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CSLI Calendar, Wednesday, 9 May 2007, vol. 22:34
CSLI CALENDAR OF PUBLIC EVENTS
______________________________________________________________________
9 May 2007 Stanford Vol. 22, No. 34
______________________________________________________________________
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 9 MAY 2007 TO 20 MAY 2007
WEDNESDAY, 9 MAY 2007
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [9-May-07]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"Vision and Perception Neuroscience"
Golijeh Golarai
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
3:45pm Psychology Department Colloquium [9-May-07]
Jordan Hall 420:041
Title to be announced
Daniel Pine
National Institute of Mental Health
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_colloquium.html
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium [9-May-07]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"Multi-core, Multiprocessor, and Memory Hierarchies: An
Application Developer's View of Next Generation Systems Enablement"
Catherine H. Crawford
IBM Systems & Technology Group
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
6:30pm SF Bay ACM Data Mining SIG [9-May-07]
SAP LABS, Building D, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA
"Exploratory Mining in Cube Space"
Raghu Ramakrishnan
VP and Research Fellow at Yahoo! Research
http://sfbayacm.org/dmsig.php
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 10 MAY 2007
12 noon Music 319: CCRMA Hearing Seminar [10-May-07]
CCRMA Seminar Room, The Knoll
"Memory for consonance and dissonance"
Daniel J. Levitin
McGill
http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/hearing-seminar
Abstract below
4:00pm Stanford Algorithms Seminar [10-May-07]
Gates 453A
"A Primal Dual Approach to Online Optimization Problems"
Seffi Naor
http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~naor/
http://theory.stanford.edu/~aflb/
4:00pm PARC Forum [10-May-07]
George Pake Auditorium at PARC
"The Bio in Biofuels"
Scott D. Power
Danisco Genencor
http://www.parc.com/forum/
4:00pm UC Berkeley CIS Seminar [10-May-07]
Soda Hall 310 (UC Berkeley)
"Predicting protein molecular function"
Barbara Engelhardt
UC Berkeley
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~feisha/cis-seminar
Abstract below
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [10-May-07]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"Mobile Persuasion Technology and Disclosive Behavior Change"
Dean Eckles
Symbolic Systems Program
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [10-May-07]
Packard 101
"Capacity and dependence in communication networks"
Michael Gastpar
UC Berkeley
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
FRIDAY, 11 MAY 2007
11:00am SRI AI Seminar Series [11-May-07]
EJ228, SRI International
"Towards Practical Heterogeneous Teams"
Paul Scerri
Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
TALK CANCELLED
12 noon Mini-Seminar on Information in Logic and Philosophy [11-May-07]
Cordura 100
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/Abstracts/Workshop/Spring07.html
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [11-May-07]
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"Collaborative Observatories for Natural Environments:
Searching for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and other Elusive Creatures"
Ken Goldberg
IEOR and EECS, UC Berkeley
http://hci.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
2:00pm Workshop on Neurosystems [11-May-07]
Clark Center (S 361)
http://www.stanford.edu/~scheler/neurosystems.html
Information below
2:00pm Stanford Tech Briefing [11-May-07]
Turing Auditorium, Polya Hall
"iTunes at Stanford: Producing and Publishing Podcasts"
Mark Branom, IT Services
Jeremy Sabol, Center for Teaching and Learning)
Kim Hayworth, Academic Computing
Scott Stocker, University Communications
http://techbriefings.stanford.edu/
Information below
3:15pm Philosophy Department Colloquium [11-May-07]
Bldg. 90:92Q
"Some Consequences of the Entanglement of Logic and Mathematics"
Charles Parsons
Harvard University (Visiting UCLA)
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/parsons.html
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
Abstract below
3:15pm Friday Cognitive Seminar [11-May-07]
Jordan Hall 420:050
Title to be announced
David Noelle
UC Merced
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_cognitive.html
3:30pm Linguistics Department Colloquium [11-May-07]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Having a Word for It"
Geoffrey Nunberg
UC Berkeley
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
Abstract below
4:00pm SRI CSL Seminar Series [11-May-07]
EK255, SRI International
"Types, Bytes, and Separation Logic"
Harvey Tuch
NICTA, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
http://www.csl.sri.com/
Abstract below
7:30pm Second Symposium on Music, Rhythm and the Brain [11-May-07]
Clark Center Auditorium
"Music and the Brain: Fundamentals and Flow"
Dan Levitin
Keynote speaker, no registration required
http://sica.stanford.edu/cast/rhythm/
Abstract below
SATURDAY, 12 MAY 2007
all day Second Symposium on Music, Rhythm and the Brain [12-May-07]
CCRMA Stage, The Knoll
http://sica.stanford.edu/cast/rhythm/
Information below
SUNDAY, 13 MAY 2007
all day Second Symposium on Music, Rhythm and the Brain [13-May-07]
CCRMA Stage, The Knoll
http://sica.stanford.edu/cast/rhythm/
Information below
all day Berkeley Conference [13-May-07]
Howison Library, Moses Hall (Berkeley)
"Interpolations: A conference in honor of William Craig"
http://sophos.berkeley.edu/interpolations/
Information below
10:00am Philosophy Talk [13-May-07]
KALW FM 91.7 (also other stations and other times)
"Science, Ethics, and Censorship"
guest speaker: Ronald Atlas
Past President of the American Society for Microbiology
Graduate Dean at the University of Louisville
http://philosophytalk.org/
MONDAY, 14 MAY 2007
2:00pm Stanford Phonology Workshop [14-May-07]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Prosodic morphology in Dagaare"
Arto Anttila and Adams Bodomo
Stanford University and the University of Hong Kong
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/pinterest/
3:00pm Stanford Software Seminar [14-May-07]
Gates 104
"Formal Specifications on Industrial-Strength Code - From Myth
to Reality"
Manuvir Das
Microsoft
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mhn/sss.html
3:15pm Logic Seminar [14-May-07]
Bldg. 380:380D (math corner)
"?"
Tomohiro Hoshi
Stanford
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
Abstract below
4:00pm SRI CSL Seminar Series [14-May-07]
EK255, SRI International
"Splitting on Demand in Satisfiability Modulo Theories"
Cesare Tinelli
http://www.csl.sri.com/
Abstract below
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium [14-May-07]
Hewlett Teaching Center 200
Title to be announced
Jay McClelland
http://psychology.stanford.edu/~jlm/
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs528/
TUESDAY, 15 MAY 2007
12 noon Berkeley Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience [15-May-07]
3105 Tolman (Berkeley)
"Thalamus and Sensorimotor Aspects of Perception"
Ray Guillery
University of Madison, WI
http://redwood.berkeley.edu/seminars.php
Abstract below
12 noon Berkeley On the Future of Scholarly Communication Seminar [15-May-07]
CSHE Library, South Hall Annex (Berkeley)
"Preparing THE Engineering Professional of the Future"
Jeffrey S. Russell
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://cshe.berkeley.edu/events/
4:15pm The Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering Talk [15-May-07]
Cordura 100
"The Foundations of Logic and Apprehension: The Positivist Agenda"
Michael Friedman
Stanford University
http://iase.info/events
Abstract below
4:30pm Stanford Security Seminar [15-May-07]
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
"Anomaly Detection Studies in the Internet Backbone"
Tao Ye
Sprint
http://theory.stanford.edu/seclab/sem.html
5:00pm Symbolic Systems Distinguished Speaker Series [15-May-07]
Bldg. 410:040 (Psychology)
"What's the Matter with Memory?"
