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CSLI Calendar, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, vol. 22:8
CSLI CALENDAR OF PUBLIC EVENTS
______________________________________________________________________
25 October 2006 Stanford Vol. 22, No. 8
______________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Cordura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4101
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/
____________
ACTIVITIES FROM 25 OCTOBER 2006 TO 3 NOVEMBER 2006
WEDNESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2006
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [25-Oct-06]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"One vs. more than one: how children first express plurality"
Eve Clark
Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium [25-Oct-06]
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"A Structured Orchestration Language"
Jayadev "Jay" Misra
University of Texas at Austin
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
Abstract below
5:30pm Immanuel Kant Lecture 1 [25-Oct-06]
Bldg. 260:113
"Origins of Objectivity"
Tyler Burge
UCLA
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2006
4:00pm SRI AI Seminar Series [26-Oct-06]
EJ228, SRI International
"Model-based Programming of Robust Agile Systems"
Brian C. Williams
MIT
http://people.csail.mit.edu/williams/Web%20site/williams.shtml
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
Abstract below
4:00pm PARC Forum [26-Oct-06]
George Pake Auditorium at PARC
"The Green Energy Revolution"
Roland N. Horne
Stanford
http://www.parc.com/forum/
4:00pm UC Berkeley Cognition, Brain, and Behavior [26-Oct-06]
Beach Room Tolman (Berkeley)
"Emotion Regulation"
James Gross
Stanford University
http://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/colloquia.html
4:00pm Berkeley International Computer Science Institute [26-Oct-06]
ICSI, Rm 607 (UC Berkeley)
"Building and Running an Open-Source Community:
The FreeBSD Project"
Marshall Kirk McKusick
http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/
Abstract below
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [26-Oct-06]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"Issues in Music Copyright from the Perspective of Musical
Data Representation"
Eleanor Selfridge-Field
Music, Stanford
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [26-Oct-06]
Packard 101
"Efficient algorithms for Three Problems in Networks"
Devavrat Shah
MIT
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
Abstract below
4:15pm Fundamental Themes in Neuroscience Seminar [26-Oct-06]
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
"Plasticity of Somatosensory and Motor Systems of Primates
after Sensory and Motor Loss"
Jon Kaas
Psychology Department, Vanderbilt University
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
4:30pm Stanford Humanities Fellows Talk [26-Oct-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:426 (English Terrace room)
"Narrative as a Causal Theory of Whatever"
William Labov
University of Pennsylvania
http://fellows.stanford.edu/events/
5:00pm UC Santa Cruz Philosophy Colloquium [26-Oct-06]
Cowell Conference room, Cowell College (UC Santa Cruz)
"Is the Pain in Jane Felt Mainly in Her Brain?"
Paul Skokowski
Symbolic Systems, Stanford University
http://humwww.ucsc.edu/phil/colloquia.html
5:30pm Immanuel Kant Lecture 2 [26-Oct-06]
Bldg. 260:113
"Origins of Objectivity"
Tyler Burge
UCLA
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
FRIDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2006
12 noon Logical Methods in the Humanities [27-Oct-06]
Bldg. 90:92Q
"The Future of Proof"
Dana S. Scott
University Professor Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
Abstract below
12 noon Ethics@Noon [27-Oct-06]
Bldg. 100:101K
"The Black/White Achievement Gap in Reading/Language Arts in
K-12 Schools and some Linguistic Strategies for Narrowing It"
John Rickford
Linguistics/Education, Stanford
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EIS/lectures_ethics.html
12:15pm Stanford Theory Lunch [27-Oct-06]
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
"Mechanism design for the rich philanthropist, the poor mother
and everyone in between"
Mukund Sundararajan
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
Abstract below
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [27-Oct-06]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"Sensing Technologies for Future Computing Form Factors"
Andy Wilson
Microsoft
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
3:00pm Berkeley Information Access Seminar [27-Oct-06]
107 South Hall (Berkeley)
"Comments on the 2nd I-School Conference"
Dean Annalee Saxenian
http://iconference.si.umich.edu/
and
"Electronic Voting as a Case Study in Supporting Transparency
in Digital Democracy"
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is296a-1/f06/schedule.html
3:15pm Immanuel Kant Seminar [27-Oct-06]
Bldg. 90:92Q
"Origins of Objectivity"
Tyler Burge
UCLA
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
3:15pm Friday Cognitive Seminar [27-Oct-06]
Jordan Hall 420:050
"Estimating the probabilities of linguistic events"
Dan Yarlett
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_cognitive.html
3:15pm ME394: Design Forum
Terman 556
"my research"
Mark Cutkosky
http://me.stanford.edu/faculty/facultydir/cutkosky.html
http://www.stanford.edu/class/me394/
3:30pm Linguistics Department Colloquium [27-Oct-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Weak Bias Language Models and Universal Grammar"
Shalom Lappin
King's College, London
and
Stuart Shieber
Harvard University
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley Oxyopia Lecture [27-Oct-06]
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
"Learning and Adaptation in Visual Cortex"
Stephen Engel
Cognitive Psychology, Psychology, UCLA
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Santa Cruz Linguistics Colloquium [27-Oct-06]
Cowell Conference room, Cowell College (UC Santa Cruz)
"The Questionable Nature of Rhetorical Questions"
Ivano Caponigro
UC San Diego
http://ohlone.ucsc.edu/whasc/
MONDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2006
3:30pm Social Lab [30-Oct-06]
Bldg. 200:105
Title to be announced
Shinobu Kitayama
University of Michigan
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_social.html
4:00pm UC Berkeley Linguistics Department Colloquium [30-Oct-06]
182 Dwinelle (Berkeley)
"What dreams are made of: on the encoding of attitudes de se"
Pranav Anand
UC Santa Cruz
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/events/
Abstract below
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium [30-Oct-06]
Hewlett Teaching Center 200
Title to be announced
Eftychios Sifakis
Computer Science, Stanford
http://graphics.stanford.edu/~sifakis/
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs528/
TUESDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2006
4:00pm SRI AI Seminar Series [31-Oct-06]
EJ228, SRI International
"Personal Eyes: a Search Add-on That Learns to Find What You
Need"
Armand Prieditis
LookAhead Decisions, Inc.
