8.0232 CFP: AI and Cognitive Science (1/165)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 5 Oct 1994 07:58:16 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0232. Wednesday, 5 Oct 1994.

Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:45:21 BST
From: Paul Mc Kevitt <P.McKevitt@dcs.shef.ac.uk>



CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS

AISB-95: Hybrid Problems, Hybrid Solutions.
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Monday 3rd -- Friday 7th April 1995

Halifax Hall of Residence & Computer Science Department
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, ENGLAND

The Tenth Biennial Conference on AI and Cognitive Science
organised by the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence
and the Simulation of Behaviour

Programme Chair: John Hallam (University of Edinburgh)

Programme Committee: Dave Cliff (University of Sussex)
Erik Sandewall (University of Linkoeping)
Nigel Shadbolt (University of Nottingham)
Sam Steel (University of Essex)
Yorick Wilks (University of Sheffield)

Local Organisation: Paul Mc Kevitt (University of Sheffield)

The past few years have seen an increasing tendency for diversification in
research into Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Artificial Life. A
number of approaches are being pursued, based variously on symbolic reasoning,
connectionist systems and models, behaviour-based systems, and ideas from
complex dynamical systems. Each has its own particular insight and
philosophical position.

This variety of approaches appears in all areas of Artificial Intelligence.
There are both sybmolic and connectionist natural language processing, both
classical and behaviour-based vision research, for instance.

While purists from each approach may claim that all the problems of cognition
can in principle be tackled without recourse to other methods, in practice (and
maybe in theory, also) combinations of methods from the different approaches
(hybrid methods) are more successful than a pure approach for certain kinds of
problems. The committee feels that there is an unrealised synergy between the
various approaches that an AISB conference may be able to explore.

Thus, the focus of the tenth AISB Conference is on such hybrid methods. We
particularly seek papers that describe novel theoretical and/or experimental
work which uses a hybrid approach or papers from purists, arguing cogently that
compromise is unnecessary or unproductive. While papers such as those are
particularly sought, good papers on any topic in Artificial Intelligence will be
considered: as always, the most important criteria for acceptance will be
soundness, originality, substance and clarity. Research in all areas is equally
welcome.

The AISB conference is a single track conference lasting three days, with a two
day tutorial and workshop programme preceding the main technical event, and
around twenty high calibre papers will be presented in the technical sessions.
It is expected that the proceedings of the conference will be published in book
form in time to be available at the conference itself, making it a forum for
rapid dissemination of research results.


SUBMISSIONS:

High quality original papers dealing with the issues raised by mixing different
approaches, or otherwise related to the Conference Theme, should be sent to the
Programme Chair. Papers which give comparative experimental evaluation of
methods from different paradigms applied to the same problem, papers which
propose and evaluate mixed-paradigm theoretical models or tools, and papers that
focus on hybrid systems applied to real world problems will be particularly
welcome, as will papers from purists who argue cogently that the hybrid approach
is flawed and a particular pure approach is to be preferred.

Papers being submitted, whether verbatim or in essence, to other conferences
whose review process runs concurrently with AISB-95 should indicate this fact on
their title page. If a submitted paper appears at another conference it must be
withdrawn from AISB-95 (this does not apply to presentation at specialist
workshops). Papers that violate these requirements may be rejected without
review.


SHEFFIELD:

Sheffield is one of the friendliest cities in the UK and is situated well having
the best and closest surrounding countryside of any major city in the UK. The
Peak District National Park is only minutes away. It is a good city for walkers,
runners, and climbers. It has two theatres, the Crucible and Lyceum. The
Lyceum, a beautiful Victorian theatre, has recently been renovated. Also, the
city has three 10 screen cinemas. There is a library theatre which shows more
artistic films. The city has a large number of museums many of which demonstrate
Sheffield's industrial past, and there are a number of Galleries in the City,
including the Mapping Gallery and Ruskin. A number of important ancient houses
are close to Sheffield such as Chatsworth House. The Peak District National Park
is a beautiful site for visiting and rambling upon. There are large shopping
areas in the City and by 1995 Sheffield will be served by a 'supertram' system:
the line to the Meadowhall shopping and leisure complex is already open.

The University of Sheffield's Halls of Residence are situated on the western
side of the city in a leafy residential area described by John Betjeman as ``the
prettiest suburb in England''. Halifax Hall is centred on a local Steel Baron's
house, dating back to 1830 and set in extensive grounds. It was acquired by the
University in 1830 and converted into a Hall of Residence for women with the
addition of a new wing.


ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT SHEFFIELD:

Sheffield Computer Science Department has a strong programme in Cognitive
Systems and is part of the University's Institute for Language, Speech and
Hearing (ILASH). ILASH has its own machines and support staff, and academic
staff attached to it from nine departments. Sheffield Psychology Department has
the Artificial Intelligence Vision Research Unit (AIVRU) which was founded in
1984 to coordinate a large industry/university Alvey research consortium working
on the development of computer vision systems for autonomous vehicles and robot
workstations.


FORMAT AND DEADLINES:

Four copies of submitted papers must be received by the Programme Chair no later
than 24 OCTOBER 1994 to be considered. Papers should be at most 12 pages in
length and be produced in 12 point, with at most 60 lines of text per A4 page
and margins at least 1 inch (2.5cm) wide on all sides (default LaTeX article
style is OK). They should include a cover sheet (not counted in the 12 page
limit) giving the paper title, the abstract, the authors and their affiliations,
including a contact address for both electronic and paper mail for the principal
author. Papers should be submitted in hard-copy, not electronically. Papers
that do not adhere to this format specification may be rejected without review.

Notification of acceptance will be sent to authors by 7 DECEMBER 1994 and full
camera-ready copy will be due in early JANUARY 1995 (publishers' deadlines
permitting).


CONFERENCE ADDRESS:

Correspondence relating to the conference programme, submissions of papers, etc.
should be directed to the conference programme chair at the address below.

John Hallam,
Department of Artificial Intelligence,
University of Edinburgh,
5 Forrest Hill,
Edinburgh EH1 2QL,
SCOTLAND.

Phone: + 44 31 650 3097
FAX: + 44 31 650 6899
E-mail: john@aifh.edinburgh.ac.uk

Correspondence concerning local arrangements should be directed to the local
arrangements organiser at the following address.

Paul Mc Kevitt,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Sheffield,
Regent Court,
211 Portobello Street,
Sheffield S1 4DP,
ENGLAND.

Phone: + 44 742 825572
FAX: + 44 742 780972
E-mail: p.mckevitt@dcs.sheffield.ac.uk