Elizabeth Loftus
UC Irvine
http://symsys.stanford.edu/
Abstract below
WEDNESDAY, 16 MAY 2007
12 noon Stanford Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop [16-May-07]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Resolving Fragments: A Theory of Context for Conversation"
Jonathan Ginzburg
King's College London
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
Abstract below
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [16-May-07]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"English yes/no questions: A model integrating variation as a
determinant of children's acquisition"
Bruno Estigarribia
Linguistics Department
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
4:00pm SRI AI Seminar Series [16-May-07]
EJ228, SRI International
"Walk the Talk: Connecting Language, Knowledge, and Action in
Route Instructions"
Matt MacMahon
University of Texas at Austin
http://robotics.csres.utexas.edu/~adastra/
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
Abstract below
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium [16-May-07]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"Stream Processors Software Tools and Applications for Storm-1
Parallel Processor"
Ujval Kapasi and Peter Mattson
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
6:00pm Silicon Valley Web Guild [16-May-07]
Google, 1625 Charleston Road, Building 44, Mountain View
"Future of Online Advertising"
http://www.webguild.org/
THURSDAY, 17 MAY 2007
12 noon CSLI CogLunch [17-May-07]
Cordura Hall 100
"Search versus inference: why search is more basic"
Adam Morton,
Philosophy, University of Alberta
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
Abstract below
4:00pm Stanford Algorithms Seminar [17-May-07]
Gates 498
Title to be announced
Michael Mahoney
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/mmahoney/
http://theory.stanford.edu/~aflb/
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [17-May-07]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"General Game Playing"
Michael Genesereth
Computer Science, Stanford
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [17-May-07]
Packard 101
Title to be announced
Michael Luby
Digital Fountain
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
FRIDAY, 18 MAY 2007
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [18-May-07]
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"Implicit Interaction"
Wendy Ju
Stanford Center for Design Research
http://hci.stanford.edu/cs547/
12:30pm UC Berkeley Psychology Talk [18-May-07]
5101 Tolman (Berkeley)
"To see or not to see: critical elements in the emergence of
human percepts"
Rafael Malach
Weizmann Institute, Israel,
http://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/colloquia.html
2:00pm UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Distinguished Speaker
E2 180 (UC Santa Cruz)
"Smart Bombs to Reading Machines for the Blind"
James Fruchterman
President and CEO of Benetech
http://www.citris-uc.org/
Abstract below
3:15pm Philosophy Department Colloquium [18-May-07]
Bldg. 90:92Q
"Fourth Year Graduate Student Colloquia"
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
SATURDAY, 19 MAY 2007
all day Berkeley Linguistics Event [19-May-07]
370 Dwinelle Hall (Berkeley)
"Indigenous Languages and Linguistics in the 21st Century:
A Celebration in Honor of Leanne Hinton"
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~garrett/hintonfest.html
SUNDAY, 20 MAY 2007
10:00am Philosophy Talk [20-May-07]
KALW FM 91.7 (also other stations and other times)
"Artificial Intelligence"
http://philosophytalk.org/
____________
Stanford Blood Center: Shortage of O-, A-, B-, B+ 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.
____________
NOTES
Best wishes to those graduating from Berkeley this month.
I want to draw the Stanford folks attention to the Tech briefing on
Friday on how to put stuff up on http://itunes.stanford.edu/. EE380
(Computer Systems Colloquium) is available via it, as is
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders. Some of Philosophy Talk with John
Perry and Ken Taylor are also available there. Items range from 2 hour
talks by distinguished speakers to little 5 minute microlectures such
as those on coral. It is also possible to put stuff up and limit it
to a subset of the Stanford community (most usually class lectures
which are available to enrolled members of the course through
courseworks).
Well if you (being a Stanford person) wanted to know how to get talks,
et cetera onto Stanford itunes, this Friday's Tech Briefing is for you.
On a different topic but almost the same time the LILAC group at CSLI
is co-running a mini-seminar on Information in Logic and Philosophy on
the afternoon of Friday, 11 May. All are welcome to attend and
exercise their logical faculties.
And yet another event at about the same time will be a workshop on
Neurosystems sponsored by the Biomodclub at Stanford, on 11 May from 2
to 6pm. They will be looking at 'information' more from the
biological side.
I recommend that some group at Stanford (or perhaps our sister
institution across the Bay) should investigate avatars so that people
can attend events in parallel.
____________
SF BAY ACM DATA MINING SIG
on Wednesday, 9 May 2007, 6:30pm - 9:00pm
SAP LABS, Building D, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA
http://sfbayacm.org/dmsig.php
"Exploratory Mining in Cube Space"
Raghu Ramakrishnan
VP and Research Fellow at Yahoo! Research
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~raghu/
Data Mining has evolved as a new discipline at the intersection of
several existing areas, including Database Systems, Machine Learning,
Optimization, and Statistics. An important question is whether the
field has matured to the point where it has originated substantial new
problems and techniques that distinguish it from its parent
disciplines. In this talk, we will discuss a class of new problems and
techniques that show great promise for exploratory mining, while
synthesizing and generalizing ideas from the parent disciplines. While
the class of problems we discuss is broad, there is a common
underlying objective-to look beyond a single data mining step (e.g.,
data summarization or model construction) and address the combined
process of data selection and transformation, parameter and algorithm
selection, and model construction. The fundamental difficulty lies in
the large space of alternative choices at each step, and good
solutions must provide a natural framework for managing this
complexity. We regard this as a grand challenge for Data Mining, and
see the ideas in this talk as promising initial steps towards a
rigorous exploratory framework that supports the entire process.
This is joint work with several people, in particular, Beechung Chen.
