[Date Prev][Date Next][Date Index]
CSLI Calendar, Wednesday, 4 February 2004, vol. 19:21
CSLI CALENDAR OF PUBLIC EVENTS
______________________________________________________________________
4 February 2004 Stanford Vol. 19, No. 21
______________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Cordura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/
____________
ACTIVITIES FROM 4 FEBRUARY 2004 TO 13 FEBRUARY 2004
WEDNESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2004
4:15pm CSLI Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation
Cordura Hall, room 100
"Large Conjunctive Clusters and Bicliques"
Nina Mishra
Stanford University / HP Labs
http://cll.stanford.edu/scla.html
Abstract below
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"The Architecture of Colossus, The First PC"
Benjamin Wells
Computer Science, Mathematics, University of San Francisco
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
4:30pm Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Seminar
Piggott Hall 260:252
"Traumatic Narratives: Freud, Anton Reiser, and the Art of Memory"
Charitini Douvaldzi
History and Literature, Harvard
http://cgi.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/events/index.cgi
THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2004
3:00pm Reuters Foundation Digital Vision Program Seminar
Reuters lounge, Cordura Hall
Richard Rathbun
http://cgi.stanford.edu/group/reuters/cgi-bin/calendar/index.cgi
4:00pm PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium at PARC
"Preserving Computing History:
Innovation, Mothballs, Pioneers, and Our Future"
John C. Toole
The Computer History Museum
http://www.parc.com/forum/
Abstract below
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"Heterogeneous Reasoning, Hyperproof and Playfair"
Dave Barker-Plummer
CSLI
http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2004
11:00am Berkeley Institute of Cognitive and Brain Seminar
Tolman 5101, Berkeley
"Who's afraid of Benjamin Whorf?"
Lera Boroditsky
ICBS Fellow, Cognitive and Brain Sciences, MIT
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:4247/seminar.html
Abstract below
12 noon Diversity in Language Seminar
Bldg. 260:237 German Studies Library
"Stylistic Diversity and Language Change in Russian".
Richard Schupbach
http://dlcl.stanford.edu/research/workgroups/diversity.html
12 noon Ethics@Noon
Bldg. 100:101K
"Current Challenges in Neuroethics"
Judy Illes
Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EIS/lectures_ethics.html
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar
Gates B03
Cancelled
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
1:30pm EE Seminar
Cypress Semiconductor Auditorium, CISX-101
"Paradigm Changes Toward Digital Consumer Products/Technology"
Tsugio Makimoto
Sony Corporation
Abstract below
2:00pm NLP Reading Group
Ventura 17
"The Feature Space in Parallel Grammar Writing"
Tracy Holloway King
http://www-nlp.stanford.edu/nlp/nlpgroup.html
Abstract below
3:15pm Philosophy Department Colloquium
Bldg. 90:92Q
"Idealizations and the Correspondence: Between Theory and Phenomena"
Scott Tanona
Stanford University
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
3:30pm Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
Title to be announced
Tim Stowell
UCLA
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
4:15pm CS545: Database Seminar
Gates B12
"Towards Declarative and Efficient Querying on Protein Structures"
Jignesh Patel
Univ. of Michigan
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/
MONDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2004
3:30pm Social Lab
Jordan Hall 420:050
"Moral Disengagement In The Perpetration of Inhumanities"
Albert Bandura
Psychology, Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/news.html#social_lab
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium in AI,
Geometry, Graphics, Robotics, and Vision
TCSeq 200
Title to be announced
Daniel Weld
University of Washington
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/weld/
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs528/
TUESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2004
4:15pm Logic Seminar
Bldg. 380:380F (math corner)
"Arithmetic independence results using higher recursion theory"
Andrew Arana
Philosophy, Stanford University
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
Abstract below
4:15pm SNRC Industry Seminar
Gates B03
"Familiar Strangers and Urban Computing"
Eric Paulos
Intel Berkeley Research Laboratory
http://snrc.stanford.edu/events/industry-seminar/
Abstract below
7:00pm Emerging Technology Group
Cubberley Community Center, H-1, 4000 Middlefield, Palo Alto
"The State of Embedded Linux"
Rick Lehrbaum
