DM: I A T '99 Reminder

[IAT99 Conference]

[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email.]


                      **************************
                      *  I A T '99   REMINDER  *
                      **************************

    The 1st Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology

                  Hong Kong,   December 14-17, 1999

             Home Page: http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/IAT99


               F I N A L   C A L L   F O R   P A P E R S
                     ----------------------------
                     | Papers Due: May 31, 1999 |
                     ----------------------------

************
* SPONSORS *
************

   Hong Kong Baptist University
   ACM Hong Kong
   IEEE Hong Kong Section Computer Chapter


***********************
* IN COOPERATION WITH *
***********************

   ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (SIGART)
   ACM Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery in Data (SIGKDD)
   ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI)


********************
* INVITED SPEECHES *
********************

     "How Can AI Systems Deal with Large and Complex Problems"

             Setsuo Ohsuga  (Waseda University, Japan)

                               - * -

   "Agents for Dummies: Can We Make Sophisticated Agent Development
                  Simple Enough to be Practical?"

             Jeffrey Bradshaw (The Boeing Company, USA)

                               - * -

           "Intelligent Agents: Embodied and Disembodied"

               Dan Ling  (Microsoft Corporation, USA)

                               - * -

     "Robot-Discoverer: A Role Model for Any Intelligent Agent"

           Jan Zytkow  (University of North Carolina, USA)

                               - * -

The Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT) is
an international forum for researchers and practitioners (i) to 
present
the state-of-the-art in the development of intelligent agents, (ii) to
examine performance characteristics of various approaches in 
intelligent
agent technology, and (iii) to cross-fertilize ideas on the 
development
of autonomous agents and multiagent systems among different domains. 
By
idea-sharing and discussions on the underlying logical, cognitive,
physical, and biological foundations as well as the enabling
technologies
of intelligent agents, IAT'99 is expected to stimulate the future
development of new models, new methodologies, and new tools for 
building
a variety of embodiments of agent-based systems.


**********
* TOPICS *
**********

IAT'99 welcomes submissions of original papers. The technical issues 
to
be addressed include, but not limited to:

* Applications:

   - Data and knowledge intensive domains (e.g., large databases,
     Internet, digital libraries, financial engineering, business
     information systems, CSCW).
   - Interaction with software/interface agents (e.g., E-commerce,
     personal assistant, information filter, tutor).
   - Computational intelligence (e.g., pattern analysis and
     recognition, imaging, optimization, resource allocation,
     constraint satisfaction, planning).
   - Physically embodied systems (e.g., autonomous robots).
   - Very-large, complex, integrated intelligent systems.

* Computational Architecture and Infrastructure:

   - Computational architectures.
   - Ontology models.
   - Agent-level and multiagent-level infrastructure.
   - Communication languages.
   - Multimodal systems and interfaces.
   - Protocols.
   - Tools and standards.
   - Heterogeneity and interoperability.
   - Scalability.

* Learning and Adaptation:

   - Uncertainty management in multiagent systems.
   - Integrated exploration and exploitation.
   - Long-term reliability.
   - Neural networks.
   - Artificial life.
   - Behavioral selection.
   - Coordinating perception, thought, and action.
   - Behavioral self-organization.
   - Believable lifelike quality.
   - Classifier systems.
   - Evolution and learning in dynamic environments.
   - Adaptation and self-adaptation.
   - Emergent behavior.
   - Evolutionary computation.

* Data and Knowledge Engineering/Communication:

   - Human-agent interaction.
   - Information filtering.
   - Data mining.
   - Heterogeneous data integration and management.
   - Knowledge discovery.
   - Knowledge sharing.
   - Knowledge aggregation.
   - Reasoning and planning.
   - Adaptation and evolution of knowledge networks.
   - Distributed knowledge systems.

* Distributed Intelligence:

   - Dynamics of groups and populations.
   - Swarms.
   - Population evolution.
   - Coevolution.
   - Collective group behavior.
   - Coordination and cooperation.
   - Distributed intelligence.
   - Social integration.
   - Market-based computing.

* Formal Theories of Agents:

   - Formal/computational modeling.
   - Chaotic and fractal dynamics.
   - Computational complexity.
   - Efficiency in distributed systems.
   - Taxonomy of agent environments.
   - Classification and characterization of complex behaviors.
   - Theories of perception, rationality, intention, emotion,
     coordination, action, and social behaviors.


