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CSLI Calendar, 10 November 1999, vol. 15:8
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
______________________________________________________________________
10 November 1999 Stanford Vol. 15, No. 8
______________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
____________
ACTIVITIES FROM 10 NOVEMBER TO 19 NOVEMBER 1999
WEDNESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER
all day CSLI conference on Human Computer Interaction
Cordura 100
You must be registered
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/Tutorials/schedule.shtml
12 noon Stanford Computer Industry Project (SCIP)
Littlefield room L107
Internet Branding
Rex Briggs
Millward Brown Interactive
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scip/
Information below
12 noon Developmental Brownbag
Jordan Hall, 420:286
All Eyes on Me: Assessing What Others Know and Think
About Oneself
Rachel Stewart Johnson
Stanford
http://matia.stanford.edu/html/talks.html
12 noon Linguistics Talk
Margaret Jacks 460:126
Language in Art:
A Discussion with Svetlana Alpers
Abstract below
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium
Gates B3 (NEC Room)
The Digital Michelangelo Project
Marc Levoy
Stanford
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/contents.html
Abstract below
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium
TCseq 201
CANCELLED
Judea Pearl
UCLA
http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
THURSDAY, 11 NOVEMBER
all day CSLI conference on Human Computer Interaction
Cordura 100
You must be registered
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/Tutorials/schedule.shtml
11:00am CCRMA Hearing Seminar
CCRMA Ballroom
Low-frequency cues for elevation
Richard O. Duda
San Jose State
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Events/Events.html#hearing
Abstract below
3:15pm Experiments in Learning at Stanford
Press Warehouse, room 118
Helga Wild
IRL
http://sll.stanford.edu/
Abstract below
4:00pm Xerox PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium, Xerox PARC
The Amazing Commercial Success of Formal Verification
Alan J. Hu
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/projects/forum
Abstract below
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Ventura 17 (note room change)
DynaBoost: Combining Boosted Hypotheses in a Dynamic Way
Eddy Mayoraz
Motorola, Lexicus Division
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
Abstract below
4:15pm US-Japan Technology Management Center
Skilling Engineering Auditorium
Smart Computing for the Future
Dr. Robert Yung
Director & Chief Technologist, Intel China Research
Center
http://www.stanford.edu/~viji/
Abstract below
4:15pm Mathematics Colloquium
Math 380:380w
The Continuum Hypothesis
W. Hugh Woodin
U.C. Berkeley
http://math.stanford.edu/html/seminars.html
7:30pm Stanford Phonology Workshop
Building 460, Room 126
P-map effects and constraint organization
Donca Steriade
Linguistics, UCLA
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/pinterest/
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 12 NOVEMBER
all day CSLI conference on Human Computer Interaction
Cordura 100
You must be registered
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/Tutorials/schedule.shtml
12 noon Logic Lunch
Room 380:383N
On cutelimination for monotone cuts
Gregori Mints
Stanford
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
Abstract below
12:30pm Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Gates B03 (NEC classroom)
Interactive Storytelling
Abbe Don
Abbe Don Interactive
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
3:15pm CS545: Infolab Seminar
201 tcSEQ (across from Gates)
Data Semantics, Modeling and Ontologies:
New Frontiers in Databases
Robert Meersman
STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/dbseminar.html
Abstract below
3:15pm Philosophy Colloquium
Building 90, Room 92Q
Non-Humans as Sources of Normativity
Lori Gruen
Philosophy, Stanford University
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
3:15pm FRISEM: Cognitive Psychology Seminar
Jordan 420:100
Paul Lee
http://matia.stanford.edu/html/talks.html#frisem
3:30pm Stanford Linguistics Colloquium
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
Syllable boundaries and Phonotactic conditions
Donca Steriade
University of California, Los Angeles
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/colloq.html
Abstract below
TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER
11:00am CCRMA Hearing Seminar
CCRMA Library
Bruno Repp
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Events/Events.html#hearing
WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER
9:00am Knowledge on the Web Seminar
Gates 104
E-CYC: CYC Moves to the Web
Doug Lenat
President and CEO of CYCORP
http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/KnOWS/
10:30am Knowledge on the Web Seminar
Gates 104
Business Rules on the Web: Courteous Logic Programs in
XML and Declaratively Representing Contractual Terms
Benjamin Grosof
IBM T.J. Watson Research
http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/KnOWS/
12 noon Stanford Computer Industry Project (SCIP)
Littlefield room L107
To be announced
Jeff Magioncalda
CEO, Financial Engines
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scip/
12 noon Developmental Brownbag
Jordan Hall, 420:286
Listening Ahead: Context Effects in Young Children's
Understanding of Fluent Speech
Anne Fernald
Stanford
http://matia.stanford.edu/html/talks.html
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
From BSD to Jini:
Adventures in Technology, Openness, and Community
Bill Joy
Sun Microsystems
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/contents.html
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium
TCseq 201
Virtualized Reality:
Digitizing a 3D Time-Varying Real Event As Is and in
Real Time
Takeo Kanade
Carnegie Mellon
http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 18 NOVEMBER
12 noon Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching
Cypress Room, Tresidder
Analyzing the Complex Task of Teaching
Dr. Kelley Skeff
School of Medicine
http://www-ctl.stanford.edu/teach/awt/awtmain.html
4:00pm Symbolic Systems Student Society
The 1999-2000 Distinguished Speaker Event
Annenburg Auditorium
"Augmenting the Human Intellect"
How does new technology transform the way we create and
communicate?
A dialogue between one of the web's intellectual
heavyweights and Silicon Valley's folk hero
Doug Engelbart
inventor of the mouse Steven Johnson
author of Interface Culture
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/symbol/
Abstract below
4:00pm Xerox PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium, Xerox PARC
to be announced
http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/projects/forum
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Cordura 100
Methods for Proving Relative Loss Bounds
Manfred Warmuth
Computer Science Department UC Santa Cruz
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
Abstract below
4:15pm US-Japan Technology Management Center
Skilling Engineering Auditorium
The Transformation of Semiconductor R&D
Dr. Katsuhiro Shimohigashi
General Manager, Semiconducture and Integrated Circuit
Division Hitachi, Corp.
http://www.stanford.edu/~viji/
FRIDAY, 19 NOVEMBER
12:30pm Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Gates B03 (NEC classroom)
To be announced
Pamela Hinds
Stanford Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Engineering
Management
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
3:15pm CS545: Infolab Seminar
201 tcSEQ (across from Gates)
A Datamodel and Algebra for XML
Ashok Malhotra
IBM Research
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/dbseminar.html
Abstract below
3:15pm Philosophy Colloquium
Building 90, Room 92Q
A Remark About Rotation and Relative Rotation in
Relativity Theory
David Malament
Philosophy, UC Irvine
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
4:00pm Semantics Workshop
Margaret Jacks 126
Christiane Fellbaum
(Princeton University_
"Proper Names"
Geoffrey Nunberg
(Xerox PARC)
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
____________
STANFORD COMPUTER INDUSTRY PROJECT (SCIP)
on Wednesday, 10 November 1999, 12 noon
Littlefield, room L107
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scip/
Internet Branding
Rex Briggs
Executive Vice President, Millward Brown Interactive
http://www.mbinteractive.com/
Biography: Rex is the leading authority on the study of online
advertising at Millward Brown Interactive. He and his colleagues
conducted the landmark IAB Advertising Effectiveness Study in
1997. Millward Brown Interactive won the 1997 Tenagra Award for
Internet Marketing Excellence because of the company's methodology
providing advertisers with the right metrics to quantify the value of
brand advertising on the Web.
