john@bcsaic (John Boose) (10/30/90)
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
EKAW91: 5TH EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION FOR
KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS WORKSHOP
Provisional Dates: May 20-24 1991, Crieff, Scotland
OPEN DAY: May 17, London, England
It is the objective of EKAW 91 to assemble theoreticians and practitioners of
AI who recognize the need for developing methods and systems to assist the
process of acquiring and modelling knowledge for knowledge-based systems. To
encourage vigorous interaction and exchange of ideas the workshop will be
limited to 40 participants. There will be individual presentations and ample
time for technical discussions. An attempt will be made to define the state-
of- the-art and future research needs. Attendance will be limited to those
presenting their work, one author per paper. Papers are invited for
consideration in all aspects of knowledge acquisition for knowledge-based
systems, including (but not restricted to):
o Transfer/modelling of expertise-systems that obtain and model knowledge
from experts.
o Transfer/modelling of expertise-manual knowledge acquisition methods and
techniques.
o Apprenticeship, explanation-based, and other learning systems;
integration of such systems with other knowledge acquisition techniques.
o Issues in cognition psychology and expertise that affect the knowledge
acquisition process.
o Extracting and modelling of knowledge from text.
o Integration of knowledge acquisition techniques within a single system;
integration of knowledge acquisition systems with other systems
(hypermedia, database management systems, simulators, spreadsheets...).
o Knowledge acquisition methodology and training.
o Validation of knowledge acquisition techniques; the role of knowledge
acquisition techniques in validating knowledge-based systems.
o Methods for capturing design knowledge and requirements.
o Theoretical frameworks for knowledge acquisition.
o Philosophical issues concerning knowledge and technology.
Five copies of an extended abstract (from 4 to 8 pages) or a full-length paper
(up to 20 pages) should be sent to Duncan Smeed before February 22nd 1991
Acceptance notices will be mailed by April 5th. Camera-ready copies should be
returned before April 26th 1991, so that they may be bound together for
distribution at the workshop. Ideal abstracts and papers will make pragmatic
or theoretical contributions supported by a computer implementation, and
explain them clearly in the context of existing knowledge acquisition
literature. Variations will be considered if they make a clear contribution to
the field (for example, comparative analyses, major implementations or
extensions, or other analyses of existing techniques).
Project SISYPHUS
The objective of the project is to compare different methods and techniques of
knowledge acquisition. Three test bed tasks domains have been chosen. Any
research group wishing to participate please contact Tom Addis
Workshop Co-chairmen:
Duncan Smeed (SEND PAPERS HERE)
Department of Computer Science,
University of Strathclyde,
Livingstone Tower,
26 Richmond Street,
Glasgow G1 1XH, Scotland.
(041-552) 4400.
John Boose
Advanced Technology Center,
Boeing Computer Services, 7L-64,
PO Box 24346,
Seattle, Washington, USA 98124,
(206) 865-3253.
Brian Gaines,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Calgary,
2500 University Dr. NW,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4,
(403) 220-5901.
Program Committee:
Tom Addis, University of Reading
Guy Boy, Centre d'Etudes et de Rech. de Toulouse, NASA AMES
Jean Gabriel Ganascia, Universite Paris VI, LAFORIA
Yves Kodratoff, Universite Paris-Sud
Marc Linster, GMD, St. Augustin
John McDermott, Digital Equipment Corporation
Ryszard Michalski, University of Illinois
Katharina Morik, TU Berlin
Guius Schrieber, University of Amsterdam
Nigel Shadbolt, University of Nottingham
Mildred Shaw, University of Calgary
Maarten van Someren, University of Amsterdam
Bob Wielinga, University of Amsterdam
Marion Wittstock, AWFI, Berlin
PROJECT SISYPHUS - EKAW91 (17th May & 20th to 24th May 1991)
As quite a few tools, techniques and methodologies are currently being
developed and used for knowledge acquisition it would be of great interest to
create a situation where these different approaches could be compared,
contrasted and assessed. It was decided at EKAW90 to choose three or four task
domains that introduce considerable scope for knowledge acquisition. These
task domains would then provide a test bed for comparison of techniques.
We would like to propose that researchers and practitioners (preferably those
belonging to a team or group) who are currently involved in knowledge
elicitation and acquisition analyze one sample problem and make their analysis
of this problem widely available. The results of the analysis of each group
(each using its own approach) will be published in the proceedings of EKAW91
and will be discussed during the workshop at special set sessions.
Research groups wishing to participate in this venture are asked to submit a
very short description (1 - 2 pages) of their work and their experience. By
1st December, 1990 we shall also require from each potential participating
group a short description of their proposed approach together with some
indication of the type and extent of solution they may anticipate. In the
event that more groups would like to participate, we shall select 3 or 4
groups for each test bed application. By 15th January selected groups will be
notified and sent the material that describes the sample problem. By 1st
March, 1991 the selected groups will each be asked to return a ten page paper
describing their analysis, their representation and some additional comments.
All the papers will be included in the proceedings of EKAW91.
Interested researchers and practitioners can obtain project details directly
from the respective project addresses below. Subsequent submissions should be
sent to the individual contact and also to the project coordinator:-
Tom Addis,
Project Sisyphus Coordinator,
Knowledge Systems Group,
Computer Science Department,
University of Reading, Whiteknights,
Reading, RG6 2AX. UK
Tel: +44-734-318600/1
Fax: +44-734-751994
e-mail (Janet): Tom.Addis@reading.ac.uk
Project 1. Text Analysis
Text-based material is a common source of information for knowledge engineers
when building knowledge-based systems. Text may be generated from interviews,
verbatim protocols and/or textbooks and scientific or technical papers.
