[comp.lang.eiffel] CFP - IJCAI-91 Workshop on Objects and AI

mhi@edsews.eds.com (Mamdouh H. Ibrahim) (04/04/91)

                        CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

                         IJCAI-91 Workshop on

                            OBJECTS AND AI

                       Sunday, August 25, 1991
                          Sydney, Australia


Recently,   object-oriented   programming   has   gained    tremendous
recognition  as  a  powerful  paradigm for structuring and programming
complex systems. At the same time, AI researchers are  still  striving
for   new  representational  and  software  engineering  advances  for
developing complex AI applications. Cooperation between Objects and AI
can be an important step toward achieving advances in both fields.

This workshop will provide a forum for researchers in AI  and  OOP  to
exchange  ideas  and  discuss issues related to the two fields and the
potential cooperation between them. The focus of the presentations and
discussions  will be on both the theoretical foundations and practical
applications and implementations of object-oriented programming in AI.

Tentatively, the workshop will be divided  into  four  main  sessions,
each moderated by one of the workshop organizers.

1)  Objects and AI: Concepts and potential cooperation.
2)  Object-oriented knowledge representations: Theory, formalisms  and
    practical issues.
3)  Object-oriented environments and architectures for AI.
4)  Object-oriented AI applications.

In the first session, participants will discuss how they view objects,
and identify their impact on AI. For example, objects may be viewed as
modules of  knowledge  or  activities--agents.  From  this  view,  the
discussion should focus on identifying how these agents can contribute
to advances in AI research. From a different perspective, concepts and
methodologies  of  programming  with  objects that are applicable, and
could potentially contribute, to AI may be addressed  and  debated  as
part  of  this  session.  This  discussion  should also identify those
concepts that are fundamentally different and may  cause  problems  if
the  two  areas are combined. Examples for such discussion are objects
vs. frames, AI classification vs. class inheritance  hierarchies,  and
the  suitability of object-oriented methodologies in dealing with ill-
defined domains.

The  second  session  will  focus  on  issues  related  to   knowledge
representation   using   objects.   Participants  should  discuss  the
advantages and/or limitations of concepts such  as  encapsulation  and
information  hiding  when  applied  to knowledge representation. Also,
objects  have  often  been  criticized  for  lacking  formalisms   and
semantics   for   object-oriented   knowledge   representation.    The
discussions in this session should address  these  theoretical  issues
and  identify  the  potential  problems  associated  with such lack of
formalisms.

The third session is intended to explore existing and  future  object-
oriented  architectures  as  they  may  apply to the development of AI
tasks. The discussion should identify the advantages and disadvantages
of  using  class-based  vs.  delegation-based  systems, concurrent and
distributed   object-oriented   architectures,    communicating    and
intelligent  agents,  reflective  systems,  and integrated programming
environments.

The last session will be devoted to presentations and  discussions  of
object-oriented  AI  applications.  Discussions  should  focus  on and
emphasize the aspects of OOP that contribute to the success  of  these
systems.  Examples  of  such systems are object-oriented expert system
shells,  natural  language  processing  systems,   learning   systems,
simulation,   scheduling   and   planning   systems,   and  constraint
satisfaction systems.

Workshop attendance will be by invitation only and is limited   to  30
participants.  Invitations  will  be  issued  on the basis of extended
abstracts or position papers. Appropriate papers should  not  be  less
than  3  single  spaced  pages and should state clearly their authors'
position and supporting arguments for issues relevant to the  workshop
theme.  Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):

o    Formalisms  and  semantics  for   object-oriented   knowledge
     representations.
o    Object-oriented  methodologies for handling ill-defined domains.
o    Object class hierarchies vs. AI classification hierarchies.
o    Objects vs. frames: similarities and differences.
o    Objects in distributed AI.
o    Intelligent and communicating agents.
o    Reflective object-oriented languages for AI development.
o    Pattern matching with objects: problems and solutions
o    object-oriented tools for designing and developing  AI systems.
o    Object-oriented protocols for AI tasks.
o    Integration of object-oriented and AI programming paradigms.

The papers will be reviewed by members of the workshop  committee  and
acceptance  will  be  based  on  both the relevance of the work to the
workshop theme and the quality and clarity  of  the  papers.  Accepted
papers  will  be  distributed to the participants at the workshop, and
based on the workshop outcome, we may elect to generate some  form  of
formal   publication   that   will   include  longer  versions  of the
accepted submissions.

IJCAI policy this year  requires  successful  workshop  applicants  to
register   for   both   the  conference  and  the  workshop.  Workshop
registration fee is $US65.00.

Send five copies of extended abstract before April 30, 1991 to:
---------------------------------------------------------------

    Mamdouh H. Ibrahim
    EDS/Artificial Intelligence Services
    5555 New King Street, 4th. Floor
    Troy, MI 48057 USA
    Phone: (313) 696-7129
    e-mail: mhi@edsdrd.eds.com or mhi@ais.tsd.eds.com
    Fax:   (313) 696-2325

Important Dates:
----------------

    April 30, 1991  Deadline for receiving extended abstracts.
    June 1, 1991    Notification of invitation or rejection.
    June 30, 1991   Deadline for receiving revised papers.
    July 15, 1991   IJCAI to receive participants registration forms and fees.


For further information, contact any of the workshop organizers.

Workshop organizers:
--------------------

    Daniel Bobrow
            Systems Science Laboratory
            Xerox PARC
            3333 Coyote Hill Rd.,
            Palo Alto, CA 94304
            USA
            bobrow@xerox.com

    Jacques Ferber
            LAFORIA - Universite Paris 6
            T. 46, 4 place Jussieu
            75252 Paris Cedex 05
            France
            ferber@laforia.ibp.fr

    Mamdouh H. Ibrahim      (Chair)
            EDS/Artificial Intelligence Services
            5555 New King Street, 4th. Floor
            Troy, MI 48057 USA
            Phone: (313) 696-7129
            USA
            mhi@edsdrd.eds.com or mhi@ais.tsd.eds.com

    Mario Tokoro
            Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc./Keio University
            3-14-13, Higashigotanda
            Shinagawa, Tokyo, 141
            Japan
            mario@csl.sony.co.jp