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley Working Group in the Philosophy of Mind [31-Oct-06]
3105 Tolman Hall (Berkeley)
"Comparative Probability, Comparative Confirmation, and the
'Conjunction Fallacy'"
Branden Fitelson
Philosophy, UC Berkeley
http://neurophilosophy.berkeley.edu/meetings.htm
Abstract below
WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2006
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [1-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"fMRI of the developmental trajectory of emotion regulation"
Kateri McRae
Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
12 noon UC Berkeley CITRIS Research Exchange [1-Nov-06]
290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building (UC Berkeley)
"University of California Web-based Instruction for Science
and Engineering"
Michael Clancy
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
http://www.citris-uc.org/
Abstract below
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium [1-Nov-06]
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"Efficient Computing in the Many-Core Era"
William Dally
Stanford Streaming Supercomputer
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
THURSDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2006
3:45pm Psychology Department Colloquium [2-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:041
"Voluntary Settlement and the Spirit of Independence:
Evidence from Japan's 'Northern Frontier'"
Shinobu Kitayama
U of Michigan
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/cpl/index.html
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_colloquium.html
4:00pm Stanford Phonology Workshop [2-Nov-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"'A revised typology of opaque generalizations' by Eric Bakovic"
http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/850-0706/850-0706-0-0.PDF
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/pinterest/
4:00pm UC Berkeley Cognition, Brain, and Behavior [2-Nov-06]
Beach Room Tolman (Berkeley)
"The Comparative Cognition of Relational Encoding"
Lucy Jacobs
http://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/colloquia.html
4:10pm UC Berkeley Philosophy Department Colloquium [2-Nov-06]
Howison Philosophy Library, (305 Moses Hall) (Berkeley)
"Neither Will nor Free? Motivational Forces in Plato's Psychology"
Dorothea Frede
UC Berkeley
http://www.phil-gesch.uni-hamburg.de/phil/philperson/frede1.html
http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [2-Nov-06]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"From Molecule to Metaphor: Towards a Unified Cognitive Science"
Jerry Feldman
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Fundamental Themes in Neuroscience Seminar [2-Nov-06]
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
"The neurobiology and evolution of monogamy"
Larry Young
Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [2-Nov-06]
Packard 101
"Distributed Algorithms for Optimal Control of Wireless Networks"
Edmund Yeh
Yale
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2006
11:00am UC Berkeley ICBS Colloquium [3-Nov-06]
Tolman 5101 (Berkeley)
"Using a Culture-Inclusive Cognitive Science to Design for
Development"
Michael Cole
Communication, Psychology, and Human Development, UC San Diego
http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_cole.html
http://icbs.berkeley.edu/
Abstract below
12:15pm Stanford Theory Lunch [3-Nov-06]
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
"DNA Self-Assembly"
Ho-Lin Chen
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
Abstract below
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [3-Nov-06]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"Designing for the Self"
John Zimmerman
Carnegie Mellon HCI Institute and School of Design
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
1:00pm UC Berkeley HWNI Student Seminar [3-Nov-06]
101 LSA (Berkeley)
"The prefrontal cortex: rules, concepts, and cognitive control"
Earl Miller
MIT
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/events/
3:00pm Berkeley Information Access Seminar [3-Nov-06]
107 South Hall (Berkeley)
"Architecting to Scale"
Jack Xu
EBay
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is296a-1/f06/schedule.html
3:15pm Friday Cognitive Seminar [3-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:050
"Local vs. Global Processing underlying object recognition"
Hyejean Suh
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_cognitive.html
3:15pm ME394: Design Forum [3-Nov-06]
Terman 556
"my research"
Bernard Roth
http://me.stanford.edu/faculty/facultydir/roth.html
http://www.stanford.edu/class/me394/
3:30pm Linguistics Department Colloquium [3-Nov-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Temporal dynamics of conversational implicature during
real-time processing"
Julie Sedivy
Brown University
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley Oxyopia Lecture [3-Nov-06]
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
"Global Feature-Based Attention in the Human Visual System"
Geoffrey Boynton
Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
Abstract below
____________
Stanford Blood Center: Shortage of O, A, and AB. For an appointment:
http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831. It only takes
an hour of your time and you get free cookies.