DeviceForge
http://www.sdforum.org/
(there is a fee for non-SDForum members, see web page)
WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2004
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"Wireless in Really Remote Areas"
Dave Hughes
http://www.oldcolo.com/
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
5:00pm Jonathan King Lecture
Fairchild Auditorium
"The Science of Curing and The Art of Healing: A Poet's Experience"
Eavan Boland
Humanities, Stanford University
http://scbe.stanford.edu//events/jking_lecture.html
THURSDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2004
12:15pm CSLI CogLunch
Cordura Hall, Room 100
"The Language of Constructions"
Adele Goldberg
Linguistics, University of Illinois and CASBS fellow
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
Abstract below
12:15pm Stanford Networking Seminar
Packard 202
Title to be announced
Petros Maniatis
Intel Research
http://berkeley.intel-research.net/maniatis/
http://netseminar.stanford.edu/
4:00pm Personality Seminar
Jordan Hall 420:100
"A Talk That is Not Really on Personality or Emotion Directly,
But Will Cover the General Topic of Pleasure and Pain, So
Hopefully Will Not Be Completely Boring"
Jennifer Aaker
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/news.html#person_lab
4:00pm PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium at PARC
"View from the Podium: One Woman's Perspective"
Sara Jobin
Staff Conductor, San Francisco Opera
http://www.parc.com/forum/
4:10pm UC Berkeley Philosophy Department Colloquium
Howison Philosophy Library, (305 Moses Hall) (Berkeley)
"What Does the Aristotelian Phronimos Know?"
Rosalind Hursthouse
University of Auckland
http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/html/events/deptevents.html
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"Where Norms Come From: A Naturalistic Approach"
Ken Taylor
Philosophy, Stanford
http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar
Packard 101
Title to be announced
Stark Draper
http://isl.stanford.edu/groups/seminar/
FRIDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2004
12 noon Ethics@Noon
Bldg. 100:101K
"Does the Concept of Home Have Ethical Aspects"
Julius Moravcsik
Philosophy
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EIS/lectures_ethics.html
12 noon Award Winning Teachers Speaker Series
Hartley Conference Rm, Mitchell Earth Sciences
"Teaching in a Digital Age"
John Rick
Anthropological Sciences, Stanford
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Awt/awt_current.html#2
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Events/
12 noon UC Berkeley ICBS Colloquium
Life Sciences Addition 101 (Berkeley)
Stuart Zola
Yerkes Primate Institute
Co-sponsored by HWNI
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:4247/seminar.html
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar
Gates B03
"What remains to be done with Virtual Reality"
Jaron Lanier
National Tele-immersion Initiative
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
3:15pm Logical Methods in the Humanities
Bldg. 90:92Q (Philosophy)
"Knots and Representation"
Ken Manders
Pittsburgh
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
Abstract below
4:15pm CS545: Database Seminar
Gates B12
Title to be announced
Michael Franklin
UC Berkeley
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~franklin/
http://www-db.stanford.edu/dbseminar/
____________
Stanford Blood Center status: Shortage of O- and A+. For an
appointment: http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831.
It only takes an hour of your time.
____________
ANNOUNCEMENT
Call for papers:
"Diversity and Universals in Language:
The Consequences of Variation"
Pigott Hall
Stanford University
21-23 May 2004
sponsored by the Division of Languages, Cultures and Literatures,
Stanford University.
Theme:
Diversity in language is ubiquitous: typological studies have
identified many degrees of variation in every system of grammar (e.g.,
lexical category systems, systems of pronominal anaphora,
(non-)configurational structure, degrees of inflection, to mention
just a few), and studies within a given "language" have also
identified many kinds of variation, only some of which are correlated
with social groups, communities, or communicative styles.
We welcome abstracts for papers which address any of these kinds of
variation in the context of consequences for notions of linguistic
universals, of a "standard language", or even what it means to "speak
language X", and for language teaching (e.g., how far can the
grammatical properties of one language be used to elucidate the
properties of another, or, what variety of language X does one teach
as the "standard language"?).
