The Center for Neural Engineering University of Southern California Los Angeles CA 90089-2520 Announces a Workshop - Oct 19-20, 1993 Neural Architectures and Distributed AI: From Schema Assemblages to Neural Networks October 19-20, 1993 Program Committee: Michael Arbib (Organizer), George Bekey, Damian Lyons, and Ron Sun This message contains the PROGRAM for the meeting and comes with a warm invitation to participate in the Workshop. Registration materials are provided at the end. Please plan to join us in Los Angeles in October for the workshop - and do consider coming a day early to take part in the CNE Review. Scope of the Workshop: To design complex technological systems, we need a multilevel methodology which combines a coarse-grain analysis of cooperative or distributed computation (we shall refer to the computing agents at this level as "schemas") with a fine-grain model of flexible, adaptive computation (for which neural networks provide a powerful general paradigm). Schemas provide a language for distributed artificial intelligence and perceptual robotics which is "in the style of the brain", but at a relatively high level of abstraction relative to neural networks. We seek (both at the level of schema asemblages, and in terms of "modular" neural networks) a distributed model of computation, supporting many concurrent activities for recognition of objects, and the planning and control of different activities. The use, representation, and recall of knowledge is mediated through the activity of a network of interacting computing agents which between them provide processes for going from a particular situation and a particular structure of goals and tasks to a suitable course of action. This action may involve passing of messages, changes of state, instantiation to add new schema instances to the network, deinstantiation to remove instances, and may involve self-modification and self- organization. Schemas provide a form of knowledge representation which differs from frames and scripts by being of a finer granularity. Schema theory is generative: schemas may well be linked to others to provide yet more comprehensive schemas, whereas frames tend to "build in" from the overall framework. The analysis of interacting computing agents (the schema instances) is intermediate between the overall specification of some behavior and the neural networks that subserve it. The Workshop will focus on different facets of this multi-level methodology. Abstracts will be collected in a CNE Technical Report which will be made available to registrants at the start of the meeting. Monday: The meeting will start at 6:30pm on Monday evening (for those who have formally registered): Evening at the University Hilton No-Host Bar followed by Dinner Note: Members of the USC community are welcome to attend the presentations (but not the dinner) free of charge - please obtain your free registration between 8:30 and 9:00am on Tuesday. USC registrants may purchase the Workshop Proceedings for $10. ---------------------------- TUESDAY All talks except for the last session will be given in the Hedco Neurosciences Building Auditorium 8:30am Registration. Hedco Neurosciences Building Lobby - Introductory Overview > 9:00am Schemas and Neural Networks: A Multi-Level Approach to Natural and Artificial Intelligence Michael A. Arbib - University of Southern California - Schemas for Robotics > 10:00am Reactive Schema-based Robotic Systems: Principles and Practice. Ronald C. Arkin - Georgia Institute of Technology > 10:30 Coffee > 11:00am A Schema-Theory Approach to Building and Analysing the Behavior of Robot Systems D. M. Lyons - North American Philips Corporation > 11:30am Visually Guided Multi-Fingered Robot Hand Grasping as Defined by Schemas and a Reactive System. T. G. Murphy - University of Massachusetts, Lowell D. M. Lyons & A.J. Hendricks - North American Philips Corporation > 12 Noon Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Reaching and Grasping Andrew H. Fagg - University of Southern California > 12:30pm Lunch > 1:30pm A Knowledge Base for Neural Guidance System Ramon Krosley & Manavendra Misra - Colorado School of Mines > 2:00pm Multiresolutional Schemata for Motion Control A. Meystel - Drexel University > 2:30pm Baby Sub: Using Schemata for Conceptual Learning Alberto Lacaze & Michael Meystel - Drexel University > 3:00pm Refreshments > 3:30pm A Real-Time Neural Implementation of a Schema Driven Toy-Car. Jan N. H. Heenskerk & Fred Keijzer - Leiden University, The Netherlands - Schemas, NNs, Vision, and Visuomotor Coordination > 4:00pm Representing and Learning Visual Schemas in Neural Networks for Scene Analysis Wee Kheng Leow & Risto Miikkulainen - University of Texas at Austin > 4:30pm Integration of Connectionist and Symbolic Modules in a Vision Task Masumi Ishikawa, Kengo Matsuo & Kenichi Yoshino Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan -------------------- WEDNESDAY > 9:00am A Schema-Theoretic Approach to Study the "Chantlitaxia" Behavior in the Praying Mantis Francisco Cervantes Perez, Arturo Franco, Susana