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Neuron Digest Volume 11 Number 05
Neuron Digest Friday, 22 Jan 1993 Volume 11 : Issue 5
Today's Topics:
Symposium on Aliens, Apes, and AI
WCNN extension of submission deadline
Update - SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS
ICNN'93 and FUZZ-IEEE'93
CFP - Grammatical Inference Conference
Send submissions, questions, address maintenance, and requests for old
issues to "neuron-request@cattell.psych.upenn.edu". The ftp archives are
available from cattell.psych.upenn.edu (130.91.68.31). Back issues
requested by mail will eventually be sent, but may take a while.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Symposium on Aliens, Apes, and AI
From: "Dr. S. Kak" <kak@max.ee.LSU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 11:12:37 -0600
[[ Editor's Note: The title of this symposium is extremely intriguing. I
hope that some DIgest reader will attend and give a report back to the
general readership (or at *least* me!). -PM ]]
A symposium on Aliens, Apes, and AI: Who is a person in the postmodern
world?
will be held in Huntsville, AL on Feb 13, 1993. The symposium is being
organized by profs Lyn Miles and Stephen Harper of U. of Tennessee,
Chattanooga. For further information contact
FAX 615-755-4279; BITNET:SHARPER@UTCVM ; LMILES@UTCVM
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
My paper at the symposium is described below:
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
Symposium on Aliens, Apes, and Artificial Intelligence , The
University of Alabama in Huntsville, February 13, 1993.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
Technical Report 92-12 ECE-LSU December 1, 1992
Reflections In Clouded Mirrors: Selfhood In Animals And Machines
by Subhash Kak Copyright
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Louisiana State
University Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5901
Abstract
This essay is a tapestry woven out of three threads: Vedic theory
of consciousness, quantum mechanics, and neural networks. The
ancient Vedic tradition of philosophy of consciousness that goes
back to at least 2000 BCE posits that analytical approaches to
defining awareness or personhood end up in paradox. In this
tradition one views awareness in terms of the reflection that the
hardware of the brain provides to an underlying illuminating or
awareness principle called the self . This tradition allows one
to separate questions of the tools of awareness, such as eyes and
ears and the mind, from the person who obtains this awareness.
This tradition will be reviewed and issues related to its application
to an understanding of personhood in animals and machines will be
taken up. Parallels between the insights of the Vedic tradition
and quantum mechanics will be sketched. The observer plays a
fundamental role in the measurement problem of quantum mechanics
and several scientists have claimed that physics will remain
incomplete unless consciousness is incorporated into it. We will
also consider the perspective of AI that intelligence emanates from
the complexity of the neural hardware of the brain. This will take
us to the question that what is it that separates humans from apes
and other animals and from machines. We will address the question
if machines will ever be endowed with self-awareness.
------------------------------
Subject: WCNN extension of submission deadline
From: btelfe%ulysses@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Brian Telfer)
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 14:57:00 -0500
(posted for Harold Szu)
EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION - 2/2/93
-------- -------- --- ----- ---------- ------
W O R L D C O N F E R E N C E O N N E U R A L N E T W O R K S
1993 International Neural Network Society Annual Meeting
Oregon Convention Center
Portland OR
July 11-15, 1993
COOPERATING SOCIETIES
European Neural Networks Society Japanese Neural Network Society
IEEE Neural Networks Council Society of Manufacturing Engineers
IEEE Computer Society Int'l Fuzzy Systems Association
MEETING ORGANIZERS
General Chairman: George Lendaris
Main Program Chairs: Stephen Grossberg and Bart Kosko
SME/INNS Track Program Chairs: Kenneth Marko and Bernard Widrow
IFSA/INNS Track Program Charis: Ronald Yager and Paul Werbos
Conference Coordinator: Melissa Bishop, Talley Management Group
Cooperating Societies Chairman: Mark Kon
Industrial Liason Chairman: Benjamin Peek
Student Volunteer Chairman: Roger Barga
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers may be overnight-mailed no later than Tuesday, February 2, 1993.
