Local Computation for Logics and Uncertainty

A one day ECAI workshop, Valencia, Spain. 22nd or 23rd August.

Local computation on acyclic hypertrees (and related graphical structures) has proved to be a very general method of computing deductions in knowledge representation formalisms. It has been shown to be applicable, in particular, to probabilities, possibility theory and other uncertainty calculi, constraints including finite constraints, soft constraints, linear constraints and inequalities, and a wide range of logics, including propositional and first-order classical logics and modal logics.

The purpose of the workshop is to bring together for the first time a group of researchers interested in the theory, the methods and applications of local computation (or computations based on hypertrees). Of interest are local computation in logic (satisfiability, consequence finding or other in classical or non-classical logics), uncertainty (probabilistic, possibilistic, belief functions or other), constraint solving (crisp or soft constraints), data bases, optimization and decision problems, or its application to any other field. We welcome, for example, contributions regarding architectures and software for local computation, and specialist algorithms that only apply to some formalisms. Other issues of interest include:

Under what kinds of conditions are the algorithms liable to be efficient?
Comparison with other techniques.
Combining local computation propagation with other methods (e.g., search, for constraints)
General approximation methods, in particular, for computing bounds on result.
Relationships between computation in the various instances.
Model-based vs. formula-based representations for propagation in logics.
Algebraic theory of structures permitting local computation.
Architecture and software for local computation.
Independence concepts related to structures for local computation

To submit a paper to the workshop, please email a PDF or postscript file to Nic Wilson, n.wilson@4c.ucc.ie, containing an extended abstract or a complete paper, preferably following the ECAI styleguide. The final versions of the accepted papers will be included in the workshop proceedings.

There will also be an ECAI tutorial on Inference by Local Computation on a consecutive day. (CANCELLED)

SCHEDULE:

April 1st, 2004:	deadline for extended abstracts
May 1st, 2004:	list of accepted contributions + notification to senders
June 1st 2004:	deadline for camera-ready version of contributions

Please note that participants are expected to register for the main ECAI 2004 conference ( http://www.dsic.upv.es/ecai2004/index2.html) and registration to the workshop is done through the main conference registration. The number of participants is limited.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Jürg Kohlas
Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
juerg.kohlas@unifr.ch.

Jérôme Mengin
Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
mengin@irit.fr.

Nic Wilson
Cork Constraint Computation Centre, University College Cork, Ireland.
n.wilson@4c.ucc.ie