Date: 07 Jul 1996 ----------------- ====================================================================== TOPICS: 1. User Modeling Conference 1st CFP - 2. Generation thesis available - Lexical Semantics and Knowledge Representation in Multilingual Sentence Generation - 3. Call for Participants - TALC96 - TEACHING AND LANGUAGE CORPORA Lancaster University, UK, 9th-12th August, 1996 - 4. 2nd CFP - International Conference on Knowledge Based Computer Systems Bombay, India - December 16-18, 1996 - Deadline Aug 15, 1996 - ====================================================================== Topic 1: Subject: UM97: FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS Date: June 2-5 1997 - Deadline 25 November 1996 From: Cecile Paris ** ** *** ********* ** ** *** *** ***** ******** ** ** **** **** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ***** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ******** ** ****** ** SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON USER MODELING Chia Laguna, Sardinia, Italy, June 2-5 1997 http://www.cs.uni-sb.de/UM97/ or http://www.crs4.it/UM97/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: Background Conference Topics Conference Organization Brief Submission Instructions Contact Addresses Important Dates -------------------------- BACKGROUND ---------------------------- User modeling has been found to enhance the effectiveness and/or usability of software systems in a wide variety of situations. A user model is an explicit representation of properties of a particular user. A system that constructs and consults user models can adapt diverse aspects of its performance to individual users. Techniques for user modeling have been developed and evaluated by researchers in a number of fields, including artificial intelligence, education, psychology, linguistics, human-computer interaction, and information science. The International Conferences on User Modeling provide a forum in which academic and industrial researchers from all of these fields can exchange their complementary insights on user modeling issues. The size and format of the meetings support intensive discussion, which often continues long after the conference has ended. UM97 follows the Fourth and Fifth International Conferences on User Modeling, which took place in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in August 1994 and Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in January 1996, respectively. UM97 will include tutorials, invited talks, paper and poster sessions, a doctoral consortium, workshops, and system demonstrations. Accepted papers, as well as summaries of other conference contributions, will be published in a proceedings volume. Information about the form of this publication will be made available via the conference World Wide Web site. The Web site will also provide access to electronic versions of contributions to the conference. The journal "User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction" is reserving space for expanded versions of the best papers of UM97. A $500 Best Paper Award is being sponsored by Kluwer Academic Publishers. UM97 is being sponsored by AI*IA, the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence. ----------------------- CONFERENCE TOPICS ------------------------ The following nonexhaustive list gives some examples of topics that are relevant to UM97: Construction of models of users' ... * knowledge, beliefs, and misconceptions, * preferences, * goals and plans, * typical behaviors, * cognitive styles, .... Exploitation of user models to achieve ... * adaptive information filtering and retrieval, * tailored information presentation, * transfer of task performance from user to system, * selection of instructional interventions, * interface adaptation, .... Inference techniques involving ... * neural networks, * psychometric methods, * numerical uncertainty management, * epistemic logic or other logic-based formalisms, * default reasoning and truth maintenance, * stereotype hierarchies, .... Practical issues of ... * privacy and user model inspectability, * user model consistency, * empirical evaluation, * standardization of user modeling shell systems, .... Systems for adaptive ... * tutoring and provision of learning environments, * explanation of system actions, * on-line aiding, * hypermedia and multimodal interaction, * knowledge-based presentation design, * product presentation, * information management on the Internet, * support of end-user programming, * accommodation of users with special needs, * support of collaboration, .... -------------------- CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION --------------------- General Chair: Carlo Tasso University of Udine, Italy Organizing Chair: Alessandro Micarelli University of Rome 3, Italy Program Co-Chairs: Anthony Jameson University of Saarbruecken, Germany Cecile Paris University of Brighton, UK Program Committee: Nicholas J. Belkin Rutgers University, USA Beatrice Cahour CNRS Rouen, France Sandra Carberry University of Delaware, USA Albert Corbett Carnegie Mellon University, USA Fiorella de Rosis University of Bari, Italy Oren Etzioni University of Washington, USA Gerhard Fischer University of Colorado, Boulder, USA Helen M. Gigley Office of Naval Research, USA Brad Goodman The MITRE Corporation, USA