Submit the camera-ready original (do not fold or staple) and
5 copies. Four page limit, in English. $20 per page for additional
pages. Checks for overlength charges should be made out to WCNN'93 and
must be included with submitted paper. Papers must be printed on 8 1/2
x 11 white paper with 1" margins, single column, single spaced, Times
or similar font of 10 points or larger, one side of paper only. FAXs
not acceptable. Centered at top of first page should be complete
title, author name(s), affiliation(s), mailing addresses. Followed by
blank space, abstract up to 15 lines and text. Include in accompanying
letter: full paper title, author(s), presenter(s), addresses,
telephone and fax numbers, technical session (see below) 1st and 2nd
choices, oral or poster presentation preferred, audio-visual
requirements. Papers should be sent to address below, Attention:
Program Chairs.
Address: WCNN'93
Talley Management Group
875 Kings Highway, suite 200
West Deptford NJ 08096
Tel: (609) 845-1720
Fax: (609) 853-0411
registration@wcnn93.ee.pdx.edu
tutorials@wcnn93.ee.pdx.edu
housing@wcnn93.ee.pdx.edu
papers@wcnn93.ee.pdx.edu
sessions@wcnn93.ee.pdx.edu
Plenary Speakers include:
Carver Mead Real-Time On-Chip Learning in Analog VLSI Networks
Stephen Grossberg 3-D Vision and Figure-Ground Pop-Out
Bart Kosko Neural Fuzzy Systems
Wolf Singer Coherence as an Organizing Principle of Cortical
Function
Kumpati Narendra Intelligent Control Using Neural Networks
Session Topics: Session Chairs:
1. Biological Vision C. Malsburg, V.S. Ramachandran
2. Machine Vision R. Chellappa, K. Fukushima
3. Speech and Language M. Cohen, D. Rumelhart
4. Biological Sensory-Motor Control A. Barto, S. Kelso
5. Robotics and Control M. Kuperstein, K. Narendra
6. Supervised Learning L. Cooper, P. Werbos
7. Unsupervised Learning G. Carpenter, E. Oja
8. Pattern Recognition T. Kohonen, D. Specht
9. Local Circuit Neurobiology J. Byrne, J. Houk
10. Cognitive Neuroscience R. Desimone, L. Optician
11. Intelligent Neural Systems S. Grossberg, D. Levine
12. Neural Fuzzy Systems W. Daugherty, B. Kosko
13. Signal Processing S.Y. Kung, B. Widrow
14. Neurodynamics S. Amari, H. White
15. Electro-Optical Neurocomputers L. Giles, H. Szu
16. Associative Memory J. Anderson, J. Taylor
17. Applications J. Dayhoff, R. Hecht-Neilsen
In addition, special tracks will be offered in conjunction with the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers on Manufacturing and the
International Fuzzy Systems Association on Fuzzy Logic.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
before 6/15/93 after 6/15/93
INNS or Cooperating
Society Member $270 $350
Nonmembers* $370 $450
Full-time student** $75 $95
Spouse/Guest*** $60 $70
*includes 1993 INNS membership and subscription to Neural Networks
**must be accompanied by a verification letter from department chairman
***includes 2 receptions only
Information on the tutorial program can be obtained from the above address.
Information on accomodations, transportation and the Portland area
will be sent to you upon receipt of your registration.
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP MEETINGS
Wednesday evening after the banquet, all topical SIGINNS chairmen
should organize sessions/meetings/panel discussions for their topical
special interest groups. Please suggest activities, technical talks or
panel discussion or social, that you would like, before February 15.