Rex came to Millward Brown Interactive from HotWired, where he was
Research Director. Before that, Rex spent several years at Yankelovich
Partners, where he headed up major technology adoption studies,
including the Cybercitizen Study.
____________
LINGUISTICS TALK
on Wednesday, 10 November 1999, 12 noon
Margaret Jacks Hall, Room 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/colloq.html
Language in Art:
A Discussion with Svetlana Alpers
Last Monday's Presidential Lecture was given by art historian Svetlana
Alpers, whose interests include the relationship between language and
art. As a semiotic system, art is often compared to language. But as
a model-building inquiry into the nature of representation, art has
parallels to linguistics itself. In her book `The Art of Describing'
Alpers shows how the representational practices of 17th century Dutch
painting tie in with the linguistic theories of the time. Professor
Alpers has agreed to meet with us to discuss the connections between
language, linguistics, and art. We will be joined for the occasion by
Stanford art historian Michael Marrinan.
____________
EE380: COMPUTER SYSTEMS COLLOQUIUM
on Wednesday, 10 November 1999, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
NEC Auditorium (B03), Gates Computer Science Building
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/contents.html
The Digital Michelangelo Project
Marc Levoy
Computer Science Department
Stanford University
Recent improvements in laser rangefinder technology, together with
algorithms developed in our research group for combining multiple
range images, allow us to reliably and accurately digitize the
external shape of many physical objects. As an application of this
technology, I and a team of 30 faculty, staff, and students from
Stanford University and the University of Washington spent the 1998-99
academic year in Italy digitizing the sculptures and architecture of
Michelangelo.
Our primary acquisition device was a laser triangulation rangefinder
mounted on a large motorized gantry. Using this device and a smaller
rangefinder mounted on a jointed digitizing arm, we created 3D
computer models of 10 statues, including the David. These models range
in size from 100 million to 2 billion polygons. Using a time-of-flight
rangefinder, we also created 3D computer models of the interiors of
two museums, including Michelangelo's Medici Chapel. Finally, using
our rangefinders in conjunction with a high-resolution digital color
camera, we created a light field and aligned 3D computer model of
Michelangelo's highly polished statue of Night. A light field is a
dense array of images viewable using new techniques from image-based
rendering.
As a side project, we also scanned the 1,100 fragments of the Forma
Forma Urbis Romae, the giant marble map of ancient Rome carved circa
200 A.D. Piecing this map together has been one of the great unsolved
problems of archaeology. Our hope is that by scanning the fragments and
searching among the resulting geometry for matching surfaces, we can
find new matches among the fragments.
In this talk, I will outline the technological underpinnings,
logistical challenges, and possible outcomes of this project.
Biography: Marc Levoy is an associate professor of Computer Science
and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He received a
B. Architecture in 1976 from Cornell University, an M.S. in 1978 from
Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1989 from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Levoy's early research
centered on computer-assisted cartoon animation, leading to
development of a computer animation system for Hanna-Barbera
Productions. His recent publications are in the areas of volume
visualization, rendering algorithms, computer vision, geometric
modeling, and user interfaces for imaging and visualization. His
current research interests include digitizing the shape and appearance
of physical objects using multiple sensing technologies, the creation,
representation, and rendering of complex geometric models, image-based
modeling and rendering, and applications of computer graphics in art
history, preservation, restoration, and archaeology. Levoy received the
NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991 and the SIGGRAPH
Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 1996 for his work in volume
rendering.
____________
CCRMA HEARING SEMINAR
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 11:00am
CCRMA Ballroom, The Knoll
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Events/Events.html
Low Frequency Cues for Elevation
Richard O. Duda
Department of Electrical Engineering
San Jose State University
It is well known that the binaural ITD (interaural time difference)
and ILD (interaural level difference) are the primary cues for
azimuth, while monaural spectral features due to pinna diffraction are
the primary cues for elevation. Pinna cues appear above 3 kHz, where
the wavelength becomes comparable to pinna size. However, we have
discovered that there are also important low-frequency ILD elevation
cues primarily due to torso reflections.
