fulk@cs.rochester.edu (Mark Fulk) (06/09/90)
COLT '90
The Third Workshop on Computational Learning Theory
Stouffer's Rochester Plaza Hotel
Rochester, NY
August 6-8, 1990
Sponsored by ACM SIGACT and SIGART
COLT '90 features 36 papers and one invited address (by Rusins Freivalds
of Latvian State University). Many papers address learnability and
non-learnability, as well as resource consumption and robustness against
bad data in new and existing computational learning models. Other papers
make theoretical comparisons of learning models, or connect learning theory
with work in neural nets and complexity theory. Models considered include
pac-learnability, mistake-bound models, recursion-theoretic inductive
inference, and other new and classical models. This is the largest COLT
program so far, and, in the humble opinion of at least one program
committee member, it is also the best.
The registration fee is $150 ($75 for students). This fee covers a banquet,
reception (August 5), refreshments, and the proceedings. Participants
are expected to find their own lunches. The hotel food is excellent, and
there are several very good restaurants in the immediate area.
The registration deadline for the conference is July 10; this is also
the last date to guarantee a reservation at the conference rate at
the hotel.
Chair and local arrangements: Mark A. Fulk (U. Rochester).
Program committee: John Case (U. Delaware, chair),
Dana Angluin (Yale),
Eric Baum (NEC Research, Princeton)
Shai Ben-David (Technion, Israel),
Mark Fulk (U. Rochester),
David Haussler (UC Santa Cruz),
Leonard Pitt (U. Illinois),
Ronald Rivest (MIT),
Carl Smith (Maryland),
Scott Weinstein (U. Pennsylvania).
Program
Monday, August 6
Session 1, 8:40 - 10:00 am, David Haussler, chair
8:40 Identifying mu-Formula Decision Trees with Queries,
by Thomas R. Hancock
9:00 Learning Switch Configurations,
by Vijay Raghavan and Stephen R. Schach
9:20 Learning Conjunctions of Horn Clauses,
by Dana Angluin, Michael Frazier, and Leonard Pitt
9:40 Exact Identification of Circuits Using Fixed Points of
Amplification Functions,
by Sally Goldman, Michael J. Kearns, and Robert E. Schapire
Session 2, 10:40 - 12:00 am, Leonard Pitt, chair
10:40 Efficient Distribution-free Learning of Probabilistic Concepts,
by Michael Kearns and Robert E. Schapire
11:00 On the Computational Complexity of Approximating Distributions
by Probabilistic Automata,
by Naoki Abe and Manfred K. Warmuth
11:20 A Learning Criterion for Stochastic Rules,
by Kenji Yamanishi
11:40 On the Complexity of Learning Minimum Time-Bounded Turing Machines,
by Ker-I Ko
Session 3, 2:00 - 3:20 pm, Scott Weinstein, chair
2:00 Inductive Inference from Positive Data is Powerful,
by Takeshi Shinohara
2:20 Inductive Identification of Pattern Languages with
Restricted Substitutions,
by Keith Wright
2:40 Pattern Languages Are Not Learnable,
by Robert Schapire
3:00 On Threshold Circuits for Parity,
by Ramamohan Paturi and Michael E. Saks
Session 4, 3:40 - 5:00 pm, Carl Smith, chair
Invited Presentation by Rusins Freivalds,
Latvian State University, Riga
Tuesday, August 7
Session 5, 8:40 - 10:00 am, Eric Baum, chair
8:40 On Learning Ring-Sum-Expansions,
by Paul Fischer and Hans Ulrich Simon
9:00 Learning Functions of k Terms,
by Avrim Blum and Mona Singh
9:20 On the Sample Complexity of Pac-Learning using Random
and Chosen Examples,
by Bonnie Eisenberg and Ronald L. Rivest
9:40 On the Complexity of Learning from Counterexamples of
Membership Queries,
by Wolfgang Maass and Gyorgy Turan
Session 6, 10:40 - 12:00 am, John Case, chair
10:40 Robust Separations in Inductive Inference,
by Mark A. Fulk
11:00 Finite Learning by a "Team",
by Sanjay Jain and Arun Sharma
11:20 Some Problems of Learning with an Oracle,
by Efim B. Kinber
11:40 A Mechanical Method of Successful Scientific Inquiry,
by Daniel N. Osherson, Michael Stob, and Scott Weinstein
