[net.ai] AIList Digest V3 #94

LAWS@SRI-AI.ARPA (07/16/85)

From: AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws <AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI>


AIList Digest            Tuesday, 16 Jul 1985      Volume 3 : Issue 94

Today's Topics:
  Seminars - Temporal Reasoning (SRI) &
    Geometric Reasoning (Penn) &
    Electronic Encyclopedia (MIT),
  Conferences - Aerospace Applications of AI &
    Cognitive Science Society Annual Conference

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Date: Wed 10 Jul 85 12:22:15-PDT
From: LANSKY@SRI-AI.ARPA
Subject: Seminar - Temporal Reasoning (SRI)

                             Temporal Imagery:
     An Approach to Reasoning about Time for Planning and Problem Solving

                             Thomas Dean
                           Yale University

                        11:00 AM, Monday, July 15
                     Room EJ232, SRI International

Reasoning about time typically involves drawing conclusions on the basis
of incomplete information.  Uncertainty arises in the form of ignorance,
indeterminacy, and indecision.  Despite the lack of complete information
a problem solver is continually forced to make predictions in order to
pursue hypotheses and plan for the future.  Such predictions are
frequently contravened by subsequent evidence.  The talk will describe
a computational approach to temporal reasoning that directly confronts
these issues.   The approach relies upon a method  for keeping track
of the dependency relations among assertions in a temporalized data base.
The resulting computational framework extends the functionality of
reason maintenance systems [Doyle 79] to handle assertions with a temporal
extent. The techniques developed  extend the functionality of current
approaches to dealing with time in planning (e.g.,  [Sacerdoti 77], [Tate
77], [Vere 83], and [Allen 83]).  Examples from robot problem solving
will be used to illustrate the techniques.

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Date: Thu, 11 Jul 85 12:25 EDT
From: Tim Finin <Tim%upenn.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>
Subject: Seminar - Geometric Reasoning (Penn)


A GEOMETRIC REASONING SYSTEM FOR MOVING AN OBJECT WHILE MAINTAINING
CONTACT WITH OTHERS
Anastasia Koutsou, Dept. of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh

Thursday,  11 July 1985 3:00 pm 216 Moore

This paper concerns the problem of moving a polyhedral object while maintaining
contact with a set of stationary polyhedral objects.  A method is developed for
deriving  a  sequence  of  compliant-guarded motions in order to move an object
from an initial configuration to a final configuration while it is in  contact.
This  sequence  is  derived  from a sequence of spatial relationships among the
features of the objects.  The construction of a graph of spatial  relationships
representing  the  space where the object is in contact with its environment is
described.  This is done using a geometric reasoning system which  is  able  to
find  a  relationship  equivalent  to a conjunction of two relationships and to
construct the new features among which the new relationship holds.

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Date: 12 Jul 1985  10:49 EDT (Fri)
From: Crisse Ciro <CRISSE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA>
Subject: Seminar - Electronic Encyclopedia (MIT)

                        Wednesday, July 17
                        8th Floor Playroom
                              NE43
                            3:00 PM


        INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS FOR AN ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

                          Alan Borning
                   Computer Science Department
                    University of Washington

  In the first part of this seminar, I'll describe work on a prototype
electronic encyclopedia.  The prototype makes use of the text from an
existing print encyclopedia, and employs a window-oriented browser on a
Symbolics 3600 computer.  Selected articles in the prototype also include
some features that take advantage of the new medium, including interactive
simulations, links to a picture library stored on a videodisk, and active
text for browsing cross references, expanding abbreviations, and converting
from one measurement system to another.

  The construction of a comprehensive electronic encyclopedia that takes
full advantage of the computer medium will be an enormous task, and will
require good computer-based tools to support the encyclopedia's authors.
The second part of the seminar will concern research on one such tool: a
kit for constructing interactive simulations.  Using this kit, authors can
construct simulations of such things as manipulable diagrams illustrating
geometric theorems or simulations of physics experiments.  The kit, an
extension of the ThingLab system, uses constraints to specify the relations
between parts of the simulations, and provides convenient graphical tools for
assembling and manipulating simulations.

  As part of the talk two videoptapes will be shown: first, a brief demo of
the prototype electronic encyclopedia, and second, a demo of ThingLab,
including recent enhancements.


Refreshments will be served         HOST: Randall Davis

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Date: 12 Jul 1985 10:47-EDT
From: cross <cross@wpafb-afita>
Subject: Conference - Aerospace Applications of AI


AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
September 16-19, 1985
Dayton Convention Center, Dayton Ohio

The purpose of the conference is to establish the present state of the
art in AI in selected areas of importance to the aerospace community.
There will be session in avionics, manufacturing, maintenance, decision
support systems, expert system building tools, programming languages,
man-machine interfaces, and new architectures. Each session will be
keynoted by a prominent researcher who will differeniate between
present capabilities and research problems. Keynote speakers are:
B. Chandrasekaran, M. Fox, T. Garvey, V. Lesser, D. Michie, K. Bowen,
W. Rouse, E. Sacerdoti, M. Stefik, and E. Taylor. In addition, each
session will include presentation from industry and government labs.
Each session will conclude with a panel discussion. The conference will
also feature a session that explores senior management expectations.
Exhibits will be open to the public.

Conference fee: $225.00 (includes luncheon and banquet).

Registration: AAAIC'85, PO Box 31250, Dayton OH 45431-0250
              send for a registration form or call (513) 426-8530 for
              more information

Lodging: A Block of rooms is reserved at the Stouffer's Dayton Plaza.
         Reseravations are preferably made with the conference
         registration form. If necessary, reservations can be made
         directly with Stouffer's, (513) 224-0800.

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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 85 05:46:02 pdt
From: gluck@SU-PSYCH (Mark Gluck)
Subject: Cognitive Science Society Annual Conference: General Info

         [Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]


SCHEDULE:
   Thursday, August 15th, 8:30am   -  Saturday, August 17th, 5:00pm

AIRLINE TRANSPORTATION:
   30-35% Discount on American Airlines, call 1-800-433-1790.
   Conference code is: star file s7387. Closest airport is
   Orange Country/John Wayne.  Taxi to campus if $5.00.

DORMITORY ACCOMIDATIONS:
   Double Rate: $38.00 per person per day
   Single Rate: $45.00 per person per day

LOCATION:
   At the campus of Univ. California, Irvine (also known as
   U. Cal, Disney), which is about 40 miles south of LA and 5
   miles from the beach.

REGISTRATION:
   General: $65.00       Student: $45.00

MAJOR ADDRESSES:
   Endel Tulving, Allen Newell, Shimon Ullman, Roger Schank

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