[Image] Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence July 26-30, 1998, Madison, Wisconsin Sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Call for Participation & Revised Call for Papers ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AAAI-98 is the Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The purpose of the conference is to promote research in AI and scientific interchange among AI researchers and practitioners. Papers may represent significant contributions to any aspects of AI: * principles underlying cognition, perception, and action * design, application, and evaluation of AI algorithms and systems * architectures and frameworks for classes of AI systems * analysis of tasks and domains in which intelligent systems perform. One of the most important functions served by the national conference is to provide a forum for information exchange and interaction among researchers working in different subdisciplines, in different research paradigms, and in different stages of research. As in previous years, we are continuing efforts to expand active participation in the conference to include a cross-section of the AI community and the community's research activities. Accordingly, we encourage submission of papers that describe theoretical, empirical, or experimental results; represent areas of AI that may have been under-represented in recent conferences; present promising new research concepts, techniques, or perspectives; or discuss issues that cross traditional subdisciplinary boundaries. As outlined below, the paper review criteria are intended to recognize this broader spectrum of research contributions. New This Year! Integrated AI Systems Track An important force holding our field together is the shared goal of building "artificial intelligences" that perform valued activities in real environments by integrating capabilities from AI's diverse subdisciplines. To encourage and support the development of such integrated AI systems, the AAAI-98 conference program will include a special track highlighting implemented systems that integrate methods from multiple AI subdisciplines. Submissions will be reviewed by a specially selected pool of reviewers who are sensitive to the challenges of presenting this kind of work in a conference format. Quality standards for this track will be high. Successful papers will advance the field by making clear not only what the system and each component does, but what has been learned from its development and experiments with it. In contrast with IAAI, however, these systems need not be deployed; breadth and depth of integration matter more here. Submitters are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the videotape support option (description follows). Please watch the conference home page at www.aaai.org and the Intelligent Systems Demonstrations program call for further guidelines and instructions regarding this track, and for information regarding the AAAI-98 Demonstrations Program, which will also highlight integrated systems. Timetable for Submission Authors must first submit their paper's title page (preferably electronically, as described below) by Tuesday, January 20, 1998. Authors must then submit six (6) copies of their papers in camera-ready format, to arrive at the AAAI office no later than Thursday, January 22, 1998. Papers received after that date will be returned unopened. Notification of receipt will be mailed via postcard to the first author (or designated author) soon after receipt. All inquiries regarding lost papers must be made by Tuesday, January 27, 1998. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted papers will be mailed to the first (or designated author) by March 13, 1998. Final camera-ready copy of accepted papers will be due on Wednesday, April 8, 1998. Electronic Title Page Because of the tight schedule required to assign reviewers, we require that authors who desire to submit a full paper declare their intention by sending AAAI a title page by Tuesday, January 20, 1998. The preferred method is by using a world-wide web (www) browser such as NetscapeTM to connect to the form, then filling out the form, and finally pressing the submit button. The form can be found at www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/1998/titlepage.html (a link to the form is located on AAAI's home page at www.aaai.org/). After submitting the form, the page will display a unique tracking number. Authors should print three (3) hard copies of this electronic title page and submit them with the six (6) copies of the body of their paper described below. Authors who do not have access to a www browser with forms support should mail a printed page to the AAAI office to arrive by Friday, January 16, 1998. The printed page should use the following format: Title: (title) Author: (name of first author) Address: [address of first author) Author: (name of last author) Address: (address of last author) Abstract: (abstract: maximum of 200 words) Content Areas: (primary keyword), (secondary keyword), (other keyword1), (other keyword2), (other keyword3) Statement of sole submission: "The author(s) certifies that this paper has not been accepted by and is not currently under review for another conference or journal. Nor will it be submitted for such during AAAI-98's review period." Acknowledgements: (if any) Content Areas To facilitate the reviewing process, authors are requested to select one primary content area keyword, one secondary content area keyword, and up to three other keywords from the list below, to appear on the electronic title page and submitted paper. Please use only the exact phrases below. Do not make up new keywords, since they will be ignored by the paper classification software. AI architectures agent architectures software agents AI systems very large knowledge bases massively parallel systems applications art and music artificial life audition (auditory perception) automated reasoning automatic programming belief revision case-based reasoning cognitive modeling commonsense reasoning computational complexity computer aided education constraint satisfaction data mining decision theory design diagnosis distributed AI blackboard systems cooperating knowledge-based systems coordination distributed problem solving multiagent planning multiagent systems negotiation social agents enabling technologies evolutionary computing genetic algorithms genetic programming expert systems fuzzy reasoning game playing geometric reasoning information retrieval knowledge acquisition knowledge representation decision theoretic methods description logics logic nonmonotonic reasoning