Invited speakers:
Barbara Johnstone, Carnegie Mellon University
Claire Kramsch, University of California, Berkeley
Marianne Mithun, University of California, Santa Barbara
Toshio Ohori, Tokyo University
Abstract Guidelines:
We are soliciting abstracts for 20-minute talks relevant to any of the
topics mentioned above. Abstracts should be in 11pt font, or larger,
consisting of one text page with a second page (only) for data,
examples, charts, and references. Abstracts should be submitted
electronically in Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format to:
div-in-lang-conf@stanford.edu. The author(s) of the abstract should
not be identified in the abstract itself; the body of the submission
message should include the title of the abstract, the names(s) of the
author(s), the(ir) affiliation, and e-mail address(es).
*Deadline* for submission: March 8th, 2004. The conference program
will be announced as early as possible in later March.
We plan to collect as many papers from the conference as possible for
publication with a major publisher on the theme of linguistic
diversity.
Organizing Committee:
Eve V. Clark, Linguistics
Yoshiko Matsumoto, Asian Languages
Alice A. Miano, Language Center
Orrin W. Robinson, German Studies
David Oshima, Linguistics
Peter Sells, Linguistics
Chaofen Sun, Asian Languages
For further information please contact: div-in-lang-conf@stanford.edu.
____________
CSLI SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION
on Wednesday, 4 February 2004, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Cordura 100
http://cll.stanford.edu/scla.html
"Large Conjunctive Clusters and Bicliques"
Nina Mishra
Stanford University / HP Labs
We propose a new formulation of the clustering problem that differs
from previous work in several ways. First, the goal is to explicitly
output a collection of simple and meaningful conjunction of attributes
that define the clusters. Second, the clusters might overlap. Third,
the clusters might not cover all points. Finally, a point may be
assigned to a cluster description even if it only satisfies most, and
not necessarily all, of the attributes in the conjunction.
We give a graph-theoretic formulation of our clustering problem where
the input is a bipartite graph and the goal is to find a collection of
large bicliques in the graph. Identifying one largest conjunctive
cluster is equivalent to finding a maximum edge biclique. Since this
problem is NP-hard [Peeters00] and there is evidence that it is
difficult to approximate [Feige02], we solve a relaxed version where
the objective is to find a large subgraph that is close to being a
biclique. We give a randomized algorithm that finds a relaxed biclique
with almost as many edges as the maximum biclique. We then extend this
algorithm to identify a good collection of large relaxed bicliques. A
key property of these algorithms is that they require a sample of data
points of size independent of both the number of data points and the
number of attributes. The running time of the algorithm is linear in
the number of attributes.
____________
PARC FORUM
on Thursday, 5 February 2004, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
George Pake Auditorium, PARC
http://www.parc.com/forum/
"Preserving Computing History:
Innovation, Mothballs, Pioneers, and Our Future"
John C. Toole
The Computer History Museum
The computer is an extraordinary invention, and the resulting
information age has changed society across our globe forever. While
change in computing technology is mostly taken for granted, the
lessons and stories of this revolution are ironically being lost every
day! Whether it's 1, 10 or 100 years in the future, will people
understand where these pioneering technologies came from and what can
be learned? The mission of the Computer History Museum is to preserve
and present for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information
age by bringing a rich heritage and exciting future to computing
history. As an independent public benefit organization, it is home to
one of the world's largest collections - mainframes, PC's, software,
storage, Internet and networking artifacts, memorabilia, photos,
videos, etc. The history of this industry is a set of real stories
that convey its struggles, innovation, and persistence. This story
begins with the Museum's vision of how history can be captured,
preserved, and exhibited in its new building in Mountain view, while
at the same time making it accessible to everyone.
The presentation will cover some of the challenges and successes of
this preservation effort, with a discussion of the evolution of the
Computer History Museum itself. John will also talk about some of the
Museum's artifacts and why they are important, and explore some of the
interesting challenges of presenting history for the future. How can
authentic information be preserved? How might we present software in
exciting ways, even to those not in this industry? What happens to
companies from a historical viewpoint? How can we address different
technical and educational audiences? How can we learn from the past?
How can we use the dynamics of research and our industry to help
create new solutions? These and other provocative questions will be
discussed in the context of being operational in the first phase of
the Museum's new building in Mountain View, CA.