About the Speaker Raghu Ramakrishnan is VP and Research Fellow at
Yahoo! Research, where he heads the Community Systems group. He is on
leave from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is Professor
of Computer Sciences, and was founder and CTO of QUIQ, a company that
pioneered question-answering communities such as Yahoo! Answers, and
provided collaborative customer support for several companies,
including Compaq and Sun. His research is in the area of database
systems, with a focus on data retrieval, analysis, and mining. He has
developed scalable algorithms for clustering, decision-tree
construction, and itemset counting, and was among the first to
investigate mining of continuously evolving, stream data. His work on
query optimization and deductive databases has found its way into
several commercial database systems, and his work on extending SQL to
deal with queries over sequences has influenced the design of window
functions in SQL:1999. His paper on the Birch clustering algorithm
received the SIGMOD 10-Year Test-of-Time award, and he has written the
widely-used text "Database Management Systems" (WCB/McGraw-Hill, with
J. Gehrke), now in its third edition.
He is Chair of ACM SIGMOD, on the Board of Directors of ACM SIGKDD and
the Board of Trustees of the VLDB Endowment, and has served as
editor-in-chief of the Journal of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery,
associate editor of ACM Transactions on Database Systems, and the
Database area editor of the Journal of Logic Programming. Dr.
Ramakrishnan is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM), and has received several awards, including a Packard Foundation
Fellowship, an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, and an ACM
SIGMOD Contributions Award.
____________
MUSIC 319: CCRMA HEARING SEMINAR
on Thursday, 10 May 2007, 12 noon
CCRMA Seminar Room, The Knoll
http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/hearing-seminar
Whod've thunk... dissonance at the CCRMA Hearing Seminar. (For those
that are coming from afar.. the Hearing Seminar has a history of
relatively spirited discussions.. although hopefully always friendly.)
Dan Levitin, Hearing Seminar alum, and now a professor of Psychology
at McGill University will be talking about his work on memory,
consonance and dissonance at the next CCRMA Hearing Seminar. How is
that we find some tones more pleasing than others? Is it purely a
reaction to our environment? Or does neurophysiology have something
to say about this?
Dan has done a lot of interesting studies over the year. Starting
with his work on memory and perfect pitch, and extending to all sorts
of musical matters. He's the author of the book "This Is Your Brain
On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession" --Malcolm Slaney
"Memory for consonance and dissonance"
Daniel J. Levitin and Susan E. Rogers
McGill
Humans display heightened sensitivity to and a preference for
consonant over dissonant musical intervals. To explore a possible
cognitive basis for this distinction, the sensory and musical
consonance/dissonance of pure-tone dyads was manipulated in a
short-term memory task. Eight musicians and eight non-musicians
listened to a sequence of dyads that varied along two continua:
sensory consonance and musical consonance. Each dyad was presented
twice, separated by a varying number of intervening stimuli;
participants judged whether dyads were novel or familiar. At long
retention periods, non-musicians showed greater recognition for
musically dissonant dyads than musically consonant dyads, but showed
no difference between sensorally consonant and dissonant
dyads. Musicians had higher recognition scores for categorically
ambiguous dyads than for those dyads unequivocally described as
consonant or dissonant. Both groups showed high recognition rates for
musical intervals well beyond 30 seconds of memory retention (a limit
suggested by previous research), despite interference from other
sounds and the unlikelihood that participants could rehearse the
stimuli. The finding of differential memory for consonance and
dissonance implies processing differences in the computation of
musical intervals - a difference driven more by frequency ratio than
frequency distance - and suggests that even in the absence of musical
training, certain auditory features are particularly robust in
short-term memory.
____________
UC BERKELEY CIS SEMINAR
on Thursday, 10 May 2007, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Soda Hall 310 (UC Berkeley)
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~feisha/cis-seminar
"Predicting protein molecular function"
Barbara Engelhardt
UC Berkeley
The number of known nucleotide sequences encoding proteins is growing
at an extraordinarily fast rate due to technologies developed in the
last decade that enable rapid sequence acquisition. Such rapid
acquisition is a prelude to understanding the molecular function and
tertiary structure of these protein sequences, and from there to an
understanding of the role these proteins play in a particular
organism. The experimental technologies that enable us to understand
molecular function have not progressed as fast as those for
sequencing. One important role of computational biology is to make
accurate predictions for molecular function based on the protein's
sequence alone.
Phylogenomics is a field of study that approaches the problem of
protein molecular function prediction from an evolutionary
perspective. In particular, a phylogenomic analysis transfers existing
(but sparse) molecular function annotations to a query protein based
on a reconciled phylogeny, which explicitly represents the
evolutionary relationships of a set of related proteins. In my
dissertation, I formalize the phylogenomics methodology as a
statistical graphical model of molecular function evolution. Within
this framework, we can predict protein molecular function from protein
sequence alone. Molecular function evolution is represented as a
simple continuous time Markov chain, and the random variables at each
node in the tree are a set of functional terms from the Gene
Ontology. The model is encapsulated in a framework called SIFTER
(Statistical Inference of Function Through Evolutionary
Relationships).
SIFTER has performed well on a number of diverse protein families, as
compared to standard annotation transfer methods and other
phylogenomics-based approaches. SIFTER has been applied to the
complete genomes of 46 fungal species, and is able to make molecular
function predictions for a large percentage of the predicted proteins
in these genomes. Moreover, through these predictions we can explore
some genomic comparisons for fungi. Motivated by the high cost of
characterization experiments, active learning techniques have also
been applied to SIFTER's protein function predictions, with good
results.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 10 May 2007, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"Mobile Persuasion Technology and Disclosive Behavior Change"
Dean Eckles
Symbolic Systems Program
Interactive technology can be designed to persuade -- and mobile
devices are uniquely equipped and situated to change user behavior in
many domains. This talk has two parts. First, I consider how mobile
persuasive technology reshapes the contours of persuasion and
influence; I introduce the idea of persuasive faculties. Second, I
report on the new experimental study of strategies for changing the
self-disclosure behavior of mobile users. Both different influence
strategies and ways of representing the requester are studied. This
and on-going work has implications for the design of interactive
systems and understanding influence -- in persuasive technology and
more generally.
____________
MINI-SEMINAR ON INFORMATION IN LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 12 noon to 3:00pm
Cordura 100
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/
'Information' is a ubiquitous notion in many disciplines, and its
broad appeal is also felt in logic and philosophy. Some people even
see an incipient "Philosophy of Information", and a short visit to the
Internet will reveal Manifestoes, and even Handbooks.
This informal event brings together three colleagues interested in
information and what it means more broadly. John Perry has published
widely on information and situation theory, Jose Saiguillo is an
expert on notions of information in the history of logic up to the
present, and Johan van Benthem is an editor of the "Handbook of the
Philosophy of Information". We hope to have a lively set of
interconnected talks, with some genuine discussion between different
stances.
This is the first in a series of informal meetings where we hope to
bring together Stanford colleagues on topics of current joint
interest. There will be another instalment on May 24 (announcement to
follow).
All are welcome!