____________
EE380: COMPUTER SYSTEMS LAB COLLOQUIUM
on Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 4:15pm to 5:30pm
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
"A Structured Orchestration Language"
Jayadev "Jay" Misra
University of Texas at Austin
We propose a programming language, called Orc for orchestration, that
supports a structured way of orchestrating distributed services. This
model assumes that basic services, like sequential computation and
data manipulation, are implemented by primitive sites. Orc provides
constructs to orchestrate the concurrent invocation of sites to
achieve a goal: acquire data from one or more remote services,
calculate with these data, and invoke yet other remote services with
the results, handle time-outs and failures, and respond to
notifications. We discuss the programming language and demonstrate
its effectiveness in a variety of applications.
Orc has a strong theoretical foundation that supports modular
composition and analysis of concurrent programs. The composition
constructs in Orc are based on Kleene algebra, the algebra of regular
expressions. Orc includes no explicit constructs for time-out,
parallel-or, interrupt, or arbitration, yet these are easily
programmed in Orc. We demonstrate that Orc provides a general model
for business process orchestration and workflow
Readings: The following papers may be of interest:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/wcook/papers/OrcJSSM05/OrcJSSM.pdf
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/wcook/Drafts/2006/OrcSemanticProps4-06.pdf
About the Speaker: Jayadev Misra is a professor and holder of the
Schlumberger Centennial chair in Computer Sciences at the University
of Texas at Austin. He is the author of two books, Parallel Program
Design: A Foundation, Addison-Wesley, 1988, co-authored with Mani
Chandy, and A Discipline of Multiprogramming, Springer-Verlag, 2001.
Misra is a fellow of ACM and IEEE; he held the Guggenheim fellowship
during 1988-1989. He was the Strachey lecturer at Oxford University in
1996, and he held the Belgian FNRS International Chair of Computer
Science in 1990.
Misra's research interests are in the area of concurrent programming,
with emphasis on rigorous methods to improve the programming
process. He is currently spear-heading an effort, jointly with Tony
Hoare, to establish a grand challenge project to automate large-scale
program verification.
____________
IMMANUEL KANT LECTURE SERIES
On Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 5:30pm
On Thursday, 26 October 2006, 5:30pm
Bldg. 260:113
On Friday, 27 October 2006, 3:15pm (Seminar)
Bldg. 90:92Q
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
"Origins of Objectivity"
Tyler Burge
UCLA
A central preoccupation of twentieth-century philosophy was to
determine constitutive conditions under which objective representation
of the physical environment is possible.
Nearly all philosophers who engaged in this project maintained some
version of what I call Individual Representationalism: the claim that
objective representation requires that an individual must also
represent basic constitutive conditions for such representation.
One type of Individual Representationalism, defended in the first half
of the century by such philosophers as Russell and the early Carnap,
took objective representation of the physical environment to be
constructed out of more basic representations involving sense data and
logical notions. Another type of Individual Representationalism,
defended in the second half of the century by such philosophers as
Strawson and Quine, tended to be more holist than constructivist; and
it maintained that objective representation of the physical
environment requires that an individual be capable of also
representing general conditions or principles governing such
representation (such as localizability in a general spatial network,
for Strawson, or general criteria for identity and difference, for
Quine).
By contrast, I believe that all forms of Individual
Representationalism are mistaken, and I maintain that objective
representation of the physical environment begins with perception
which, in the relevant sense, is common to a wide variety of animals
quite incapable of meeting Individual Representationalist
requirements. After first attempting to convey some of the immense
breadth of the hold that Individual Representationalism exerted on
twentieth-century philosophy, I will criticize some paradigmatic
versions of the syndrome (especially in its more holistic form), and I
will elaborate, if only briefly, on the conception of perception that
motivates my view. - Tyler Burge
About the Speaker: Burge earned his PhD from Princeton in 1971. His
main fields of interest are: Philosophy of Language and Logic,
Philosophy of Psychology and Mind, Epistemology, and History of
Philosophy. Burge has authored numerous publications including:
-- "Perceptual Entitlement" Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
2003
-- "Memory and Persons" Philosophical Review 2003
-- "Logic and Analyticity" Grazer Philosophische Studien 2003
-- "Truth, Thought, Reason, Essays on Gottlob Frege" Oxford University
Press 2005
____________
SRI AI SEMINAR SERIES
on Thursday, 26 October 2006, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EJ228, SRI International
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
"Model-based Programming of Robust Agile Systems"
Brian C. Williams
MIT
http://people.csail.mit.edu/williams/Web%20site/williams.shtml
Autonomous, self-repairing explorers, such as deep space probes, have
successfully performed complex missions by employing model-based
executives that continuously monitor mission goals, diagnose failures
and plan repairs. These executives employ models encoded as
probabilistic constraint automata, in order to observe and control the
hidden states of the system. These executives have also been
incorporated within model-based programming languages that facilitate
the creation of a wide range of fault adaptive systems, including
automobiles and naval ships. Future explorers, such as autonomous air
vehicles and walking robots, will require far greater agility, in
order to robustly achieve their missions. For example, to avoid
falling, a walking robot must quickly detect a loss of balance, and
replan its control trajectory appropriately. This talk presents recent
advances in model-based programming and execution for agile systems.