Session 7, 2:00 - 3:20 pm, Dana Angluin, chair
2:00 Separating PAC and Mistake-Bound Learning Models over the
Boolean Domain,
by Avrim Blum
2:20 Boosting a Weak Learning Algorithm by Majority,
by Yoav Freund
2:40 On the Sample Complexity of Weak Learning,
by Sally Goldman, Michael J. Kearns, and Robert E. Schapire
3:00 Learning by Distances,
by Shai Ben-David, Alon Itai, and Eyal Kushilevitz
Session 8, 3:40 - 5:00 pm, Ron Rivest, chair
Informal presentations
Wednesday, August 8
Session 9, 8:40 - 10:00 am, Ron Rivest, chair
8:40 The Learnability of Formal Concepts,
by Martin Anthony, John Shawe-Taylor, and Norman Biggs
9:00 A Polynomial Time Algorithm That Learns Two Hidden Unit Nets,
by Eric B. Baum
9:20 Composite Geometric Concepts and Polynomial Predictability,
by Phil Long and Manfred K. Warmuth
9:40 Learning Integer Lattices,
by David Helmbold, Robert Sloan, and Manfred Warmuth
Session 10, 10:40 - 12:00 am, Mark Fulk, chair
10:40 On the Number of Examples and Stages Needed for Learning
Decision Trees,
by Hans Ulrich Simon
11:00 Learning DNF under the Uniform Distribution in Quasi-polynomial Time,
by Karsten Verbeurgt
11:20 Learning via Queries with Teams and Anomalies,
by William I. Gasarch, Efim Kinber, Mark Pleszkoch,
Carl Smith, and Thomas Zeugmann
11:40 Learning via Queries in [+, <],
by William Gasarch, Mark Pleszkoch, and Robert Solovay
Session 11, 2:00 - 3:20 pm, Shai Ben-David, chair
2:00 On the Sample Complexity of Finding Good Search Strategies,
by Pekka Orponen and Russell Greiner
2:20 Minimum Consistent Inference of Random Walks,
by Javed A. Aslam and Ronald L. Rivest
2:40 Aggregating Strategies,
by Volodimir G. Vovk
3:00 A DNA Sequencing Theory,
by Ming Li
Session 12, 3:40 - 5:00 pm, Mark Fulk, chair
Informal presentations
Getting To Rochester
By airplane:
The best airline is USAIR, followed by American. Travellers from outside
the US should consider flying by way of Toronto, Montreal, or Boston,
rather than attempting to make connections in New York. Once in the
Rochester airport, find the Stouffer's courtesy phone (there is one in
each concourse, in the bank of courtesy phones) and call for the shuttle.
They will direct you from there. The shuttle runs from 6:00 a.m. to
midnight, and no flights are scheduled after midnight, so you should not
have to take a taxi; however, if you must, a taxi to the hotel costs
about $14.50.
If you drive from the airport, the simplest, although not most pleasant,
route is: turn right out of the airport entrance onto Brooks Avenue,
going north. Continue on Brooks over the highway and through a
residential neighborhood until Brooks ends at Plymouth Avenue, by
the Genesee river. Turn left and take Plymouth north to Ford Street,
where it appears to end; turn right and then immediately left onto
Exchange Street. Continue north on Exchange to downtown. You will
pass under a highway; three lights further north Exchange becomes
State Street as it crosses West Main Street. The hotel is on your right,
shortly after Main Street.
Driving:
If coming from the west on Interstate 90, take exit 47 (Leroy and I-490).
Continue east on I-490 to downtown Rochester. Take exit 13 (Plymouth Avenue
and the Inner Loop), veering right to get Plymouth. Turn right (south)
on Plymouth; take the next left (Church), drive two blocks to State Street,
then turn right. The hotel will be to your left within a hundred yards.
If coming from the east on I-90, take exit 45 (Victor and I-490). Continue
west to downtown Rochester; take exit 11 to Clinton Avenue North. Take the
second left onto Broad Street, go through three lights, cross the river, and
take the first right after the river onto Exchange Street. Go north on
Exchange through one light (Main Street), at which it becomes State Street.
The hotel will be on your right shortly after Main Street.