About the Speaker: As the executive director and CEO of the Computer
History Museum, John C. Toole oversees and drives the overall
strategic vision of the Museum, and reports directly to the board of
trustees. The Museum's charter is to explore the worldwide computing
revolution and its impact on the human experience. In this position,
Toole leverages more than 28 years of research and development
experience in advanced computing, networking, information technology
and microelectronics, culminating in national leadership positions in
science and technology management across industry, academia, and
government.
Formerly one of two deputy directors at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois,
Urbana Champaign, Toole oversaw the technical operation and
coordination of the National Computational Science Alliance throughout
the United States. It is one of two initiatives funded by the National
Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational
Infrastructure (PACI) program.
Prior to the NCSA, Toole was the first fulltime director of the
National Coordination Office (NCO) for Computing, Information, and
Communications. He also served as executive director for High
Performance Computing and Communications for the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and as acting director - after
several years as program manager and deputy office director - of
DARPA's Computing Systems Technology Office (CSTO), which was
responsible for advancing computing systems technologies.
Toole retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1994 after more than 22 years
of service. In addition to his DARPA experience, he managed a VLSI
Computer Aided Design (CAD) branch, studied computer engineering at
the University of Texas at Austin, worked in hardware/software
performance analysis of large scale computing systems, and designed
and implemented portions of real time operating systems. Toole holds
BS and MSEE degrees from Cornell University.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 5 February 2004, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
"Heterogeneous reasoning, Hyperproof, and Playfair"
Dave Barker-Plummer
CSLI, Stanford University
Heterogeneous reasoning is the name that we have given to reasoning
which involves information presented in mixed representational forms.
Finding a route to a party using written instructions and a map of the
area is an example of heterogeneous reasoning. In this talk I will
discuss heterogeneous reasoning and why we think that it is
important. I will demonstrate a computer program called Hyperproof,
which implements a formalized system of heterogeneous natural
deduction. The representation systems here are first-order logic, and
pictures of a blocks world. Finally I will discuss Playfair, a package
that we are currently working on which extends Hyperproof to use more
and different representations. If time permits I will also talk about
how the heterogeneous reasoning framework can be used to represent
(non-deductive) design reasoning.
About the Speaker: Dave Barker-Plummer is a Senior Research Scientist
at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and
Information. Since 1995 he has managed the Openproof project's work on
educational software for teaching logic at the undergraduate level. He
has taught computer science and logic at Stanford, Swarthmore College
and Duke University.
____________
UC BERKELEY ICBS COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 6 February 2004, 11:00am
Tolman 5101 (Berkeley)
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:4247/seminar.html
"Who's afraid of Benjamin Whorf?"
Lera Boroditsky
ICBS Fellow and MIT, Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Do people who speak different languages think differently about the
world? Does learning new languages change the way you think? Do
polyglots think differently when speaking different languages? I will
present several lines of cross-linguistic experiments illustrating how
the languages we speak shape the way we attend to, represent, and
remember our experiences in the world. The results suggest that the
private mental lives of people who speak different languages differ
much more than previously thought.
____________
EE Seminar
on Friday, 6 February 2004, 1:30pm
Cypress Semiconductor Auditorium, CISX-101
"Paradigm Changes Toward Digital Consumer Products/Technology"
Tsugio Makimoto
Sony Corporation
The chip industry is in transition from a PC centric to a DC or
Digital Consumer centric industry. Digitalization of consumer
electronics will have major impacts on our society creating the
"Second Digital Wave." New directions in chip technologies will be
presented in the new paradigm. Robotics will become the market and
technology driver in the long range and "Cleverness Driven Devices"
will become increasingly important.
About the Speaker: Born on 15th May 1937, Dr. Makimoto is Corporate
Advisor to Sony Corporation in charge of semiconductor technology. He
received the B.S degree from the University of Tokyo in 1959, the M.S
degree in 1966 from Stanford University., and the Ph.D. degree from
the University of Tokyo in 1971.
From 1959 to 1999, he worked at Hitachi Ltd. in the field of
semiconductor. He started as a device engineer and later assumed
various managerial positions including General Manager of
Semiconductor Division in 1992 and finally Senior Executive Managing
Director in 1997. He joined Sony as Corporate Senior Executive Vice
President in 2000 and assumed the current position in 2001.