In the experiments done in collaboration with Carlos Avendano and
Ralph Algazi at UC Davis, random noise bursts were filtered by
individualized head-related transfer functions, and five subjects were
asked to report the elevation angle. Eight conditions were tested,
depending on whether the source was in front or in back, in the median
plane or on a 45-degree cone of confusion, and had wide bandwidth or
was band limited to 3 kHz. For the band-limited signal, localization
accuracy was at chance level in the median plane, and was poor in
front. However, at 45 degrees azimuth in the back, the accuracy was
close to that for a wide-band source, the average correlation
coefficient being approximately 0.75 for the low-bandwidth source and
0.85 for the wide-band source.
Although these torso reflection cues are dominated by pinna cues for
wide-band sources, the torso cues are important for sounds like
thunder and footsteps that have little high-frequency energy. A
demonstration of these effects will be provided, and their
significance will be explored.
____________
EXPERIMENTS IN LEARNING
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 3:15pm
Stanford Press Warehouse, room B18
http://sll.stanford.edu/
Learning and Work in the Workplace
Helga Wild
mailto:helga_wild@irl.org
Institute for Research on Learning
Chris Darrouzet and Helga Wild will present the philosophy and project
work of the Institute for Research on Learning with an emphasis on its
workplace side, i.e. its work for and with corporate clients. The
Institute has developed a unique methodological and conceptual
approach which enables it to deliver both research knowledge and
practical solutions to its clients. We will introduce methods and
concepts and illustrate their working through actual projects.
____________
XEROX PARC FORUM
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
George Pake Auditorium, Xerox
http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/projects/forum/
The Amazing Commercial Success of Formal Verification
Alan J. Hu
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
Most people still think of formal verification as an impractical,
ivory tower pipedream (if they think of formal verification at all).
Yet, in the past decade, automated formal verification of hardware has
gained considerable industrial importance. Today, formal verification
conferences draw industrial sponsorship and mainly industrial
attendees, every major company that designs microprocessors employs
formal verification experts, and all major VLSI CAD companies as well
as several start-ups sell formal verification tools.
In this talk, I will give a cocktail-party-level introduction to some
of the formal verification techniques that have achieved commercial
significance, e.g., BDDs, symbolic simulation, combinational
equivalence checking, model checking, and directed search. I will
also present my wild, unfounded speculation as to the underlying
research principles that made this research area so quickly and
successfully commercializable.
____________
US-JAPAN TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT CENTER
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 4:15pm
Skilling Engineering Auditorium
http://www.stanford.edu/~viji/
Smart Computing for the Future
Dr. Robert Yung
Director and Chief Technologist,
Intel China Research Center
The Internet has generated a wave of creativity and growth that is
sweeping the world and changing lives. For the vast majority of people
in Asia, however, the Internet revolution has not yet arrived. The
Internet will only become a significant part of life in the Asia
Pacific when people can easily use the computer in their local
language to access local language sites and services. And that may not
be as distant as you might think.
To make computers easier to use, we need to integrate audio, video and
images, and add a new component to enhance the computer as a
communications device--the Human-Computer Interface (HCI). HCI will
have built-in intelligence and include speech recognition, speech
synthesis, and natural language processing so that the PC can carry
out a conversation with the user. With natural language understanding,
computers will be able to understand the meaning of audio speech
input, retrieve information from databases and the Internet,
simultaneously translate between languages and dialects, provide
real-time miss-critical decision supports, and of course, perform all
the functions it does today. Ultimately, the computer will go beyond
understanding what we want to anticipate what we need.
Biography: Dr. Robert Yung, 36, is Director of Intel's China Research
Center located in Beijing, China. The Intel China Research Center does
applied research to improve personal computers' ease-of-use, with
particular focus on the Internet and input technologies such as speech
recognition. Dr. Yung is also the Chief Technologist for China.
