SARA'2002 - first call for papers (Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation)

CALL FOR PAPERS

SARA-2002

Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation

Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada
August 2-4, 2002
(immediately after AAAI-2002)


OVERVIEW

SARA-2002 is an Artificial Intelligence symposium on all aspects of abstraction, reformulation, and approximation. Like past SARAs, it will consist of stimulating technical presentations spanning the traditional boundaries that fragment Artificial Intelligence research.

Attendance is limited to approximately 50 participants. Graduate students whose research involves techniques of abstraction, reformulation or approximation are highly encouraged to attend, and some funding is available to subsidize their costs.

SARA-2002 will be situated amidst the spectacular Rocky Mountains of the Kananaskis Valley, 60 miles west of Calgary, Alberta, and 45 miles southeast of Banff, Alberta.

To make it convenient for AAAI-2002 attendees to participate in SARA, a luxurious bus will drive from the AAAI conference site to the SARA site the afternoon of August 1.


BACKGROUND

It has been recognized since the inception of Artificial Intelligence that abstractions, problem reformulations and approximations (AR&A) are central to human common-sense reasoning and problem solving and to the ability of systems to reason effectively in complex domains. AR&A techniques have been used in a variety of problem-solving settings, including automatic programming, constraint satisfaction, design, diagnosis, machine learning, planning, reasoning, scheduling and theorem proving. The primary use of AR&A techniques in such settings has been to overcome computational intractability by decreasing the combinatorial costs associated with searching large spaces. In addition, AR&A techniques are also useful for knowledge acquisition and explanation generation in complex domains.

The considerable interest in AR&A techniques has led to a series of successful symposia over the last decade. AAAI workshops in 1990 and 1992 focused on selecting, constructing and using abstractions and approximations, while a series of workshops in 1988, 1990, and 1992 focused on problem reformulations. The two workshop series were then combined since there was considerable overlap in their attendees and topics. The present symposium is the fifth in this new series, following successful symposia in 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2000. Its aim is to provide a forum for intensive interaction among researchers in all areas of artificial intelligence with an interest in the different aspects of AR&A techniques. The diverse backgrounds of participants of previous symposia has lead to a rich and lively exchange of ideas, allowed the comparison of goals, techniques and paradigms, and helped identify important research issues and engineering hurdles. We expect that the upcoming symposium will include an equally diverse group of participants.


REQUIREMENTS FOR ATTENDING SARA

Because of the limited capacity of the meeting venue, attendance will be by invitation only. However, it is the aim of SARA to encourage as many people as possible to attend, and therefore invitations will be extended to anyone doing relevant work and, while space permits, to anyone interested in the topic.

Anyone who has a paper or extended abstract accepted (see below) will be invited to attend. Anyone else who is interested in attending must apply by sending a research summary (one or two pages), including a list of relevant publications, to the program co-chairs before April 17, 2002. Invitations will be extended to as many interested people as possible. The research summaries of the invited non-presenters will be published in the proceedings.

Invitations will be sent April 24 along with registration information.


SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Submissions are requested about all aspects of abstraction, reformulation and approximation, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

Researchers who wish to make presentations at the symposium should submit a full paper or, if they prefer, an extended abstract. Authors of accepted extended abstracts are encouraged to produce full papers by the deadline for camera-ready copies. Researchers who wish to attend the symposium without making a presentation must submit a research summary as described above.

Accepted full papers, extended abstracts and research summaries will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series by Springer Verlag. The submissions and final versions of all papers and summaries must be in LNCS/LNAI format. Formatting instructions can be found at www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html. Full papers should not exceed 15 pages, extended abstracts should not exceed 8 pages, and research summaries should not exceed 2 pages.

Papers may contain work published elsewhere provided the authors make the necessary acknowledgments, put it in the context of the symposium, and extend their work in some way. Authors will be able to submit updated versions of their papers to major conferences (such as IJCAI, AAAI, and ECAI) and journals, provided they meet all restrictions placed by the conference or journal organizers on prior publication.

Papers have to be submitted electronically in PDF format to the following email address:

sara-submission@cc.gatech.edu

Please include several ways of contacting the principal author, including e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number. Accepted full papers need to be presented at the symposium. In case of multiple authors, please indicate which authors will participate in the symposium.

Additional information may be obtained from the symposium home page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~holte/SARA2002

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for submitting a full paper or extended abstract: February 25, 2002 (authors are requested to send a notification of intent to submit, together with a draft title and short abstract, by February 20, 2002 to sara-submission@cc.gatech.edu)
Notification of acceptance of full papers and extended abstracts: April 9, 2002
Deadline for submitting a research summary: April 17, 2002
Invitations to attend SARA will be sent out: April 24, 2002
Deadline for camera-ready copies: May 8, 2002.

CONFERENCE SITE

SARA-2002 will take place in the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, a 3-star facility that provides its guests with spectacular views and delicious western cuisine. The Kananaskis Mountain Lodge is situated amidst the spectacular Rocky Mountains of the Kananaskis Valley, 60 miles west of Calgary, Alberta, and 45 miles southeast of Banff, Alberta. The Kananaskis Valley offers over 150 kilometers of summer hiking and interpretive trails, which can either be enjoyed on your own or on an escorted day trip with knowledgeable tour guides. Surf 'n' Saddle tours that combine trail riding through the Kananaskis Valley with the thrill of whitewater rafting on the Kananaskis River are also available. The major tourist centers of Canmore and Banff are less than an hour's drive away from the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge. Additional information may be obtained from the home page of the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge on the World Wide Web:

http://www.kananaskismountainlodge.com/

TRANSPORTATION

To make it convenient for AAAI attendees to participate in SARA, a luxurious bus will drive from the AAAI conference site to the SARA site the afternoon of August 1.

After SARA, transportation will only be provided from Kananaskis to the CALGARY AIRPORT.
People attending both AAAI and SARA should take this into account when planning their flights, since they will probably want to fly into Edmonton for AAAI but to have their return flight (after SARA) originate from Calgary.


STUDENT SUPPORT

Graduate students whose research involves techniques of abstraction, reformulation or approximation are highly encouraged to attend, and some funding is available to subsidize their costs. Students must apply for support to the program co-chairs before April 17, 2002 and must provide a research summary and a proof of their student status.


This page maintained by Robert Holte (holte@cs.ualberta.ca)