These special interest groups are listed below with points of contact
for your input:
Automatic Target Recognition Brian Telfer
(301) 394-1846, fax:-3923
btelfe@ulysses.nswc.navy.mil
Control, Automation and Robotics Kaveh Ashenayi
(918) 631-3278, fax:-3220
kash@ohm.ee.utulsa.edu
Education John V. Urbas
(404) 421-1670, fax:423-6530
jurbas@uscn.cc.uga.edu
Electronics/VLSI Ralph H. Castain
(505) 667-3283, fax:665-4657
rhc@lanl.gov
Financial and Economic Applications Guido DeBoeck
(202) 477-0054, fax:-8589
wg08497@ibrdvax1.bitnet
Geology/Geophysics Horacio Bouzas
(713) 952-2100 x460, fax:-2420
hrb@geoquest.com
Higher Level Cognitive Processes John Barnden
(505) 646-6235, fax:-6218
jbarnden@nmsu.edu
Mathematics and Theory Robert Dawes
(214) 422-4570
Mental Function and Disfunction Daniel Levine
(817) 273-3598, fax:794-5802
b344dsl@utarlg.uta.edu
Neuroscience Daniel J. Alkon, MD
(301) 496-3629, fax:402-0117
Optics Mohammed Sayeh
(618) 536-2364, fax:453-7455
Pulsed Networks Mark Bagula
(408) 991-7456, fax:-7474
or
Judith Dayhoff
(301) 405-6556, fax:314-9920
dayhoff@rq.src.umd.edu
Speech Rich Peterson
(404) 874-0168, fax:894-3906
rick@eedsp.gatech.edu
Standards Mary Lou Padgett
(205) 844-1855, fax:-1809
mpadgett@eng.auburn.edu
Vision/Motion Analysis David Fong
(408) 433-3922, fax:-3925
------------------------------
Subject: Update - SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS
From: arbib@cs.usc.edu (Michael Arbib)
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 93 10:37:55 -0800
Please publish the following update. Many thanks!!
#####
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
A previous announcement (reproduced below) announced a registration fee
of $150 and advertised the availability of hotel accommodation at
$70/night.
To encourage the participation of qualified students we have made 3
changes:
1) We have appointed Jean-Marc Fellous as Student Chair for the meeting
to coordinate the active involvement of such students.
2) We offer a Student Registration Fee of only $40 to students whose
application is accompanied by a letter from their supervisor attesting
to their student status.
3) Mr. Fellous has identified a number of lower-cost housing options, and
will respond to queries to fellous@pollux.usc.edu
The original announcement - with updated registration form - follows:
********
To design complex technological systems and to analyze complex biological
and cognitive systems, we need a multilevel methodology which 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 is as 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. Information on student
accommodation may be obtained from the Student Chair, Jean-Marc Fellous,
fellous@pollux.usc.edu.
The registration fee of $150 ($40 for qualified students who include a
"certificate of student status" from their advisor) 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 payable to "Center for
Neural Engineering, USC" for $150 ($40 for students) 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 [ ]
------------------------------
Subject: ICNN'93 and FUZZ-IEEE'93
From: Hideyuki Takagi <takagi@diva.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 20:49:54 -0800
=====================================================================
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 15:52:58 PST
From: Hamid Berenji <berenji@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: IEEE Conferences
** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION **
1993 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORKS
SECOND IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FUZZY SYSTEMS
March 28 - April 1, 1993
San Francisco Hilton
San Francisco, California
The IEEE Neural Networks Council cordially invites you to attend the
Second International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE'93) and the
1993 IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks (ICNN'93), to be
held concurrently at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, San Francisco,
California from March 28 to April 1, 1993.