If coming from the south on I-390, keep left (on I-390, to the Airport and
Greece) at the I-390/590 split. Take exit 16 to East and West Henrietta
Roads; the exit comes up right after the split. Keep going straight through
the light at the top of the ramp, bear right at the fork, and turn right at
the light on West Henrietta Road. You will go through about five lights
before you each Ford Street; once there, turn left to cross the Genesee
River. Take the first right after the bridge (Exchange Street); continue
north to downtown. You will pass under a highway; three lights later, at
Main Street, Exchange becomes State Street; the hotel is another few
hundred feet on the right.
Hotel Reservations
You may register by sending the form below, or by calling 1-716-546-3450.
The Stouffer's 800 number, 1-800-HOTELS1, can take your reservation but
does not know about the conference rate. Your reservation must be received
by July 10, 1990, in order to guarantee the conference rate.
If enough students request, we will form quads to save costs. We will
use the attributes male/female and smoking/non-smoking to form the quads.
Any students requesting this service should let us know by July 1, so that
we have enough time to process the request. Conference funds may be used
to pay for the odd spaces.
Family Activities
The New York wine country is one hour south of Rochester. Niagara Falls
is one and a half hours west. There are a number of beaches along Lake
Ontario; Hamlin Beach State Park, half an hour west, is probably the best.
Durand Eastman Park is surprisingly wild considering that it is officially
in the city limits. There are some parks and a zoo along the Genesee
River gorge north of downtown; the (pedestrian) Pont des Rennes offers a
nice view of the falls, and is just a few blocks from the hotel.
Rochester has several good museums: Eastman House, the home of the
founder of Kodak, has tours; it also houses the International Museum
of Photography and the Dryden Theatre. The Toronto Film Festival will
be at the Dryden on the first day of the conference. The University's
Memorial Art Gallery contains a fine collection of Mannerist paintings.
The Rochester Museum and Science Center has a planetarium and various
exhibits.
The Eastman School of Music has a regular schedule of concerts. Other
local arts groups include the GeVa theatre and The Bucket dance group.
The Genesee Country Museum is about 45 minutes south of town, in Mumford;
it is a large collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings
and houses, including blacksmiths, breweries, and the like. There are
almost always exhibits of crafts from the period covered, and are also
frequent farm fairs. The country museum is popular with children; we
will organize a trip to it for families if enough people express an
interest. Normally, admission is $4.50/adult, free for small children.
Third Annual Workshop on Computational Learning Theory
Rochester, NY
Registration Form
Name _________________________________________________________
Affiliation __________________________________________________
Electronic Mail Address ______________________________________
Address ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Telephone Number _____________________________________________
Are you a student? _________
Would you like to be grouped with two roommates? _____
If yes, indicate: Smoker/Nonsmoker _______ Male/Female_______
Are you (or your family) interested in a day trip to the
Genesee Country Museum? __________
If you would like extra banquet tickets ($35),
please indicate how many _____
Indicate any dietary restrictions:
Kosher _____ Vegetarian _____ Other ____________________
Registration Fee: $150 ____ $75 (students only) ____
Total enclosed (checks or money orders only please): __________
Mail to: COLT '90
c/o Mark Fulk
Computer Science Department
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
Room Reservation for COLT '90, August 6-8
Name: _________________________________________________________
Company: ______________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Telephone number: _____________________________________________
Sharing room with: ____________________________________________
Arrival date and time: ________________________________________
Number of nights to reserve: __________________________________
To guarantee your reservation, a credit card (American Express,
Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Diner's Club, or Carte Blanche):
___________________________________________ Expires: __________
Signature: ____________________________________________________
You may also send a check or money order for the first night's
rate in order to guarantee your reservation.
Please indicate your room preference:
Single ($74/night) ____ Double ($80/night) ____
Triple ($86/night) ____ Quad ($92/night) ____
Club Floor ($104/night) ____
One Bedroom Suite ($225/night) ___
Two Bedroom Suite ($315/night) ___
Quoted prices do not include 11% state sales tax. Checkout
time is 1:00 p.m.; rooms become available for checkin at
3:00 p.m. Your deposit is refundable only if you cancel 48
hours in advance. Be sure to get a cancellation number.
