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AIList Digest Volume 4 Issue 126
AIList Digest Wednesday, 21 May 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 126
Today's Topics:
Opinion - AI Conference Size,
Seminars - Knowledge-Based Development of Software Systems (SU) &
Decision-Theoretic Heuristic Planning (SU) &
NanoComputers and Molecular Engineering (Xerox PARC) &
Palladio Exploratory Environment for Circuit Design (SU),
Conference - IJCAI-89 Site Selection and Officer Election &
Workshop on High-Level Tools
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Date: Tue 20 May 86 13:56:33-PDT
From: Peter Karp <KARP@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: On the growing size of AI conferences
What's all this fuss about organizing AAAI into seperate science and
engineering tracks to try to deal with the size of the conference? We
can hold the size down much more effectively by simply holding it and
IJCAI in Detroit every year.
------------------------------
Date: Wed 14 May 86 09:23:24-PDT
From: Christine Pasley <pasley@SRI-KL>
Subject: Seminar - Knowledge-Based Development of Software Systems (SU)
CS529 - AI In Design & Manufacturing
Instructor: Dr. J. M. Tenenbaum
Title: Knowledge-Based Development of Software Systems
Speakers: Lawrence Markosian
Douglas Smith
From: Reasoning Systems and Kestrel Institute
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1986
Time: 4:00 - 5:30
Place: Terman 556
In the first part of the talk a knowledge-based approach
to the development of software systems is presented. In this approach
specifications written in a very-high-level, wide-spectrum language
are refined via transformations into efficient programs. Several
complex transformations for decomposing and refining specifications
are illustrated with examples.
In the second part of the talk an area of applied research - the
derivation of specifications from requirements will be discussed. A
case study in the requirements, specification, design and synthesis of
a simple communications system is presented. In the case study only
the step from specification to program is automated. It is then suggested
how the same technology used in automating that step can be used to
automate the derivation of the specification from requirements.
Visitors welcome!
------------------------------
Date: Fri 16 May 86 18:48:43-PDT
From: Larry Fagan <FAGAN@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: Seminar - Decision-Theoretic Heuristic Planning (SU)
A Decision-Theoretic Approach to Explaining Heuristic Planning
Curtis P. Langlotz
PhD Oral Exam
Medical Information Sciences
Stanford University
Thursday, May 22, 1:15 PM
Medical Center M-112
Many important planning problems are characterized by uncertainty
about the current situation and by uncertainty about the consequences
of future action. These problems also inevitably involve tradeoffs
between the costs and benefits associated with possible actions.
Decision theory is an extensively studied methodology for reasoning
under these conditions, but has not been explicitly and satisfactorily
integrated with artificial intelligence approaches to planning.
Likewise, many perceived practical limitations of decision theory,
such as problem solving results that are difficult to explain and
computational needs that are difficult to satisfy, can be overcome
through the use of artificial intelligence techniques. This thesis
explores the combination of decision-theoretic and artificial
intelligence approaches to planning, and shows that this combination
allows better explanation of planning decisions than either one alone.
In addition, the explicit representation of probabilities and
utilities allows flexibility in the construction of a planning system.
This means that assumptions made by such systems, which may be
critical for their performance, are more easily modified than in a
system that does not explicitly represent uncertainties and tradeoffs.
------------------------------
Date: 19 May 86 11:00 PDT
From: DMRussell.pa@Xerox.COM
Reply-to: DMRussell.pa@Xerox.COM
Subject: Seminar - NanoComputers and Molecular Engineering (Xerox PARC)
PARC Forum
May 22, 1986
3:45PM, PARC Auditorium
K. Eric Drexler
Research Affiliate, MIT Space Sciences Laboratory
NanoComputers and Molecular Engineering
The broad outlines of future technology will be set by the limits of
physical law, if we can develop means for approaching those limits.
Today, because we cannot directly manipulate atomic structures, we can
make no more than a fraction of the physical structures allowed.
Advances in biotechnology and computational chemistry are opening paths
to the development of molecular assemblers able to construct complex
atomic objects, making possible dramatic advances in the field. Among
these advances will be nanocomputers with parts of molecular size.
Mechanical nanocomputers are amenable to design and analysis with
available techniques. This technology promises sub-micron computers
with giga-hertz clock rates, nanowatt power dissipation, and RAM storage
densities in the hundreds of millions of terabytes per cubic centimeter.
This Forum is OPEN. All are invited.
Host: Dan Russell (Intelligent Systems Lab, 494-4308)
Refreshments will be served by the Ad Hoc Collective of Persons
Interested in Social Interchange (AHCPISI) at 3:30 pm.
------------------------------
Date: Tue 20 May 86 09:30:55-PDT
From: Christine Pasley <pasley@SRI-KL>
Subject: Seminar - Palladio Exploratory Environment for Circuit Design (SU)
CS529 - AI In Design & Manufacturing
Instructor: Dr. J. M. Tenenbaum
Title: Palladio: An Exploratory Environment for Circuit Design
Speakers: Harold Brown
From: Knowledge Systems Lab, Stanford University
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 1986
Time: 4:00 - 5:30
Place: Terman 556
The Palladio system was an early (1980-82) attempt to apply artificial
intelligence techniques to the design of electronic circuits. Palladio
was an exploratory environment for experimenting with circuit and system
design representations, design methodologies, and knowledge-based design
and analysis aids. It differed from other prototype design environments
in that it provided mechanisms for constructing, testing and incrementally
modifying or augmenting design languages and design tools.