First, to reason about a systems dynamics, these executives employ
probabilistic constraint automata that are extended to hybrid
discrete/continuous constraints. Second, to robustly achieve missions,
these executives employ planning methods that reason about continuous,
as well as discrete, state changes, and employ compilation and
model-predictive control methods in order to adapt on the fly.
Finally, these executives employ estimation methods for hybrid PHA
that detect subtle failures through active control. Model-based
execution is demonstrated both on a team of cooperative air vehicles
and a biped walking machine.
About the Speaker: Brian Williams leads the Model-based Embedded and
Robotic Systems Group at MIT, which is affiliated with the Computer
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Prof. Williams
research concentrates on model-based autonomy the creation of
long-lived autonomous systems that are able to explore, command,
diagnose and repair themselves using fast, commonsense
reasoning. Current research focuses on model-based programming and
cooperative robotics: Model-based programming is embedding commonsense
within robotic explorers and everyday devices by incorporating
model-based deductive capabilities within traditional embedded
programming languages. Cooperative robotics extends model-based
autonomy to robotic networks of cooperating space, air and land
vehicles, on Earth or other planets. Applications include deep space
explorers, distributed satellites, unmanned air vehicles, Mars rovers,
intelligent offices and automobiles. Research interests include
reasoning at reactive time scales, cooperative and space robotics,
intelligent embedded systems, model-based programming, model-based
reactive planning, execution and diagnosis, data-driven exploratory
modeling, and hybrid system control.
____________
BERKELEY INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER SCIENCE INSTITUTE
on Thursday, 26 October 2006, 4:00pm
Main Lecture Hall, ICSI, 1947 Center Street, Sixth Floor, Berkeley
http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/
"Building and Running an Open-Source Community:
The FreeBSD Project"
Marshall Kirk McKusick
The BSD community started at the University of California at Berkeley
in the late 1970's. Through the 1980's the BSD software was developed
and released from Berkeley. In 1992, Berkeley made its final release,
4.4BSD-Lite, an open-source version of BSD. Since that time,
independent development has continued by the FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
Darwin, and Dragonfly projects. This talk will trace the history and
structure of the BSD community from its start as a small group of paid
staff at Berkeley up through the thousands of volunteer developers
that make up the FreeBSD Project of today. It will describe how the
development structure set up at Berkeley was expanded to create a
self-organizing project that supports an ever growing and changing
group of developers around the world.
About the Speaker: Marshall Kirk McKusick writes books and articles,
consults, and teaches classes on UNIX- and BSD-related subjects. While
at the University of California at Berkeley, he implemented the 4.2BSD
fast file system, and was the Research Computer Scientist at the
Berkeley Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) overseeing the
development and release of 4.3BSD and 4.4BSD. His particular areas of
interest are the virtual-memory system and the filesystem. One day, he
hopes to see them merged seamlessly. He is a past president of the
Usenix Association.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 26 October 2006, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"Issues in Music Copyright from the Perspective of Musical Data Representation"
Eleanor Selfridge-Field
Music Department
The study of systems of music representation verifies that there is
no complete, universal, or entirely logical system of
representation for music. Questions of best practice have been
constantly debated since the dawn of computer applications in music
in the 1960s. Quite unexpectedly, these debates have brought to
light many issues that are of prospective value in clarifying
current issues in music copyright.
Potential issues arising from the use of musical data of various
qualities and levels of completeness will be discussed in relation
to agency, ontology, cognition, and collective authorship. Recent
cases of a related nature will also be described.
____________
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SEMINAR
on Thursday, 26 October 2006, 4:15pm-5:15pm
Packard 101
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
"Efficient algorithms for Three Problems in Networks"
Devavrat Shah
MIT
This talk is about three important problems in constrained networks:
(1) High-performance packet scheduling, (2) Feasible rate-allocation
and (3) Computation of loss probability. In general, these problems
are computationally hard. We will identify constraint graph
structures, which we call ``non-expanding'', that are likely to appear
in practice and allow for efficient algorithm design for the three
problems. We will explain algorithm for packet scheduling in the
context of wireless network with independent set constraint. The
algorithm is based on a distributed randomized graph partitioning
scheme. Time permitting, we will explain its relation to problems (2)
and (3).
