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CSLI Calendar, 18 March 1998, vol. 13:25
C S L I C A L E N D A R O F P U B L I C E V E N T S
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18 March 1998 Stanford Vol. 13, No. 25
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A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
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ACTIVITIES DURING 18 MARCH TO 27 MARCH 1998
WEDNESDAY, 18 MARCH
3:15pm ME297: Design Theory and Methodology Seminar
Grammatical Generation and Optimizing Search in Early
Design
Professor Jonathan Cagan
George Tallman and Florence Barrett Ladd Development
Professor in Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University
(this may be a closed seminar, check the web page)
http://cdr.stanford.edu/DD/Courses/me297/
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 19 MARCH
10:00am Neurobiology Seminar
Beyond the M and P Pathways: How Early Neuronal Diversity
Contributes to Visual Perception
Dr. David Calkins
The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
The Johns Hopkins University
Host: Dr. Eric Knudsen
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/nbio/seminars.html
12 noon CSLI Talk
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Global Intelligence Project
Prof. Masa Numao
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Abstract below
2:15pm Semantics Workshop
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:146
Frank Veltman
University of Amsterdam and the Department of Philosophy,
Stanford University
Abstract below
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Gates 100
Learning Evaluation Functions for Optimization
Justin Boyan
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 20 MARCH
12 noon Logic Lunch
Room 380:383N
Reductions of Theories of Countable Tree Ordinals to ID_1
Sol Feferman
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 26 MARCH
12 noon CSLI Talk
Cordura 100
Grounding Meaning through Language Games
Prof. Luc Steels
VUB AI Lab (Brussels)
and Sony CSL (Paris)
Abstract below
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Gates 100
Summarizing Similarities and Differences Among Related
Documents
Eric Bloedorn
Mitre, McLean, VA.
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 27 MARCH
10:00am Neurobiology Seminar
Neural Learning Rules in the Cerebellum: Insights from
the Vestibulo-ocular Reflex
Dr. Jennifer Raymond
Department of Physiology and Keck Center for Integrative
Neuroscience
University of California, San Francisco
Host: Dr. Eric Knudsen
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/nbio/seminars.html
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SPRING QUARTER
Philosophy 169
Intensional Logic
Johan van Benthem
Tuesday, Thursday, 1:15pm-2:30pm
Bldg. 60:62A
Starting 31 March 1998
We do a basic introduction to modal logic, in a modern perspective
using bisimulation, first-order correspondence, and other recent tools
that are not yet standard textbook fare. After that, we'll look at
some active areas of applications, including dynamic and epistemic
logics, plus some modal logics for grammar formalisms. Finally, some
guest speakers will highlight recent perspectives (metaphysics of
modality, computational complexity, programming). At the end of the
course, students should be able to understand research papers that use
modal techniques, and have an intelligent appraisal of what makes them
tick.
Philosophy 298
Topics in Logic, Language, and Computation
Johan van Benthem
Friday, 1:15pm-3:05pm
Bldg. 60:61F
Starting 3 April 1998
This year's theme is *Games in Logic*. Games are an upcoming paradigm
for dealing with dynamic aspects of action and information flow, which
actually revives a very old tradition in the field. In addition to the
received syntactic and semantic views on validity, there is a
'pragmatic' intuition which says that the valid inferences are
precisely those that correspond to winning strategies in an
argumentation game. Logical games have never entered the core of the
field, partly because no Hilbert, Tarski, or Turing has yet provided
them with a definitive conceptual analysis from first principles. We
will survey some important games (due to Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse,
Lorenzen, Hintikka, and others) and their modern uses (including
connections with linear logic). Then we look at some general
mathematical theory dealing with game rules and strategies. Finally,
we look into recent connections between game theory as practiced by
economists and philosophers studying rationality, and
epistemic-dynamic logics that place action and information flow at
center stage (cf. J. van Benthem, "Exploring Logical Dynamics", CSLI
Publications, Stanford, 1996).
____________
ME297: DESIGN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY SEMINAR
on Wednesday, 18 March 1998, 3:15pm
http://cdr.stanford.edu/DD/Courses/me297/
(seminar may be closed, check web page)
Grammatical Generation and Optimizing Search in Early Design
Jonathan Cagan
George Tallman and Florence Barrett Ladd
Development Professor in Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
The early stages of design require search through large spaces of
design concepts. To keep the process tractable and productive, the
description of the design space must be concise, yet the scope of the
space still vast. Further, once a design space is defined it must be
searched in an efficient manner to determine good design solutions. In
this presentation we will explore the benefits of shape grammars to
describe engineering design spaces. These grammars either model
knowledge intensive products such as coffee makers, or
near-knowledge-free configurations such as truss structures. To search
design spaces such as those generated by knowledge-free grammars,
techniques must be able to move through discontinuous, non-smooth
topologies and models and determine not only feasible solutions but
optimally directed ones. We will explore how stochastic optimization
methods find optimal configurations in these spaces. One such
application will be in the area of structural topology design and
another in the area of product layout. We will also briefly examine
the relationship between these search methods and cognitive models of
human problem solving.
