12 July 2009
Pasadena CA, U.S.A.
IJCAI'09 Workshop on
Abductive & Inductive Knowledge Development
Pasadena, California, USA
http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~oray/AIAI09/
12th July, 2009
(extended) paper submission deadline: 6th April, 2009
workshop participation deadline: 17th April, 2009
This Workshop will explore new ways of using logic-based methods to
support the evolution of knowledge in real-world problems. In particular,
it will focus on the integration and application of abductive and
inductive inference to tasks where theories must evolve incrementally, in
response to continued feedback from the user or domain being modelled.
Drawing on analogies with methodology of science, we aim to explore and
build upon recent work in the mechanisation of theory revision, hypothesis
evaluation, and the design of experiments. In this way, we will provide an
inter-disciplinary forum for researchers seeking to formalise and automate
such knowledge development cycles in various disciplines (scientific,
applied, cognitive or philosophical). We actively solicit the submission
of short position papers, as well as mature work.
Background: Abduction and induction are forms of logical inference with
many applications in AI. Abduction is a type of explanatory-based
reasoning appropriate for tasks such as planning and diagnosis. Induction
is a type of generality-based reasoning appropriate for tasks like
classification and learning. The nature and relation of abduction and
induction has been explored from logical and philosophical perspectives in
a recent book Abduction and Induction: Essays on their Relation and
Integration. More advanced aspects were investigated in a series of three
subsequent workshops AIAI'05, AIAI'06, and AIAI'07, which have shown that
abduction and induction can be usefully combined and cooperatively
deployed in a number of expressive knowledge representation and reasoning
frameworks.
Motivation: Many studies have now confirmed the utility of integrating
abduction and induction. But recent experience in applying such approaches
to real-world problems is beginning to suggest that even greater benefits
might be achieved by incorporating these techniques into a more refined
cycle of knowledge development where domain theories evolve incrementally
in response to continued feedback from the user or domain being modelled.
This has resulted in several (as yet independent) attempts to formalise
and, in some cases, automate such knowledge development cycles in various
target applications. For example:
* in micro-biology, abductive inference and laboratory automation have
been combined in a "Robot Scientist" platform which is able to execute and
analyse a certain type of microbial growth experiments;
* in ethnography, a general "Iterative Recursive Abductive Logic" has
been used to characterise the development of social and cultural theories
of phenomena such as narcotics abuse;
* in decision support, an efficient "Tractable Rapid Abductive
Inference Logic" has been proposed to help solve problems like identifying
military threats in dynamic environments;
* in requirements engineering, a nonmonotonic "Hybrid Abductive
Inductive Learning" methodology has been applied to the acquisition and
revision of user goals and behavioural models.
These tasks go beyond classical applications of abduction and induction by
interleaving theory revision with user or domain interaction. In common
with the methodology of scientific knowledge development, they actively
seek feedback to validate and improve their world model. By contrast, most
related works on hypothetical inference do not attempt to close the cycle
of knowledge revision. Instead, given a theory T and examples E, they
simply compute a set of candidate hypotheses H that entail E with respect
to T. But, while hypothesis generation is a key part of the process, this
workshop is based on the premise that real applications also demand some
practical way of narrowing down the set of candidate hypotheses H, and of
using them to actually adopt a revised theory T' while also guiding the
search for new examples E'. This requires some form of interaction with
the domain or user.
Aims: The Workshop aims to better understand how abduction and induction
can be used within a continuous cycle of knowledge development. It also
aims to examine possible application areas and to investigate how the
revision cycle can be better supported by computational tools. We are
especially keen to explore analogies between knowledge development and
scientific discovery, drawing particular attention to the complementary
roles of theories, hypotheses and experiments. We would also like to
exploit possible links with belief updates in multi-agent systems and
knowledge assimilation frameworks. A important goal of the Workshop is to
stimulate the transfer of ideas between different target domains and to
establish a cross-disciplinary research agenda in this area to advance the
application of logical modelling and inference to problems situated in the
real world.