Talks:
"Information-theoretic logic: the classical deductive perspective"
Jose M. Saguillo
University of Santiago de Compostela and Visiting Scholar at Berkeley
http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/people/detail/165
My talk mostly concerns the logical perspective on information that
Johan van Benthem calls 'information-as-elucidation', the viewpoint
that he identifies as the classical deductive stance. Perhaps the most
effective slogans in this conception are that propositions are
'carriers of information' and that deduction is 'unpacking' the
information 'more or less hidden but already contained'in the
premises. This conception goes back at least as far as the middle of
the 19th century involving thinkers, such as Boole (1847), De Morgan
(1847), Jevons (1870), and Venn (1881/1971), all of who shared the
intuition of an information-based consequence relation. Indeed this
was virtually the dominant conception of logical consequence until the
emergency of the Bolzano-Tarski transformation-theoretic paradigm.
There are vestiges of the information- theoretic conception in the
20th century in Cohen and Nagel (1962/93) but the articulation of its
main ideas was accomplished by John Corcoran (1995, 1998, and 1999),
who provides a modern rigorous defense of what may be called the
neo-Boolean or the neo-Fregean view. In addition to its natural and
pedagogical appeal, information-theoretic logic reconciles humanistic
and scientific temperaments found in different fields going from
argumentation theory to deductive methodology. Moreover, it locates
logic at the heart of formal epistemology, granting thereby a
distinctive role for our deductive capacities to perform cogent
reasoning in the service of knowledge, a point that is often left out
from purely syntactic or semantic accounts of logic. I will discuss
its philosophical traits in comparison with the model-theoretic stance
by looking at the practice of establishing logical validity and
logical invalidity. Information-theoretic logic acknowledges the fact
that we routinely determine validity and invalidity relying on our
judgment of information containment and non-containment of premises
and conclusion in a given argument.
"Three Logical Perspectives on Information"
Johan van Benthem
Stanford University & University of Amsterdam
Information is not an official part of your standard logic textbook.
But conceptions of information live behind the scenes of the field. I
will distinguish three of these: information-as-range (Carnap,
Hintikka), information-as-correlation (Dretske, Barwise & Perry), and
information-as-elucidation (the classical deductive perspective; but
also close to information flow as generated by computation). I will
discuss the connections between these stances, and raise the question
whether a unification is possible, or even desirable.
"Information and How to Harness it"
John Perry
Stanford
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~john/
Events carry information relative to constraints: the information that
the rest of the world is as it has to be for the event to have
occurred, given the constraints. Actions have success conditions
relative to constraints and goals: the conditions under which the
action will achieve the goal, given the constraints. Basically, we
harness information by making a state that carries the information
that P the cause of an action whose success conditions are that P.
The I'll develop these ideas, which can be found in the following
papers available
What is Information? (With David Israel)
Information and Architecture (with David Israel)
____________
CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
http://hci.stanford.edu/cs547/
"Collaborative Observatories for Natural Environments:
Searching for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and other Elusive Creatures"
Ken Goldberg
IEOR and EECS, UC Berkeley
http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/
I'll describe a new class of systems that combine networks, robots,
cameras, sensors, actuators, and human input to observe and record
detailed animal behavior in remote settings. In one application, we
are assisting the Cornell team that is searching a remote area of
Arkansas for the elusive Ivory Billed Woodpecker, thought extinct
since the 1940s.
I'll present a series of results on robots collaboratively controlled
by humans via networks. My lab has been investigating the algorithmic
foundations for such observatories: new metrics, models, data
structures, and algorithms, that will comprise a robust, mathematical
framework for collaborative observation. Newly available robotic
cameras offer pan, tilt, and extreme zoom capabilities with built-in
network servers at low cost. These cameras motivate the Single Frame
Selection (SFS) problem, where $n$ users share control of a single
robotic camera. I'll present several algorithms, O(n^2 m) for a set of
m zoom levels, and O((n + 1/\epsilon^3) log^2 n) for an infinite set
of zoom levels. The algorithms can be distributed to run in O(n m)
time at each client and in O(n \log n) time at the server. We are
building prototypes that will be accessible via the internet to
scientists, students, and the public
worldwide. http://www.c-o-n-e.org/
This work is joint with Prof. Dez Song at Texas A&M and supported in
part by the National Science Foundation.
About the Speaker: Ken Goldberg is an artist and professor at UC
Berkeley. He is Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations
Research, with an appointment in Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science. He received his PhD in Computer Science from CMU in 1990 and
studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Edinburgh University, and
the Technion. From 1991-95 he taught at the University of Southern
California, and in Fall 2000 was visiting faculty at MIT Media Lab.
Goldberg and his students work in two areas: Geometric Algorithms for
Automation, and Networked Robots. In the first category, he develops
algorithms for feeding, sorting, and fixturing industrial parts, with
an emphasis on mathematically rigorous solutions that require a
minimum of sensing and actuation so as to reduce costs and increase
reliability. In the area of Networked Robots, Goldberg and colleagues
developed the first robot publically operable via the Internet (in
1994). He has published over 100 research papers and edited four
books. In 2004, Goldberg co-founded the IEEE Transactions on
Automation Science and Engineering and is Founding Chair of its
Advisory Board. Goldberg was named National Science Foundation Young
Investigator in 1994 and NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow in 1995. He
is the recipient of the Joseph Engelberger Award (2000), the IEEE
Major Educational Innovation Award (2001) and was elected IEEE Fellow
in 2005.
____________
WORKSHOP ON NEUROSYSTEMS
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Clark Center (S 361)
http://www.stanford.edu/~scheler/neurosystems.html
Several researchers from UCSF and Stanford will discuss exciting new
results on the brain and computing with neuronal circuits. This
research raises new questions on addiction, motivation and learning,
based on analyses in different brain regions - hippocampus, amygdala,
the dopamine system, cortex and cerebellum.
The event is free for all interested participants, pre-registration is
not required.
The goal of the meeting is to put together related approaches on
understanding neural activation and to discuss the systemic issues
involved. There will be a focus on making experimental results
transparent with respect to the general methodological and theoretical
considerations that go into it. The discussions during the workshop
should aim to find common themes among the different neural systems
(striatum, cerebellum, cortex, hippocampus, amygdala) and experimental
approaches (electrophysiology, calcium imaging, molecular
pharmacology) used.
