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12-1-83 Newsletter 11
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Subject: 12-1-83 Newsletter 11
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From: csli@csli.stanford.edu
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Date: 1 Dec 1983
CSLI Newsletter
December 1, 1983 * * * Number 11
VISIT BY ROD BURSTALL
Rod Burstall, the remaining member of our Advisory Panel, is here
to visit this week. I hope that especially those interested in CSLI's
research area C (theories of situated computer languages) will take
this opportunity to speak with him.
- Jon Barwise
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MEETING OF RESEARCHERS IN AREAS A AND B
The meeting for the A and B Area people will be held from 1:00 to
2:00 p.m., Thursday, December 1, in the Ventura Conference Room after
TINLunch.
MEETING OF RESEARCHERS IN AREA C
The researchers associated with projects in Area C will have a
general meeting at 11:00 a.m. this Friday, December 2, at Ventura
Hall, to meet with Rod Burstall. It will be a chance for him to get
to know us, and for us all to talk about general directions, projects,
interests, and problems that we see in this area.
JOINT MEETING FOR PROJECTS B3 AND B5
At the joint meeting of B3 and B5 on Wednesday, November 30,
Geoff Nunberg discussed his paper "Individuation in Context." Next
Wednesday, December 7, Phil Cohen will talk about indirect speech
acts. His talk will be at 9 a.m. in Ventura Hall.
MEETING FOR PROJECTS C1-D1
On November 29 and December 6, Yiannis Moschovakis will speak to
the CSLI C1-D1 working group, held each Tuesday at 9:30 at PARC. His
topic is: "On the Foundations of the Theory of Algorithms." These
talks will present in outline an abstract (axiomatic) theory of
recursion, which aims to capture the basic properties of recursion and
recursive functions on the integers, much like the theory of metric
spaces captures the basic properties of limits and continuous
functions on the reals. The basic notion of the theory is a (suitable,
mathematical representation of) algorithms. In addition to classical
recursion, the models of the theory include recursion in higher types,
positive elementary induction, and similar theories constructed by
logicians, but they also include pure Lisp, recursion schemes, and the
familiar programming languages (as algorithm describers).
Technically, one can view this work as the theory of many-sorted,
concurrent, and (more significantly) second-order recursion schemes.
The first lecture concentrates on the pure theory of recursion
and describes some of the basic results and directions of this theory.
The second lecture looks at some of the less developed connections of
this theory with the foundations of computer science, particularly the
relation between an algorithm and its implementations.
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CSLI SCHEDULE FOR *THIS* THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1983
10:00 Research Seminar on Natural Language
Speaker: Paul Kiparsky (MIT)
Topic: On lexical phonology and morphology.
Place: Redwood Hall, room G-19
12:00 TINLunch
Discussion leader: Paul Martin (SRI)
Paper for discussion: "Planning English Referring Expressions"
by Douglas Appelt
Place: Ventura Hall
2:00 Research Seminar on Computer Languages
Speaker: Luca Cardelli (Bell Labs)
Title: "Type Systems in Programming Languages"
Place: Redwood Hall, room G-19
3:30 Tea
Place: Ventura Hall
4:15 Colloquium
Speaker: Charles Bigelow (CS, Stanford)
Title: "Selected Problems in Visible Language"
Place: Redwood Hall, room G-19
Note to visitors:
Redwood Hall is close to Ventura Hall on the Stanford Campus. It
can be reached from Campus Drive or Panama Street. From Campus Drive
follow the sign for Jordan Quad. $0.75 all-day parking is available
in a lot located just off Campus Drive, across from the construction
site.
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TINLUNCH SCHEDULE
TINLunch is held at 12 noon each Thursday at Ventura Hall on the
Stanford University campus as a part of CSLI activities. Copies of
TINLunch papers will be at SRI in EJ251 and at Stanford University in
Ventura Hall.
On Thursday, December 1, Paul Martin will lead the discussion.
The paper for discussion will be:
"Planning English Referring Expressions"
by Douglas Appelt
This paper describes a theory of language generation based on
planning. The theory is illustrated through a detailed examination of
the problem of planning referring expressions. This theory provides a
framework in which one can account for noun phrases used to refer, to
supply additional information, and to clarify communicative intent
through coordination with the speaker's nonlinguistic actions. The
theory is embodied in a computer system called KAMP, which plans both
linguistic and nonlinguistic actions when given a high-level
description of the speaker's goals.
NEXT WEEK (DEC. 8):
Robert Moore will be leading the TINLunch discussion on a paper by
Daniel Dennett entitled "Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI."
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WHY CONTEXT WON'T GO AWAY
On Tuesday, November 29, Peter Gardenfors, who is visiting CSLI
this year from Lund University in Sweden, gave a talk entitled "An
Epistemic Semantics for Conditionals." The abstract is given below.