Prior to joining Intel, Dr. Yung was Sun Microsystems' Chief
Technology Officer for Asia, and was a researcher at Sun Microsystems
Laboratories. At Sun, he started the 64-bit Ultra-SPARC
microprocessor program and co-invented the Visual Instruction Set, a
multimedia instruction set extension to SPARC
microprocessors. Earlier, he worked for S3 and Nexgen Microsystems,
and was a co-founder of Xenologic Inc.
Since 1998, Dr. Yung was Sun's Education and Technology Ambassador to
Asia, and helped develop infrastructure and business in
China. Dr. Yung helps build close ties between the academia and high
tech industries in the U.S.A. and China. In March of 1997, Dr. Yung
organized the CyberClassroom event during U.S. Vice President Gore's
visit to China. This event demonstrated the feasibility,
practicality, and affordability of distance learning-knowledge
transfer between teachers and students in Cyberspace. Dr. Yung also
organized a telemedicine event in Xi'an, and helped organize the
InternetCafe event in Shanghai during President Clinton's state visit
to China in 1998.
Dr. Yung holds BA, MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and
computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and has
been a visiting professor at the University since 1995. He is the
author of 12 issued and over 20 pending patents, and has published
extensively in technical journals and at industry conferences.
He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers, and has served on the Strategic Computing Working Group of
the Association of Computing Machinery as well as the National Science
Foundation.
____________
SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION (SCLA)
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Ventura 17 (note room change)
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
DynaBoost: Combining Boosted Hypotheses in a Dynamic Way
Eddy Mayoraz
Motorola, Lexicus Division
Palo Alto, CA
mailto:eddym@lexicus.mot.com
Ensemble learning techniques such as Bagging or Boosting provide an
efficient way of enhancing the performances of simple (weak)
classifiers. A large number of weak learners are usually combined in
a very simple way. This work explores some possibilities of more
elaborated recombinations of the learners, seeking either an
improvement of the final result or a saving on the number of weak
learners. In particular, a dynamic combination is investigated, where
the weighting factors associated to each weak learner are functions of
the input. The resulting algorithm thus falls between Boosting and an
incremental mixture of experts model. Empirical comparisons between
AdaBoost and DynaBoost show that a dynamic combination significantly
improves the results when weak learners (e.g., perceptrons) are used,
while the difference in performance is small when the learners are
more powerful (e.g., MLPs). Joint work with Perry Moerland.
____________
STANFORD PHONOLOGY WORKSHOP
on Thursday, 11 November 1999, 7:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/pinterest/
P-map effects and constraint organization
Donca Steriade
UCLA
This talk outlines a proposed revision in the structure of Optimality
Theoretic phonologies. The proposal is to let a distinct grammatical
component, which I call the P-map, determine the ranking between
certain sets of constraints. The P-map is a set of statements about
absolute and relative perceptibility of different contrasts, across
the different contexts where they might occur. For instance, the P-map
will be the repository of the speaker's knowledge that the [p]-[b]
contrast is better perceived before V's (e.g. in [apa] vs. [aba]) than
before C's (e.g. in [apta] vs. [abta]). The constraints whose relative
rankings are set by reference to the P-map are, in part, familiar
correspondence conditions (McCarthy and Prince 1995).
The rationale for the P-map proposal is that attested phonological
systems display less diversity than predicted by versions of
Optimality Theory (OT) in which correspondence and phonotactic
constraints interact freely. In particular, the range of pairings
between constraint violation and "repair strategy" is more limited
than current versions of OT will lead one to expect. An example of
this need for a tighter fit between predictions and typology involves
the effect that constraints on obstruent voicing have on phonological
systems. Consider a common constraint like (1), an underlying string
like [t&b], which violates (1), and the range of possible responses of
the grammatical system to this violation, as sketched in (2).