This talk is based on joint work with Kyo min Jung, MIT.
____________
LOGICAL METHODS IN THE HUMANITIES
on Friday, 27 October 2006, 12 noon
Bldg. 90:92Q
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
"The Future of Proof"
Dana S. Scott
University Professor Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University
Goedel showed us many things. Among others he showed us the
*possibility* of proof (via the Completeness Theorem for First-Order
Logic); and then quite soon thereafter he showed us the
*impossibility* of proof (via the Incompleteness Theorem for
(suitable) Higher- Order Logics). These results are well known and
famous, but their impact on the practice of mathematics has perhaps
not been very noticeable. To be sure, related recursive unsolvability
results have a clear explanatory value in keeping people from
searching for algorithms where none can exist. And modern
developments in complexity theory show that many easily stated
problems have -- in general -- no quick solutions. But again, many
commentators agree that there has not been a big shift in main-stream
mathematics as a consequence of Goedel's fundamental work. However,
the insight into formalization sparked by Goedel's original work is
now having major payoffs in mechanized mathematics and proof systems.
The lecture will survey some developments, but it will also bring up
the questions of what we should now regard as a proof and of how new
proof methods develop.
____________
STANFORD THEORY LUNCH
on Friday, 27 October 2006, 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
"Mechanism design for the rich philanthropist,
the poor mother and everyone in between"
Mukund Sundararajan
We focus our attention on mechanism design for a situation where a
service is to be provided to a set of agents. Agents bid how much they
supposedly value the service and the service provider decides which
set of agents to provide service to, and how much to charge them. Two
(very social) goals that a mechanism designer may have are to achieve
are efficiency and budget balance. Efficiency is defined as the
difference between the total valuation of agents served and the cost
of serving them, which we want to maximize( like a rich philanthropist
- no reference to payments). Budget balance refers to the fact that
the service provider would like to recover the cost of providing
service, and while doing so, be as efficient as possible (like a poor
mother and her children). It is well known fact that it is hard to
simultaneously achieve both objectives- achieve perfect cost recovery
while being optimally efficient.
For situations where the service provider incurs a cost submodular on
the set of agents for providing service , we quantify the tension
between the two objectives and show that it is possible to smoothly
trade one objective for the other. In the process, we demonstrate an
application of potential function style arguments.
This is joint work with Tim Roughgarden.
____________
CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 27 October 2006, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
"Sensing Technologies for Future Computing Form Factors"
Andy Wilson
Microsoft Research
The vision of ubiquitous computing suggests that interactivity will be
embedded throughout our physical environment in a wide variety of
modes of use and form factors. I will present a series of projects
which exploit sensing technologies such as computer vision to enable a
wide variety of fluid, natural interactions situated on walls and
tabletop surfaces. For example, PlayAnywhere is a compact tabletop
projection-vision system which explores a number of new interactions
on everyday surfaces, while TouchLight combines a transparent
projection screen material with computer vision techniques. These new
form factors have the potential of changing the way we relate to
computing, but they also pose a challenge in terms of interaction
design because they are so different from today's desktop computing.
About the Speaker: Andy Wilson is a member of the Adaptive Systems and
Interaction group at Microsoft Research. His current areas of
interest include applying sensing techniques to enable new styles of
human-computer interaction, but he is also interested in machine
learning, gesture-based interfaces, inertial sensing and display
technologies. Before joining Microsoft, Andy obtained his BA at
Cornell University, and MS and PhD at the MIT Media Laboratory.
Publications and a few videos of his work are located at
http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/
____________
LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 27 October 2006, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
"Weak Bias Language Models and Universal Grammar"
Shalom Lappin
King's College, London
Stuart Shieber
Harvard University
It is widely believed that the scientific enterprise of theoretical
linguistics and the engineering of language applications are separate
endeavors with little for their techniques and results to contribute
to each other at the moment. In this talk, we explore the possibility
that machine learning approaches to natural-language processing being
developed in engineering-oriented computational linguistics may be
able to provide specific scientific insights into the nature of human
language. We argue that, in principle, machine learning results could
inform basic debates about language in one area at least, language
acquisition, and that, in practice, existing results may offer initial
tentative support for this prospect.
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UC BERKELEY OXYOPIA LECTURE
on Friday, 27 October 2006, 4:00pm
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
"Learning and Adaptation in Visual Cortex"
Stephen Engel
Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Early work in cognitive neuroscience focused on localizing cognitive
and perceptual functions to specific regions in the human brain. More
recent work looks within such regions, to study how neurons represent
information and contribute to behavior. This talk will illustrate the
latter approach using two lines of research. The first examines
whether learning can modify neural representations at early levels of
the visual system. The second investigates whether color and form are
represented jointly in the visual system.
