13.1244, Confs: Computational Ling, Cambridge, MA, USA

Fri May 3 18:28:56 UTC 2002

LINGUIST List:  Vol-13-1244. Fri May 3 2002. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 13.1244, Confs: Computational Ling, Cambridge, MA, USA

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Consulting Editor:
        Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Editors (linguist at linguistlist.org):
	Karen Milligan, WSU 		Naomi Ogasawara, EMU
	James Yuells, EMU		Marie Klopfenstein, WSU
	Michael Appleby, EMU		Heather Taylor-Loring, EMU
	Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U.	Richard John Harvey, EMU
	Dina Kapetangianni, EMU		Renee Galvis, WSU
	Karolina Owczarzak, EMU

Software: John Remmers, E. Michigan U. <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
          Gayathri Sriram, E. Michigan U. <gayatri at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marie at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================
Please keep conferences announcement as short as you can; LINGUIST
will not post conference announcements which in our opinion are
excessively long.

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Mon, 29 Apr 2002 22:07:04 -0400
From:  John Weng <weng at cse.msu.edu>
Subject:  A new conference dedicated to computational autonomous mental  development

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 29 Apr 2002 22:07:04 -0400
From:  John Weng <weng at cse.msu.edu>
Subject:  A new conference dedicated to computational autonomous mental  development

Dear researchers,

You might be interested in providing your input to the first(?)
regularly scheduled conference dedicated to COMPUTATIONAL Autonomous
Mental Development (AMD): ICDL'02.  Its panel discussion invites you to
give your thoughts!  For example, one of the questions that will be
discussed at the panel session is "Is AMD essential to intelligence?"

Best regards,

ICDL'02 organization committee
 =============================================================================================
Call For Participation

The 2nd International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL'02)
June 12 - 15, 2002
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA, USA
http://www.egr.msu.edu/
Advance Registration Deadline: May 5, 2002.

Sponsored by:
American Association for Artificial Intelligence
Cognitive Science Society
IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Neural Networks Society
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society

Invited Presentations:
Cortical Development and Learning during Vision, Recognition, and Action
(tutorial), Stephen Grossberg, Boston U.
Plasticity Contributing to Variations in Human Performance Ability,
Michael Merzenich, UCSF
Prediction-error Driven Learning: The Engine of Change in Cognitive
Development, James McClelland, CMU
How do Features of Sensory Representations Develop? Jon Kaas, Vanderbilt
U.
One Thing Follows Another: Initial State, Task, and Developmental Change
in Human Infants, Esther Thelen
Learning in Content-based Image Retrieval, Thomas S. Huang, UIUC
Humanoid Robot Models of Child Development, Rodney Brooks, MIT
Rewiring Cortex: Rules of Cortical Network Development, Mriganka Sur,
MIT
Learning Your Life: Wearables and Familiars, Alex Pentland, MIT
Development as a Source of Complexity, Jeff Elman, UCSB

The recent advances in neuroscience, cognitive science, artificial
intelligence and robotics have stimulated the birth and growth of a
new research field, known as computational autonomous mental
development.
Although human mental development is a well known subject of study,
e.g., in
developmental psychology, computational studies of mental development
for
either machines or humans have not received sufficient attention in the
past.
Computational autonomous mental development concerns understanding of
computational principles of autonomous mental development in humans and
other
animals and the synthesis of developmental programs for robots and other
artificial systems.  Mental development is a process during which a
brain-like
natural or artificial embodied system, under the control of its
intrinsic
species-specific developmental program residing in the genes or
artificially
designed, develops mental capabilities through its autonomous real-time
interactions with its environments (including its own internal
environment and
components) using its own sensors and effectors.  The scope of mental
development includes cognitive, behavioral, emotional and all other
mental
capabilities that are exhibited by humans, higher animals and artificial
systems.  Investigations of the computational mechanisms of mental
development
are expected to improve our systematic understanding of the wide variety
of
cognitive and behavioral capabilities in humans and to enable autonomous
development of these highly complex capabilities by robots and other
artificial
systems.

ICDL-02 is the first regularly scheduled conference following the very
successful Workshop on Development and Learning (WDL), funded by NSF and
DARPA, held April 5 - 7, 2000 at Michigan State University
(http://www.cse.msu.edu/dl).  Some discussion about this new direction
is
available on the final report page of WDL at
http://www.cse.msu.edu/dl/.
A brief discussion of the subject is available in an article appeared in
Science (http://www.cse.msu.edu/dl/SciencePaper.pdf).

The autonomous, real-time, incremental, open-ended, sensor-grounded and
effector-grounded operational mode of mental development implies that
multiple
disciplines of human intelligence and artificial intelligence face many
similar research issues.  Therefore, this conference series is
multidisciplinary in nature, inviting researchers of all related fields
including, but not limited to, machine intelligence, machine learning,
computer vision, speech recognition, robotics, animal learning,
psychology,
neuroscience, computational intelligence, and philosophy.  Although
understanding or realizing fully autonomous mode of mental development
is a
goal, intermediate results toward this goal are all encouraged.

The subjects of the conference include, but not limited to

  (1) Architecture of mental development
  (2) Learning techniques that facilitate skill development
  (3) Development of visual, auditory and other sensory cortices
  (4) Development of filters and feature detectors
  (5) Neural plasticity during development
  (6) Development of value system
  (7) Development of emotion
  (8) Development of cognitive system
  (9) Coordination and integration of behaviors through development
 (10) Development of attention mechanisms
 (11) Development of vision system
 (12) Development of audition system
 (13) Development of taction system
 (14) Integration mechanisms through development
 (15) Computational models of language acquisition through development
 (16) Generation of representation during development
 (17) Integrated developmental programs or systems
 (18) Autonomous thinking behaviors through development
 (19) Development of consciousness
 (20) Robot bodies that facilitate autonomous mental development
 (21) Robots capable of autonomous mental development
 (22) Robotic techniques for mental development
 (23) Comparison of approaches to machine intelligence
 (24) Social and philosophical issues of developmental robots

General Co-Chairs:

James L. McClelland
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition
Carnegie Mellon University

Alex P. Pentland
The Media Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Program Co-Chairs:

Jeff Elman
Department of Cognitive Science
University of California at San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0515

Mriganka Sur
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Juyang Weng
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Michigan State University

Tutorial Chair:
Sridhar Mahadevan
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Local Arrangement Chair:
Tony Jebara
The Media Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Columbia University

-
Juyang (John) Weng, Associate Professor
3115 Engineering Building
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1226 USA
Tel & Fax: 517-353-4388
Email: weng at cse.msu.edu
URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/
- --------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-13-1244