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AIList Digest Volume 5 Issue 237
AIList Digest Friday, 16 Oct 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 237
Today's Topics:
Seminars - The Logical Foundations of Evidential Reasoning (SRI) &
The Matrix of Biological Knowledge (BBN) &
PROLOG and AI Applications - A European Perspective (UNISYS) &
Non-Deterministic Lisp (SRI) &
OB1: A Prolog-Based Object-Oriented Database (UNYSIS),
Course - Connectionist Summer School,
Conference - Computers in Engineering
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 87 16:10:01 PDT
From: seminars@csl.sri.com (contact lunt@csl.sri.com)
Subject: Seminar - The Logical Foundations of Evidential Reasoning (SRI)
SRI COMPUTER SCIENCE LAB SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT:
THE LOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EVIDENTIAL REASONING
Enrique H. Ruspini
Artificial Intelligence Center
SRI International
Monday, October 19 at 4:00 pm
SRI International, Computer Science Laboratory, Room IS109
The approach proposed by Carnap for the development of logical bases
for probability theory is applied to formal structures that are based
on epistemic logics. Epistemic logics are modal logics introduced to
deal with issues that are relevant to the state of knowledge that
rational agents have about the real world. The use of epistemic
logics in problems of analysis of evidence is justified by the need to
distinguish among such notions as the state of a real system, the
state of knowledge possessed by rational agents, and the impact of
information on that knowledge.
Carnap's method for generating a universe of possible worlds is
followed using an enhanced notion of possible world that encompasses
descriptions of knowledge states. Within such generalized or
epistemic universes, several classes of sets are identified in terms
of the truth-values of propositions that describe either the state of
the world or the state of knowledge that rational agents have about it.
Probabilities defined over certain subsets of the epistemic universe
are then shown to have the properties of the belief and basic
probability assignment functions of the Dempster-Shafer calculus of
evidence.
Furthermore, extensions of a probability function defined over
epistemic subsets (representing different states of knowledge) to
truth-sets (representing true states of the real world) must satisfy
the interval probability bounds derived from the Dempster-Shafer
theory. These bounds correspond to the classical notions of lower and
upper probability and are the best possible, given a specific state of
knowledge.
Finally, the problem of combining the knowledge state of several
rational agents is also treated by consideration of epistemic
structures. The result of this analysis is a general formula for the
integration of evidence. From this formula and certain probabilistic
independence assumptions, the rule of combination of Dempster is
easily derived. The meaning of these independence assumptions is made
explicit through the insight provided by the formal structures that
are used to represent knowledge and truth.
NOTE FOR VISITORS TO SRI:
Please arrive at least 10 minutes early in order to sign in and
be shown to the conference room.
SRI is located at 333 Ravenswood Avenue in Menlo Park. Visitors
may park in the visitors lot in front of Building A (red brick
building at 333 Ravenswood Ave) or in the conference parking area
at the corner of Ravenswood and Middlefield. The seminar room is in
the International Building -- the white concrete structure on Ravenswood
to the East (left) of Building A. Visitors should sign in at the
International Building reception --- up the steps into the courtyard and
on the left.
IMPORTANT: Visitors from Communist Bloc countries should make the
necessary arrangements with Fran Leonard (415-859-4124) in SRI Security
as soon as possible.
------------------------------
Date: Tue 13 Oct 87 15:27:56-EDT
From: Marc Vilain <MVILAIN@G.BBN.COM>
Subject: Seminar - The Matrix of Biological Knowledge (BBN)
BBN Science Development Program
Joint Biotech and AI Seminar Series Lecture
"The Matrix of Biological Knowledge"
Kimberle Koile
BBN Labs
(KKOILE@G.BBN.COM)
BBN Labs
10 Moulton Street
2nd floor large conference room
10:30 am, Thursday October 15th
The body of experimental data in the biological sciences is immense and
growing rapidly. Its volume is so extensive that computer methods,
possibly straining the limits of current technology will be necessary to
organize the data. Moreover, it seems highly likely that there are a
significant number of as yet undiscovered ordering relations, new laws,
and predictive models embedded in the mass of existing information. To
employ this body of information productively, it will be useful to
create an extensive data/knowledge base, "the matrix of biological
knowledge," structured to provide a conceptual framework by the laws,
models, empirical generalizations, and physical foundations of the
modern biological sciences.
--- from a Santa Fe Institute press release
This talk will describe preliminary efforts to define and prototype parts of
the Matrix. These efforts took place at a summer workshop that was organized
as a result of a National Academy of Sciences report published in 1985,
"Models for Biomedical Research: A New Perspective." The workshop, sponsored
by the Santa Fe Institute with support from NIH, DOE, and several commercial
companies, was attended by fifty scientists from a variety of biology and
computer subdisciplines.
Note: A related talk on the Matrix will be given Friday morning
(announcement forthcoming) by Prof. Harold Morowitz of the
Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.
Prof. Morowitz chaired the Committee on Models for Biomedical
Research, which produced the above mentioned report, and
co-chaired the Workshop on the Matrix of Biological Knowledge.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 87 15:50:48 EDT
From: finin@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM (Tim Finin)
Subject: Seminar - PROLOG and AI Applications - A European
Perspective (UNISYS)
AI Seminar
UNISYS Knowledge Systems
Paoli Research Center
Paoli PA
PROLOG AND AI APPLICATIONS - A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE
Raf Venken
BIM Prolog
Raf Venken, manager for BIM Prolog Research and Development, will be
visiting Logic Based Systems on Monday, October 19th. BIM is a high
performance Prolog which runs on UNIX-based SUN workstations as well
as VAXES under VMS, UNIX 4.2, and ULTRIX. BIM is involved in joint
research efforts with various universities throughout Europe and is a
member of ESPRIT (the "European MCC"). BIM has also contributed to
LOQUI, a large natural language project.
BIM claims to be the fastest general purpose Prolog system currently
available on the market. BIM includes "the first successful attempt
to include more intelligent debugging aids into the [Prolog] system"
and a "PARTIAL EVALUATION system which optimizes Prolog programs by
source-to-source transformations." BIM has also "extended the Prolog
language with the concept of MODULES to allow the easy development of
very large systems."
The talk will cover the philosophy and strategy behind BIM Prolog,
discuss current ESPRIT projects including a large NLP system, and
speculate about the future.
11:00am, Monday, October 19th
Cafeteria Conference Room
- if you are interested in attending, please send -
- mail to finin@prc.unisys.com or call 215-648-7446 -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 87 11:54:41 PDT
From: Amy Lansky <lansky@venice.ai.sri.com>
Subject: Seminar - Non-Deterministic Lisp (SRI)
DEPENDENCY-DIRECTED BACKTRACKING IN NON-DETERMINISTIC LISP
Ramin Zabih (RDZ@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU)
Computer Science Department
Stanford University
11:00 AM, MONDAY, October 19
SRI International, Building E, Room EJ228
Dependency-directed backtracking is a strategy for solving
generate-and-test search problems. Pure Lisp extended with McCarthy's
non-deterministic operator AMB is an elegant language for expressing
such problems. I will describe how to automatically provide
dependency-directed backtracking in SCHEMER, a non-deterministic Lisp
dialect.
It is also possible for SCHEMER to automatically provide other search
strategies than dependency-directed backtracking. In fact, SCHEMER
can support a large class of solution methods. I will show that
SCHEMER programs can make use of any algorithm for determining the
satisfiability of a propositional formula in Conjunctive Normal Form.
This is joint work with David McAllester.
VISITORS: Please arrive 5 minutes early so that you can be escorted up
from the E-building receptionist's desk. Thanks!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 87 15:12:54 EDT
From: finin@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM (Tim Finin)
Subject: Seminar - OB1: A Prolog-Based Object-Oriented Database
(UNYSIS)
AI Seminar
UNISYS Knowledge Systems
Paoli Research Center
Paoli PA
OB1: A PROLOG-BASED OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE
Benjamin Cohen
SRI International
David Sarnoff Research Center
Princeton NJ 8540
In this talk I describe OB1, an object-oriented database facility. OB1
is a hybrid query language that incorporates most of the features of
relational query languages plus "view/objects" that allow sets as
values and recursive views. OB1 is implemented in Quintus Prolog and
includes server facilities that allow C & Fortran clients to query an
OB1 server over a SUN network. OB1 also has a graphics
Entity/Relationship data modeling editor used to design OB1 databases.
Ben will be here friday, October 23, from lunch time till 5 - I suppose
the talk would start around 1:30 or 2:00
2:00pm Friday, October 23
Cafeteria Conference Room
- if you are interested in attending, please send -
- mail to finin@prc.unisys.com or call 215-648-7446 -
------------------------------
Date: Wed 14 Oct 87 03:18:33-EDT
From: Dave.Touretzky@C.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Course - Connectionist Summer School
THE 1988 CONNECTIONIST MODELS SUMMER SCHOOL
ORGANIZER: David Touretzky
ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Geoffrey Hinton, Terrence Sejnowski
SPONSORS: The Sloan Foundation; AAAI; others to be announced.
DATES: June 17-26, 1988
PLACE: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PROGRAM: The summer school program is designed to introduce young neural
network researchers to the latest developments in the field. There will be
sessions on learning, theoretical analysis, connectionist symbol processing,
speech recognition, language understanding, brain structure, and neuromorphic
computer architectures. Students will have the opportunity to informally
present their own research and to interact closely with some of the leaders of
the field.
PARTIAL LIST OF FACULTY:
Yaser Abu-Mostafa (Caltech) James McClelland (Carnegie Mellon)
Dana Ballard (Rochester) David Rumelhart (Stanford)
Andrew Barto (U. Mass.) Terrence Sejnowski (Johns Hopkins)
Gail Carpenter (Boston U.) Paul Smolensky (UC Boulder)
Scott Fahlman (Carnegie Mellon) David Tank (AT&T Bell Labs)
Geoffrey Hinton (Toronto) David Touretzky (Carnegie Mellon)
George Lakoff (Berkeley) Alex Waibel (ATR International)
Yann Le Cun (Toronto) others to be announced
EXPENSES: Students are responsible for their meals and travel expenses,
although some travel assistance may be available. Free dormitory space will be
provided. There is no tuition charge.
WHO SHOULD APPLY: The summer school's goal is to assist young researchers who
have chosen to work in the area of neural computation. Participation is
limited to graduate students (masters or doctoral level) who are actively
involved in some aspect of neural network research. Persons who have already
completed the Ph.D. are not eligible. Applicants who are not full time
students will still be considered, provided that they are enrolled in a
doctoral degree program. A total of 50 students will be accepted.
HOW TO APPLY: By March 1, 1988, send your curriculum vitae and a copy of one
relevant paper, technical report, or research proposal to: Dr. David Touretzky,
Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213.
Applicants will be notified of acceptance by April 15, 1988.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 87 09:10:58 EDT
From: decvax!cvbnet!cheetah!rverrill@decwrl.dec.com (Ralph Verrilli)
Subject: Conference - Computers in Engineering
CALL FOR PAPERS
1988 ASME INTERNATIONAL COMPUTERS IN ENGINEERING
CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
SAN FRANCISCO HILTON
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
July 31 - August 3, 1988
REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS OF EXPERT SYSTEMS
AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The theme for the 1988 ASME International Computers in Engineering
Conference will focus on the emerging applications of expert systems
and artificial intelligence.
This conference and exhibition provides a forum for engineers,
managers, researchers, vendors, and users to discuss relevant
issues, and to present ideas on computer technology and its impact
on the engineering workplace. Over 80 papers and panel sessions are
planned covering a broad spectrum of technical computing and
computers in the engineering community. The topics covered will
encompass: computer aided design and manufacturing, computer
simulation, robotics, interactive graphics, finite element
techniques, microprocessors, computers in educations, expert
systems, and artificial intelligence.
Papers are solicited in all areas related to the application,
development, research, and education with computers in mechanical
engineering. Contributions in the form of full-length papers or
extended abstracts are solicited. Accepted papers will be published
in the bound Conference Proceedings. Full length papers of special
note will be reviewed after the conference for publication in the
Society's magazine "Computers in Mechanical Engineering (CIME)".
The annual event is sponsored by the Computers in Engineering
Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
San Francisco is the site of this years conference.
DEADLINES :
Submission of three copies of draft contributions
(paper or extended abstract) November 30, 1987
Notification of acceptance to authors February 15, 1988
Submission of author-prepared mats April 1, 1988
For the following technical areas please send papers to the
respective program chairmen :
{
Computer Aided Manufacturing, Computer Simulation, Turnkey CAD/CAM,
Integration of CAD and CAM, Computer Aided Testing, Computer Aided
Design, Interactive Graphics :
Dr. Donald Riley
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
111 Church Street
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-625-0591/1809 }
{
Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Based Systems :
Mr. M.F. Kinoglu
AI and Expert Systems Group
Control Data Corporation
1450 Energy Park Drive
Saint Paul, MN 55108
612-642-3817 }
{
Microprocessors, Robotics, Special Purpose Computers, Man-Machine
Interfaces :
Mr. David W. Bennett
Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs
P.O. Box 999
Richland, WA 99352
509-375-2159 }
{
Robotics in Education, Teaching CAD in Higher Education, University
- Industry Collaboration, Microcomputers in the Classroom,
Computer-Aided Learning :
Dr. Gary Kinzel
Ohio State University
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
206 West 18th Street
Columbus, Ohio 43210
614-292-6884 }
{
Finite Element Techniques, Software Standards, Computational
Geometry :
Dr. Kumar K. Tamma
Dept of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia
304-293-4111 }
{
Computers in Energy Systems, Computational Fluid Dynamics,
Computational Heat Transfer, Combustion Modelling, Process Control :
Dr. Ahmed A. Busaina
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Clarkson University
Potsdam, New York
315-268-6574 }
Topics not in the above categories contact Technical Program
Chairman :
Mr. Edward M. Patton
US Army Ballistic Research Lab
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD 21005
301-278-6805
------------------------------
End of AIList Digest
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