In the late 1970s, he took the leadership of developing high-speed
CMOS devices which marked a key turning point in the history of
semiconductor industry.
In the late 1980s, he discovered the cyclical nature of semiconductor
industry which alternates directions between customization and
standardization, roughly every ten years. This cycle was named as
Makimotos Wave by the Electronics Weekly in UK. Based on this wave
concept, he wrote a book Living with the Chip in 1995 jointly with D.
Manners.
In the 1990s, he took leadership in developing and manufacturing high
density DRAMs and new types of RISC microprocessors, and was nominated
an IEEE FELLOW in 1997 for his contribution for developing and
manufacturing high-density MOS devices. In 1997, he wrote a book
titled Digital Nomad, again with D. Manners, to introduce the new
trends in the field of electronics after the PC.
Dr. Makimoto gave various keynote speeches at major semiconductor
related international conferences including two keynotes at IEDM in
1982 and 2002.
____________
NLP READING GROUP
on Friday, 6 February 2004, 2:00pm-3:20pm
Ventura 17
http://www-nlp.stanford.edu/nlp/nlpgroup.html
"The Feature Space in Parallel Grammar Writing"
Tracy Holloway King
http://www2.parc.com/istl/groups/nltt/papers/esslli03feat.pdf
This paper discusses the methodology and tools applied in the Parallel
Grammar project (ParGram) to support consistency and parallelism of
linguistic representations across multilingual Lexical Functional
Grammar (LFG) grammars. A particular issue is that the grammars in
the ParGram project are developed at different international sites.
The approach that was established over several years relies on (i) a
grammar code reviewing committee in which extensions to the existing
representations are critically discussed, (ii) a technical tool for
checking adherence to the best-practice feature declaration for
linguistic representations, and (iii) a coordinated, systematic use of
templates for expressing generalizations across lexicon entries and
grammar rules. We compare the techniques used in practical LFG
development with elements of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
(HPSG).
[Note: The presentation will include new tools for feature declaration
manipulation that were developed after the paper was written. In
addition, templates will be discussed in more detail than in the paper
version.]
(M. Butt, M. Forst, T.H. King, and J. Kuhn) ESSLLI 2003 Workshop on Ideas and
Strategies for Multilingual Grammar Development.
http://www2.parc.com/istl/groups/nltt/papers/esslli03feat.pdf
____________
LOGIC SEMINAR
on Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 4:15pm-5:30pm
Math Corner 380:380F
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
"Arithmetic independence results using higher recursion theory"
Andrew Arana
Philosophy, Stanford University
In this talk, we will explain how methods from higher recursion theory
can be used to prove independence results for first-order Peano
Arithmetic (PA). The talk will consist primarily of a detailed
discussion of such an independence proof. The proof in question leads
to an extension of a previous independence result of ours, answering a
question asked by Harrington and Knight. This new result has been
applied recently by D'Aquino and Knight to prove a result about the
metamathematics of a weak fragment of PA. We will also discuss briefly
another application of this kind of independence proof, concerning
consistency sentences for PA. This second proof answers a question
asked by Goncharov, Gaifman, and others, though unlike the first case,
here the answer to the question was already known. Lastly, we will
remark on the philosophical significance of this type of proof:
namely, that the use of higher recursion theory in proving arithmetic
independence results might seem to be an instance of impurity.
____________
SNRC INDUSTRY SEMINAR
on Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 4:15pm
Gates B03
http://snrc.stanford.edu/events/industry-seminar/
"Familiar Strangers and Urban Computing"
Eric Paulos
Research Scientist, Intel Berkeley Research Laboratory
As humans we live and interact across a wildly diverse set of physical
spaces. We each formulate our own personal meaning of place using a
myriad of observable cues such as public-private, large-small,
daytime-nighttime, loud-quiet, and crowded-empty. Not surprisingly, it
is the people with which we share such spaces that dominate our
perception of place. Sometimes these people are friends, family and
colleagues. More often, and particularly in public urban spaces we
inhabit, the individuals who affect us are ones that we repeatedly
observe and yet do not directly interact with - our Familiar
Strangers. This paper explores our often ignored yet real
relationships with Familiar Strangers. We describe several experiments
and studies that lead to designs for both a personal, body-worn,
wireless device and a mobile phone based application that extend the
Familiar Stranger relationship while respecting the delicate, yet
important, constraints of our feelings and relationships with
strangers in public places.