Schedule
2:00pm Michael Molineux (Stanford, Neurobiology, Schnitzer laboratory)
2:30pm Gal Chechik (Stanford, Computer Science)
3:00pm Etienne de Villers-Sidani, MD (UCSF, Keck Center for Integrative
Neuroscience, Merzenich Laboratory)
"Sensory input coherence and the regulation of developmental
plasticity in the rat primary auditory cortex"
3:30pm Coffee Break
4:00pm Elyssa Margolis (UCSF, Gallo Center)
4:30pm Jesse Hanson (Stanford, Madison lab)
5:00pm Ajai Vyas (Stanford)
5:30pm Terry Kremin (UCSF, Gallo Center)
____________
TECH BRIEFINGS
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Turing Auditorium (Polya Hall)
(Tech Briefings are aimed at the Stanford Community)
http://techbriefings.stanford.edu/
"iTunes at Stanford: Producing and Publishing Podcasts"
Mark Branom, IT Services
Jeremy Sabol, Center for Teaching and Learning)
Kim Hayworth, Academic Computing
Scott Stocker, University Communications
http://itunes.stanford.edu/
Podcasting has become the most cost-effective and efficient way to
distribute digital audio and video files over the Web. By subscribing
to podcasts, listeners can consume the information presented whenever
they need to, not just whenever a broadcaster decides to present it.
Faculty can deliver educational content for listening or viewing on a
computer or iPod, freeing learning from the constraints of the
traditional physical classroom. Staff can use podcasts to deliver
informational content about their department or group, to provide news
about events in the department, and to disseminate other information
in an engaging manner.
In this presentation, Mark Branom (IT Services) and a panel of experts
-- Jeremy Sabol (Center for Teaching and Learning), Kim Hayworth
(Academic Computing), and Scott Stocker (University Communications) --
will discuss some of the techniques and basic tools to create, edit,
and produce podcasts, as well as how you can publish your podcast on
Stanford iTunes.
____________
PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 3:15pm
Building 90, room 92Q
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/ce.html
"Some Consequences of the Entanglement of Logic and Mathematics"
Charles Parsons
Harvard University (Visiting UCLA)
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/parsons.html
First-order logic has no substantial ontological commitments in that
what is valid (or derivable) is true in any non-empty domain. But this
is misleading in a way, because domains of cardinality up to the
smallest infinite cardinality are needed to witness nonvalidity or
failures of consequence. Domains of natural numbers are sufficient to
witness nonvalidity, but of course in some cases they need to be
infinite. This entanglement of first-order logic and arithmetic seems
to be resisted by John Etchemendy in some arguments in The Concept of
Logical Consequence. Second-order logic is entangled with more
powerful and problematic mathematics: set theory, including higher set
theory. However, the issues are different depending on whether one
attends primarily to proof procedures or to the "standard" semantics.
It will be argued that some of the popularity of second-order logic in
contemporary philosophy of mathematics reflects inattention or
resistance to the implications of this entanglement. These
considerations will be applied to the contested question of the status
of plural logic.
About the Speaker: Charles Parsons was educated at Harvard, receiving
his A.B. in mathematics in 1954 and his Ph.D. in philosophy in
1961. After teaching briefly at Cornell and Harvard, he joined the
faculty at Columbia University in 1965 and remained there until 1989,
serving for two terms as department chair and from 1966 to 1990 as an
editor of the Journal of Philosophy. He came to Harvard in 1989 and
became Edgar Pierce Professor in 1991. He retired in 2005. He is an
occasional visiting professor at UCLA. Parsons has published papers
on mathematical logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of logic
and language, Kant, and historical figures in the foundations of
mathematics, such as Frege, Hilbert, and Goedel. Some of his
philosophical papers are collected in Mathematics in Philosophy
(Cornell, 1983, reissued in paper, 2005). He was editor, with Solomon
Feferman and others, of Volume III of the Collected Works of Kurt
Goedel, Unpublished Essays and Lectures (Oxford, 1995), and of Volumes
IV and V, Correspondence (Oxford, 2003). His book Mathematical
Thought and its Objects is forthcoming from Cambridge University
Press. Some of his recent publications include "Reason and
intuition," Synthese 125 (2000), pp. 299-315; "Brentano on judgment
and truth," in Dale Jacquette (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to
Brentano (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 168-196;
"Structuralism and metaphysics," Philosophical Quarterly 54 (2004),
pp. 56-77; and "The problem of absolute universality," in Agustin Rayo
and Gabriel Uzquiano (eds.), Absolute Generality (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2006
____________
LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
"Having a Word for It"
Geoffrey Nunberg
UC Berkeley
What does it signify that a language has a word for a particular
concept? That question has been addressed in very different ways by
linguists and psychologists, who are interested chiefly in the
consequences for individual cognition, and by historians interested in
the social implications of shifts in vocabulary. In this talk I'll
look at the development of some areas of the English vocabulary, and
in particular the recent emergence of a set of descriptive terms
metaphorically derived from vulgarities. I'll argue that there are
features of these concepts which crucially depend on their mode of
expression -- that is, which couldn't arise independently from culture
or nonlinguistic experience.
____________
SRI CSL SEMINAR SERIES
on Friday, 11 May 2007, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EK255, SRI International
http://www.csl.sri.com/
"Types, Bytes, and Separation Logic"
Harvey Tuch
NICTA, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
We present an overview of a formal model of memory that both captures
the low- level features of C's pointers and memory, and that forms the
basis for an expressive implementation of separation logic. At the low
level, we do not commit common oversimplifications, but correctly deal
with C's model of programming language values and the heap. At the
level of separation logic, we are still able to reason abstractly and
efficiently. We implement this framework in the theorem prover
Isabelle/HOL and demonstrate it on two case studies. We show that the
framework is applicable to real, security- and safety-critical code by
formally verifying the memory allocator of the L4 microkernel.
Recent extensions to this work, where a more complete treatment of C's
structure types has been developed, will also be presented. The
conventional proof abstractions for pointer program verification,
multiple-typed heaps and separation logic, are not readily applicable
to C's structure types. For example, type-safe updates through
pointers to fields break the independence of updates across heaps or
*-conjuncts. In this work we address some significant problems and
present solutions relating to issues such as structure size/alignment,
first-class treatment of structure composition and field names,
padding, &-operator semantics, updates through field pointers,
equivalence of value byte representations, and mechanisation in
Isabelle/HOL.
____________
SECOND SYMPOSIUM ON MUSIC, RHYTHM AND THE BRAIN
on Friday-Sunday, 11-13 May 2007
CCRMA Stage, The Knoll
http://sica.stanford.edu/cast/rhythm/
The SICA Center for Arts, Science, and Technology's Symposium on
Music, Rhythm and the Brain will present current research on the
physiological and psychophysical effects of musical rhythm.
Understanding the neuroscience of rhythm is key to understanding the
centrality of music in ritual, dance, and other aspects of human
behavior and human consciousness. Advances in research on the effects
of musical rhythm on the regulation of brain functioning may lead to
significant therapeutic applications. Scholars from the fields of
music theory, music cognition, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, and
anthropology will come together to present and discuss the convergence
of these fields.
The Symposium is held in collaboration with Rhythmic Music and the
Regulation of Brain Function - at The Center for Mind and Brain,
University of California, Davis.