Identifying meaningful information and then developing useful knowledge
structures from text is the goal of text analysis for knowledge-based
development.
This call for submissions is directed to those researchers and practitioners
who have developed methods, techniques or tools for text analysis. Our goal is
to identify and select representative approaches to text analysis and then to
offer the same textual material for analysis. The results of the analysis will
be published in the proceedings of EKAW91 and will be discussed at the
conference.
The submission should contain brief but clear statements about:
1. the underlying assumptions of the approach
2. the method for parsing text passages
3. the method(s) and underlying assumptions for analysis of the parsed text
4. the knowledge representation formalism resulting from the analysis
5. potential uses for the method to knowledge engineers
Contact:
Brian Woodward
Knowledge Science Institute
Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, Alberta, CANADA
T2N 1N4
e-mail: woodward@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
Project 2. Models of Problem Solving
Many research groups tackle the problem of explicit modelling of problem-
solving (see Karbach, Linster & Voss: "Models of Problem-Solving: One Label -
One Idea" in Proceedings of EKAW90). They all use different examples to
illustrate their work. We want to encourage the members of the community to
illustrate their approaches using one test bed example selected from a set of
common examples that the organizers of Project SISYPHUS will provide for the
participants by 1st November.
The problem to be modelled will be a realistic synthesis type problem. We are
mainly interested in the explicit modelling of problem solving methods. There
is no implication that the results must be or directly result in an
operational knowledge base. Mediating representations or specifications that
are not directly executable will be welcome.
The descriptions of the models will make the approaches comparable and this
comparison will hopefully help answer questions such as:
1. How do the building blocks of each of the approaches correspond?
2. Which problem-solving steps does an approach use and are there common
steps amongst the different approaches?
3. What grain size is there?
4. Which part of the knowledge is generic to all task domains?
5. What is task dependent in the approaches?
6. What is the role of the knowledge engineer?
The descriptions of the models will be the basis of the discussion at EKAW91
and these discussions will hopefully result in a common terminology as a first
step towards a theory of problem-solving in Knowledge-based Systems.
Contact:
Marc Linster
Expert System Research Group
GMD
PO Box 1240
D-5205 St. Augustin, FRG
Phone: (02241) - 14 2680
Fax: (02241) 14 2084
e-mail:linster@gmdzi.gmd.de,
linster@gmdzi.uucp,
linster@kmx.gmd.dbp.de
Project 3. Modelling Meta-Data
In statistical processing, information about the data needs to be taken into
account to be able to analyze the data correctly. This concept of information
about data is referred to as meta-data. The purpose of the project Modelling
Meta- Data is to document the use of meta-data --based on empirical evidence--
and to develop a formal language for the description of meta-data. Based on
these results a system will be developed to support the analysis of
statistical data.
The project has to start with gathering information about meta-data in an
actual setting. The results of the project have to be useful for a particular
target population, i.e. the producers and users of statistical data, such as
national statistical institutes. Consequently, experts at these institutes are
the prime sources of knowledge. The central question to be answered is, which
information about data they use during statistical processing. For the time
being, the investigation is restricted to statistical processing in a single
domain, i.e. family budget research. If successful, investigation and support
in other domains will be added. Institutes in several countries are involved
in this project. The knowledge acquisition will be done by one of these
institutes. This means that in general the knowledge engineer will visit the
experts, and not the other way around. So, if anybody proposes to use
automated KA tools, the necessary hardware should be portable or rather
common.
The central question research groups are supposed to tackle is: what kind of
knowledge acquisition is useful in this situation, how should one proceed,
which tools could or should be used? Two kind of papers are possible. On the
one hand, papers giving an answer to these questions, but going no further.
And on the other hand, papers in which the results of an actual KA process are
described. In this last case, it seems not strictly necessary to focus on
family budget research. If an expert is at hand, who happens to be specialized
in a different field of statistical processing, e.g. time-dependent data or
government expenditure, his or her knowledge could just as well serve as an
example of the KA procedure.
All kinds of additional information is available from Gerda van den Berg (see
below).
Contact:
Gerda van den Berg,
RUL, Department of Beh Comp. Sc.,
PO Box 9555, Leiden University,
2300 RB LEIDEN, Netherlands.
e-mail: BERG@EARN.HLERUL55
Sisyphus
Sisyphus was a mythical Greek character who stole the secrets of the Gods. His
greatest crime was to capture the Goddess of Death herself and keep her
prisoner. Pluto sent the God of War to return Death to her rightful place. He
attempted to cheat death a second time by obtaining permission from Pluto to
return to Earth in order to chastise his wife for putting obedience above
love. This time Mercury was sent to drag him back to the Underworld.
His punishment for all his crimes against the Gods was to be condemned forever
to push a large rock up a hill only for the rock, at the top, to roll back
down into the valley and for him to start again. This was thought by the Gods
to be the ultimate punishment; to suffer the despair that must ensue by being
enslaved to carry out such a pointless task.
However, Sisyphus cheated the Gods once more by developing his capacity to
push the rock up the hill. He formed a pride and a pleasure in the exercise of
his skill. The interlude while he walks down the hill each time to start again
also has a joy that is achieved through the contrast in his efforts; he has
time to reflect on how to improve his next assault on the hill.