Velazquez and Nydia Lara - ITAM and UNAM, Mexico > 9:30am Schema Based Learning and Anuran Detour Behavior Fernando J. Corbacho and Hyun Bong Lee University of Southern California > 10:00am "What", "Where", and the Architecture of Action-Oriented Perception Michael A. Arbib - University of Southern California > 10:30am Coffee - Programming Environments for Schemas and NNs > 11:00am ASL:Hierarchy, Composition, Heterogeneity, and Multi- Granularity in Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming A. Weitzenfeld - University of Southern California > 11:30am A Message Passing Based Approach to the Design of Modular Neural Network Systems Lawrence Gunn - MacDonald Dettwiler Associates, Canada > 12 Noon A Paradigm for Handling Neural Networks in Databases Erich Schikuta - University of Vienna > 12:30pm Lunch - Schemas and Connectionism > 1:30pm Feeling-Based Schemas Peter H.Greene & Greg T.H. Chien - Illinois Institute of Technology > 2:00pm Neural Schemas and Connectionist Logics: A Synthesis of the Symbolic and the Subsymbolic Ron Sun - The University of Alabama > 2:30pm Distributed Knowledge Representation in Adaptive Self- Organizing Concurrent Systems Andrew Bartczak - The University of Rhode Island > 3:00pm Refreshments **Refreshments and the concluding session will take place at the Auditorium of the Andrus Gerontology Center.** > 3:30pm A Connectionist Model of Semantic Memory for Metaphor Interpretation Tony Veale & Mark Keane - Trinity College, Ireland > 4:00pm Schema-based Modeling of Commonsense Understanding of Causal Narratives Srinivas Narayanan - University of California, Berkeley > 4:30pm Dynamic Schema Instances in the Conposit Framework John A. Barnden - New Mexico State University ************** BONUS EVENT: CNE RESEARCH REVIEW **************** Registrants for the Workshop are invited to attend, at no extra charge, the CNE Research Review to be held on Monday, October 18, 1993. The Review will present a day-long sampling of CNE research. In particular, the meeting will celebrate the opening of two new CNE Laboratories: The Autonomous Robotics Laboratory and the The Neuro-Optical Computing Laboratory which join the Brain Simulation Laboratory in the Hedco Neurosciences Building. During the day, George Bekey will present an overview of our research on autonomous robots, while Keith Jenkins and Armand Tanguay will review the state of the art in our research on optical implementation of neural networks. Related talks will include those by Bing Sheu on VLSI for Neural Networks and by Alfredo Weitzenfeld on neural simulation tools. Another major development we will celebrate is the ever-strengthening cooperation between CNE and USC's Program in Neural, Informational, and Behavioral Sciences (NIBS) in bringing information technology to bear in catalyzing new insights into the complexity of the brain. Scott Grafton will review our use of PET scans to gain new insight into human brain mechanisms of vision, action and memory; while Denis McLeod will present our approach to the construction of federated databases for neuroscience and other scientific applications. The Program will be rounded out by talks by other faculty and students, student posters, and demonstrations of hardware and software. Accommodation Attendees may register at the hotel of their choice, but the closest hotel to USC is the University Hilton, 3540 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007, Phone: (213) 748-4141, Reservation: (800) 872-1104, Fax: (213) 7480043. A single room costs $70/night while a double room costs $75/night. Workshop participants must specify that they are "CNE Workshop" attendees to avail themselves of the above rates. Information on student accommodation may be obtained from the Student Chair, Jean-Marc Fellous, jfellous@pollux.usc.edu. REGISTRATION The registration fee of $150 ($40 for qualified students who include a "certificate of student status" from their advisor and for CNE Members) includes a copy of the abstracts, coffee breaks, and a dinner to be held on the evening of October 18th. Those wishing to register should send a check payable to "Center for Neural Engineering, USC" for $150 ($40 for students and CNE members) together with the following information to: Marietta Pobst Center for Neural Engineering University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA. mpobst@pollux.usc.edu Tel: (213) 740-1176; Fax: (213) 740-5687 SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS Center for Neural Engineering; University of Southern California October 19-20, 1993 NAME: ___________________________________________ ADDRESS: _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ PHONE NO.:_______________ FAX:___________________ EMAIL:___________________________________________ I intend to attend the CNE Research Review on October 18, 1993: YES [ ] NO [ ] Note: Late registrations will be accepted on the Monday morning, but places at the dinner are limited, so advance email to mpobst@pollux.usc.edu would be appreciated, even if you choose to bring your check on Monday morning. .