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UC BERKELEY LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Monday, 30 October 2006, 4:00pm
182 Dwinelle (Berkeley)
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/events/
"What dreams are made of: on the encoding of attitudes de se"
Pranav Anand
UC Santa Cruz
In our dreams we can unmoor ourselves from reality: from time, from
space, from who we take ourselves to be. Indeed, as Lakoff (1972)
observed, we can even unmoor ourselves from Condition B of the binding
theory:
(1) George: I dreamt I was Brigitte Bardot and I kissed me.
In uttering (1), George seems to be using the first person to track
two kinds of constancy across the dream context -- (i) the person who
bears some kind of (perhaps, physical) resemblance to George in
reality, (ii) the ``center of consciousness'' that serves as the first
person awareness in the dream. This latter usage of the pronoun, while
seemingly exotic, is in fact a species of what Lewis (1979) called de
se ascription, a usage of pronominal interpretation that occurs in
long-distance anaphora, West-african logophors, shifted indexicals,
and control.
Given that there is a common usage for all of these, is there a common
mechanism by which that usage is derived? I will argue no,
concentrating in this talk on the usage of pronouns both inside and
outside dream contexts such as (1). Along the way we will consider how
control, Yoruba logophors, and Mandarin long-distance anaphora can
inform our project.
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SRI AI SEMINAR SERIES
on Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EJ228, SRI International
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
"Personal Eyes: a Search Add-on That Learns to Find What You Need"
Armand Prieditis
LookAhead Decisions, Inc.
http://www.lookaheaddecisions.com/
Sometimes you dont know the right search terms to use, but you know it
when youve found the right web page. This talk describes Personal
Eyes, a search add-on that learns to find what you need without you
having to know the right search terms. Personal Eyes learns and
combines item-based and user-based profiles to produce personalized
search results. An item-based profile uses web-page features such as
tags, words, hierarchy (e.g. from Google Base), user ratings, and
image coefficients. Personal Eyes learns this profile for each users
interests and uses it to retrieve web pages with similar features.
This allows it to also retrieve based on contrary patterns (e.g. any
page that Bob does not like, I might like). A user-based profile is
based on user features such as age, sex, income, zip code, and web
page interests. This allows Personal Eyes to make surprising
connections between seemingly disparate web sites by leveraging the
idea that users who share some demographics and interests are likely
to share others interests. This can be particularly powerful in social
networks such as Myspace.com. Personal Eyes uses the strengths of one
profiling method to fill in the weaknesses of the other to better find
what you need.
About the Speaker: Dr. Prieditis is CEO and President of LookAhead
Decisions Incorporated, a company that produces software for real-time
decision-making and machine learning applications in animation,
healthcare, manufacturing, networks, and material handling. Prior to
that Dr. Prieditis was CEO of Unconventional Wisdom, a company that
produced adaptive software for search engines, and a professor in the
Computer Science department at the University of California-Davis.
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BERKELEY WORKING GROUP IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
on Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
3105 Tolman Hall (Berkeley)
http://neurophilosophy.berkeley.edu/meetings.htm
"Comparative Probability, Comparative Confirmation, and the
'Conjunction Fallacy'"
Branden Fitelson
Philosophy, UC Berkeley
The "conjunction fallacy" has been a key topic in discussions and
debates on the quality of human reasoning performance and its
limitations, yet the attempt of providing a satisfactory account of
the phenomenon has proven challenging. Here, we propose a new
analysis, suggesting that the fallacious probability judgments
experimentally observed are typically guided by sound assessments of
confirmation (or evidential support) relations. The proposed analysis
is shown robust (i.e., not depending on various alternative ways of
measuring degree of confirmation), consistent with available data, and
prompting further empirical investigations. The present approach
emphasizes the relevance of the notion of confirmation in the
assessments of the relationships between the normative and descriptive
study of inductive reasoning. All requisite historical, philosophical,
and psychological background will be provided during the talk.
[Note: this is joint work with psychologists Vincenzo Crupi and Katya
Tentori at the University of Trento.]
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UC BERKELEY CITRIS RESEARCH EXCHANGE
on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, 12 noon
290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building (UC Berkeley)
http://www.citris-uc.org/
"University of California Web-based
Instruction for Science and Engineering"
Michael Clancy
Senior Lecturer, Computer Science at UC Berkeley,
The UC-WISE project (University of California Web-based Instruction
for Science and Engineering) aims
* to provide technology and curricula for laboratory-based higher
education courses that incorporate online facilities for
collaboration, inquiry learning, and assessment, and to investigate
the most effective ways of integrating this technology into our
courses;
* to allow instructors to customize courses, prototype new course
elements, and collect review comments from experienced course
developers.
As part of this project, we have developed several complete lab-based
courses that trade lecture and discussion time for hands-on lab time.
These courses include CS 3L ("Introduction to Symbolic Programming"),
CS 4 ("Introduction to Computing for Engineers"), and CS 61BL ("Data
Structures and Programming Methodology").
In this talk, we describe these courses in more detail. We also report
on what we've learned about lab-based instruction, and outline our
educational research goals and plans for technology development to
support them.