These IEEE-sponsored events have grown to become the largest conferences
in their fields. In 1993, their importance will be enhanced by their
combined meeting in an environment that assures that conference
participants will have full access to all functions and events of either
of these multidisciplinary meetings. In addition to an exciting program
of plenary lectures, tutorial presentations, and technical sessions and
panels, we anticipate an extraordinary trade show and exhibits program
affording a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the latest
developments in products based on neural-networks and fuzzy-systems
techniques.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Lotfi A. Zadeh
University of California, Berkeley
Didier Dubois
Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse
Hamid R. Berenji
NASA Ames Research Center
Michio Sugeno
Tokyo Institute of Technology
E.H. Mamdani
Queens Mary College, London
Henri Prade
Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse
Bernard Widrow
Stanford University
Kumpati Narendra
Yale University
Teuvo Kohonen
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Richard Sutton
GTE Laboratories
Carver Mead
California Institute of Technology
Piero Bonissone
General Electric Corporate R&D
TUTORIALS
SUNDAY MARCH 28, 1993, 9:00AM - 12:30PM
1. Introduction to Fuzzy Set Theory,
Uncertainty and Information Theory
George Klir
State University of New York
2. Fuzzy Logic in Databases and Information Retrieval
Maria Zemankova
National Science Foundation
3. Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks Pattern Recognition
James Bezdek
University of West Florida
4. Evolutionary Programming
David Fogel
Orincon Corporation
5. Introduction to Biological and Artificial Neural Networks
Steven Rogers
Air Force Institute of Technology
6. The Biological Brain: Biological Neural Networks
Terrence J. Sejnowski
The Salk Institute
SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 1993, 2:00PM - 5:30PM
7. Hardware Approaches to Fuzzy Logic Applications
H. Watanabe
University of North Carolina
8. Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks for Control Systems
Hamid R. Berenji
NASA Ames Research Center
9. Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks for Computer Vision
James Keller
University of Missouri
10. Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks
Darrell Whitley
Colorado State University
11. Suggestions from Cognitive Science for Neural Network Applications
James A. Anderson
Brown University
12. Expert Systems and Neural Networks
George Lendaris
Portland State University
****************************************************************************
1993 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORKS
Sponsored by the IEEE Neural Networks Council with the cooperation of
the European Neural Networks Society and the Japan Neural Networks
Society.
IEEE Neural Networks Council Constituent Societies:
IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
IEEE Communications Society
IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Control Systems Society
IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society
IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
IEEE Industry Applications Society
IEEE Information Theory Society
IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society
IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society
IEEE Power Engineering Society
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
IEEE Signal Processing Society
IEEE Social Implications of Technology Society
IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Power Engineering Society
ORGANIZATION
General Chair: Enrique H. Ruspini
Program Cochairs:
Hamid R. Berenji
Elie Sanchez
Shiro Usui
ADVISORY BOARD:
S.I. Amari L. Cooper F. Fukushima C. Lau L. Stark
J. Anderson R.C. Eberhart R. Hecht-Nielsen C.Mead A. Stubberud
G. Bekey R. Eckmiller J. Holland N.Packard H. Takagi
J.C. Bezdek J. Feldman C. Jorgensen D.Rummelhart P. Treleaven
Y. Burnod M. Feldman T. Kohonen B. Skyrms B. Widrow
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
PUBLICITY: H.R. Berenji
TUTORIALS: J.C. Bezdek
PRESS/PUBLIC RELATIONS: C. Welch
EXHIBITS: W. Xu
FINANCE: R. Tong
VIDEO PROCEEDINGS: A. Bergman
VOLUNTEERS: A. Worth
****************************************************************************
SECOND IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FUZZY SYSTEMS
Sponsored by the IEEE Neural Networks Council in Cooperation with
IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
IEEE Communications Society
IEEE Control Systems Society
IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA)
North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society (NAFIPS)
Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Systems (SOFT)
European Laboratory for Intelligent Techniques Engineering (ELITE)
ORGANIZATION
General Chairman: Enrique H. Ruspini
SRI International
Program Chairman: Piero P. Bonissone
General Electric Corporate Research and Development
ADVISORY BOARD:
J. Bezdek H. Prade M. Sugeno T. Yamakawa
D. Dubois E. Sanchez T. Terano L.A. Zadeh
G. Klir Ph. Smets E. Trillas H.J. Zimmerman
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
EXHIBITS: W. Xu, A. Ralescu, M. Togai, L. Valverde, T. Yamakawa
FINANCE: R. Tong(Chair), R. Nutter
PRESS/PUBLIC RELATIONS: C. Welch
PUBLICITY: H. Berenji (Chair),B. D'Ambrosio,
R. Lopez de Mantaras, T. Takagi
TUTORIALS: J. Bezdek (Chair),
H.R. Berenji, H. Watanabe
VIDEO PROCEEDINGS: A. Bergman
VOLUNTEERS: A. Worth
**************************************************************************
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES:
Full Conference registration permits attendance at all events and
functions of both conferences with the exception of optional tour
programs. The registration fee also includes one set of Proceedings
(to be chosen by the registrant) for either FUZZ-IEEE '93 or ICNN '93.