Format
The Stanford Symposium will commence on Friday evening with a keynote
address by Daniel Levitin, author of the recent bestseller, This is
Your Brain on Music. This presentation, to be held in the Clark Center
Auditorium at 7:30PM is open to the general public and no tickets or
registration is required.
The weekend sessions will focus on the relationship between rhythmic
music and states of meditation, flow, and trance. Work on rhythmic
auditory stimulation for the treatment of ADD, anxiety, depression,
and dementia will also be reviewed. Day two will focus on state of the
art approaches to understanding how the brain imagines, categorizes
and responds to music structures from theoretical, experimental and
clinical perspectives.
The symposium will combine presentations, panel discussions, and
musical and dance performances, with time for discussion among the
participants. All Saturday and Sunday sessions and performances will
take place at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and
Acoustics (CCRMA).
Registration
Registration for the symposium is required, but there is no fee for
attendance. Please fill out our Online Registration Form.
"Music and the Brain: Fundamentals and Flow"
Dan Levitin
Keynote speaker, no registration required
I will review some of what cognitive neuroscience has learned about
how music engages the brain, with brief summaries of the development
of musical expertise, musical preferences, and the neuroanatomy of
musical experience. How music can induce and maintain "flow" states
will also be discussed.
Weekend schedule
12 May Rhythmic Music and the Regulation of Brain Functioning:
Interdisciplinary Research and Clinical Perspectives
Morning Panel: Music as a Technology to Regulate Brain Functioning: A
Discussion of Attention, Arousal, and Mood
9:00am Speaker: Judith Becker
"Phenomenology of Human Responses to Rhythmic Music"
9:55am Speaker: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Music and Optimal Experience"
10:50am Speaker: Petr Janata
"The Challenges of Quantifying Musical Experience"
11:50am Morning Roundtable
Moderator: Robert J. Gatchel, ABPP
Discussants: Judith Becker, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Petr
Janata, Dan Levitin, James Lane
12:50pm Lunch
Afternoon Panel: Methods of Altering Brain and Nervous System
Functioning via Repetitive External Stimulation
1:50pm Speaker: James Lane
"Binaural Beat Stimulation in Overview"
2:45pm Speaker: David Siever
"Audio-Visual Entrainment (AVE) in Overview"
3:40pm Speaker: Thomas Budzynski
"AVS and Difficult-to-Treat Disorders"
4:35pm Speakers: Harold Russell and Thomas Collura
"The Possible Use of Inexpensive Sensory Stimulation
Technologies to Improve IQ Test Scores and Behavior"
5:45pm Afternoon Roundtable
Moderator: James Lane
Discussants: James Lane, David Siever, Thomas Budzynski,
Harold Russell, Thomas Collura, William Hurlbut,
Robert Gatchel, ABPP
6:45pm Reception
7:00pm Dinner
8:30pm Dance Presentation with Aleta Hayes and Sasha Leitman:
"The Califia Project: Work in Progress"
9:15pm Musical Performance: Gamo Da Paz and Odum Orim
13 May Rhythm and Timing in the Brain: Cognitive Musicological Perspectives
9:00am Speaker: Matthew Wright
"Survey of Models of Musical Rhythm"
9:45am Speaker: Scott Makeig
"Brain rhythms and brain noise"
10:45am Speaker: Venod Menon
"Neural basis of temporal structure processing in music"
11:30am Speaker: Sridhar Devarajan
"The neuroscience of music perception explored through
functional imaging and computational modeling"
1:00pm Speaker: Peter Desain
"Brain Computer Interfaces driven by rhythmic processing and
selective attention"
2:00pm Speaker: Rebecca Schaeffer
"EEG signatures of Subjective Rhythmisation"
2:45pm Closing Remarks: Jonathan Berger
____________
BERKELEY CONFERENCE
on Sunday, 13 May 2007, all day
Howison Library, Moses Hall (Berkeley)
http://sophos.berkeley.edu/interpolations/
"Interpolations: A conference in honor of William Craig"
Craig's interpolation theorem is part of the standard logic
curriculum. This and other results of Craig's have had a profound
significance in logic, philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, and
computer science. Six internationally distinguished speakers will
reflect on the importance and impact of Craig's work: Solomon Feferman
(Stanford), Michael Friedman (Stanford), Cesare Tinelli (University of
Iowa), Dana Scott (Carnegie Mellon), Jouko Vaananen (University of
Amsterdam and University of Helsinki), Johan van Benthem (University
of Amsterdam and Stanford University). The organizers are Branden
Fitelson, John MacFarlane, Paolo Mancosu, and Sherri Roush (Berkeley,
Philosophy).
Schedule
9.00- 9.10 Welcome
9.10- 9.55 Solomon Feferman (Stanford), "Harmonious Logic: Craig's
Interpolation Theorem and Its Descendants"
http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/
9.55-10.05 Q&A
10.05-10.50 Michael Friedman (Stanford), "Wissenschaftslogik: The Role
of Logic in Philosophy of Science"
http://www-philosophy.stanford.edu/fss/mfriedman.html
10.50-11.00 Q&A
11.00-11.20 Coffee Break
11.20-12.05 Jouko Vaananen (Amsterdam, Helsinki), "The Interpolation
Theorem in Abstract Model Theory"
http://www.math.helsinki.fi/logic/people/jouko.vaananen/
12.05-12.15 Q&A
12.15- 2.30 Lunch Break
2.30- 3.15 Dana Scott (Carnegie Mellon), "The Algebraic
Interpretation of Classical and Intuitionistic Quantifiers"
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scott/
3.15- 3.25 Q&A
3.25- 4.10 Cesare Tinelli (Iowa), "The Impact of Craig's
Interpolation Theorem in Computer Science"
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~tinelli/
4.10- 4.20 Q&A
4.20- 4.40 Coffee Break
4.40- 5.25 Johan van Benthem (Stanford, Amsterdam), "Interpolation,
Annotated Proofs, and Inference Across Models"
http://staff.science.uva.nl/~johan/
5.25- 5.35 Q&A
5.35- 5.45 Bill Craig will say a few words
5.45- 6.45 Reception in 301 Moses Hall
7.00 Dinner for Bill, speakers, and co-organizers
____________
LOGIC SEMINAR
on Monday, 14 May 2007, 3:15pm-4:30pm
Math Corner 380:380D
http://www-logic.stanford.edu/seminars.html
"?"
Tomohiro Hoshi
Stanford
A logical formula F(X,P) can be treated as an equation to be satisfied
by solutions written with P as a parameter for the expression X (if
there is such solutions). In "Parameterizing Models of Propositional
Calculus Formulas," J.McCarthy takes up this problem from a slightly
different angle, i.e. the parameterization of the models of formulas
and gives the general solutions in propositional logic. He also
suggests a further investigation on the parameterization problem for
other logics. In this talk, I will investigate the general solutions
for the formulas in monadic first-order predicate logic. The talk is
based on my project directed by Grigori Mints.
