** U A I 99 ** THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON UNCERTAINTY IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE July 30-August 1, 1999 Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden=20 (near the site of IJCAI-99) Note extension of deadline for paper submissions (see important dates below)= =2E = Please visit the UAI-99 WWW page at http://uai99.iet.com. =20 For the first time, the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial= Intelligence will be held outside North America. The conference will occur= immediately prior to IJCAI 99 and in close proximity to the IJCAI-99= conference site. = Invited speakers: David Schum: "Sacco and Vanzetti: A Case Study in Evidential Reasoning" Philippe Smets: "Practical Uses of Belief Functions" Further details on the program will be posted on the conference web site= when available.=20 * * * CALL FOR PAPERS Uncertainty management is a key enabling technology for the development of= intelligent systems. Since 1985, the Conference on Uncertainty in= Artificial Intelligence (UAI) has been the primary international forum for= exchanging results on the use of principled uncertain-reasoning methods in= intelligent systems. The conference has catalyzed advances in fundamental= theory, efficient algorithms, and practical applications. Theory and= technology first presented at UAI have been proven by wide application in= the broad community, and by the success of the systems in which the= technology has been embedded. The UAI Proceedings have become a basic= reference for researches and practitioners who want to know about both= theoretical advances and the latest applied developments in the field. The scope of UAI covers a broad spectrum of approaches to automated= reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. Contributions to the= proceedings address topics that advance theoretical principles or provide= insights through empirical study of applications. Interests include= quantitative and qualitative approaches, and traditional as well as= non-classical paradigms of uncertain reasoning. Applications of automated= uncertain reasoning span a broad spectrum of tasks and domains, including= systems that make autonomous decisions and those designed to support human= decision making through interactive use. We encourage submissions of papers for UAI '99 that report on advances in= the core areas of representation, inference, learning, and knowledge= acquisition, as well as on insights derived from building or using= applications of uncertain reasoning. We encourage the submission of papers proposing new methodologies and tools= for model construction, representation, learning, inference and= experimental validation. Innovative ways to increase the expressive power= and the applicability spectrum of existing methods are encouraged. Papers= are welcome that present new applications of uncertain reasoning and stress= the methodological aspects of their construction and use. Highlighting= difficulties in existing procedures and pointing at the necessary advances= in foundations and algorithms is considered an important role of= presentations of applied research. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): >> Foundations * Conceptual relationships among different uncertainty calculi * Higher order uncertainty and confidence in models * Representation of uncertainty and preference * Revision of belief and combination of information from multiple sources * Semantics of belief * Theoretical foundations of uncertain belief and decision * Uncertainty and models of causality >> Principles and Methods * Advances in diagnosis, troubleshooting, and test selection * Algorithms for reasoning and decision under uncertainty * Automated construction of inference and decision models =20 * Combination of models from different sources * Computation and action under limited resources * Control of computational processes under uncertainty * Data structures for representation and inference * Decision making under uncertainty * Enhancing the human-computer interface with uncertain reasoning * Explanation of results of uncertain reasoning * Formal languages to represent uncertain information * Hybridization of methodologies and techniques * Integration of logic with uncertainty calculi * Markov decision processes * Methods based on probability, possibility and fuzzy logic,=20 belief functions, rough sets, and other formalisms * Multiple agent reasoning * Planning under uncertainty * Qualitative methods and models * Reasoning at different levels of abstraction * Statistical methods for automated uncertain reasoning * Temporal reasoning * The representation and discovery of causal relationships * Time-critical decisions * Time-dependent utility * Uncertain reasoning and information retrieval * Uncertainty and methods for learning and data mining >> Empirical Study and Applications * Comparison of representation and inferential adequacy of different calculi * Empirical validation of methods for planning, learning, and diagnosis * Experience with knowledge-acquisition methods * Experimental studies of inference strategies * Methodologies for problem modeling * Nature and performance of architectures for real-time reasoning * Uncertain reasoning in embedded, situated systems (e.g., softbots) For