lorien@dartvax.UUCP (09/18/83)
Who knows anything about the current status of the Artificial Intelligence
school at the University of Edinburgh? I've heard they've been through hard
times in recent years, what with the Lighthill report and British funding
shakeups, but what has been going on within the past year or so? I'd
appreciate any gossip/rumors/facts and if anyone knows that they're on
the net, their address.
--decvax!dartvax!dartlib!lorien
Lorien Y. Prattmarcel@uiucdcs.UUCP (09/23/83)
#R:dartvax:-22400:uiucdcs:32300002:000:804 uiucdcs!marcel Sep 22 13:29:00 1983 I can't tell you about the Dept of AI at Edinburgh, but I do know about the Machine Intelligence Research Unit chaired by Prof. Donald Michie. The MIRU will fold in future, because Prof Michie intends to set up a new research institute in the UK. He's been planning this and fighting for it for quite a while now. It will be called the "Turing Institute", and is intended to become one of the prime centers of AI research in the UK. In fact, it will be one of the very few centers at which research is the top priority, rather than teaching. Michie is has recently been approached by the University of Strathclyde near Glasgow, which is interested in functioning as the associated teaching institution (cp SRI and Stanford). If that works out the Turing Institute may be operational by September 1984.
PEREIRA@SRI-AI.ARPA (10/04/83)
Since the Lighthill Report, a lot has changed for AI in Britain. The
Alvey Report (British Department of Industry) and the Science and
Engineering Research Council (SERC) initiative on Intelligent
Knowledge-Based Systems (IKBS) have released a lot of money for
Information Technology in general, and AI in particular (It remains to
be seen whether that huge amount of money -- 100s of millions -- is
going to be spent wisely). The Edinburgh Department of AI has managed
to get a substantial slice of that money. They have been actively
looking for people both at lecturer and research associate/fellow
level [a good opportunity for young AIers from the US to get to know
Scotland, her great people and unforgetable Highlands].
The AI Dept. have recently added 3 (4?) new people to their teaching
staff, and have more machines, research staff, and students than ever.
The main areas they work on are: Natural Language (Henry Thompson,
Mark Steedman, Graeme Ritchie), controlled deduction and problem
solving (Alan Bundy and his research assistant and students), Robotics
(Robin Popplestone, Pat Ambler and a number of others), LOGO-style
stuff (Jim Howe [head of department] and Peter Ross) and AI languages
(Robert Rae, Dave Bowen and others). There are probably others I
don't remember. The AI Dept. is both on UUCP and on a network
connected to ARPANET:
<username>%edxa%ucl-cs@isid (ARPANET)
...!vax135!edcaad!edee!edai!<username> (UUCP)
I have partial lists of user names for both connections which I will
mail directly to interested persons.
Fernando Pereira SRI AI Center [an old Edinburgh hand]
pereira@sri-ai (ARPA) ...!ucbvax!pereira@sri-ai (UUCP)