(1) A phonotactic constraint:
*[+VOICE]/_]: voiced obstruents are disallowed at the end of the word.
(2) a. devoicing: [tab] -> [tap]
b. nasalization: [tab] -> [tam]
c. epenthesis: [tab] -> [taba]
d. C-deletion: [tab] -> [ta]
e. metathesis: [tab] -> [bat]
It is unfortunately the case that constraint rankings can be
formulated, based on the correspondence constraints proposed by
McCarthy and Prince (1995) and others, which predict all of the above
as resolutions of the phonotactic violation in [tab]. In fact however,
the only attested resolution is 2.a, devoicing. The fault, I suggest,
is not with the correspondence conditions themselves but with the
assumption that their mutual rankings are unpredictable.
A plausible reason for the fact that devoicing is the only available
cure to violations of (1) is that of all the input-output pairs
displayed in (2), the most confusable one is the pair [tab]-[tap] in
(2.a). The aim, in any departure from UR, is to change the input
minimally to achieve compliance with phonotactics like (1). The claim
here will be that the degree of confusability between representations
is the proper measure of phonological similarity, and that,
consequently, the modifications in (2.b-e) are less minimal, as they
result in greater input-output dissimilarity than that in (2.a). The
primary function of the P-map is to guide the speaker in search of the
minimal input deformation that solves a phonotactic problem. The
grammatical reflex of the P-map involves, primarily, the ranking of
correspondence constraints. Thus, if the P-map identifies the p/b
contrast as more confusable in the context V_], than the p/m contrast
for the same context, then the P-map's effect on the grammar will be
to rank higher the faithfulness condition corresponding to the less
confusable contrast.
The talk illustrates the uses of the P-map in solving problems like
the one in (1)-(2) for devoicing, place assimilation and epenthesis.
____________
LOGIC LUNCH
on Friday, 12 November 1999, 12 noon
Math Corner 380:383N
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
On cutelimination for monotone cuts
G. Mints
Stanford
A formula is monotone if it is constructed from atomic formulas
(including FALSE) by &,v and quantifiers. M. Baaz and A. Leitsch
proved that the elimination of cuts over non-monotone formulas has
nonelementary complexity. We simplify their proofs using pruning
transformations (underlying Harrop's theorem) which allow drastically
"skolemize" formulas proved from Horn axioms.
____________
CS545: INFOLAB SEMINAR
on Friday, 12 November 1999, 3:15pm - 4:30pm
201 tcSEQ (across from Gates)
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/dbseminar.html
Data Semantics, Modeling and Ontologies:
New Frontiers in Databases
Robert Meersman,
STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The semantics, or meaning, of data and information have been a core
issue in databases and information systems for decades, but poses very
tough problems, only partially solved by techniques such as
constraints, rules, etc.. All forms of usable semantics are
necessarily based on agreement among all the system's users, designers
and domain experts present --and future. Such a challenge requires new
tools that we claim are becoming available under the form of
computerized lexicons, thesauri, or more generally ontologies. In the
DOGMA Project at STARLab we study the implications of this. We shall
survey and compare some of the formal definitions of ontologies in the
literature and discuss their crucial importance to systems design,
implementation, interoperability and maintenance. We claim such
ontologies must be made simple, in order to become standardized, and
derive some architectural requirements from this. This leads to
possibly "new old" approaches for information system methodologies,
based on roles and contexts as first-class citizens. We try to
illustrate some of this e.g. in terms of -as well as at the expense
of- the recently released Open Information Model by the Metadata
Coalition.
Biography: Professor Robert Meersman holds the Chair of Applied
Informatics in the Department of Computer Science of the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, since 1995 and heads there the
laboratory for Systems Technology and Applications Research
(STARLab). Previously he was professor at Tilburg University in
Holland. He is member and past Chair of IFIP working group WG2.6 on
Database and of IFIP's Technical Committee (TC-12) on AI. Robert was
one of the original developers of the NIAM (now ORM) methodology and
CASE tools, and has organized a number of conferences on Data
Semantics since 1985. He has a number recent publications on formal
and methodological aspects of data(base) semantics, as well as on more
or less related topics such as data mining, Web-based information
systems and digital libraries. Prof. Meersman's interests also
include the use of "hard" IT in culturally inspired applications such
as education and museum information systems.