*******************
* IMPORTANT DATES * 
*******************

          May 31, 1999  Electronic abstract and 4 hardcopies of
                        full paper due

         June 30, 1999  Tutorial and workshop proposals due
         July 15, 1999  Acceptance of tutorial and workshop
                        notification

         July 20, 1999  Notification of paper acceptance emailed
                        and announced on IAT'99 home page

        August 2, 1999  Video and demo submission deadline
     September 3, 1999  Notification of video and demo acceptance
                        emailed and announced on IAT'99 home page

       August 24, 1999  Camera-ready copies of accepted papers
                        due

      November 1, 1999  Cutoff date for early registration

     December 14, 1999  Tutorials and Workshops
  December 15-17, 1999  Conference technical sessions


*******************************
* DETAILS ON PAPER SUBMISSION *  
*******************************

NOTE:  Both electronic abstract submission and hardcopy full paper
submission are required:

1. Electronic Abstract Submission
=================================

An electronic abstract submission is an ASCII file, consisting of
the following:

     (i) Title of the paper.
    (ii) Subject areas of the paper.
   (iii) Name of the author(s).
    (iv) An abstract of at most 250 words.
     (v) Contact addresses (BOTH postal and email).

The above information should be sent to:

         zhong@ai.csse.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

by May 31, 1999.

2. Full Paper Submission
========================

Four (4) hardcopies of the completed full paper should be submitted
by May 31, 1999 to:

         Prof. Ning Zhong (IAT'99)
         Dept. of Computer Science and Sys. Eng.
         Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University
         Tokiwa-Dai, 2557, Ube 755, Japan

Each submitted paper must include a title, an abstract, a list of
keywords, the name, mailing address, and email address of the
author(s), and the main body. The length of submitted paper should
NOT exceed ten (10) single-spaced, single-column pages including
all figures, tables, and bibliography.

All manuscripts must be formatted using the World Scientific's style
files for proceedings. The style files can be found at:
http://www.wspc.com/others/style_files/proceedings/proceedings_style_files.h
tml
-- use the style files appropriate to a page size of 8.5"x6".

Submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical soundness,
relevance, originality, significance, and clarity.


****************
* PUBLICATIONS *
****************

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings
by World Scientific, An International Publisher, as a hardcover book. 
A
selected number of IAT'99 accepted papers will be expanded and revised
for inclusion in ``Knowledge and Information Systems: An International
Journal'' by Springer-Verlag and an edited volume published by World
Scientific.

The IAT best paper awards will be conferred on the authors of the best
papers at the conference.


*************************
* VIDEO SESSION & DEMOS *
*************************

The IAT'99 Program Committee welcomes video and demo submissions of
research projects, prototypes, experimental systems, and commercial
products for presentation and demonstration at the conference. Each
submission should include:

     (i) A title.
    (ii) An abstract of at most 250 words.
   (iii) A list of keywords.
    (iv) Name of the presenter(s).
     (v) Contact addresses (postal and email).
    (vi) A two-page description of the video contents or the demo
         system.

Videos and demos should be submitted by August 2, 1999 to:

         Dr. Jianchang Mao (IAT'99)
         IBM Almaden Research Center
         Image and Multimedia Systems, DPE/B3A
         650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120, USA
         Email: mao@almaden.ibm.com

The submission of full-length papers that describe in depth the
works presented in videos and/or demos is also encouraged. Please
refer to "DETAILS ON PAPER SUBMISSION" above.


********************************
* TUTORIAL PROPOSAL SUBMISSION *  
********************************

The IAT'99 Program Committee invites tutorial proposals. The tutorials
will be given on December 14, immediately before the start of the
main conference. Each tutorial will run for 2 hours.

We encourage tutorials that summarize recent technical advances in
core paradigms of intelligent agent technology, as well as tutorials
that educate the agent community about advanced techniques, emerging
opportunities, and applications. These topics include, but are not
limited to, multiagent systems, software/interface agents,
communication languages, artificial life, evolutionary
computation, human-agent interaction, data mining, knowledge
discovery, distributed intelligence, and formal theories of agents.

Anyone who is interested in presenting a tutorial at IAT'99 should
submit a proposal to the tutorial chair at the address below.
Email or fax submissions will also be accepted.