Eric Horvitz Microsoft Research, USA Judy Kay Sydney University, Australia Alfred Kobsa GMD FIT, Germany Diane Litman AT&T Research, USA Pattie Maes MIT Media Lab, USA Uwe Malinowski Siemens Corporate R&D, Germany Gordon McCalla University of Saskatchewan, Canada Michael McTear University of Ulster, UK Alessandro Micarelli University of Rome 3, Italy Robert J. Mislevy Educational Testing Service, USA Riichiro Mizoguchi Osaka University, Japan Edie M. Rasmussen University of Pittsburgh, USA John Self University of Leeds, UK Julita Vassileva Federal Armed Forces Univ., Germany Wolfgang Wahlster DFKI, Germany Geoff Webb Deakin University, Australia Ingrid Zukerman Monash University, Australia Doctoral Consortium Organizers: Nadja De Carolis University of Bari, Italy Fiorella de Rosis University of Bari, Italy Workshop Coordinator: Christoph G. Thomas GMD FIT, Germany Demonstration Organizer: Giorgio Brajnik University of Udine, Italy UM97 is being organized jointly by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Udine, the Department of Scientific Disciplines of the University of Rome 3, the Department of Informatics of the University of Bari, and CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), under the auspices of User Modeling, Inc. ----------------- BRIEF SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS ------------------ PAPERS AND POSTERS Submissions are invited that describe original academic or industrial research on some aspect of user modeling. Papers should describe significant, mature research; they will be published in full length in the proceedings and presented in talks at the conference. Posters typically describe research which does not yet represent a substantial advance but which can stimulate the exchange of ideas. Summaries of posters will be included in the proceedings. The timetable and the length requirements for poster and paper submissions are the same. Submissions to the poster category may make more use of graphics and tables than is usual for paper submissions, but they must be self-explanatory. If the authors do not indicate a preference for the paper or poster category, the program committee will judge which category is more appropriate. Submissions must fit within 12 single-spaced pages printed with a 12-point font. These 12 pages must include all elements of the submission. Page 1 must include the title of the paper, a short abstract (150 words), a list of keywords, and the authors' postal and e-mail addresses and fax and phone numbers. The abstract and the author information on Page 1 must also be included in an e-mail message that is sent to the program co-chairs one week before the submission of the manuscript. A manuscript can be submitted either electronically (as a PostScript file) or as hard copy. Details of the procedure for electronic submission will be found in the full submission instructions for UM97, which authors can obtain via the conference Web site or by e-mail from the program co-chairs. All authors should obtain these full submission instructions, which will also contain information about style files designed to facilitate manuscript preparation and general tips on how to maximize the likelihood of acceptance. DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM The doctoral consortium will offer PhD students a chance to discuss their plans and the intermediate results of their research with a diverse and knowledgeable international audience. Summaries of the accepted presentations will be included in the proceedings volume. Further information on the doctoral symposium, including information about possible sources of funding, can be obtained via the UM97 Web site and by e-mail from the doctoral consortium organizers. WORKSHOPS Half-day workshops will permit discussion and debate on topics of current interest. The format for each workshop will be determined by the proposer of that workshop, who will also set any necessary deadlines for participants. Before submitting a proposal, each proposer should obtain instructions and advice via the conference Web site and/or by e-mail from the UM97 workshop coordinator. SYSTEM DEMONSTRATIONS Various platforms will be available for unrefereed system demonstrations. Prospective presenters should contact the demonstration organizer by e-mail and specify their hardware and software requirements. ----------------------- CONTACT ADDRESSES ------------------------ Up-to-date conference information and detailed submission instructions can be obtained via either of the following World Wide Web sites: http://www.cs.uni-sb.de/UM97/ (site in Germany) or http://www.crs4.it/UM97/ (site in Sardinia) The following addresses can be used for queries and (where applicable) for submissions: ORGANIZING CHAIR um97-organization@cs.uni-sb.de Fax: Alessandro Micarelli, +39-6-5573030 PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS: um97-papers@cs.uni-sb.de Hard-copy submissions: Anthony Jameson Department of Computer Science University of Saarbruecken Stuhlsatzenhausweg, Building 36.1 66125 Saarbruecken, Germany Phone: +49-681-302-2474 DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM ORGANIZERS um97-doctoral@cs.uni-sb.de WORKSHOP COORDINATOR um97-workshops@cs.uni-sb.de DEMONSTRATION ORGANIZER um97-demos@cs.uni-sb.de ------------------------ IMPORTANT DATES ------------------------- PAPERS AND POSTERS Monday, Receipt by e-mail of abstracts and 25 November 1996 author information Monday, Receipt of electronic submissions 2 December 1996 (optional) Tuesday, E-mail notification to authors if the 3 December 1996 requirement of hard-copy submission is waived Friday, Receipt of 5 hard copies of each 6 December 1996 manuscript (except where the hard-copy requirement was waived on 3 December) Wednesday, Notification of authors by e-mail about 26 February 1997 acceptance or rejection of submissions Monday, Receipt of electronic versions of 31 March 1997 camera-ready papers and summaries of posters DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM Wednesday, Receipt by e-mail of 3-page submissions 5 February 1997 as ASCII text Wednesday, Notification to authors by e-mail about 5 March 1997 acceptance or rejection of submissions Monday, Receipt of electronic versions of 31 March 1997 camera-ready summaries of presentations WORKSHOPS Monday, Receipt by e-mail of 3-page workshop 20 January 1997 proposals as ASCII text Friday, Notification by e-mail to workshop 14 February 1997 proposers about acceptance or rejection of proposals Friday, Submission, by proposers of accepted 21 February 1997 workshops, of final calls for participation Tuesday, Availability via the UM97 Web site 25 February 1997 and by e-mail of calls for participation in workshops SYSTEM DEMONSTRATIONS Tuesday, Registration of system demonstrations 15 April 1997 by e-mail ------------------------------------------------------------------ ====================================================================== Topic 2: Subject: Generation thesis available Date: 20 June 1996 From: Manfred Stede Manfred Stede: Lexical semantics and knowledge representation in multilingual sentence generation. University of Toronto, Dept. of Computer Science, 1996. This thesis develops a new approach to automatic language generation that focuses on the need to produce a range of different {\em paraphrases} from the same input representation. One feature of the system is its solidly grounding representations of word meaning in a background knowledge base, which enables the production of paraphrases stemming from certain inferences, rather than from purely lexical relationships alone. The system is designed in such a way that the paraphrasing mechanism extends naturally to a {\em multilingual} generator; specifically, we will be concerned with producing English and German sentences. The focus of the system is on {\em lexical} paraphrases, and one of the contributions of the thesis is in identifying, analyzing and extending relevant linguistic research so that it can be used to handle the problems of lexical semantics in a language generation system. The {\em lexical entries} are more complex than in previous generators, and they separate the various aspects of word meaning, so that different ways of paraphrasing can be systematically related to the different motivations for saying a sentence in a particular way. One result of accounting for lexical semantics in this fashion is a formalization of a number of {\em verb alternations}, for which a generative treatment is given. While the actual {\em choice} of one paraphrase as the best-suited utterance in a given situation is not a focal point of the thesis, two dimensions of {\em preferring} a variant of a sentence are discussed: that of assigning {\em salience} to the different elements of the sentence, and that of {\em connotational} or {\em stylistic} features of the utterance. These dimensions are integrated into the system, and it can thus determine a preferred paraphrase from a set of alternatives. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, the proposed generation architecture has been implemented as a protoype, along with a domain model that serves as the background knowledge base for specifying the input to the generator. A range of generated examples is presented to show the functionality of the system. > If interested in either a hardcopy or a postscript file, please > contact the author at stede@cs.tu-berlin.de ====================================================================== Topic 3: Subject: Call for Participants TALC96 - Teaching and Language Corpora Date: Lanncaster University, UK, 9th-12th August, 1996 From: "Mr S P Botley" CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS TALC96 - TEACHING AND LANGUAGE CORPORA Lancaster University, UK, 9th-12th August, 1996 AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE While the use of computer text corpora in research is now well established, they are now being used increasingly for teaching purposes. This includes the use of corpus data to inform and create teaching materials; it also includes the direct exploration of corpora by students, both in the study of linguistics and of foreign languages. Talc96 will build upon the success of Talc94, which brought together researchers and teachers who are involved in such work, to take part in an international exchange of current experience and expertise. THEMES KEY THEME: Talc96 will have a special focus on evaluating the claims made for corpora in linguistics and language teaching. OTHER THEMES: which the conference is expected to cover include - 1.) The use of corpora in student led learning and investigation. 