____________
LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 12 November 1999, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall, Room 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/colloq.html
Syllable boundaries and Phonotactic conditions
Donca Steriade
Department of Linguistics, UCLA
This talk explores the hypothesis that syllable divisions are, under
specific conditions, not securely discovered and learned. This is not
to say that "syllables don't exist". Rather, the argument developed
here is that language learners may encounter more uncertainty when
they seek to categorize strings in terms of their syllabic division
than when they categorize the same strings in purely segmental
terms. For instance, the set of English strings {VprV, VbrV, VfrV,
VplV, VblV, VflV, VtrV, VdrV, VkrV, VklV, VgrV, VglV} may be described
in two ways which are nearly equivalent observationally: as (1),
(1) V-Complex Onset-V
or as (2):
(2) V-Non-strident Obstruent-Liquid-V.
The two descriptions diverge only for rare strings like VtlV, whose
rarity insures that their phonological patterning may not be
immediately accessible to the learner. For this string set and the
analytical choice (1) vs. (2), the syllabic description (1) may be
disfavored if the learner is in any doubt regarding the syllabic parse
of the {VprV, etc.} set: if he cannot discover how VprV is divided,
then he cannot tell that [pr] is an onset. In such a case, he may
favor the segmental analysis (2) of the entire string class, since
there is no comparable ambiguity about the segmental categorization of
the cluster. We can anticipate that, under the circumstances
described, generalizations which could have been expressed
syllabically, will more likely be learned as descriptions of segmental
strings, independent of prosodic structure.
The talk outlines the circumstances under which syllable divisions are
either insecurely learned or not learned at all and relates such cases
to phonological patterns in which a potential syllable-based
generalization is in fact learned as a segmental, linear condition.
____________
BROAD AREA COLLOQUIUM FOR
AI-GEOMETRY-GRAPHICS-ROBOTICS-VISION
on Wednesday, 17 November 1999, 4:00pm
TCseq201 (across from Gates)
http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
Virtualized Reality:
Digitizing a 3D Time-Varying Real Event As Is and in
Real Time
Takeo Kanade
The Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
I will present the CMU Virtualized Reality project. Digital imaging of
two-dimensional pictures is common today. Capturing an entire 3D scene
or even a time-varying event into a computer as a 3D form, however, is
very difficult and rarely done. Imagine a few players playing
basketball on a court. Can we digitize the whole scene into a computer
as a "3D event", not as a collection of pictures, but as its
three-dimensional, time-varying, and volumetric/surface
representation? If we could do so, we can use the representation for
various purposes. For example, we can think of a "soft" camera -
creating images from any arbitrary viewpoints and angles at which
there were not cameras originally. With a soft camera, one can see the
basketball game from any view point independent of physical
limitations or other viewers' interest: from inside of the court, from
the referee's point of view, or even from the ball's eye point of
view. Image rendering, however, is not the only application. We can
archive, manipulate, combine, and alter real events - a whole new
notion of "event archiving and manipulation" or "Virtualized Reality".
Since 1993, we have been developing Virtualized Reality technologies
with the 3D Room - a fully digital room that can capture events
occurring in it by many (at this moment 50) video cameras. I will
describe the theory, facility, computation, and results of the
project.
Biography: Takeo Kanade received his Doctoral degree in Electrical
Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1974. After holding a
faculty position at Department of Information Science, Kyoto
University, he joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1980, where he is
currently Director of the Robotics Institute and U. A. Helen Whitaker
University Professor of Computer Science. Dr. Kanade has performed
research in multiple areas of robotics: vision, manipulators,
autonomous mobile robots, and sensors, and has written more than 150
technical papers and 10 patents.