         Dr. James Kwok
         Department of Computer Science
         Hong Kong Baptist University
         Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
         Email: jamesk@comp.hkbu.edu.hk
         Phone: (852) 2339-5965
         Fax: (852) 2339-7892

1. Submission Requirements
==========================

The proposal should provide the following information:

     (i) Name, institutional affiliation, postal address, phone, fax,
         email, and WWW address of the proposed presenter(s).
    (ii) Title of the tutorial.
   (iii) A 200-300 word description of the tutorial.
    (iv) Detailed outline or prose description of the tutorial 
contents.
     (v) Biographical sketch of 100-200 words.

2. Important Dates for Tutorials
================================

         June 30, 1999  Proposal submission deadline
         July 15, 1999  Acceptance notification
         July 31, 1999  Deadline for receipt of title, abstract, and
                        speaker biography
      October 15, 1999  Deadline for receipt of course materials
     December 14, 1999  IAT'99 tutorials

Tutorial notes will be made and distributed to the tutorial attendees.
Please note that IAT'99 will normally duplicate no more than 100 pages
per participant.

The conference compensates tutorial speakers with a honorarium.
The amounts of the honorarium will depend on the number of
acceptable proposals. IAT'99 reserves the right to cancel any
tutorial if deadlines are missed or if too few attendees register for
the tutorial to support the costs of running the tutorial.

Questions concerning the IAT'99 tutorials should be directed to
Dr. James Kwok at:

         jamesk@comp.hkbu.edu.hk


********************************
* WORKSHOP PROPOSAL SUBMISSION *  
********************************

The IAT'99 Program Committee invites workshop proposals for
the 1999 Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent
Technology. The workshops will be held on December 14,
immediately before the start of the main conference.
The workshops can vary in length, from half-day to a full day.

The IAT'99 workshops will provide an informal setting where
workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss
technical topics in an atmosphere that fosters the active exchange
of ideas. Members from all segments of the agent community are
invited to submit workshop proposals for review. Example topics
are as those highlighted in the Topics and Tutorial Calls but
proposers should not feel limited to these areas as each proposal
will be assessed according to individual content, proposed structure
and overall relevance. Workshop organizers will be responsible for
inviting speakers, ensuring their participation, ensuring submission
of preliminary texts and structuring and leading the discussion
sessions.

Each workshop organizing committee will be responsible for
producing a Call for Participation in the workshop by July 31,
1999. This call should note that all workshop participants must
register for the IAT'99 conference.

1. Submission Requirements
==========================

The proposal should provide the following information:

     (i) A brief description of the workshop, specifying the
         goals and the technical issues that will be its focus.
    (ii) A brief discussion of why and to whom the workshop is of
         interest.
   (iii) The names, postal addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers,
         and email addresses of the proposed workshop organizing
         committee. This committee should consist of three or four
         people knowledgeable about the technical issues to be
         addressed.
    (iv) The name of the primary contact for the organizing
         committee.
     (v) A description of the qualifications of the individual
         committee members.
    (vi) If available, a list of tentatively confirmed attendees.

Proposals should be sent to the workshop chair at the following
address. Email or fax submissions will also be accepted.

         Dr. James Kwok
         Department of Computer Science
         Hong Kong Baptist University
         Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
         Email: jamesk@comp.hkbu.edu.hk
         Phone: (852) 2339-5965
         Fax: (852) 2339-7892

2. Important Dates for Workshops
================================

          June 30, 1999  Proposal submission deadline
          July 15, 1999  Acceptance notification
          July 31, 1999  Deadline for receipt of Call for 
Participation
      November 15, 1999  Deadline for list of workshop participants
      December 14, 1999  IAT'99 workshops

IAT'99 will be responsible for the following:

     (i) Providing a meeting place and logistical support for the
         workshop.
    (ii) In conjunction with the organizers, determining the
         workshop date and time (Organizing committee constraints
         will be accommodated to the greatest possible extent).
   (iii) Duplicating working notes (up to a total of 100 pages per
         participant) and distributing them to the participants.

IAT'99 reserves the right to cancel any workshop if deadlines are
missed or if too few attendees register for the workshop to support
the costs of running the workshop. To cover costs, it will be
necessary to charge workshop participants a workshop fee in
addition to the normal IAT'99 conference registration fee.