About the Speaker: Eric Paulos is a Research Scientist at Intel's new
Research Laboratory in Berkeley, California. His research interests
are focused on mobile public social play, tagging, and
messaging. Eric's work is driven by observable phenomena found in
public, place, and people. Through these inspirations he explores a
wide gamut of expression. This encompasses traditional notions of
expression found within the subtleties of human utterance,
countenance, movement, posture, attitude, and feeling. Equally vital
to the inquiry is the discovery of novel and manifest expression using
physical artifacts by exploring their representation, appearance,
behavior, and actions. Eric received his PhD in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley where
he researched scientific, and social issues surrounding internet based
telepresence, robotics, and mediated communication tools. Eric has
developed several internet based tele-operated robots including,
Mechanical Gaze in 1995 and Personal Roving Presence devices (PRoPs)
such as Space Browsing helium filled tele-operated blimps and ground
based PRoP systems (1995-2000) (www.prop.org). Eric is a founding
member of the IEEE Technical Committee for Internet Telepresence.
____________
CSLI COGLUNCH
on Thursday, 12 February 2004, 12:15pm-1:30pm
Cordura Hall, Room 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
"The Language of Constructions"
Adele Goldberg
Linguistics, University of Illinois and CASBS fellow
Observations about particular grammatical constructions have long
shaped our understanding of both particular languages and the nature
of Language itself. But only recently has a new theoretical approach
emerged that allows observations about constructions to be stated
directly, providing long-standing traditions with a framework that
allows both broad generalizations and more limited patterns to be
analyzed and accounted for fully. Many linguists with varying
backgrounds have converged on several key insights that have given
rise to a family of constructionist approaches.
Constructionist approaches share certain foundational ideas with the
mainstream generative approach that has held sway for the past several
decades (Chomsky 1957; 1965; 1981). Both approaches agree that it is
essential to consider language as a cognitive (mental) system; both
approaches acknowledge that there must be a way to combine structures
to create novel utterances, and both approaches recognize that a
non-trivial theory of language learning is needed.
In other ways, constructionist approaches contrast sharply with the
mainstream generative approach. Constructional approaches hold that
the nature of language can best be revealed by studying formal
structures as they relate to semantic or discourse functions.
Functional differences between formal patterns are emphasized.
Semi-regular patterns and cross-linguistically unusual patterns are
accounted for. Language is argued to be learned inductively by
general cognitive mechanisms and therefore learners need not be
hard-wired with knowledge that is specific to language (`universal
grammar').
A set of recent experimental studies on language acquisition,
production and comprehension will be reported that illustrate and lend
support to a constructional approach.
About the Speaker: Adele E. Goldberg is Associate Professor in the
Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois, and is
visiting Stanford this year as a fellow at the Center for Advanced
Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 12 February 2004, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
"Where Norms Come From: A Naturalistic Approach"
Ken Taylor
Philosophy, Stanford
I offer a naturalistic account of the source and nature of
normativity. My account has four main features. First, I offer a
purely psychologistic account of what I call the capacity for
normativity. Second I argue that this psychological capacity for
normativity is in all likelihood an evolved capacity, designed by
natural selection to make possible the existence of normative
communities among human beings. Third I argue that, even if the
capacity for normativity is not the result of selection, we can still
see that it is through, and only through, the exercise of the
psychological capacity that human beings constitute normative
communities of varying scope and duration. Finally, I argue that this
psychologistic naturalistic account of the capacity for normativity
explains the contingent and typically merely partial character of
normative communities. Moreover, it opens the way for a more
systematic exploration of the causal factors governing the growth and
decay of normative community over historical rather than evolutionary
time.
About the Speaker: Ken Taylor is a longtime professor and current
chair of the Stanford philosophy department. His work lies at the
intersection of the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind,
with an occasional foray into the history of philosophy. He also
co-hosts the syndicated public radio show Philosophy Talk.