____________
CSLI TALK
on Thursday, 19 March 1998, 12 noon
Cordura Hall, Room 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/Coglunch/
Global Intelligence Project
Masa Numao
Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
http://www.titech.ac.jp/home.html
We propose a cooperative system of human beings and computers, called
"Global Intelligence" (GI). Human workers in GI are supported by a
computer system called GIANT (GI Associating NeTwork), which consists
of an inference mechanism by using a dynamically transforming network,
and has a learning mechanism by adjusting a weight on each link in the
network. After showing their structures and experiments, we point out
that we can construct an interesting model of intelligence not only by
analyzing a "Society of Mind", but also by synthesizing "Mind of a
Society".
A limited number of sandwiches available for purchase at the talk.
____________
STANFORD SEMANTICS WORKSHOP
on Thursday, 19 March 1998, 2:15pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:146
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/Linguistics/semgroup/
Subjunctive Modalities and subordination.
Frank Veltman
University of Amsterdam
and the Department of Philosophy, Stanford University
I will sketch some of the problems one encounters if one tries to
develop a dynamic semantics for subjunctive modalities like `might',
`would', `might have been' and `would have been', as these occur not
only in subjunctive conditionals but also in other kinds of discourse.
Taking subjunctive conditionals as my starting point, I will among
other things argue that the dynamic theories developed so far
(Barwise, Morreau) are wrong in that they predict that any agent who
at a given time is entitled to entertain the indicative conditionals
`If A is the case, then so is C' will later, after learning that A is
in fact false, be entitled to entertain the counterfactual `If A had
been the case, C would have been the case'. I will sketch an
alternative theory, show how it solves some notorious puzzles, and
explain how it can be extended to a theory that can explain, for
instance, why a text like: "I didn't drink any wine. It would have
made me sick" is easy to understand whereas "I drank some wine. It
would not have made me sick" is incoherent.
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SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION (SCLA)
on Thursday, 19 March 1998, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Gates 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
Learning Evaluation Functions for Optimization
Justin Boyan
mailto:jab@lefty.sp.cs.cmu.edu
STAGE is a new search technique which learns a problem-specific
heuristic evaluation function as it searches. The heuristic is trained
by least-squares TD(lambda) to predict, from features of states along
the search trajectory, how well a fast Markovian search method such as
hill-climbing will perform starting from each state. Search proceeds
by alternating between two stages: performing the fast search to
gather new training data, and following the learned heuristic to reach
a promising new start state.
STAGE has produced good results on a variety of combinatorial
optimization domains, including VLSI channel routing, Bayes net
structure-finding, bin-packing, Boolean satisfiability, radiotherapy
treatment planning, and geographic cartogram design. I'll discuss as
many of these successes as time permits, and also explain a STAGE
failure on the domain of inverse Boggle.
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LOGIC LUNCH
on Friday, 20 March 1998, 12 noon
Math Corner 380:383N
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/Logic/
Reductions of Theories of Countable Tree Ordinals to ID_1.
Sol Feferman
This is the last logic lunch of the quarter. We plan an informal
lunch at the coffee house afterward.
This is a report of a section from the forthcoming chapter by Jeremy
Avigad and myself on Goedel's functional ("Dialectica"
interpretation.* I will sketch two applications of this
interpretation, one for a classical and one for an intuitionistic
theory of countable tree ordinals, to reduce them to corresponding
systems of one arithmetical inductive definition. The questions
following this work are: (i) how these are related, and (ii) can
anything similar be done for theories of higher ordinal number
classes?
*To appear in the Handbook of Proof Theory, S. Buss ed.
____________
CSLI TALK
on Thursday, 26 March 1998, 12 noon
Cordura Hall, Room 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/Coglunch/
Grounding Meaning through Language Games
Prof. Luc Steels
VUB AI Lab (Brussels)
http://arti.vub.ac.be/www/
and Sony CSL (Paris)
http://www.csl.sony.fr/
Experiments are presented with physical robotic agents operating in a
real-world environment. It is shown how these agents can build up a
repertoire of perceptually grounded distinctions through
discrimination games and how they can develop a shared lexicon
verbalising these distinctions through adaptive naming games.
These experiments illustrate that language can be viewed as a complex
adaptive system that emerges through self-organization from the local
interactions of individuals. Language continues to evolve and adapt
due to stochasticity (which introduces innovation), uncertainty (which
maintains variation), and constant renewal of its user population.
Biography: Luc Steels is a professor in Artificial Intelligence at the
University of Brussels (VUB). He also directs the Sony Computer
Science Laboratory in Paris. His current work focuses on
behavior-oriented approaches to sensori-motor intelligence using
physical robotic agents as experimental platforms, and the origins and
evolution of language.
A limited number of sandwiches available for purchase at the talk.
____________
SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION (SCLA)
on Thursday, 26 March 1998, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Gates 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
Summarizing Similarities and Differences Among Related Documents
Eric E. Bloedorn
MITRE Corporation
mailto:bloedorn@azrael.mitre.org
Text summarization attempts to address the information overload
problem by taking a partially-structured source text, extracting
information content from it, and presenting the most important content
to the user in a manner sensitive to the user's or application's
needs. The first part of the talk will describe WebSumm, a system for
summarizing related documents. The approach in WebSumm exploits recent
progress in information extraction to represent salient units of text
and their relationships. By exploiting meaningful relations between
units based on an analysis of text cohesion and the context in which
the comparison is desired, the summarizer can pinpoint similarities
and differences, and align text segments. The second part of the talk
will describe an application of machine learning methods to train our
summarizer. The goal of this learning approach is to have a system
capable of adjusting summarizers to better fit the user's interest.
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END MATERIAL
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