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SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"From Molecule to Metaphor: Towards a Unified Cognitive Science"
Jerry Feldman
Computer Science and Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, UC Berkeley
The neural revolution in cognitive science, which was always
inevitable, is well under way. There is already enough known about how
our brains process information to render many traditional theories
obsolete and a unified neurally-based cognitive science is
emerging. Linguistics and Philosophy have, for both historical and
technical reasons, been slow to integrate even the most basic
neuroscience. Much of fundamental neuroscience is done with animals
and, since only people use language, there has been no easy way to
extend animal findings to human thought and language.
The talk is based on a new book that is a systematic attempt to show
how human language and thought arise as an extension of the physiology
and experiences that people share with other animals. Integrating
findings from all the cognitive sciences yields a foundation for an
explicitly neural theory of language that is an integral part of
contemporary science. Many, but not all, of the fundamental issues
about brain and mind become clearer in a Unified Cognitive Science
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FUNDAMENTAL THEMES IN NEUROSCIENCE SEMINAR
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
"The neurobiology and evolution of monogamy"
Larry Young
Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
http://www.yerkes.emory.edu/YOUNG/
Monogamous and non-monogamous species of voles provide an ideal model
for discovering the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms
regulating social behavior. Comparative studies demonstrate that
species differences in the expression oxytocin and vasopressin
receptors underlie the species differences in social organization.
Furthermore, molecular studies demonstrate that variation in a
polymorphic microsatellite in the vasopressin receptor promoter
appears to be responsible for both species and individual differences
in social bonding. These findings will be discussed in relation to
human social behavior and psychiatric disorders.
Recent Papers:
[1]E.A.D. Hammock and L. J. Young. Microsatellite instability
generates diversity in brain and sociobehavioral traits. Science.
308:1630-1634
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/reprints/Young1.pdf
[2]M. M. Lim et al. Enhanced partner preference in promiscuous species
by manipulating the expression of a single gene. Nature. . 429:754-757
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/reprints/Young2.pdf
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INFORMATION SYSTEMS SEMINAR
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm-5:15pm
Packard 101
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
"Distributed Algorithms for Optimal Control of Wireless Networks"
Edmund Yeh
Yale
In wireless networks, link capacities are variable quantities
determined by transmission powers, channel fading levels, user
mobility, as well as the underlying coding and modulation schemes. In
view of this, the traditional problems of routing and congestion
control must now be jointly optimized with power control and rate
allocation at the physical layer. To address this, we consider a
multi-commodity flow model for interference-limited wireless networks
in which power control and routing variables are chosen to minimize
convex link costs reflecting, for instance, average queueing delay. We
design a set of node-based distributed gradient projection algorithms
which iteratively adjust local control variables with a limited
exchange of control messages. We explicitly derive the scaling
matrices required in the gradient projection algorithms for fast,
guaranteed global convergence, and show how the scaling matrices can
be computed in a distributed manner. Furthermore, we show that
congestion control can be seamlessly incorporated into our framework.
Next, we consider two important extensions of our results. First,
recent research on network coding has shown that extending the
functionality of network nodes beyond simple routing may have benefits
in certain situations. We show that our distributed node-based control
algorithms can be extended to achieve minimum-cost multicast in
interference-limited wireless networks by jointly optimizing the
network coding subgraphs with power control and congestion control
schemes. Second, we consider stochastic models of wireless networks
where the random nature of traffic arrivals and queueing are
explicitly modelled. For these networks, it is well-known that the
Maximum Differential Backlog (MDB) control policy of Tassiulas and
Ephremides can adaptively maximize the stable throughput. The
implementation of the MDB policy in interference-limited wireless
networks, however, in general requires centralized computation. For
this, we show that our node-based control algorithms can be extended
to achieve distributed throughput optimal control of wireless networks
with random traffic and queueing.
Joint work with Yufang Xi, Yale University.
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UC BERKELEY ICBS COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 11:00am
Tolman 5101 (Berkeley)
http://icbs.berkeley.edu/
"Using a Culture-Inclusive Cognitive Science
to Design for Development"
Michael Cole
Communication, Psychology, and Human Development, UC San Diego
http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_cole.html
Using that part of the cultural approach to cognitive science
developed in my previous lecture focused on cultural-history,
ontogeny, and microgenesis, I will describe a program of research
using this approach to designing development-enhancing, educational
enviornments for children during out of school hours. This
approach begins by specifying a set of design principles, the
embodiment of those principles in the design of "idiocutures," and
the subsequent tracing of transformations in both the idioculturres
and the people who participate in them. Special emphasis will be given
to challenges of data representation and evaluation.
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STANFORD THEORY LUNCH
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
"DNA Self-Assembly"
Ho-Lin Chen
Self-assembly is the ubiquitous process by which objects autonomously
assemble into complexes. DNA self-assembly is emerging as a key
paradigm for nano-technology, nano-computation, and several related
disciplines. In nature, DNA self-assembly is often equipped with
explicit mechanisms for both error prevention and error correction.