A semantics for different kinds of conditional sentences is
outlined. The ontological basis is states of belief and changes of
belief rather than possible worlds and similarities between worlds. It
is shown how the semantic analysis can account for some of the context
dependence of the interpretation of conditionals.
Next week's speaker: Ivan Sag
December 6, 1983, 3:15 p.m.
Ventura Hall
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COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM NOTICE WEEK OF NOV 28-DEC 2
11/28/1983 Robotics Seminar
Monday Clyde Coombs
4:15 p.m. Hewlett Packard
MJ252 Manufacturing Strategy for Information and Automation
11/29/1983 Knowledge Representation Group Seminar
Tuesday Bob Blum
2:30-3:30 Stanford CSD
TC-135 (Med School) Representing Clinical Causal Relations in the RX
Knowledge Base
11/29/1983 CS Colloquium
Tuesday John Seely Brown
4:15 Cognitive Sciences, Xerox PARC
Terman Aud. A Computational Framework for a Qualitative
Physics--Giving computers `common-sense' knowledge
about physical mechanisms
11/30/1983 Special Tutorial
Wednesday Dr. Adrian Walker
2:00 - 4:00 IBM Research Lab, San Jose
MJH 252 Introduction to PROLOG and Its Applications
11/30/1983 Talkware Seminar
Wednesday Amy Lansky
2:15-4:00 Stanford U./SRI
380Y (Math Corner) GEM: A Methodology for Specifying Concurrent Systems
12/02/1983 Database Research Seminar
Friday David Dewitt
3:15 p.m. University of Wisconsin
MJH 352 Benchmarking Database Management Systems and Machines
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TALKWARE SEMINAR - CS 377
Date: November 30
Speaker: Amy Lansky (Stanford / SRI)
Topic: Specification of Concurrent Systems
Time: 2:15 - 4
Place: 380Y (Math corner)
This talk will describe the use of GEM, an event-oriented model
for specifying and verifying properties of concurrent systems. The
GEM model may be broken up into two components: computations and
specifications. A GEM computation is a formal representation of
concurrent execution. Program executions, as well as activity in
other domains, may be modeled. A GEM specification is a set of logic
formulas that may be applied to GEM computations. These formulas are
used to restrict computations in such a way that they form
characterizations of specific problems or represent executions of
specific languages.
A primary result of my research with GEM has been a demonstration
of the power and breadth of an event-oriented approach to concurrent
activity. The model has been used successfully to describe various
language primitives (the Monitor, CSP, ADA tasks), several problems,
including two distributed algorithms, and for verifying concurrent
programs.
In this seminar, I will introduce some of the important features
of GEM and demonstrate their use in modeling many familiar
computational behavior patterns, including sequentiality,
nondeterminism, priority, liveness, fairness, and scope.
Specification of language concepts such as data abstraction,
primitives such as CSP's synchronous I/O, and familiar problems
(Readers/Writers) will be included. This talk will also discuss
directions for further research based on GEM. One possibility is the
use of graphics for the construction and simulation of GEM
specifications.
Date: December 7
Speaker: Donald Knuth (Stanford CS)
Topic: On the Design of Programming Languages
Time: 2:15 - 4
Place: 380Y (Math Corner)
Date: December 14
Speaker: Everyone
Topic: Summary and discussion
Time: 2:15 - 4
Place: 380Y (Math Corner)
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SEMINAR IN LOGIC AND FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS
SPEAKER: Professor J. E. Fenstad, University of Oslo
TITLE: Peanos's existence theorem for ordinary differential equations
in reverse mathematics and non standard analysis.
TIME: Wednesday, Nov. 30, 4:15-5:30 PM
PLACE: Stanford Mathematics Dept. Faculty Lounge (383-N)
Abstract: We continue the exposition of Steve Simpson's work on
reverse mathematics, locating the exact position for the provability
of Peanos's theorem. It follows that the nonstandard proof is more
constructive than the standard textbook proof.
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1984 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON LOGIC PROGRAMMING
Atlantic City, New Jersey
February 6-9, 1984
Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society
Registration details from:
Registration - 1984 ISLP
Doug DeGroot, Program Chairman
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
P.O. Box 218
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
or from (ARPANET): PEREIRA@SRI-AI
The opening address will be given by Professor J. A. (Alan)
Robinson of Syracuse University. The guest speaker will be Professor
Alain Colmerauer of the University of Aix-Marseille II, Marseille,
France. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ralph E. Gomory, IBM Vice
President & Director of Research, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research
Center. On February 6, Ken Bowen of Syracuse University will present
"Tutorial: An Introduction to Prolog." Finally, during the remaining
three days, February 7-9, 35 papers will be presented in 11 sessions.
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