____________
SRI CSL SEMINAR SERIES
on Monday, 14 May 2007, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EK255, SRI International
http://www.csl.sri.com/
"Splitting on Demand in Satisfiability Modulo Theories"
Cesare Tinelli
Lazy algorithms for Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) combine a
generic DPLL-based SAT engine with a theory solver for a given theory
T that can decide the T-consistency of conjunctions of ground
literals. For many theories of interest, theory solvers need to
reason by performing internal case splits. In this talk we argue that
it is more convenient to delegate these case splits to the DPLL engine
instead. The delegation can be done on demand for solvers that can
encode their internal case splits into one or more clauses, possibly
including new constants and literals. This results in drastically
simpler theory solvers. We present this splitting-on- demand idea in
an extension of Abstract DPLL Modulo Theories, a framework for
modeling and reasoning about lazy algorithms for SMT. We also show
that splitting-on-demand can be naturally refined to include efficient
Nelson-Oppen-like combination of multiple theories and their solvers.
This is joint work with Clark Barrett of New York University and
Robert Nieuwenhuis and Albert Oliveras of the Technical University of
Catalonia, Barcelona.
____________
BERKELEY REDWOOD CENTER FOR THEORETICAL NEUROSCIENCE SEMINAR
on Tuesday, 15 May 2007, 12 noon
3105 Tolman (Berkeley)
http://redwood.berkeley.edu/seminars.php
"Thalamus and Sensorimotor Aspects of Perception"
Ray Guillery
University of Madison, WI
In many contemporary studies and textbooks perceptual processing is
treated as a `pure sensory' phenomenon, one that can be understood on
the basis of pathways passing information from the sensory periphery
to the cerebral cortex, for processing within the cortex and
subsequent passage to motor centers or memory stores. However, many
physiologists, psychologists and philosophers have recognized
perceptual processing as closely dependent upon action (e.g. the
`sensorimotor contingencies' of O'Regan and Noe, 2001), although
the anatomical nature of the functional links is generally left
unresolved.
A survey of pathways that pass messages through the thalamus to the
cerebral cortex (visual, tactile etc.) shows that these are not `pure
sensory' pathways. They are generally branching axons that convey
messages through one branch to lower, motor centers and to the
thalamus through the other. That is, since the two branches will be
transmitting the same message, the thalamic relay receives information
not only about sensory events, but also, concurrently, information
about instructions that are on the way to motor centers. This dual
information, about sensory events and motor instructions, is an
implicit part of the message that the thalamus passes to cortex. The
axonal branching patterns reveal an anatomical basis of sensorimotor
contingencies, which cortical mechanisms are not likely to ignore even
when experimental studies do not reveal them.
Reference: O'Regan JK and Noe, (2001) A sensorimotor approach to
vision and visual consciousness. Behav. & Brain Sciences 24, 939-973
____________
THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING TALK
on Tuesday, 15 May 2007, 4:15pm to 5:45pm
Cordura 100
http://iase.info/events/
This series is a prelude to the Institute for Advanced Science &
Engineering workshop that will be held at Cordura Hall in
December. Speakers from multiple disciplines are invited to present in
the context of the the Institute's theme "Explaining Experience in
Nature." The format of this series of lectures/discussions consists of
a 40 minute lecture followed by a similar length led discussion.
The Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering is a non-profit
organization not affiliated with Stanford University.
"Logic and Experience in the Logical Empiricist Tradition"
Michael Friedman
Stanford University
I consider how the logical empiricists - mainly Carnap and Schlick -
developed a characteristic perspective on the relationship between
logic and experience against the background of their understanding of
Einstein, Frege, and Hilbert, and also against the background of an
earlier strand in scientific philosophy represented by Helmholtz and
Poincare. Although this tradition (especially via Helmholtz) was
also engaged with developments in the psychology and physiology of the
time, it was much more closely engaged with developments within the
exact sciences - and, in particular, with the modern axiomatic
tradition associated especially with Hilbert. This gave the conception
of the logical empiricists a distinctively "transcendentalist" flavor
(associated with the Kantian and neo-Kantian tradition) quite
different from various current forms of "naturalism" and
"psychologism."
About the Speaker: Professor Friedman is Frederick P. Rehmus Family
Professor of Humanities at Stanford University. He is the author of
"Reconsidering Logical Positivism" published in 1999 by Cambridge
University Press.
____________
SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES
on Tuesday, 15 May 2007, 5:00pm
Jordan Hall 420:040
http://symsys.stanford.edu/
"What's the Matter with Memory?"
Elizabeth Loftus
UC Irvine
For at least a century, scientists have demonstrated the tricks memory
can play. More recently they have shown that people can be led to
develop entire memories for events that never happened - "Rich false
memories." In recent work, people have been led to remember
nonexistent events from the recent past as well as non-existent events
from their childhood. People can be led to falsely believe that they
have had familiar experiences, but also rather bizarre or implausible
ones. They can be led to believe that they did things that would have
been impossible (e.g., shaking hands with Bugs Bunny during a trip to
Disneyland). They can be led to falsely believe that they had
experiences that would have been rather traumatic had they actually
happened. False memories, like true ones, also have consequences for
people, affecting later thoughts, intentions, and behaviors. For
example, people who are led to believe that as children they got sick
eating particular foods show avoidance of those foods later on.
If false memories can be so readily planted in the mind, what does it
say about the nature of memory?
About the Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Loftus is a Distinguished Professor
at the University of California, Irvine, with appointments in the
Psychology and Social Behavior; Criminology, Law and Society; and
Cognitive Sciences departments. She is also an Affiliate Professor of
Law and Psychology at the University of Washington. Her research
focuses on memory, and how it can be changed by post-event
information. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford
University in 1970, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from
five other institutions.
Dr. Loftus has been a consultant or expert witness on over two hundred
trials. She has written three books - "Eyewitness Testimony", "Witness
for the Defense", and "The Myth of Repressed Memory", and received
numerous awards, including the Grawemeyer Prize in Psychology. Her
articles have been published in/ American Psychologist, Journal of
Expermental Psychology, Applied Cognitive Psychology/, and others.
____________
STANFORD SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS WORKSHOP
on Wednesday, 16 May 2007, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
"Resolving Fragments: A Theory of Context for Conversation"
Jonathan Ginzburg
King's College London
Non sentential utterances (NSUs), examples of which are in (1)-(4),
are pervasive in conversation:
(1) A: Did Bo leave? B: Yes / No, Jo/ Bo?
(2) A: Did Bo ... B: leave?
(3) A: Did Bo ... No, Jo leave?
(4) A: [in a ticket office] A return to Maidenhead please.
