There is a fundamental mismatch between the computational basis of spreadsheets and our knowledge of the real world. In spreadsheets, numeric data are represented as exact numbers and their mutual relations as functions, whose values (output) are computed from given argument values (input). However, in the real world, data are often inexact and uncertain in many ways, and the relationships, that is, constraints, between input and output are far more complicated. This article shows that interval constraint solving, an emerging AI-based technology, provides a more versatile and useful foundation for spreadsheets. The new computational basis is 100-percent downward compatible with the traditional spreadsheet paradigm. The idea has been successfully integrated with Microsoft excel as the add-in interval solver that seamlessly upgrades the arithmetic core of excel into interval constraint solving. The product has been downloaded by thousands of end users all over the world and has been used in various applications in business computing, engineering, education, and science. There is an intriguing chance for a major breakthrough of the AI technology on the spreadsheet platform: Tens of millions of excel users are making important decisions based on spreadsheet calculations.

Stochastic sampling algorithms, while an attractive alternative to exact algorithms in very large Bayesian network models, have been observed to perform poorly in evidential reasoning with extremely unlikely evidence. To address this problem, we propose an adaptive importance sampling algorithm, AIS-BN, that shows promising convergence rates even under extreme conditions and seems to outperform the existing sampling algorithms consistently. Three sources of this performance improvement are (1) two heuristics for initialization of the importance function that are based on the theoretical properties of importance sampling in finite-dimensional integrals and the structural advantages of Bayesian networks, (2) a smooth learning method for the importance function, and (3) a dynamic weighting function for combining samples from different stages of the algorithm. We tested the performance of the AIS-BN algorithm along with two state of the art general purpose sampling algorithms, likelihood weighting (Fung & Chang, 1989; Shachter & Peot, 1989) and self-importance sampling (Shachter & Peot, 1989). We used in our tests three large real Bayesian network models available to the scientific community: the CPCS network (Pradhan et al., 1994), the PathFinder network (Heckerman, Horvitz, & Nathwani, 1990), and the ANDES network (Conati, Gertner, VanLehn, & Druzdzel, 1997), with evidence as unlikely as 10^-41. While the AIS-BN algorithm always performed better than the other two algorithms, in the majority of the test cases it achieved orders of magnitude improvement in precision of the results. Improvement in speed given a desired precision is even more dramatic, although we are unable to report numerical results here, as the other algorithms almost never achieved the precision reached even by the first few iterations of the AIS-BN algorithm.

Each award winner and received a B.S. in electrical received a certificate and a check engineering from the Technion Haifa for $2500.

The Eighth Annual Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition was held as part of the Sixteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Orlando, Florida, 18 to 22 July. The goals of these robot events are to foster the sharing of research and technology, allow research groups to showcase their achievements, encourage students to enter robotics and AI fields at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and increase awareness of the field. The 1999 events included two robot contests; a new, long-term robot challenge; an exhibition; and a National Botball Championship for high school teams sponsored by the KISS Institute. Each of these events is described in detail in this article.

Austin, Texas, the "live music capital For more information about AAAI is pleased to announce the continued Conferences/conferences.html. Expository Writing Award will be presented members. AAAI is delighted to announce the 31-August 3 in Austin, Texas. This The conference will be held July collocation of SARA-2000 with AAAIaward joins the two special awards 31-August 3, 2000, at the Austin Convention 2000. The Symposium on Abstraction, established last year, the AAAI Classic Center and Hyatt Regency Reformulation, and Approximation Paper Award and the AAAI Distinguished Austin in Austin, Texas. AAAI-2000 will be held July 26-29, just outside Austin in Lago Vista on Lake Travis, Service Award. For more information about The AAAI Effective Expository Writing the Innovative Applications of SARA-2000, please visit sara2000.unl. Award honors the author(s) of a Artificial Intelligence, the Mobile edu/ high-quality, effective piece of writing, Robot Competition and Exhibition, AAAI also welcomes SARA-2000 as accessible to the general public or the Intelligent Systems Demonstrations, our first affiliate conference. For more to a broad AI audience (not just a subarea), the Robot Building Laboratory, information about the AAAI Affiliates written within the last two and the Doctoral Consortium. New Program, please write to Carol Hamilton years. The contribution should be for 2000 will be a technical paper at hamilton@aaai.org. Nominated papers must be Uncertainty: Operations Research AAAI is pleased to announce the continuation in English and must have been published Meets AI (Again)"; Justine Cassell, of its Student Abstract and in a publicly accessible place "Why Do We Need a Body Anyway?"; Poster Program, the SIGART/AAAI (for example, periodical, hard copy, or Carla Gomes, "Structure, Duality, and Doctoral Consortium, and the AAAI online journal but not only as a web Randomization: Common Themes in Scholarship and Volunteer Programs. The author(s) AI and OR"; James Hendler, "Missed Students interested in attending the of the award-winning paper(s) will Perceptions: AI versus the Funding National Conference on Artificial receive a $2500 prize (shared if more Agencies"; Geoff Hinton, "Modeling Intelligence in Austin, July 31-August than one author) as well as lodging High-Dimensional Data Distributions 3, 2000, should consult the AAAI web and travel to the National Conference by Combining Simple Experts"; Rich site for further information about all on Artificial Intelligence.