Questions concerning the IAT'99 workshops should be directed to
Dr. James Kwok at:

         jamesk@comp.hkbu.edu.hk


*****************************
* PRE/POST-CONFERENCE TOURS *   (new!)
*****************************

Pre/post-conference tours, including local sightseeing tours in Hong
Kong and tours to other places around the region in China, will be
arranged and organized by a local travel agency with special services
to the IAT'99 participants and their guests.

More information on the tours is available from the IAT'99 home page
at http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/IAT99 

Don't miss those great events!


***************************
* CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION *
***************************

           Honorary Chair:  Benjamin Wah (U. Illinois, USA)

           General Chairs:  Setsuo Ohsuga (Waseda U., Japan)
                            Ernest C. M. Lam (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

           Program Chairs:  Jiming Liu (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
                            Ning Zhong (Yamaguchi U., Japan)

       Video & Demo Chair:  Jianchang Mao (IBM Almaden Research 
Center)

 Organizing & Local Chair:  P. C. Yuen (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

Tutorial & Workshop Chair:  James Kwok (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

             Poster Chair:  Wai Wong (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

            Finance Chair:  C. S. Huang (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

       Registration Chair:  Kelvin Wong (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

          Publicity Chair:  C. S. Tong (Hong Kong Baptist U.)

International Advisory Board
============================

   Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (The Boeing Company, USA)
   Jiming Liu (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
   Jianchang Mao (IBM Almaden Research Center)
   Setsuo Ohsuga (Waseda U., Japan)
   Tieniu Tan (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
   Patrick S. P. Wang (Northeastern U., USA)
   Xin Yao (Australian Defence Force Academy)
   Ning Zhong (Yamaguchi U., Japan)

Program Committee
=================

   John A. Barnden (U. Birmingham, UK)
   Guy Boy (European Inst. Cognitive Sci.Eng.)
   Young-Tae Byun (Hong Ik U. Korea)
   David Cheung (U. Hong Kong)
   M. Desmarais (Centre de Recherche Infor. de Montreal)
   E. A. Edmonds (Loughborough U., UK)
   Mark Greaves (The Boeing Company, USA)
   Toru Ishida (Kyoto U., Japan)
   Lakhmi Jain (U. South Australia)
   Oussama Khatib (Stanford U., USA)
   David Kinny (U. Melbourne, Australia)
   James Kwok (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
   T.Y. Lin (San Jose State U., USA)
   Daniel T. Ling (Microsoft Corporation, USA)
   Chunnian Liu (Beijing Poly. U., China)
   Jiming Liu (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
   Hongjun Lu (Hong Kong U. of  Sci. and Tech.)
   David Maluf (NASA Ames Research Center, USA)
   Jianchang Mao (IBM Almaden Research Center)
   Masoud Mohammadian (U. Canberra, Australia)
   Shinichi Nakasuka (U. Tokyo, Japan)
   Ei-Ichi Osawa (Sony Computer Science Lab., Japan)
   Mohamed Quafafou (U. Nantes, France)
   Zbigniew W. Ras (U. North Carolina, USA)
   Eugene Santos (U. Connecticut, USA)
   Zhongzhi Shi (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
   Yoav Shoham (Stanford U., USA)
   Andrzej Skowron (Warsaw U., Poland)
   Yuan Y. Tang (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
   Takao Terano (U. Tsukuba, Japan)
   Wayne Wobcke (BT Lab., UK)
   Xindong Wu (Colorado School of Mines, USA)
   Yiyu Yao (U. Regina, Canada)
   Yiming Ye (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)
   Jerome Yen (U. Hong Kong)
   John Yen (Texas AM U., USA)
   Kazumasa Yokota (Okayama Prefectural U., Japan)
   Philip Yu (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)
   P. C. Yuen (Hong Kong Baptist U.)
   Ning Zhong (Yamaguchi U., Japan)
   Lizhu Zhou (Tsinghua U., China)
   Jan Zytkow (U. North Carolina, USA)

Please send suggestions and inquiries regarding IAT'99 to:

         Jiming Liu (IAT'99)
         Department of Computer Science
         Hong Kong Baptist University
         Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
         Email: jiming@comp.hkbu.edu.hk