NSUs have had a rather mixed reputation in theoretical and
computational linguistics. Beliefs about the intrinsic messiness of
conversation, in particular its being littered with fragments, have
been used as important motivation for a strong modularity assumption
in language acquisition. Conversely, computational linguists have
argued that fragment resolution generally requires plan recognition
techniques (e.g. Allen and Perrault, 1980, Carberry, 1991).
In the first part of this talk I will briefly survey some recent work,
jointly with Raquel Fernandez and Shalom Lappin, showing that
conversational NSUs are actually amenable to domain independent
classification: a taxonomy of fewer than 20 classes reliably
classifies the NSUs in the British National Corpus and the taxonomy
can be learnt by a variety of machine learning algorithms.
The main part of the talk will address the issue of how to develop a
theory of context that is capable of underpinning a grammatical
analysis of the wide range of observed fragments, as exemplified
above. My main claim will be that given a sufficiently detailed theory
of conversational interaction, fragment resolution is relatively
straightforward, akin in a sense to the resolution of traditional
indexical elements. The resulting theory of context allows us to
associate a hierarchy of complexity among NSUs. Some predictions this
makes about the order of acquisition of NSUs, in contrast with
traditional, syntactically oriented views of resolution, will be
discussed.
____________
SRI AI SEMINAR SERIES
on Wednesday, 16 May 2007, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EJ228, SRI International
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
"Walk the Talk:
Connecting Language, Knowledge, and Action in Route Instructions"
Matt MacMahon
University of Texas at Austin
http://robotics.csres.utexas.edu/~adastra/
Following natural language instructions requires transforming language
into situated conditional action; robustly following instructions,
despite the director's natural mistakes and omissions, requires the
pragmatic combination of language, action, and domain knowledge. This
dissertation demonstrates building a software agent that parses,
models and executes human-written natural language instructions to
accomplish complex navigation tasks as often as people following the
same instructions. By selectively removing various syntactic,
semantic, and pragmatic abilities, this work empirically measures how
often these abilities are necessary to correctly navigate along
extended routes through unknown, large-scale environments to novel
destinations.
To study how route instructions are written and followed, we collected
a corpus of about 1600 free-form instructions from 30 directors for
252 routes in three virtual environments. About 100 other people
followed these instructions and rated them for quality, successfully
reaching and identifying the destination only about two-thirds of the
trials. Our software agent, Marco, followed the same instructions in
the same environments with a success rate approaching human levels.
Marco's performance was a strong predictor of human performance and
ratings of individual instructions. By ablation testing, we
demonstrate that implicit actions are crucial for following verbal
instructions using an approach integrating language, knowledge and
action. We also measure the performance impact of a wide range of
linguistic, execution, and spatial abilities in successfully following
natural language route instructions.
About the Speaker: Matt MacMahon has designed, implemented, tested,
and deployed intelligent robotic systems while working at some of the
world's leading AI laboratories at NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA
Ames Research Center, and the Navy Center for Applied Research in
Artificial Intelligence. Matt's focus has been on human-robot
interaction with adjustable autonomy and reactive execution in the
face of unpredictable events. He has published work on these topics
and multi-agent systems at AAAI, CogSci, ICRA, FSR, AAMAS, and AI
Magazine. Matt is completing his doctorate in Software Engineering at
the University of Texas at Austin, under the supervision of Dr.
Benjamin Kuipers, Computer Sciences, and Dr. Brian Stankiewicz,
Psychology.
____________
CSLI COGLUNCH
on Thursday, 17 May 2007, 12 noon - 1:00pm
Cordura Hall 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
"Search versus inference: why search is more basic"
Adam Morton,
Philosophy, University of Alberta
Cognitive scientists who take logic seriously often understand thought
in terms of inference, more specifically in terms of deduction. I
describe ways in which search is as basic as deduction, and as deeply
connected to logical form. I present evidence that people can perform
some cognitive tasks better when they are framed in terms of search
rather than in terms of inference.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 17 May 2007, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"General Game Playing"
Michael Genesereth
Computer Science, Stanford
A general game playing system is one that can play arbitrary games
based solely on formal game descriptions supplied at "runtime".
Unlike specialized game players, such as Deep Blue and Chinook,
general game players do not rely on algorithms designed in advance by
their programmers for specific games; instead, they utilize general
information processing technologies, based on research in areas like
knowledge representation, automated reasoning, and rational decision
making. General Game Playing has theoretical value as a microcosm
within which to study theories and mechanisms of intelligence. It also
has practical value; general game playing techniques have value in a
variety of areas, including enterprise management, electronic
commerce, and semantic web integration.
About the Speaker: Michael Genesereth is an associate professor in the
Computer Science Department at Stanford University. He received his
Sc.B. in Physics from M.I.T. and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from
Harvard University. Genesereth is most known for his work on
Computational Logic and applications of that work in Enterprise
Management and Electronic Commerce. He is one of the founders of
Teknowledge, CommerceNet, and Mergent Systems. He is the current
director of the Logic Group at Stanford and the founder and research
director of CodeX - The Stanford Center for Computers and Law. He
likes to play games.
____________
UC SANTA CRUZ CITRIS DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER
on Friday, 18 May 2007, 2:00pm
E2 180 (UC Santa Cruz)
http://www.citris-uc.org/
"Smart Bombs to Reading Machines for the Blind"
James Fruchterman
President and CEO of Benetech
What do smart bombs and reading machines for the blind have in common?
They both use the same underlying technology to do their jobs. Jim
Fruchterman, engineer, high tech entrepreneur and now social
entrepreneur, traces his journey from learning about pattern
recognition for military uses, to building the leading Silicon Valley
company making optical character recognition for reading documents, to
starting a deliberately nonprofit tech company to make reading
machines for the blind. Benetech is now using academic, military and
commercial technology to help human rights groups, environmental
groups and people with disabilities get the technology tools they
desperately need. Jim is a strong advocate for encouraging the
technology and business communities to realize the socially beneficial
applications of their innovations, not just those that make the most
money!
About the Speaker: A technology entrepreneur and engineer, Jim
Fruchterman has been a rocket scientist, founded two of the foremost
optical character recognition companies, and developed a successful
line of reading machines for the blind. He is now a leading social
entrepreneur through his deliberately nonprofit technology company,
Benetech. Benetech concentrates on applying technology to human rights
and literacy for people with disabilities. Fruchterman has won
numerous awards for his work, including the 2006 MacArthur Fellowship
and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2004 and 2006. He
was named a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of 2003, which has included
attending and speaking five times at the World Economic Forums in
Davos, Switzerland. Fruchterman believes that technology is the
ultimate leveler, allowing disadvantaged people achieve more equality
in society.
Public webviewing will be setup at UC Berkeley. As always, these
talks are free, open to the public and broadcast live online at
mms://media.citris.berkeley.edu/webcast.
____________
END MATERIAL
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