simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu (Moderator: Paul Fishwick) (03/17/89)
Volume: 8, Issue: 3, Fri Mar 17 09:48:37 EST 1989 +----------------+ | TODAY'S TOPICS | +----------------+ (1) Call for Papers: IFIP Working Conference (2) IJCAI: Fourth AI and Simulation Workshop (3) Univ. of Arizona: AI & Simulation Group * Moderator: Paul Fishwick, Univ. of Florida * Send topical mail to: simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu * Archives available via FTP to bikini.cis.ufl.edu, login as 'anonymous', use your last name as the password, change directory to pub/simdigest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted-Date: 14 Mar 89 17:13:14 GMT To: uunet!comp-simulation@uunet.UU.NET Path: cs.utexas.edu!misra From: misra@cs.utexas.edu (Jayadev Misra) Newsgroups: comp.simulation,comp.theory Subject: IFIP Working Conference 1990: "Programming Concepts and Methods" Keywords: formal methods, semantics, concurrency & parallelism, program design Date: 14 Mar 89 17:13:14 GMT Sender: news@cs.utexas.edu Followup-To: comp.simulation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers IFIP Working Conference Programming Concepts and Methods April 1990 The IFIP Technical Committee 2 Working Conference on "Programming Concepts and Methods" is jointly organized by IFIP's Working Group 2.2 ("Formal Description of Programming Concepts") and Working Group 2.3 ("Programming Methodology"). Apart from the authors of accepted papers and members of both working groups, attendance at the conference is by invitation only. The conference is to be hosted by Amir Pnueli and will be in Israel at Sea Gallilee on April 2-5, 1990. The main topics on which submissions are sought are: * Formal description and verification methods * Semantics of programming languages * Systematic program design methods * Concurrency and parallelism * Theoretical foundations of programming concepts * Descriptions of support tools for programming concepts Please submit 5 copies of a complete paper by September 10, 1989, to: Prof. Dr. Manfred Broy Fakultat fur Mathematik und Informatik Universitat Passau Postfach 2540 D-8390 Passau West Germany MEMBERS OF THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE: J.W. de Bakker D. Gries G. Kahn D. Bjorner E.C.R. Hehner J. Misra A. Blikle J.J. Horning P.D. Mosses M. Broy (chair) S. Igarashi E.J. Neuhold R.M. Burstall M.A. Jackson M. Sintzoff O.-J. Dahl C.B. Jones (cochair) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Mar 89 18:08 MST From: ROZENBLIT%ECEVAX@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu Subject: Please POST on SImulation DIgest To: fishwick@bikini.cis.ufl.edu X-Vms-To: IN::"fishwick@bikini.cis.ufl.edu" Please Post Call for Participation Fourth AI & Simulation Workshop 11th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence Detroit, Michigan, Monday August 21, 1989 The workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners who are interested in exploring the benefits of merging methods and techniques offered by Artificial Intelligence and Simulation Modelling. Research and practical results that mutually enhance the domains will be discussed. This meeting will be the fourth in a series of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation Workshops that have been held annually at the AAAI conferences since 1986. Whereas the previous workshops spanned a wide range of topics including general paradigms, methodologies, and a number of application problems (mainly utilization of AI techniques in simulation modelling), this time the scope of discussion will be focused on the following three major areas: 1.) reasoning about physical systems: simulation-based approaches and qualitative methods; 2.) interfaces of simulation with planning and scheduling; 3.) applications. Ample time will be left for debate in the afternoon session with round table group discussions covering each of the topics. Abstracts describing your research should be sent to: Dr. Jerzy W. Rozenblit, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, tel. (602) 621-6177, e-mail: rozenblit@arizevax.bitnet Please send six copies of your abstract. Include name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. Abstracts must be received by May 15, 1989. Please do not exceed a limit of 800 words. Abstracts should include key figures and references. Each abstract will be refereed by panel members. Authors will be notified about acceptance or rejection by June 15, 1989. The accepted abstracts will be placed in the workshop proceeding to be distributed at the meeting. The workshop will feature 9 presentations selected by the panel members and round table discussions. Workshop Chairman: Dr. Jerzy W. Rozenblit, University of Arizona Panel Members: Dr. Paul A. Fishwick, University of Florida; Dr. Richard B. Modjeski, U.S. Army Concepts Analysis Agency; Dr. Norman R. Nielsen, Stanfrod Research Institute; Dr. Tuncer I. Oren, University of Ottawa; Dr. Bernard P. Zeigler, University of Arizona ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 15:27 MST From: ROZENBLIT%ECEVAX@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu To: fishwick@bikini.cis.ufl.edu