Mail to: Stouffer Rochester Plaza
70 State St.
Rochester, NY 14614
syusim@bcm.tmc.edu (Solomon Yusim) (06/14/90)
NORTH AMERICAN PERSONAL CONSTRUCT NETWORK
1990 CONFERENCE IN PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY
ANNOUNCEMENT
The Fourth North American Conference on Personal Construct
Psychology will take place JULY 18-21, 1990 IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.
The theme for the conference is "THE CONSTRUCTIVIST CHALLENGE."
Symposia, papers, poster sessions, workshops, invited addresses,
and conversational hours are planned to promote a critical
interchange between personal construct theory (PCT) and other
constructivist theories in psychology, artificial intelligence,
education and business. Optional pre-conference workshops on
July 17, 1990 will provide an in-depth look at PCT-related
topics.
The historic La Mansion de Rio Hotel (112 College Street, San
Antonio, Texas 78205, USA) will serve as conference headquarters.
SPECIAL NAPCN CONFERENCE RATES ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH JUNE 18,
1990. Please contact DR. JOE DOSIER for conference registration
information (Department of Psychology, Box 13587, University of
North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203, USA. Phone: (817) 565-2670.)
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION TO THE COLLEAGUES WHO MIGHT BE
INTERESTED.
eqz6593@vx.acs.umn.edu (HAROLD JOHN HILTON) (12/20/90)
The Study of Cognition: Conceptual and Methodological Issues
February 28-March 2, 1991
Coffman Memorial Union
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Organized in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Center for
Research in Learning, Perception, and Cognition of the University
of Minnesota.
Since World War II there has been a radical change in perspective
on how to think about and investigate cognitive processes.
Development has been so rapid that there has been little time to
reflect on a variety of underlying conceptual, philosophical
issues. Furthermore, many technological and methodological
advances raise their own conceptual issues. It is the purpose of
this conference to step back, identify some of these issues, and
ask about the nature of our enterprise.
The conference presenters represent a broad range of interests.
The presenters are among the most innovative researchers in their
empirical areas and have demonstrated concern with basic issues in
cognitive psychology.
The conference is organized around three fundamental questions.
First, just what kinds of behavior comprise the domain of
cognition? Second, how can we conceptualize the knowledge base
underlying our cognitive processes? Third, what are the
implications of different methodological approaches for our
understanding of cognition?
Preliminary Program
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28
8:00 a.m. Registration and refreshments, Mississippi Room, 3rd
floor, Coffman Union
8:45 Opening remarks, Albert Yonas, Institute of Child
Development, University of Minnesota
9:00 "The Organization and Reorganization of Categories",
James Jenkins, Department of Psychology, University of
South Florida
10:00 Refreshment break
10:30 "Theories, Constraints, and Cognition", Douglas Medin,
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
11:30 Lunch, individual arrangements
1:15 p.m. "Broadening the Domain of Information Processing",
Dominic Massaro, Program in Experimental Psychology,
University of California, Santa Cruz
2:15 Refreshment break
2:30 "Ecological Foundations of Cognition: Invariants of
Perception and Action", Michael Turvey, Center for the
Ecological Study of Perception and Action, Department of
Psychology, University of Connecticut
3:30 Refreshment break
4:00 Panel Discussion with Patricia Bauer, Institute of Child
Development, University of Minnesota and Irving
Biederman, Department of Psychology, University of
Minnesota
5:15 Reception, Burton Hall Atrium
FRIDAY, MARCH 1
8:30 a.m. Refreshments
9:00 "How to Think About Perceptual Learning: 25 Years
Later", Eleanor Gibson, Department of Psychology, Cornell
University
10:00 Refreshment break
10:30 "Learning, Cognition, and Education: Then and Now",
Robert Glaser, Learning, Research, and Development
Center, University of Pittsburgh
11:30 Lunch, individual arrangements
1:15 p.m. "A Cultural Cognitive Psychology", Claudia Strauss and
Naomi Quinn, Department of Anthropology, Duke University
2:15 Refreshment break
2:30 "Origins of Conceptual Primitives", David Premack,
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
3:30 Refreshment break
4:00 Panel Discussion with Anne Pick, Institute of Child
Development, University of Minnesota and William
Charlesworth, Institute of Child Development, University
of Minnesota
7:00 Banquet, Speaker: Gerald Siegel, Department of
Communication Disorders, University of Minnesota,
"Liberation Theoreology"
(see registration for meal options)
SATURDAY, MARCH 2
8:30 a.m. Refreshments
9:00 "The Dynamic Structure of Expert Thinking", Paul Johnson,
Carlson School of Management, Information and Decision