The KDD conference series is the primary venue for presenting and publishing the highest quality advances in the field.

We hope to see you in along with one or two new developments.

The three competitions -- (1) AAAI Mobile Robot, (2) AUVS Unmanned Ground Robotics, and (3) IJCAI RoboCup -- were used in different years for an introductory undergraduate robotics course, an advanced graduate robotics course, and an undergraduate practicum course. Based on these experiences, a strategy is presented for incorporating competitions into courses in such a way as to foster intellectual maturation as well as learn lessons in organizing courses and fielding teams. The article also provides a classification of the major robot competitions and discusses the relative merits of each for educational projects, including the expected course level of computer science students, equipment needed, and costs.

Austin, Texas, the "live music capital For more information about AAAI is pleased to announce the continued Conferences/conferences.html. Expository Writing Award will be presented members. AAAI is delighted to announce the 31-August 3 in Austin, Texas. This The conference will be held July collocation of SARA-2000 with AAAIaward joins the two special awards 31-August 3, 2000, at the Austin Convention 2000. The Symposium on Abstraction, established last year, the AAAI Classic Center and Hyatt Regency Reformulation, and Approximation Paper Award and the AAAI Distinguished Austin in Austin, Texas. AAAI-2000 will be held July 26-29, just outside Austin in Lago Vista on Lake Travis, Service Award. For more information about The AAAI Effective Expository Writing the Innovative Applications of SARA-2000, please visit sara2000.unl. Award honors the author(s) of a Artificial Intelligence, the Mobile edu/ high-quality, effective piece of writing, Robot Competition and Exhibition, AAAI also welcomes SARA-2000 as accessible to the general public or the Intelligent Systems Demonstrations, our first affiliate conference. For more to a broad AI audience (not just a subarea), the Robot Building Laboratory, information about the AAAI Affiliates written within the last two and the Doctoral Consortium. New Program, please write to Carol Hamilton years. The contribution should be for 2000 will be a technical paper at hamilton@aaai.org. Nominated papers must be Uncertainty: Operations Research AAAI is pleased to announce the continuation in English and must have been published Meets AI (Again)"; Justine Cassell, of its Student Abstract and in a publicly accessible place "Why Do We Need a Body Anyway?"; Poster Program, the SIGART/AAAI (for example, periodical, hard copy, or Carla Gomes, "Structure, Duality, and Doctoral Consortium, and the AAAI online journal but not only as a web Randomization: Common Themes in Scholarship and Volunteer Programs. The author(s) AI and OR"; James Hendler, "Missed Students interested in attending the of the award-winning paper(s) will Perceptions: AI versus the Funding National Conference on Artificial receive a $2500 prize (shared if more Agencies"; Geoff Hinton, "Modeling Intelligence in Austin, July 31-August than one author) as well as lodging High-Dimensional Data Distributions 3, 2000, should consult the AAAI web and travel to the National Conference by Combining Simple Experts"; Rich site for further information about all on Artificial Intelligence.

Austin, Texas, the "live music capital For more information about AAAI is pleased to announce the continued Conferences/conferences.html. Expository Writing Award will be presented members. AAAI is delighted to announce the 31-August 3 in Austin, Texas. This The conference will be held July collocation of SARA-2000 with AAAIaward joins the two special awards 31-August 3, 2000, at the Austin Convention 2000. The Symposium on Abstraction, established last year, the AAAI Classic Center and Hyatt Regency Reformulation, and Approximation Paper Award and the AAAI Distinguished Austin in Austin, Texas. AAAI-2000 will be held July 26-29, just outside Austin in Lago Vista on Lake Travis, Service Award. For more information about The AAAI Effective Expository Writing the Innovative Applications of SARA-2000, please visit sara2000.unl. Award honors the author(s) of a Artificial Intelligence, the Mobile edu/ high-quality, effective piece of writing, Robot Competition and Exhibition, AAAI also welcomes SARA-2000 as accessible to the general public or the Intelligent Systems Demonstrations, our first affiliate conference. For more to a broad AI audience (not just a subarea), the Robot Building Laboratory, information about the AAAI Affiliates written within the last two and the Doctoral Consortium. New Program, please write to Carol Hamilton years. The contribution should be for 2000 will be a technical paper at hamilton@aaai.org. Nominated papers must be Uncertainty: Operations Research AAAI is pleased to announce the continuation in English and must have been published Meets AI (Again)"; Justine Cassell, of its Student Abstract and in a publicly accessible place "Why Do We Need a Body Anyway?"; Poster Program, the SIGART/AAAI (for example, periodical, hard copy, or Carla Gomes, "Structure, Duality, and Doctoral Consortium, and the AAAI online journal but not only as a web Randomization: Common Themes in Scholarship and Volunteer Programs. The author(s) AI and OR"; James Hendler, "Missed Students interested in attending the of the award-winning paper(s) will Perceptions: AI versus the Funding National Conference on Artificial receive a $2500 prize (shared if more Agencies"; Geoff Hinton, "Modeling Intelligence in Austin, July 31-August than one author) as well as lodging High-Dimensional Data Distributions 3, 2000, should consult the AAAI web and travel to the National Conference by Combining Simple Experts"; Rich site for further information about all on Artificial Intelligence.