM RESEARCH LAB. CLAYTON 3168, AUSTRALIA Telephone (03) 2536244 Fax (03) 2536173 c.rowles@trl.oz.au ------------------------------ End of DAI-List Digest Issue #129 *********************************