2.) Software for corpus based language and linguistics learning. 3.) Developing corpora for teaching purposes. 4.) The exploitation of corpus based teaching and learning materials. 5.) The theory and practice of corpus based teaching and learning. WORKSHOPS Talc96 will also host several workshops related to teaching and language corpora. To give an example of what those workshops may be, Talc94 had a variety of workshops such as "Multilingual Corpus Building" and "Concordancing and Corpus Retrieval". Workshops will be of one to two hour duration. TALC96 - Programme of Events ---------------------------- Is available at Please register BEFORE 21st July 1996, otherwise we cannot guarantee availability of accommodation. ====================================================================== Topic 4: Subject: KBCS-96 (2nd CFP) Deadline Extended Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 - Deadline 15 August 1996 From: KBCS Word Processing Second Call for Papers INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KNOWLEDGE BASED COMPUTER SYSTEMS National Centre for Software Technology Bombay, India December 16-18, 1996 THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS HAS NOW BEEN EXTENDED TO AUGUST 15, 1996 URL : http://konark.ncst.ernet.in/~kbcs/kbcs96.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The International Conference on Knowledge Based Computer Systems will be held in Bombay, India during December 16-18, 1996. The conference is intended to act as a forum for promoting interaction among researchers in the field of Artificial Intelligence in India and abroad. There will be a two day conference during December 16-17, 1996 followed by one day of post-conference tutorials on December 18, 1996. Papers are invited on substantial, original and unpublished research on all aspects of Artificial Intelligence, including, but not limited to the following: o AI Applications o AI Architectures o Artificial Life o Automatic Programming o Cognitive Modeling o Expert Systems o Foundations of AI o Genetic Algorithms o Information Retrieval o Intelligent Tutoring Systems o Knowledge Acquisition o Knowledge Representation o Machine Learning o Machine Translation o Natural Language Processing o Neural Networks o Planning and Scheduling o Reasoning o Robotics o Search Techniques o Speech Processing o Theorem Proving o Uncertainty Handling o User Interfaces o User Modeling o Vision Programme Committee: S. Arunkumar, IIT, Bombay Amitava Bagchi, IIM, Calcutta Pushpak Bhattacharya, IIT, Bombay Margaret A. Boden, U of Sussex, UK Nick Cercone, U of Regina, Canada B. B. Chaudhuri, ISI, Calcutta R. Chandrasekar, NCST, Bombay S. K. Goyal, GTE Labs , USA S. S. Gupta, TUL, Bombay J. R. Isaac, NIIT, New Delhi Aravind K. Joshi, R. A. Kowalski, Imperial College, UK U of Pennsylvania, USA H. N. Mahabala, INFOSYS, Bangalore M. Narasimha Murthy, IISc, Bangalore R. Narasimhan, CMC, Bangalore S. Ramani, NCST, Bombay (Chair) P. V. S. Rao, TIFR, Bombay Patrick Saint-Dizier, U of Paul Sabatier, France R. Sangal, IIT, Kanpur R. Uthurusamy, GMR, USA M. Vidyasagar, CAIR, Bangalore Format of Submission: Authors should submit their papers, not to exceed 5000 words (including figures and references) either electronically or in hard copy. Papers should be in English. Papers should include an abstract of about 100-200 words in length. Papers outside the specified length are subject to rejection without review. Since reviewing will be "blind", the authors' names and affiliations along with the main area of the paper should be given only on a separate cover sheet. Hard copy submissions should be sent in triplicate. Papers in electronic form can be in any of the following formats: plain text, Postscript, Latex, Microsoft Word, or Wordstar. Submissions in electronic form are preferred. Send papers to the KBCS-96 Secretariat at the address below. Paper Submission Deadlines: o Papers due: August 15, 1996 o Acceptance Notification: October 15, 1996 o Camera Ready Copy due: December 1, 1996 Call for Tutorials: Proposals are invited for post-conference tutorials. Tutorials can be half-day or full-day, and will be held on December 18th, 1996. The proposal should be presented in the form of a 200-word abstract, one page topical outline of the content, description of the proposers and their qualifications relating to the tutorial content. Tutorial Submission Deadlines: o Proposal Submission: July 31, 1996 o Acceptance Notification: August 31, 1996 o Complete Tutorial materials due: December 1, 1996 Send proposals to the KBCS-96 Secretariat at the address below. Organizing Committee: George Arakal, NCST (Chair) K.S.R. Anjaneyulu, NCST P. Ravi Prakash, NCST Durgesh D. Rao, NCST M. Sasikumar, NCST T. Suresh, NCST For further information please refer to the KBCS-96 home page or write to the KBCS-96 Secretariat. ___________________________________________________________________________ Address KBCS-96 Secretariat Phone : +91 (22) 620 1606 National Centre for Software Technology Fax : +91 (22) 621 0139 Gulmohar Cross Rd No. 9 E-mail : kbcs@konark.ncst.ernet.in Juhu, Bombay 400 049, India URL : http://konark.ncst.ernet.in/~kbcs/kbcs96.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== eof ======================================================================