____________
CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 13 February 2004, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B03
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
"What remains to be done with Virtual Reality"
Jaron Lanier
National Tele-immersion Initiative.
VR by definition presents the ultimate user interface design
challenge. Past decades of VR research have yielded a plentitude of
useful results, both positive and negative, but much remains to be
discovered. The last five years have seen an acceleration of research
into collaboration in VR, and in particular the case in which users
are represented with a degree of realism to one another. This type of
configuration is often called "Tele-immersion." As is to be expected,
many questions that have existed for decades can now be re-asked in a
more practical way, for instance: When should an already-functioning
user interface design be changed so that another person observing it
can better understand what is going on? How much effort do people
typically want to put into controlling their own appearance in a
shared world? Should a user interface designer attempt to influence
that user preference? What can be done to reduce the huge space of
interaction possibilities so that users retain sufficient focus to
accomplish a given task?
About the Speaker: Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer,
visual artist, and author. Currently, Lanier serves as the Lead
Scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative, a coalition of
research universities studying advanced applications for Internet
2. His current tele-immersion-related research interests include real
time, remote, terascale processing, autostereo methods, haptics, and
software simulation component integration and reusability. Lanier is
probably best known for his work in Virtual Reality. He coined the
term `Virtual Reality' and in the early 1980s founded VPL Research,
the first company to sell VR products. In the late 1980s he lead the
team that developed the first implementations of multi-person virtual
worlds using head mounted displays, for both local and wide area
networks, as well as the first "avatars", or representations of users
within such systems. While at VPL, he co-developed the first
implementations of virtual reality applications in surgical
simulation, vehicle interior prototyping, virtual sets for television
production, and assorted other areas
He tends to collect adjunct appointments, and is currently a visiting
faculty member of one sort or another at the Thayer School of
Engineering at Dartmouth, the Wharton School of Business of the
University of Pennsylvania, the Interactive Telecommunications Program
of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (where he is a
visiting artist), and at the Columbia University Computer Science
Department. He is also the Chief Scientist of Eyematic Interfaces,
which researches computer vision. He serves on numerous advisory
boards, including the Board of Councilors of the University of
Southern California, Medical Media Systems (a medical visualization
spin-off company associated with Dartmouth University), Microdisplay
Corporation (makers of LCOS displays), and NY3D (developers of
autostereo displays).
____________
LOGICAL METHODS IN THE HUMANITIES
on Friday, 13 February 2004, 3:15pm-5:15pm
Philosophy 90:92Q
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
"Knots and Representation"
Ken Manders
Pittsburgh
Central to the traditional mathematical inquiry about knots is its
intellectual motivating theme: a spatial sense of what matters, and
does not matter, about knottedness: what makes this knottedness
different from that; what different knottednesses there are.
The mathematical challenges in getting a precise understanding of
these knottedness matters start at a "representational" level that
conceptually precedes precise definitions, proposition and proof. The
mathematical challenge is primarily 'articulative': finding ways of
expressing knottedness types, ways that allow one to connect these
types to given knots. Even proof, though necessary, plays only a
secondary role; the ontology one might attribute based on the precise
form of definitions, only a tertiary one.
____________
END MATERIAL
The CSLI Calendar appears weekly on Wednesdays throughout the academic
year. Announcements, abstracts, and other information to appear in
the Calendar should be submitted to the editor, who reserves the right
to decide what does or does not go in the calendar
mailto:incalendar@csli.stanford.edu
Requests to be added to the mailing list should be sent to
majordomo@csli.stanford.edu. With the lines in the body of the text
of either
subscribe csli-calendar
for the long form or
subscribe csli-short-calendar
for the short form (i.e., no abstracts). Problems with subscribing or
unsubscribing should be sent to
owner-csli-calendar@csli.stanford.edu.
The full current issue is at
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/Archive/calendar/current.shtml
and the archives at
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/Archive/calendar/
People on most of the CSLI computers can type 'help csli-calendar' to
see the current issue.
The CSLI Calendar is also posted each week to
news://nntp-csli.stanford.edu/csli.bboard.
and
news://news.stanford.edu/su.events
Information about CSLI's research program is available at
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/
For maps to the Stanford University campus see
http://www.stanford.edu/home/visitors/maps.html
____________