De Groot was going on a year long trip to the U.S. and the highlight of his journey was a visit to Herb Simon and Allen Newell. I met Allen for the first time when I came for a two semester long visit to Carnegie Mellon University in 1968. This encounter was a distinct factor in my later decision to join the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. I interacted with Allen much more closely when I became department head in 1979. He was for me a mentor and a sounding board for ideas I wanted to pursue for computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. I enjoyed working with many good friends on the faculty, but Allen was really special. Many of us will remember him for his evenhanded treatment of all students at the Black Friday meetings. He would never pursue his own agenda, he would always look for the merit of a student's work and not whether the rules were violated. He was a staunch defender of the rule that replaces all rules, which says that the only thing that counts is whether or ...

Although AI Topics is designed for the lay public, it serves a much larger audience. Much of the genetic code for this web site, however, was actually written when the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) came into existence. In the 1980 President's Message delivered by AAAI's first president, Allen Newell, one finds many of the responsibilities, principles, and protocols that have become part of the very fiber of AAAI. Not surprisingly, some of these elements were inherited (Newell 1980, p. 3): [W]e are a society born into a community of societies. Scientific societies are for their science.

"With the summer camp season fast approaching, kids across the country will be stocking up on hiking shoes, bug spray and other necessities for adventures in the great outdoors. Thousands of others, however, will be enjoying adventures of the indoor variety: creating video games, building robots and designing Web pages. Computer camp, as it was known to an earlier generation, just isn't what it used to be. With the booming growth of video games, the Internet and digital media, technology-minded kids have an enormous variety of things to learn at technology camps, which are often taught on the campuses of major universities.... Camp administrators say enrollment is up from last year.... And while the kids are on the computers for five to six hours a day, the instructors also take them outside for activities to break up the day."

This book looks at some of the results of this synergy among AI, cognitive science, and education. Examples include virtual students whose misconceptions force students to reflect on their own knowledge, intelligent tutoring systems, and speech recognition technology that helps students learn to read. Some of the systems described are already used in classrooms and have been evaluated; a few are still laboratory efforts. The book also addresses cultural and political issues involved in the deployment of new educational technologies. ISBN 0-0-262-56141-7 To order call 800-405-1619.

This article focuses on contributions that AI can make to address longterm educational goals. Challenges are described that support: (1) mentors for every learner; (2) learning 21st century skills; (3) interaction data for learning; (4) universal access to global classrooms; and (5) lifelong and lifewide learning. A vision and brief research agenda are described for each challenge along with goals that lead to development of global educational resources and the reuse and sharing of digital educational resources. Instructional systems with AI technology are described that currently support richer experiences for learners and supply researchers with new opportunities to analyze vast data sets of instructional behavior from big databases that record elements of learning, affect, motivation, and social interaction. Personalized learning is described that facilitates student and group experience, reflection, and assessment.

An Artist at RPI Who Draws on the Future--Graduate student in electronic arts uses provocative acts to make people think about issues. "Last February, Boryana Rossa and her colleagues sent a decree of robot rights by email to the Pope's people at the Vatican. It should be considered a sin, the decree said, to kill an artificially created, sentient being (that is, a robot). Robots have the right to chose their own religion, it continued. An entity or creature created by humans must be considered equal to humans.

Scientists Look at Promise, Peril of Technology. "Scientists meeting in Los Angeles say technology offers the hope of a better world, but presents hazards if mishandled.... [T]he University of Southern California and the journal'Science' convened a panel of scientific innovators to look at the promise and the perils of technology.--There'You've got to ask, do we now have the scientific literacy in the public to be able to have informed dialogues about what these issues are really going to mean to civilization, to mankind itself,' he said. 'If we don't have the right kind of scientific literacy, all scientific debate becomes ideological.' The panelists say promoting scientific literacy is a challenge but a necessary goal, as new technologies change our society.... Raymond Kurzweil is a researcher in the field of artificial intelligence....

Column n The Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence column discusses and shares innovative educational approaches that teach or leverage AI and its many subfields at all levels of education (K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels). By restructuring the course into a format that was roughly half lecture and half small-group problem solving, I was able to significantly increase student engagement, their understanding and retention of difficult concepts, and my own enjoyment in teaching the class. The ACTIVE Center's design was based on research on the power of collaborative learning to promote student success and retention, particularly for women, underrepresented minorities, and transfer students, who benefit greatly from building stronger connections with their peers through shared active learning experiences (Zhao, Carini, and Kuh 2006; Rypisi, Malcolm, and Kim 2009; Kahveci, Southerland, and Gilmer 2006). The ACTIVE Center, a 40-student classroom, includes movable furniture (20 trapezoidal tables and 40 lightweight rolling chairs) that is typically grouped into 10 hexagonal table clusters but that can also be arranged into lecture-style rows, a boardroom or seminar-style rectangular layout, or individual pair-activity tables. The room also has an Epson Brightlink "smart projector" at the front of the room, four flat-panel displays (which can be driven centrally by the instructor's laptop or individually through HDMI ports), and 10 rolling 4 x 6 foot whiteboards for use during group problem-solving activities, as well as smaller, portable tabletop whiteboards.

AAAI-17 Has Moved in Time and Place! We are delighted to announce that AAAI-17 will be held February 4-9 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square! AAAI-17 program cochairs Shaul Markovitch and Satinder Singh will continue the traditions of past years with a strong technical program, including three special tracks, as well as rich outreach programs for students, women, and sister conferences. Special technical tracks will include cognitive systems, computational sustainability, and integrated systems. For complete details on the technical program, and the call for papers, please see www.aaai.org/aaai17.php. San Francisco is full of delights for every visitor.

This honor was announced at the recent AAAI-16 Conference in Phoenix. Senior Member status is designed to recognize AAAI members who have achieved significant accomplishments within the field of artificial intelligence. To be eligible for nomination for Senior Member, candidates must be consecutive members of AAAI for at least five years and have been active in the professional arena for at least ten years. Tom Dietterich, AAAI President, Manuela Veloso, AAAI Past President and Awards Committee Chair, and Rao Kambhampati, AAAI President-Elect, presented the AAAI Awards in February at AAAI-16 in Phoenix. The 2016 AAAI Classic Paper Award was given to the authors of the two papers deemed most influential from the Fifteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, held in 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.