Palladio had facilities for conveniently defining models of circuit or
system stucture and behavior. These models, called perspectives, were
similar to design levels in that the designer could use them to interactively
create and refine design specifications. Palladio provided an interactive
graphics interface for displaying and editing structural perspectives of
circuits or systems in a uniform, perspective-independent manner. A
declarative, temporal logic behavioral language with an associated
interactive behavior editor was used to specify designs from a behavioral
perspective. Further, a generic, event-driven symbolic simulator could
simulate and verify the behavior of a specified circuit or system from any
behavioral perspective and could perform hierarchical and mixed-perspective
simulations. Several experimental expert system design refinement and
analysis aids were implemented using the Palladio environment, for example,
a system which assigned mask levels to the interconnect in an NMOS circuit
which took into account the electrical characteristics of the levels as
well as design goals.
In this talk Prof. Brown will describe the Palladio system, its implementation
and some of the lessons learned about knowledge-based systems for
enginnering tasks.
Visitors welcome!
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 May 86 00:29:31 edt
From: walker@mouton.bellcore.com (Don Walker)
Subject: Conference - IJCAI-89 Site Selection and Officer Election
IJCAI-89 Site Selection and Officer Election
The Trustees of the International Joint Conferences on Artificial
Intelligence, Inc. are pleased to announce that IJCAI-89 will be held
20-26 August 1989 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Wolfgang Bibel, Technical
University of Munich, has been elected Conference Chair; Sri
Sridharan, BBN Laboratories, has been elected Program Chair; and Sam
Uthurusamy of General Motors Research Laboratories has been appointed
to chair the Local Arrangements Committee. Don Walker, Bell
Communications Research, the IJCAII Secretary-Treasurer, will also
serve as Secretary-Treasurer for the conference.
IJCAI-89 will be cosponsored by the American Association for Artificial
Intelligence. All conference activities will be coordinated through
the AAAI Office by Claudia Mazzetti, Executive Director of the AAAI,
who will provide direct support for the IJCAI-89 Conference Committee.
In accordance with customary practice for IJCAI conferences held in
North America, the AAAI will also arrange the tutorial and exhibit
programs at the meeting.
For further information, contact one of the following:
Wolfgang Bibel (IJCAI-89)
Institut fuer Informatik
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Postfach 202420
D-8000 Muenchen 2, West Germany
Telephone: (49-89)2105-2031
bibel%germany.csnet@csnet-relay
N. S. Sridharan (IJCAI-89)
BBN Laboratories
10 Moulton Street
Cambridge, MA 02238
Telephone: (1-617)497-3366
sridharan@bbng.arpa
R. Uthurusamy (IJCAI-89)
Computer Science Department
General Motors Research Laboratories
Warren, MI 48090, USA
Telephone: (1-313)575-3177
samy%gmr.csnet@csnet-relay
Donald E. Walker (IJCAI-89)
Bell Communications Research
445 South Street MRE 2A379
Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
Telephone: (1-201)829-4312
walker@mouton.arpa
Claudia Mazzetti (IJCAI-89)
AAAI Headquarters
445 Burgess Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Telephone: (1-415)328-3123
aaai-office@sumex-aim.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Mon 19 May 86 12:18:30-EDT
From: Arun <Welch%OSU-20@ohio-state.ARPA>
Subject: Conference - Workshop on High-Level Tools
Call for Participation
WORKSHOP ON
HIGH LEVEL TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEMS
Sponsored by
The American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research
The Ohio State University (OSU-LAIR)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Columbus, Ohio
October 7-8, 1986
It has become increasingly clear to builders of knowledge based systems that no
single representational formalism or control construct is optimal for encoding
the wide variety of types of problem solving that commonly arise and are of
practical significance. The structures specific to diagnosis appear ill
adapted for use in design and planning tasks, and those for prediction seem
unsuitable for intelligent data retrieval. Thus there appears to be a need for
task-specific constructs at levels of organization above those of rules,
frames, and predicate calculus, and their associated control structures. In
addition to problem solving, there is a similar move for higher-level tools for
knowledge acquisition and explanation.
The objective of this workshop is to bring together theoreticians and builders
of knowledge based systems in order to explore the prospects for tools for
specifying structures at these higher levels. Presentations are invited on all
aspects of high level tools for knowledge-based systems, including (but not
restricted to) these topics:
- The powers and limitations of existing knowledge engineering tools
and techniques.
- Delineating the "natural kinds" of knowledge based problem solving
that can provide the basis for task specific tools.
- Matching AI techniques to tasks.
- Design proposals for high level knowledge engineering tools.
- Integrating task-specific tools into "toolboxes" for building systems
that perform complex problem solving tasks.
Four copies of an extended ABSTRACT (up to 8 pages, double-spaced) should be
sent to the workshop chairman before July 1, 1986. Acceptance notices will be
mailed by August 1. Revised abstracts should be returned to the chairman by
September 1, 1986, so that they may be bound together for distribution at the
workshop.
Workshop Chairman: Organizing Committee:
B. Chandrasekaran, William J. Clancey, Stanford University
OSU-LAIR Lee Erman, Teknowledge Inc.
Richard Fikes, Intellicorp
John Josephson, OSU-LAIR
Allen Sears, DARPA
For information and local arrangements, contact:
Charlie Huff Bev Mullet
(614) 422-0054 (614) 422-0248
EMail: Huff@Ohio-State.ARPA EMail: Mullet-B@Ohio-State.ARPA
Huff-C@Ohio-State.CSNET
{ihnp4,cbosgd}!osu-eddie!huff
Department of Computer and Information Science
The Ohio State University
2036 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
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End of AIList Digest
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