Sciences, University of Minnesota
10:00 Refreshment break
10:30 "Alternative Representations for Cognition: Search and
Reasoning", Herbert Simon, Department of Psychology,
Carnegie Mellon University
11:30 Lunch, individual arrangements
1:15 p.m. "Cognitive Architectures: How Can They Be Evaluated
Empirically?", Walter Kintsch, Institute of Cognitive
Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
2:15 Refreshment break
2:45 "Filling In vs. Finding Out: A Ubiquitous Confusion in
Cognitive Science", Daniel Dennett, Department of
Philosophy, Tufts University
3:45 Panel Discussion with Ulrich Neisser, Department of
Psychology, Emory University and C. Wade Savage,
Department of Philosophy, University of Minnesota
5:00 Adjourn
GENERAL INFORMATION
Conference Organizers:
Herbert Pick, Co-Chair, Paul van den Broek, Co-Chair, Kirsten
Condry, John Hummel, Lisa Isenberg, David Knill, Leslie Schwandt,
Elizabeth Strickland, Richard Thurlow, Lisa Travis
Location:
The conference will be held in the Coffman Memorial Union, 300
Washington Avenue S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Registration:
The registration fee is $15 for University of Minnesota faculty,
students, and the general public. Registrants receive admission to
all sessions, program materials, refreshment breaks, and Thursday's
reception. Optional meals with conference presenters include a
banquet on Friday, March 1 at the Campus Club in Coffman Memorial
Union. The banquet fee is $20. Registration must be received by
February 18, 1991. To register after this date, call (612) 624-
6053.
A full registration refund will be issued if written cancellation
is received by February 23, 1991. The University of Minnesota
reserves the right to cancel the conference if necessary; in this
event a full refund will be issued.
Registrants will receive a confirmation letter, receipt, and a map
with campus, hotel, and parking locations.
Hotel Accommodations
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Holiday Inn Metrodome,
1500 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55454 at special
rates of $61 single and double rooms. To make reservations,
contact the hotel at (612) 333-4646, extension 605, and mention the
conference title to obtain the special rates. Reservations must be
made by January 30, 1991, in order to receive the discounted rate.
Parking
Ample public parking is available in nearby parking ramps. More
information will be sent with your confirmation letter.
Conference Travel Agent
Group Travel Directors, Inc. is the official travel agency for this
conference offering special discounted fares on Northwest Airlines
flights within the United States. (Frequent Flyer mileage does
apply.) Contact Carolyn Lyon at 1-800-222-7907 outside of
Minnesota. Group Travel Directors is located at 2000 West 98th
Street, Minneapolis, MN 55431.
For further registration information contact:
Lisa Brienzo, Program Director or Chris Carlstrom, Program
Associate, Professional Development and Conference Services, 335
Nolte Center, 315 Pillsbury Drive S.E., University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0139. Telephone: (612)624-6053, Fax:
(612) 626-1632.
For further program information contact:
Special Programs Committee, Center for Research in Learning,
Perception, and Cognition, 205 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Road,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Telephone:
(612)625-9367.
REGISTRATION 51-24LB
February 28-March 2, 1991
Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota
Name____________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________
City_______________________State__________Zip___________
Telephone (day)_________________________________________
Position/Employer_______________________________________
Payment Enclosed
( ) $15 registration fee
Meal Options
( ) $20 March 1 banquet
$__________ Total Enclosed.(Please make check or money order
payable to University of Minnesota.)
Bill my employer for $________. A purchase order or letter of
authorization is attached.
The registration deadline is February 18, 1991. To register after
this date call (612)624-6053.
Mail registration form and fee to:
Registrar
Professional Development and Conference Services
338 Nolte Center
315 Pillsbury Drive S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0139
If registering by P.O., you may fax your registration to
Professional Development and Conference Services, (612)626-1631.
Facilitated by Professional Development and Conference Services
Continuing Education and Extension, University of Minnesota
Sponsored by the American Psychological Association Scientific
Conference Grant Fund, the Wilson Learning Corporation, and the
Center for Research in Learning Perception and Cognition.
The University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all
persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and
employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national
origin, handicap, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation.