Newsgroups: comp.ai
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!wang!news
From: rachelb@csa.cs.technion.ac.il (Rachel Ben-Eliyahu)
Subject: 2nd cfp: workshop on applications and implementations of NMR systems
Organization: Technion, Israel Inst. of Technology
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 11:59:09 GMT
Message-ID: <D39qML.7y0@discus.technion.ac.il>
Sender: news@wang.com
Lines: 142



                    CALL FOR PAPERS

                   IJCAI'95 WORKSHOP
		      
		          on 

Applications and Implementations of Nonmonotonic Reasoning Systems 

	   August 19 or 20 or 21 (to be determined) 1995
		     Montreal, Canada


Nonmonotonic reasoning is a central theme in many areas of artificial
intelligence (AI) and, in particular, in knowledge representation.
Nonmonotonic reasoning is employed in logic programs and deductive
databases, inheritance reasoning, reasoning about actions, and
diagnosis.  Many formalisms for nonmonotonic reasoning have been 
proposed in the literature. Recent research has discovered interesting
relationships between the various formal systems, and the computational
properties of nonmonotonic reasoning have been studied intensively.
Hence, we now have a firm theoretical basis for nonmonotonic
reasoning. 

Recently, it has been critically pointed out that the considerable
efforts on the semantical and other foundational issues of nonmonotonic
reasoning have not resulted in implementations of nonmonotonic
reasoning systems or new practical applications.  We believe that this
is because only in recent years has a substantial share of the research
in nonmonotonic reasoning been dealing with computational issues, and
hence only now we can start developing real applications that are based
on the more principled approaches to nonmonotonic reasoning.

This workshop will focus on the implementation of AI applications that
use nonmonotonic reasoning.  The workshop is intended to bring together
researchers who implement knowledge representation systems which use
nonmonotonic deduction such as logic programming systems, deductive
databases, truth maintenance systems, probabilistic and other numerical
systems, and researchers working on AI applications where nonmonotonic
reasoning is employed such as diagnosis and reasoning about physical
systems, actions, time, and beliefs.  The goal is to evaluate the state
of the art of the field, explore significant new research issues and
delineate areas where more research is needed.  Specific topics
include:

  - Implementation techniques for nonmonotonic reasoning.

  - Implemented knowledge representation systems which
    use nonmonotonic deduction. 

  - Evaluation methods for implementations of nonmonotonic reasoning
    systems. 

  - Experimental work comparing various algorithms for nonmonotonic
    reasoning.  

  - Applications of  nonmonotonic reasoning methods to other areas in AI as 
    well as to other fields in computer science. 

There will be an increased focus on panels and discussions.  Where
possible, the panels will be organized around groups of related papers.
In addition to technical papers, we invite position papers.
Authors of position papers will have about 10 minutes to present their
view and then about 10-15 minutes to lead a discussion on the
issues raised in the paper.  Position papers could address issues like
the following:

    * Is the theory of nonmonotonic logic relevant to its practice?
      For example, does the work on semantical foundations for NAF (negation
      as failure) really influence its practice? 
    * Have any real nonmonotonic systems been implemented based on
      theoretical ideas from nonmonotonic logic?
    * Where can we use nonmonotonic reasoning in real life applications? 
    * Where is nonmonotonic logic (as opposed to reasoning) used in
      practical applications?  
    * Do we have to worry about applications? Are we satisfied with 
      what was achieved so far in implementing nonmonotonic systems?


Authors wishing to present a paper (either technical or positional) are
invited to submit 5 hard-copies of extended abstracts not exceeding 10
pages.  Each copy of the paper should include a separate title page
containing the title of the paper, full names, postal addresses, phone
numbers, fax numbers and email addresses of all authors and an abstract
of 100-200 words. Electronic (PostScript) submissions will be accepted
but fax submission cannot be accepted.  Position papers are especially
welcome. Send papers to

Rachel Ben-Eliyahu 
Department of Computer Science,     
Technion - Israel institute of technology, 
Haifa 32000, Israel,             
email: nonmon95@cs.technion.ac.il,
tel: +972-4-294 354,          
fax: +972-4-294 353


An ascii version of the title page of each submitted paper should
be sent by e-mail to

 nonmon95@cs.technion.ac.il

Participation in the workshop will be by invitation only. At least one
author of each accepted paper will be invited.  People wishing to
attend without presenting a paper should contact one of the workshop
co-chairs.  Participants not presenting a paper will be selected by the
organizing committee on the basis of their research interests and previous
accomplishments.  Note that workshop participation is not possible
without registration to the main conference.


IMPORTANT DAYS

Extended abstracts are due by February 24, 1995, authors will be notified 
by March 25, camera ready version will be due by April 15, 1995. 


WORKSHOP CO-CHAIRS:

Rachel Ben-Eliyahu                 Ilkka Niemela
Technion -
Israel institute of technology     Helsinki University of Technology
Department of Computer Science     Department of Computer Science   
Haifa 32000, Israel                Otakaari 1, FIN-02150 ESPOO, Finland
email: rachelb@cs.technion.ac.il   email: Ilkka.Niemela@hut.fi
tel: +972-4-294 354                tel: +358-0-451 3290
fax: +972-4-294 353                fax: +358-0-465 077



ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Rachel Ben-Eliyahu (co-chair), Technion, Israel 
Oscar Dressler, Siemens AG, Germany
Kurt Konolige, SRI International,USA 
Ilkka Niemela (co-chair), Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
David Poole, University of British Columbia, Canada 
Bart Selman, AT&T Bell labs, USA
V.S. Subrahmanian, University of Maryland, USA
Carlo Zaniolo, University of California Los Angeles, USA 

