weidlich@LUDWIG.SCC.COM (10/09/88)
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 88 23:18 EDT
From: Bob Weidlich <weidlich@ludwig.scc.com>
To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu, neuron-request@hplabs.hp.com
Subject: Washington Neural Network Society Meeting
The Washington Neural Network Society
First General Meeting
October 12, 1988 7:00 PM
Speaker: Fred Weingard
Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc.
Arlington, Virginia.
Neural Networks: Overview and Applications
Neural networks and neurocomputing provide a novel and promis-
ing alternative to conventional computing and artificial in-
telligence. Conventional computing is characterized by the
use of algorithms to solve well-understood problems. Artifi-
cial intelligence approaches are generally characterized by
the use of heuristics to obtain good, but not necessarily
best, solutions to problems whose solution steps are not so
well-understood. In both approaches, knowledge representions
or data structures to solve the problem must be worked out in
advance and a problem domain expert is essential. These ap-
proaches result in systems that are brittle to unexpected in-
puts, cannot adapt to a changing environment, and cannot easi-
ly take advantage of parallel hardware architectures. Neural
network systems, in contrast, can learn to solve a problem by
exposure to examples, are naturally parallel, and are
``robust" to novelty. In this talk Fred Weingard will give a
general overview of neural networks that covers many of the
most promising neural network models, and discuss the applica-
tion of such models to three difficult real-world problems --
radar signal processing, optimal decisionmaking, and speech
recognition.
Fred Weingard heads the Neural Network Design and Applications
Group at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Prior to joining Booz, Al-
len, Mr. Weingard was a senior intelligence analyst at the De-
fense Intelligence Agency. He has degrees in engineering from
Cornell University and is completing his doctorate in computer
science / artificial intelligence at George Washington Univer-
sity.
The meeting will be held in the Contel Plaza Building Audito-
rium at Contel Federal Systems in Fairfax, Virginia, at the
southwest edge of the Fair Oaks mall. Directions from 495
Beltway: Take Route 66 Westbound (toward Front Royal) and get
off at route 50 heading west (Exit 15 Dulles/Winchester). Go
1/4 mile on route 50, follow sign to "shopping center". Stay
in right lane and merge into service road that circles shop-
ping center. Take driveway from service road to Contel build-
ing. Address is 12015 Lee Jackson Highway. Contel building
is across shopping parking lot from Lord and Taylor, near
Sears. For further information call Billie Stelzner at (703)
359-7685. Host for the meeting is the recently-established
Contel Technology Center. Dr. Alan Salisbury, Director of the
Technology Center, will present a brief introduction to the
plans for research and application of technology at the Contel
laboratory, including work in artificial intelligence and
man-machine interface design.
Schedule:
7:00 - 7:15 Welcoming (Alan Salisbury)
7:15 - 8:15 Speaker (Fred Weingard)
8:15 - 8:30 Report on Neural Network Society (Craig Will)
8:30 - 9:30 Reception, informal discussion