[comp.ai] workshop announcement

tedk@bcsaic.UUCP (Ted Kitzmiller) (01/07/87)

                         CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
                         ----------------------


              Workshop on Coupling Symbolic and Numeric Computing 
                         in Knowledge-based Systems

The second workshop on coupling symbolic and numeric computing in 
knowledge-based systems will be held the 20-24 of July 1987 at the 
Boeing Advanced Technology Center, Bellevue, Washington.  This
workshop will be jointly sponsored by the American Association for 
Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and Boeing Computer Services (BCS). 

Many real-life problems encountered in science and industry require solution 
techniques that combine AI and conventional computation methods (coupled 
systems).  Typically these problems have some major subproblems that are 
amenable to conventional techniques - such as numerical analysis, statistics, 
quantitative modeling - but others for which these techniques are not 
appropriate.  

This workshop will attempt to build upon last year's workshop and improve 
our understanding of the issues involved in developing coupled systems.  
During the workshop the methodology of designing and developing coupled 
systems will be explored by assessing alternative approaches.   The primary 
goals of the workshop will be to establish criteria and guidelines for those 
involved in the design and implemention of coupled systems and to define the 
state-of-the-art and the future research needs in this area.  

To encourage a vigorous interaction and exchange of ideas between those 
attending, the workshop will be limited to approximately 35 participants.  
Ample time will be provided during the workshop for the presentation of 
technical papers and discussions of the material presented.  Participation 
will be by invitation and will be based upon the referee of a submitted paper.

Submittals are invited for consideration on the following topics: software and 
hardware architectures that facilitate the development and use of coupled 
systems (or those that don't), approaches to designing and developing coupled 
systems,  deep reasoning involving quantitative models or numeric algorithms, 
representation of knowledge within coupled systems, generic coupled system 
languages/shells, and novel or state-of-the-art applications.

All submitted papers will be refereed with respect to how well they identify 
and discuss the factors affecting the design and implementation of coupled 
systems.  Authors should discuss their design decisions (why a particular 
approach or development environment was selected); what worked, what didn't 
and why; the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of their approach; and 
what they would recommend to others developing coupled systems.   Preference 
will be given to those papers that discuss approaches that have been 
demonstrated in real applications.   

Four copies of a full-length paper (or extended abstract), double spaced draft 
up to 5000 words, should be submitted to the workshop chairman before 1 March 
1987 (please notify the chairman by 30 January 1987 of your intent to submit).  
Acceptances will be mailed by 1 May 1987. Final papers will be required by 1 
July 1987 so they may be bound together for distribution before or at the 
workshop.  Potential attendees should also indicate their interest in chairing 
or participating in special discussion sessions.

Workshop Chairman: C.T. Kitzmiller, 
 MS: 7J-63, Boeing Advanced Technology Center, Boeing Computer Services, 
 PO Box 24346, Seattle, Washington, 98124-0346.
Telephone: (206) 865-3227. 
E-mail:  tedk@boeing.com or bcsaic!tedk@uw-june.arpa    

juggy@bcsaic.UUCP (Vasudevan Jagannathan) (01/08/87)

                   Call for Participation


   Workshop on Blackboard Systems: Implementation Issues

     In the past couple of years a wide  variety  of  black-
board  systems  have been built to address a wide variety of
problems.  The goal of this workshop is to study the  design
and  implementation  issues  in  blackboard  systems  and to
understand the  diversity  which  exists  in  such  systems.
Specific issues that will be focused on are:

1.  Control Issues:  What is the approach taken  to  control
the problem solving and rationale for choice?

2.  Organization Issues:  What are the mechanisms  available
for  organizing knowledge in such systems?  If the system is
distributed what are the communication issues  that  play  a
critical role in the development of the system.

3.  Parallelism  and  Concurrency  Issues:   What  scope  is
present in the system to exploit parallelism at the applica-
tion level, at the system level?

4.  Performance issues:  What benchmarks are  available  for
evaluating  the  performance,  and  what are the bottlenecks
affecting performance?

5.  Development Environment:  Does the  system  provide  any
help in developing the actual application?

     To encourage vigorous interaction and exchange of ideas
between  those  attending,  the  workshop will be limited to
approximately 30 participants. The workshop is scheduled  on
July  13th, 1987, Monday, as a parallel activity during AAAI
1987, and will last for a day.

     All submitted papers will be refereed with  respect  to
how well they identify and discuss the factors affecting the
design and implementation of blackboard  systems.    Authors
should  discuss  their  design  decisions  (why a particular
approach was selected); what worked, what did not  and  why;
the  advantages,  disadvantages  and  limitations  of  their
approach; and what they would recommend to others developing
such systems.  Preference will be given to those papers that
discuss approaches  that  have  been  demonstrated  in  real
applications.

Submission Details:  Five copies of  an  extended  abstract,
double spaced draft up to 4000 words, should be submitted to
the workshop chairman before  April  1,  1987.   Acceptances
will  be mailed by May 1, 1987. Final copies of the extended
abstract will be required by June 1, 1987 so that  they  may
be  informally  bound  together  for distribution before the
workshop.

Workshop Chairman: V. Jagannathan,  M/S  7L-64,  The  Boeing
Advanced  Technology  Center, Boeing Computer Services, P.O.
Box 24346, Seattle, WA 98124-0346. Telephone: (206)865-3240.
E-mail:juggy@boeing.com.