Additional ICNN '93 or FUZZ-IEEE '93 Proceedings or CD-ROM versions of
the Proceedings are also available for purchase.
Registered Registered
before 1/31/93 after 1/31/93
IEEE Members $325 US Dollars $395 US Dollars
Non-Members $425 US Dollars $495 US Dollars
Students* $80 US Dollars $100 US Dollars
TUTORIAL REGISTRATION FEES:
Members Non-members Students*
One Tutorial $295 $345 $150
Two Tutorials $395 $450 $200
* A letter from the Department Head to verify full-time student status at
the time of registration is required. At the conference, all students
must present a current student ID with picture.
FOREIGN PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE BY DRAFT ON A U.S. BANK IN U.S. DOLLARS
REFUND POLICY:
If your registration must be canceled, your fee will be refunded less
$50 U.S. dollars administrative costs. You must notify us in writing by
March 1, 1993. No refunds can be given after this date.
LOCATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS
The Conferences will be held at the San Francisco Hilton located downtown
just one block from famous Union Square in the heart of San Francisco;
and just twenty minutes from San Francisco International Airport. The
Hilton offers participants of the Conferences a very special room rate
of $117 (Single) and $127 (Double).
San Francisco Hilton
One Hilton Square
333 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-2189
Reservations (415) 771-1400
To guarantee your reservation, you must make your reservation with
payment directly to the hotel to cover the first night's stay by check
or credit card.
DEADLINE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS: March 1, 1993
SIGHTSEEING TOURS
Various sightseeing tours in and around San Francisco and a Dinner
Cruise will be offered. Details regarding tours as well as reservation
forms will be sent upon registration for the Symposium.
AIRLINE INFORMATION
American Airlines has waived many of the restrictions to allow the
FUZZ-IEEE '93/ICNN '93 attendees to obtain SuperSaver fares for which
they would normally not qualify. Bristol Travel has been named the
official travel agency for the FUZZ-IEEE '93/ICNN '93 Conferences and
can assist you with all your travel needs. To make your reservations
call Bristol Travel at (800) 762- 2746. Bristol Travel also provides
24-hour around the-clock service. During off hours you can call
(800) 237-7980 and refer to VIT (Very Important Traveler) Number SY2CO.
************************************************************************
CONFERENCE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION:
PLEASE CONTACT:
FUZZ-IEEE '93/ICNN '93 Conference Office:
P.O. Box 16502
Irvine, CA 92713-6502 USA
For Express Mail only:
Conference Office
2603 Main Street, Suite 690
Irvine, CA 92714 USA
Tel (619) 453-6222 or (800) 321-6338
FAX (714) 752-7444
E-Mail: 70750.345@compuserve.com
------------------------------
Subject: CFP - Grammatical Inference Conference
From: Lucas S M <sml@essex.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 17:12:25 +0000
1st ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
--------------------------------------
GRAMMATICAL INFERENCE: THEORY, APPLICATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
22-23 April, 1993
At the UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX,
WIVENHOE PARK,
COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ, UK
Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical Engineers and the
Institute of Mathematics.
Relevant Research Areas:
* Computational Linguistics
* Machine Learning
* Pattern Recognition
* Neural Networks
* Artificial Intelligence
MOTIVATION
- ------------
Grammatical Inference is an immensely important research area
that has suffered from the lack of a focussed research community.
A two-day colloquium will be held at the University of Essex
on the 22-23rd April 1993. The purpose of this colloquium is
to bring together researchers who are working on grammatical
inference and closely related problems such as sequence learning
and prediction.
Papers are sought for the technical sessions listed below.
BACKGROUND
- ------------
A grammar is a finite declarative description of a possible infinite set
of data (known as the language) that is reversible in the sense that it
may be used to detect language membership (or degree of membership) of a
pattern, or it may be used generatively to produce samples of the
language.
The language may be formal and simple such as the set of all symmetric
strings over a given alphabet, formal and more complex such as the set of
legal PASCAL programs, less formal such as sentences or phrases in
natural language, or noisy such as vector-quantised speech or
handwriting, or even spatial rather than temporal, such as 2-d images.
For the noisy cases stochastic grammars are often used that define the
probability that the data was generated by the given grammar.
So, given a set of data that the grammar is supposed to generate, and
perhaps also a set that it should not generate, the problem is to learn a
grammar that not only satisfies these conditions, but more importantly,
generalises to unseen data in some desirable way (this may be strictly
specified in test-cases where the grammar used to create the training
samples is known).
To date, the grammatical inference research community has evolved largely
divided into the following areas
a) Theories about the type of languages that can and cannot
be learned. These theories are generally concerned with the types of
language that may and may not be learned in polynomial time. Arguably
irrelevant in practical terms since in practical applications we are
usually happy to settle for a good grammar rather than some `ideal'
grammar.
b) Explicit Inference; this deals directly with modifiying a
set of production rules until a satisfactory grammar is obtained.
c) Implicit inference e.g. estimating the parameters of a hidden Markov
model -- in this case production rule probabilities in the equivalent
stochastic regular grammar are represented by pairs of numbers in the
HMM.
d) Estimating models where the grammatical equivalence uncertain (e.g.
recurrent neural networks), but often aim to solve exactly the same
problem.
In many cases, researchers in these distinct subfields seem unaware of
the other work in the other subfields; this is surely detrimental to the
progress of grammatical inference research.
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
- --------------------
Oral and poster papers are requested in the following areas:
Theory:
What kinds of language are theoretically learnable; the practical import
of such theories. Learning 2-d and higher-dimensional grammars,
attribute grammars etc.
Algorithms:
Any new GI algorithms, or new insights on old ones. Grammatical
inference assistants, that aim to aid humans in writing grammars.
Performance of Genetic algorithms and simulated annealing for grammatical
inference etc.
Applications:
Any interesting applications in natural language processing, speech
recognition Speech and language processing, cursive script recognition,
pattern recognition, sequence prediction, financial markets etc.
Alternatives:
The power of alternative approaches to sequence learning, such as
stochastic models and artificial neural networks, where the inferred
grammar may have a distributed rather than an explicit represention.
Competition:
A number of datasets will be made available for authors to report the
performance of their algorithms on, in terms of learning speed and
generalisation power. There is also the possiblity of a live competition
in the demonstration session.
Demonstration:
There will be a session where authors may demonstrate their algorithms.
For this purpose we have a large number of Unix workstations running
X-Windows, with compilers for C, C++, Pascal, Fortran, Common Lisp and
Prolog. If your algorithms are written in a more exotic language, we may
still be able to sort something out. PCs can be made available if
necessary.
DISCUSSIONS
- -------------
There will be open forum discussions of planning the next Grammatical
Inference Conference, and the setting up of a Grammatical Inference
Journal (possibly an electronic one).
PUBLICATIONS
- --------------
Loose-bound collections of accepted conference
papers will be distributed to delegates upon arrival. It is planned to
publish a selection of these papers in a book following the conference.
REMOTE PARTICIPATION
- ----------------------
Authors from distant lands unwilling to travel to Essex for the
conference are encouraged to submit a self-explanatory poster-paper that
will be displayed at the conference.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
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Prospective authors should submit a 2-page abstract
to Simon Lucas at the address below by the end of February, 1992. Email
and Faxed abstracts are acceptable. Notification of the intention to
submit an abstract would would also be appreciated.
REGISTRATION DETAILS
- ----------------------
Prospective delegates are requested to mail/email/fax me at the address
below for further details.
Dr. Simon Lucas
Department of Electronic Systems Engineering
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
Tel: 0206 872935
Fax: 0206 872900
Email: sml@uk.ac.essex
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End of Neuron Digest [Volume 11 Issue 5]
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