papers focused on applications in specific domains, we suggest that the following issues be addressed in the submission: - - Why was it necessary to represent uncertainty in your domain? - - What are the distinguishing properties of the domain and problem? - - What kind of uncertainties does your application address? - - Why did you decide to use your particular uncertainty formalism? - - Which practical procedure did you follow to build the application? - - What theoretical problems, if any, did you encounter? - - What practical problems did you encounter? - - Did users/clients of your system find the results useful? - - Did your system lead to improvements in decision making? - - What approaches were effective (ineffective) in your domain? - - What methods were used to validate the effectiveness of the system? = SUBMISSION AND REVIEW OF PAPERS = Papers submitted for review should represent original, previously= unpublished work. Papers should not be under review for presentation in any= other conference. However, an extended version of the paper may be under= review for publication in a scientific journal. Submitted papers will be= carefully evaluated on the basis of originality, significance, technical= soundness, and clarity of exposition. Papers may be accepted for= presentation in plenary or poster sessions. All accepted papers will be= included in the Proceedings of the Fifteenth Conference on Uncertainty in= Artificial Intelligence, published by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.=20 All papers will be reviewed by at least three members of the conference= program committee. Names of program committee members are listed on the= conference web site. An outstanding student paper will be selected for special distinction. To be= considered for the outstanding student paper award, the student must be= first author, and the student's advisor must certify enrollment in an= academic degree program during the 1998/99 academic year. Instructions for= certifying student status are available at http://uai99.iet.com/instruction= s.html. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit papers in the proceedings format.= Format information is available at http://uai99.iet.com/instructions.html. = Submitted papers must be no more than ten pages in proceedings format,= (about 7000 words). Accepted papers will be limited to 8 pages with 2= additional pages for a fee. We strongly encourage the electronic submission of papers. To submit a paper= electronically, send an electronic version of the paper (Postscript format)= to the following address: uai99@iet.com The subject line of this message should be: $.ps, where $ is an identifier= created from the last name of the first author, followed by the first= initial of the author's first name. Multiple submissions by the same first= author should be indicated by adding a number (e.g., pearlj2.ps) to the end= of the identifier. Additionally, the paper abstract and data should be sent by using the= electronic form at the following address: http://uai99.iet.com/data.html Authors unable to submit papers electronically should send 5 copies of the= complete paper to one of the Program Chairs at the addresses listed below. Authors unable to use the electronic form to submit the abstract should= provide the following information (by sending a message to the e-mail= address above): * Paper title (plain text) * Author names, including student status (plain text) * Surface mail address, e-mail address, and voice phone number for a contact author (plain text) * A short abstract including keywords (plain text) * Primary and secondary classification indices selected from=20 conference topics listed above. * Indicate the preferred type of presentation: poster or plenary ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Important Dates ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ** Abstracts must be submitted electronically via http://uai99.iet.com/data.= html by: Sunday, February 21, 1999. If author is unable to submit= electronically, abstract must be received by program chair by Sunday,= February 21, 1999. ** All papers must be received by: Wednesday, February 24, 1999 (note= extension of previous deadline) ** Notification of acceptance on or before: Monday, April 12, 1999 ** Camera-ready copy due: Friday, May 7, 1999 ** Conference dates: Friday-Sunday, July 30 - August 1, 1999 ** Full day course on Uncertain Reasoning: Thursday, July 29, 1999 = Conference E-mail Address Please send all inquiries (submissions and conference organization) to the= following e-mail address: uai99@iet.com Program Co-chairs: Kathryn Blackmond Laskey Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 USA Phone: (703) 993-1644 Fax: (703) 993-1706 E-mail: klaskey@gmu.edu Henri Prade I.R.I.T. Universit=E9 Paul Sabatier 118 route de Narbonne 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4 FRANCE Phone: (33) 561 55 6579 Fax : (33) 561 55 6239 E-mail: uai99@irit.fr General Conference Chair: Gregory F. Cooper Center for Biomedical Informatics University of Pittsburgh Suite 8084 Forbes Tower 200 Lothrop Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2582 USA Phone: (412) 647-7113 Fax: (412) 647-7190 E-mail: gfc@cbmi.upmc.edu = = Refer to the UAI-98 WWW home page for late-breaking information: http://uai99.iet.com/