The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence held its 1995 Spring Symposium Series on March 27 to 29 at Stanford University. This article contains summaries of the nine symposia that were conducted: (1) Empirical Methods in Discourse Interpretation and Generation; (2) Extending Theories of Action: Formal Theory and Practical Applications; (3) Information Gathering from Heterogeneous, Distributed Environments; (4) Integrated Planning Applications; (5) Interactive Story Systems: Plot and Character; (6) Lessons Learned from Implemented Software Architectures for Physical Agents; (7) Representation and Acquisition of Lexical Knowledge: Polysemy, Ambiguity, and Generativity; (8) Representing Mental States and Mechanisms; and (9) Systematic Methods of Scientific Discovery.

Prizes were awarded to students to encourage improved research. Michel Wermelinger, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, was the winner of the best paper award for his work "Basic Conceptual Structure Theory," which provided a significant In "Representations Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, won Papers were presented by a number interest in the use of conceptual he Second International Conference (ICCS'94) was held at the of individuals and groups from graphs. The funds were made available University of Maryland, College several countries on the development through a grant from the American Park, Maryland, on August 16 to 20. and use of the conceptual Association for Artificial Intelligence The conference marked the tenth graph representational language. Sponsors included the University of Graph Workbench," chaired by Gerard vice-president of academic affairs, Paradigm Development Corp. in Urbana, Illinois, was the second She received her Ph.D. from the introduction, "Aristotelian and

This report stems from a workshop that was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and cosponsored by the Information Technology and Organizations Program of the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the workshop was twofold: first, to increase awareness among the artificial intelligence (AI) community of opportunities presented by the National Information Infrastructure (NII) activities, in particular, the Information Infrastructure and Tech-nology Applications (IITA) component of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program; and second, to identify key contributions of research in AI to the NII and IITA.

Simmons's dream was that a person could have "a conversation with a book": The computer would read the book, and then the user at that time. William James' could have a conversation with the born in Quincy, Massachusetts, Principles of Psychology seemed to He married me to be a highwater mark for answered from the computer's understanding Patricia Enderson in 1950, and they psychologists who were interested of the book. He investigated raised five children. The fact such as encyclopedia articles; produced in 1954 from the University of that the whole current of psychology higher-level grammars for Southern California. His dissertation has turned to the more expository text; and wrote programs was entitled "The Prediction of Accident rewarding (but to me less inspiring) that could summarize such text. Rates from Basic Design Features study of more easily He later became interested in logic of USAF Aircraft."

These examples involve putting of grief in Vietnam, and he never forgot "analogy war" that went on for years

This book review examines Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1995, 932 pp., $62.90, ISBN 0-13-103805-2.

The first session aimed to set the component being tested. The stage for the day's discussion by focusing variation in all three of these contexts on the issues surrounding the will lead to different types of and Verification of Knowledge-use of formal specification techniques The first paper, by Formal Specifications to Design Intelligence (AAAI-94) in Seattle, Lance Miller of SAIC, was entitled Verifiable Hybrid KBS" by Rose Gamble, Washington, marked the seventh This paper provided a with its specification, and (2) the The 1994 workshop was significant basis for the comparison of validation refinement of formal specifications in that there was a definitive move in and verification techniques to for their implementation. O'Leary, from the lows the possibility of constraining techniques for validating certain University of Southern California, the experts' choices to ensure that properties of KBSs. A paper by presented a paper on the relationship any new knowledge added is valid Alun Preece, Cliff Gossner, and T. between errors and size in KBSs. This and that the knowledge base structure Radhakrishnan (all from the University paper is among the first to address ensures the knowledge is of Aberdeen, Scotland) considered this important issue.

Several of the workshops have led to discourse? At what levels of the art in the field (Dale et al. 1992; generation is information processed on Natural Language Paris, Swartout, and Mann 1991; How can we generate to 24 June 1994 at the Nonantum The goal of this latest workshop multilingual texts efficiently? Inn on the seacoast in Kennebunkport, was to introduce new, cutting-edge The topics presented at the workshop Maine. Two invited speakers described subtopics such as evaluation, casual site contributed greatly to their perspectives on two areas outside explanation generation, and summarization the success of the workshop in stimulating the field that might become an occur with increasing frequency the exchange of ideas. Pustejovsky (Brandeis University) presented Different generator designers make that any individual generation his views on the richness of different choices, and the resulting project should define--in its own what can be encoded in what he calls systems are hard to compare.

My collaborators and I have recently reported in domain science journals several human-computer discoveries in biology, chemistry, and physics. One might ask what accounts for these findings, for example, whether they share a common pattern. My conclusion is that each finding involves a new representation of the scientific task: The problem spaces searched were unlike previous task problem spaces. Such new representations need not be wholly new to the history of science; rather, they can draw on useful representational pieces from elsewhere in natural or computer science. This account contrasts with earlier explanations of machine discovery based on the expert system view. My analysis also suggests a broader potential role for (AI) computer scientists in the practice of natural science.

The Swiss Bank, one of the largest A team that includes AI Ware (Cleveland, develop a new computer telephone banks based in Switzerland, has Ohio), a vendor of intelligent integration solution, based on speech reached an agreement with virtual systems for design and manufacturing recognition for the PC. Users will be reality tool developer Sense8 (Mill applications, has been awarded a $3.8 Valley, Calif.) to integrate Sense8's able to access important information million grant by the National Institute The GUI will allow users to access and of location. Gensym (Cambridge, Mass.), supplier Calif.) has been awarded a $1 million with self-improving capabilities Contact locations, Motorola plans to Communications Corp. (Mountain Lionheart Publishing Inc., 2555 deploy virtual worlds for on-site training View, Calif.), a provider of open software Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, at plants around the world. A computer-based vision system has Engine it its Netscape servers. Topic been developed that reportedly can Mitek Systems (San Diego, Calif.), a Agents allow users and online identify faces as accurately as the manufacturer of advanced character providers to filter incoming information human eye, even to the point of seeing recognition products for intelligent against interest profiles and send past most disguises.