ontologies uncertainty lifelike characters logic programming machine learning analogical learning Bayesian learning case-based learning computational learning theory connectionist learning constructive induction decision-tree learning explanation based learning inductive learning inductive logic programming multistrategy learning reinforcement learning speedup learning scientific discovery theory refinement unsupervised learning mathematical foundations model-based reasoning multimedia natural language processing corpus-based methods discourse formal models machine translation natural language generation natural language understanding spoken language generation spoken language understanding neural networks perception philosophical foundations plan recognition planning and control anytime planning decision theoretic planning hierarchical planning plan evaluation plan execution plan monitoring reactive control situated reasoning probabilistic reasoning problem solving real-time systems reasoning about physical systems automated modeling causal reasoning qualitative reasoning robotics selective perception cognitive maps hand eye manipulation scheduling search simulation spatial reasoning temporal reasoning theorem proving user interfaces virtual reality vision Paper Format and Length for Blind Review Format Authors are requested to submit six (6) copies of the paper for review. Double-sided copies are strongly encouraged. In order to avoid disagreements over paper length, authors are required this year to submit papers for review in camera-ready format. Generic templates and macros for AAAI format for Microsoft WordTM, LaTeX, and other systems are available at http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/macros-link.html. Neither computer files nor fax submissions are acceptable. In cases of hardship only, authors may submit a paper for review that is not in camera-ready format. However, such submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter explaining the hardship and demonstrating that the combination of total words and figures in the review copy does not exceed the specified number of proceedings pages. Length The preferred length for reviewed papers is six (6) conference pages. Authors of accepted papers may purchase up to two additional proceedings pages for their paper, for a total of eight (8) pages, at $275/page to be paid when the final camera-ready copy is submitted. In order not to give reviewing advantage to authors who are willing to pay page charges, authors may optionally submit up to a maximum of eight (8) pages for review and decide later whether to publish only six pages at no cost or to purchase additional pages. Reviewing for AAAI-98 will be blind to the identities of the authors. This requires that authors exercise some care not to identify themselves in their papers. Title Page Each paper submission should be accompanied by three (3) copies of a title page, separate from the body of the paper, including the title of the paper, the names and addresses of all authors, a short abstract of less than 200 words, a list of content areas (see above), tracking number from electronic submission of title page (see above), statement of sole submissions (see above), and acknowledgements (if any). The title page should be a printout of the author's electronic title page submission on the AAAI web site. For authors unable to use the web site, they should follow the format described under "Electronic Title Page" above. Paper Body The second page, on which the paper body begins, should include the same title, abstract, content areas, and tracking number, but not the acknowledgments and names or affiliations of the authors. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, but should not include unpublished works. When referring to one's own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Clinton (Clinton 1996) has shown that...," rather than "In our previous work (Clinton 1996) we have shown that...." Try to avoid including any information in the body of the paper or references that would identify the authors or their institutions. Such information may be added to the final camera-ready version for publication. Please do not staple the title page to the body of the paper. Submissions to Multiple Conferences AAAI-98 will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is under review for, or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also expected not to submit their papers elsewhere during AAAI's review period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, and not to workshops or similar specialized meetings with limited audiences. The title page should include a statement that the paper is not under review or accepted for publication in another conference or journal. Review Process Program committee (PC) members will identify papers they are qualified to review based on the information electronically presubmitted (e.g., the paper's title, content areas, and abstract). This information, along with other considerations, will be used to assign each submitted paper to three PC members. Using the criteria given below, they will review the paper independently. Reviews will be done blind to the identities of the authors and their institutions. If the majority of the reviewers of a paper agree to accept or reject it, that recommendation will be followed. If the reviewers are unable to decide, the paper will be discussed at a meeting of the Senior Program Committee members in March. In general, papers will be accepted if they receive at least two positive reviews or if they generate an interesting controversy. Final decisions on all papers will be made by the Program Chairs. Review Criteria Questions that will appear on the review form appear below. Authors are advised to bear these questions in mind while writing their papers. Reviewers will look for papers that meet at least some (although not necessarily all) of the criteria in each category. Significance: How important is the problem studied? Does the approach offered advance the state of the art? Does the paper stimulate discussion of important issues or alternative points of view? Originality: Are the problems and approaches new? Is this a novel combination of existing techniques? Does the paper point out differences from related research? Does it address a new problem or one that has not been studied in depth? Does it introduce an interesting research paradigm? Does the paper describe an innovative combination of AI techniques with techniques from other disciplines? Does it introduce an idea that appears promising or might stimulate others to develop promising alternatives? Quality: Is the paper technically sound? Does it carefully evaluate the strengths and limitations of its contributions? Are its claims backed up? Does the paper offer a new form of evidence in support of or against a well-known technique? Does the paper back up a theoretical idea already in the literature with experimental evidence? Does it offer a theoretical analysis of prior experimental results? Clarity: Is the paper clearly written? Does it motivate the research? Does it describe the inputs, outputs, and basic algorithms employed? Are the results described and evaluated? Is the paper organized in a logical fashion? Is the paper written in a manner that makes its content accessible to most AI researchers? Videotape Support If authors feel that an understanding of the dynamic behavior exhibited by their system is an important factor in judging the technical merit of the work, they may optionally include six (6) copies of a videotape of not more than five (5) minutes duration in NTSC-VHS (US standard only) format to the AAAI office by Thursday, January 22, 1998, as part of their paper submission. Tapes should be labeled only with the tracking number and title of the paper submission; tapes cannot be returned. Publication Accepted papers will be allocated six (6) pages in the conference proceedings. Up to two (2) additional pages may be used at a cost to the authors of $275 per page. Papers exceeding eight (8) pages and those violating the instructions to authors will not be included in the proceedings. Copyright Authors will be required to transfer copyright of their paper to AAAI. Paper Submissions and Inquiries Please send papers and conference registration inquiries to: AAAI-98 American Association for Artificial Intelligence 445 Burgess Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025-3442 Registration and call clarification inquiries (only) may be sent to the internet address: ncai@aaai.org. Please send program suggestions and inquiries to: Charles Rich AAAI-98 Program Cochair MERL--A Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory 201 Broadway, 8th Floor Cambridge, MA 02139 rich@merl.com Jack Mostow AAAI-98 Program Co-chair CMU-LTI, Cyert 215 4910 Forbes Avenue Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3734 mostow@cs.cmu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Student Abstract and Poster Program AAAI-98 invites submissions to the student abstract and poster program. The goal of this program is to provide a forum in which students can present and discuss their work during its early stages, meet some of their peers who have related interests, and introduce themselves to more senior members of the field. The program is open to all pre-Ph.D. students. Nonstudent advisors or collaborators should be acknowledged appropriately, as coauthors or otherwise. However, students are requested to honor the spirit of the program by submitting only work for which they are primary investigators. Requirements for Submission Authors must submit six (6) printed copies of a two-page abstract describing their research to arrive at the AAAI office no later than Thursday, January 22, 1998. Abstracts received after that date will be returned unopened. Notification of receipt will be mailed by postcard to the author. All inquiries regarding lost abstracts must be made by Monday, February 2, 1998. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted abstracts will be mailed to the author by March 18, 1998. Camera-ready copy of accepted abstracts will be due by April 8, 1998. Abstract Format All six (6) copies of a submitted abstract must be clearly legible. Neither computer files nor fax submissions are acceptable. Submissions must be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch or A4 paper using 12 point type (10 characters per inch for typewriters). Each page must have a maximum of 38 lines and an average of 75 characters per line (corresponding to the LaTeX article-style, 12 point). Length All abstracts must be no more than two pages, not including the bibliography. The first two pages must include the following: title; the primary author's full name, affiliation, postal address, phone number, and e-mail address; all co-authors' full names and affiliations; text; and any figures, tables, or diagrams. Up to one additional page may be used exclusively for the bibliography if necessary. Papers exceeding the specified length and formatting requirements are subject to rejection without review. Submissions to AAAI-98 or Other Conferences Students are free to submit abstracts for work reported in a regular paper submitted to the AAAI-98 or another conference, but not for work that has already been published. Abstracts will be accepted or rejected for the student session regardless of the outcomes of related paper submissions. Review Criteria Each abstract will be reviewed against the following criteria: Significance: Does the work address an important problem? Is the potential contribution of the approach clear? Has the author placed the work critically in context of the current field? Originality: Is this a novel problem or approach? Is related work cited and contrasted to this approach? Clarity: Is the abstract clearly written? Is the state of development of the work clear? Are theoretical or actual examples given? If no results are presented, is the feasibility of the approach evident? Publication Accepted abstracts will be allocated one (1) page in the conference proceedings. Students will be required to transfer copyright of the abstract to AAAI. Poster Session Accepted abstracts will be allocated presentation time and space in the student poster display area at the conference. Student authors of accepted abstracts must agree to prepare a poster representing the work described in their abstracts and to be available to discuss their work with visitors during their allocated time in the student poster display area. Student Abstract Submissions & Inquiries Please send abstracts to: AAAI-98 Student Abstracts American Association for Artificial Intelligence 445 Burgess Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025-3442 USA Registration and call clarification inquiries (only) may be sent to the internet address: ncai@aaai.org. Please send student program suggestions and inquiries to: Michael L. Littman Department of Computer Science Duke University, Box 90129 Durham, NC 27708-0129 mlittman@cs.duke.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This page is copyrighted by AAAI. All rights reserved. [AAAI Home Page] [Contact Information] [Search] [Join AAAI] ------------------------------------------------------------------------