For artificial self-assembly, these problems are even more important
since we are interested in assembling large systems with great
precision.
In this talk, we will first demonstrate some recent progress on DNA
self-assembly and show some issues on these achievements. Then we will
present an error correction scheme on DNA self-assembly called snaked
proofreading tiles and explain the basic ideas about why this system
works in practice. We will also demonstrate some preliminary
experimental data showing that this kind of combinatorial tile system
can really change the dynamic behavior of the self-assembly process.
This is joint work with Ashish Goel, Rebecca Schulman and Erik
Winfree.
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CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
"Designing for the Self"
John Zimmerman
HCI Institute and School of Design, CMU
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnz/
For many years consumer behavior researchers have explored the role
people's possessions play in the identity construction process;
looking at how possessions help people decide who they want to be and
how they help people move closer to their idealized image of
themselves. However, in looking at product design processes, and
particularly the HCI design processes for developing interactive
products and services, the insights gained from the consumer behavior
research have not yet been operationalized. In general, HCI developers
are quite good at looking at what people do, and designing products to
enhance the qualities of these activities; however, HCI processes do
not generally explore who people desire to be. This talk provides a
brief overview of consumer behavior research on identity construction
and details opportunities for interactive products to improve this
process. In addition, it shares insights gained from select pilot
design projects that attempt to address the appropriate role for
interactive products to play as people construct their identities.
About the Speaker: John Zimmerman holds a joint appointment as an
Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction
Institute and at the School of Design. His research focuses on how
people interact with intelligent systems from office productivity
software that allows workers to employ agents as "power tools" to
smart homes that through assistance with activity management help
parents feel like they are better parents. In addition, he teaches
interaction design with a focus on how interaction can increase the
intrinsic value of products and services. Prior to working at Carnegie
Mellon, John was a senior researcher with Philips Electronics where he
explored interactive TV applications for the home.
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LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
"Temporal dynamics of conversational implicature
during real-time processing"
Julie Sedivy
Brown University
A good deal of what is communicated takes place "between the lines" of
conventional meaning, relying on the speaker's and hearer's
coordination of conversational expectations, and the juxtapositioning
of these expectations with the conventional meaning of the utterance.
Grice's work on conversational implicature has provided a useful
framework for thinking about this important contribution to meaning by
emphasizing the distinction between conventional and understood
meanings, and sketching out a set of communicative principles through
which understood meanings might be derived on the basis of
conventional meanings. A critical feature of Grice's conception of
conversational implicatures is the notion that they are calculable.
Thus, a speaker who says p may implicate q: "PROVIDED THAT
(1) he is to be presumed to be observing the conversational maxims,
or at least the cooperative principle;
(2) the supposition that he is aware that, or thinks that, q is
required in order to make his saying p ... consistent with this
presumption;
(3) the speaker thinks (and would expect the hearer to think that the
speaker thinks) that it is within the competence of the hearer to
work out, or grasp intuitively, that (2) is required." (Grice,
1975, 49-50).
However, actual language production and comprehension takes place at a
frenetic pace, and involves heavy demands on the processing system
under dramatic time pressures. Hence, the circumstances under which
"Gricean" calculation may be implemented during real-time language
processing are very much open to empirical discussion. Researchers
disagree on conceptualizing the computational demands of
implicature. For example, some have argued (e.g. Levinson, 2000) for a
distinct class of generalized conversational implicatures that may be
derived rapidly and automatically on the basis of general
conversational principles and paradigmatic lexical
relationships. Others (e.g. the Relevance theorists) have claimed that
there is no principled or cognitive distinction between generalized
implicature and particularized implicatures which clearly cannot be
calculated without consideration of the particular conversational
situation at hand. In this talk, I will review what is currently known
about the processing costs of conversational implicature, suggesting
that there is currently little evidence overall for a sharp
dissociation in processing costs between generalized and
particularized implicature. I will present some work from my own lab
showing that conversational inferences can be derived "on the fly"
with extreme rapidity during real-time language comprehension. Despite
the speed of these inferences, they do not appear to be generated
automatically without consideration of the particulars of the
conversational situation; rather, they seem to depend upon the
hearer's assessment of the extent to which the speaker is adhering to
conversational principles. I will conclude by making some speculative
hypotheses as to how the processing mechanism might yield such rapid,
seemingly complex inferencing.
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UC BERKELEY OXYOPIA LECTURE
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 4:00pm
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
"Global Feature-Based Attention in the Human Visual System"
Geoffrey Boynton
Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
http://www.snl-b.salk.edu/
I will discuss a series of functional MRI and behavioral experiments
that show how feature-based attention spreads automatically throughout
the visual field. Specifically, we have shown that the response to an
unattended, behaviorally irrelevant stimulus is enhanced if it shares
the same color or direction of motion as an attended stimulus
presented elsewhere. Surprisingly, this effect appears to spread
everywhere -- even to locations that do not contain a stimulus. This
global feature-based mechanism may play an important role in visual
search and grouping.
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____________