Invited Talks: The invited talks will provide real-world exemplars of the
knowledge development cycle while also stimulating a true
multi-disciplinary atmosphere. Each talk will last 45 minutes (including
10 minutes for questions). The speakers will be
* Michael Agar (Ethknoworks LLC), an eminent ethnographer, who will
present his work on Iterative Recursive Abductive (IRA) Logic as a
conceptual basis of social modelling;
* John Josephson (The Ohio State University and Aetion Technologies
LLC), a pioneer of abductive systems, who will present Tractable Rapid
Abductive Inference Logic (TRAIL) as a basis for military, commercial, and
industrial decision support.
Paper Presentations: The paper presentations will showcase current
research related to the main Workshop goals. Presentations will be chosen
from the submitted papers by the Programme Committee. Each presentation
will last about 30 minutes (including 5-10 minutes for questions).
Research Sketches: The research sketches will spotlight relevant
work-in-progress being conducted by some of the participants. These brief
outlines are intended stimulate interactions between participants. Each
sketch will last about 6 minutes (including 1-2 minutes for questions).
PROCEEDINGS
The conference proceedings will be made publicly available on this web
site in advance of the Workshop. Printed Working Notes will be available
to all participants at the Workshop. Although extended versions of some
accepted papers may be considered for publication in a journal special
issue, this year we are keen to solicit genuine position papers, as well
as more mature work.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Submissions should be specifically written for the purposes of this
Workshop. They should be prepared in Latex using the AAAI style files and
should not exceed six pages in length. We solicit both position papers
and/or work-in-progress papers.
If you would like to submit a paper to the Workshop, please send an email
at your earliest convenience to "oray@cs.bris.ac.uk" with the subject
"AIAI09-Submission". In the body of the email, please provide (1) your
name, (2) your affiliation, and (3) a provisional title or description of
your potential submission. We will then add you to the Workshop mailing
list and provide you with further instructions on how to submit your
paper.
Please note that the submission deadline (originally set by IJCAI to the
6th of March, 2009) has been extended by 1 month to the 6th of April,
2009. Papers should be submitted on or before this latter date.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Participation at the Workshop is by invitation only and will be limited by
the Organising Committee to around 30 participants. To help select
participants and set an agenda for the Workshop, potential attendees are
kindly asked to submit a brief statement of interest to the workshop
Organisers.
If you would like to attend the Workshop, please send an email at your
earliest convenience to "oray@cs.bris.ac.uk" with the subject
"AIAI09-Participation". In the body of the email, please provide (1) your
name, (2) your affiliation, (3) a brief statement indicating your interest
in the workshop, indicating why you would like to attend, and how it
relates to your own work, (4) any particular topics you would like to see
discussed at the Workshop, and (5) whether or not you would be prepared to
give a short talk or research sketch.
Please note the invitation notification deadline, set by IJCAI, is the
17th of April, 2009. Potential participants are therefore kindly requested
to convey their interest to the workshop Organisers well in advance of
this date.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to email the
Workshop Chair at "oray@cs.bris.ac.uk". In addition, to help with the
planning of the Workshop, the Organisers would be grateful if you could
notify us of your potential interest as soon as possible. We look forward
to hearing from you!
IMPORTANT DATES
Nov 24th, 2008 Initial call for papers
Mar 06th, 2009 Original Paper submission deadline
Apr 06th, 2009 Extended Paper submission deadline
Apr 17th, 2009 Paper notifications
Participation notifications
May 08th, 2009 Camera ready deadline
Jul 12th, 2009 Workshop
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Michael Agar (Ethknoworks LLC, USA)
Atocha Aliseda-Llera (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico)
Chitta Baral (Arizona State University, USA)
Peter Flach (University of Bristol, UK)
Jerry Hobbs (University of Southern California, USA)
Katsumi Inoue (National Institute of Informatics, Japan)
John Josephson (The Ohio State University and Aetion Technologies LLC,
USA)
Antonis Kakas (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
Ross King (University of Aberystwyth, UK)
Oliver Ray (University of Bristol, UK)