Dr. Kanade has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, a
Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of ACM, and a Founding Fellow of American
Association of Artificial Intelligence. He has received several
awards, including the Joseph Engelberger Award, JARA Award, and a few
best paper awards at international conferences and journals. Dr.
Kanade has served for many government, industry, and university
advisory boards, including Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board
(ASEB) of National Research Council and Advisory Board of Canadian
Institute for Advanced Research.
____________
THE 1999-2000 SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER EVENT
"Augmenting the Human Intellect"
Doug Engelbart and Steven Johnson
Thursday, 18 November 1999, 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Annenburg Auditorium
Each year, the Symbolic Systems Student Society hosts a Distinguished
Speaker Event that brings together the Stanford community to engage
with central issues in the cognitive sciences. This year, we are
proud to welcome both Doug Engelbart, a pioneer in human-computer
interaction and the inventor of the mouse, and Steven Johnson,
editor-in-chief of the online magazine FEED and author of the book
_Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create
and Communicate_. These two distinguished speakers will participate
in a dialogue on the future of information technology and the
possibility of augmenting the human intellect. All are invited to
this free event.
____________
SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION (SCLA)
on Thursday, 18 November 1999, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Cordura 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/cll/scla.html
Methods for Proving Relative Loss Bounds
Manfred K. Warmuth
Computer Science Department
University of California, Santa Cruz
mailto:manfred@cse.ucsc.edu
We consider on-line learning from examples. We start with a
parameterized model class and a loss function that assigns each
example and model a non-negative loss. The on-line algorithm sees one
example at a time and incurs a loss on the current example based on
its current model. This model (hypothesis) is updated on-line as more
examples are seen by the learner. The best fixed model is chosen
off-line. It is the model in the class with the smallest (total) loss
on all examples.
The loss of the on-line algorithm on a sequence of examples is
typically larger than the loss of the best off-line model. However,
the goal of the on-line learner is to minimize the additional loss of
the on-line algorithm over the loss of the best off-line model. Thus
the off-line model serves as a comparator. Bounds relating the on-line
loss to the best off-line loss are called relative loss bounds. Such
bounds quantify the price of hiding the future examples from the
learner. The bounds hold for arbitrary sequence of examples.
We will review methods for proving such bounds. We will emphasize a
method that starts with a divergence measuring the ``distance''
between the parameterized models. This divergence function is used to
derive the parameter update of the on-line learner and it becomes the
potential function in the proof of the relative loss bound for the
same update. Finally we discuss the case when the off-line comparator
is allowed to ``shift'' over time. In some cases one can obtain bounds
on the additional loss of the on-line algorithm over the loss of the
best ``shifting'' off-line model.
____________
CS545: INFOLAB SEMINAR
on Friday, 19 November 1999, 3:15pm - 4:30pm
201 tcSEQ (across from Gates)
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/dbseminar.html
A Datamodel and Algebra for XML
Ashok Malhotra
IBM Research
Before we can talk about a query language for XML we need a data model
and algebra. This talk will discuss some joint work we have been doing
with Oracle and Microsoft on a datamodel and algebra for XML. We will
discuss how this model is different from the Info set and also discuss
some considerations for a syntax. This paper has been submitted to the
W3C XML Query Working Group.
Biography: After receiving his Ph.D. from MIT, Ashok Malhotra has been
with IBM Research for almost 25 years. In the late seventies and early
eighties, he designed and built an Entity-Relationship database with
integrated language support. Later, he built the first visual database
query interface. More recently, he designed an object database for the
IBM AS/400 that took advantage of its long address architecture and
built-in persistence mechanisms.
Dr. Malhotra is the author of over 30 technical papers and holds 5
patents. He represents IBM on the XML Schema and XML Query Working
Groups.
____________
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