THE AI-SIMULATION GROUP Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of Arizona RESEARCH PROJECTS: 1. Unified Simulation Knowledge Representation The object oriented paradigms of discrete event simulation are highly compatible with the representation schemes of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is not surprising therefore, that languages are being developed to express both the dynamic knowledge of discrete event formalisms and the declarative know- ledge of AI frame paradigms. Our research objectives has been to unify these developments in a more fundamental paradigm which stems from the system theoretic representation of simulation models. As a step toward a complete knowledge representation scheme, we have combined the decomposition, taxonomic, and coupling concepts of systems in a representation scheme called the system entity structure. This is a declarative scheme related to frame- theoretic and object-based representations. We developed a set of tools to faciliate operations on system entity structures. 2. Use of the System Entity Structure in Simulation Model Synthesis. A primary application of the above knowledge representation scheme is to automate the construction of simulation models. In this approach, a simulation model is synthesized from components in a model base following the user's requirements. These objectives guide a pruning process which reduces the entity structure to one or more composition trees from which models may be hierarchically built up from atomic components. Constraints placed on the aspects of the entity structure restrict the family of possible pruned structures for more informed search. The approach requires that the model base be populated by models expressed in the DEVS formalism, a modular discrete event model representation enabling hierarchical assembly. DEVS-SCHEME, a simulation environment written in Scheme (a LISP dialect) was developed for this purpose. Such knowledge based design is being applied to the domain of local area networks. Eventually a designer should be able to rapidly assess the performance of a wide variety of alternative network designs via model synthesis and simulation. 3. Application to Distributed Simulation. Research in distributed simulation has concentrated thus far on execution of a single model on a network of processors. Yet in practice, simulation experimentation most often involves exploration of the behaviors of a related female of models. Our research aims to develop a methodology, centered on the entity structure/model base concepts, to map a family of models onto a hierarchical multiprocessor. Several Ph.D. theses have developed the ground work for this approach supported by a series of NSF grants. The DEVS-SCHEME environment mentioned above is actually a virtual hierarchical simulator. 4. Laboratory Management by Robot Organizations. Several projects in the ECE Department involve the planned orbiting space station. In work funded by the NASA AI Research Branch, we are building a simulation environment capable of supporting design of robot organizations for managing chemical, or similar, laboratories on the space station. The environment should facilitate thorough study of the problems to be encountered in assigning the responsibility of managing a non- life-critical, but mission valuable, process to an organized group of robots. In the first phase of the work, we seek to develop congnitive systems and strategies for effective multi- management of chemical experiments. Later phases will explore human-robot interaction and development of robot autonomy. 5. Other Projects. Students and faculty also participate in other projects with the University. Design of the AI and Simulation Systems within the Biosphere II project to replicate the earth's ecosystem is a notable example. FACILITIES: The AI-Simulation Group is located within the Computer Engineering Research Laboratory. We have access to an array of computing facilities including high performance AI workstations linked to powerful mainframe. COURSES: Several courses are offered by faculty members of the AI- Simulation Group: ECE 474 Continuous Systems Simulation ECE 479 Introduction to Knowledge Engineering ECE 574 Distributed Discrete Event Simulation ECE 576 Knowledge Based System Design ECE 579 Simulation Based Expert Systems There are many other courses related to simulation and artificial intelligence offered on campus which students can take as part of their minor programs. PERSONNEL: Bernard P. Zeigler, Professor and Group Leader (Expert Systems, Hierarchical Simulation Environments). Jerzy W. Rozenblit, Assistant Professor (Knowledge-Based System Design, Simulation Methodology). Francois E. Cellier, Associate Professor (Rule-Based Control Systems, Simulation Language Design). Some thirty graduate students are currently working on their Masters and Ph.D. degrees as Research Assistants, partially or fully supported by AI-Simulation projects. Normally, such support is offered only after the student has attained the requisite background. ------------------------------ +--------------------------+ | END OF SIMULATION DIGEST | +--------------------------+