This report describes recent and continuing research in artificial intelligence and related fields being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania. Although AI research takes place primarily in the Department of Computer and Information Science ( in School of Engineering and Applied Science), many aspects of this research are preformed in collaboration with other engineering departments as well as other schools at the University, such as the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine, and Wharton School.

The objectives of this document (a part of a retrospective monograph on the AGE Project currently in preparation) are (1) to define what is meant by blackboard systems and (2) to show the richness and diversity of blackboard system designs. In Part 1 we discussed the underlying concept behind all blackboard systems -- the blackboard model of problem solving. We also traced the history of ideas and designs of some application systems that helped shape the blackboard model. In application systems, the blackboard system components are integrated into the domain knowledge required to solve the problem at hand.

This article provides some basic assistance to entrepreneurs involved in artificial intelligence, offering a synthesis of standard business-planning and capital-raising practices. Three main areas are discussed: (1) developing a corporate strategy, (2) developing a business plan that works, and (3) approaching sources of capital.

In this article, we present a programming language for expressing classificatory problem solvers. CSRL (Conceptual Structures Representation Language) provides structures for representing classification trees, for navigating within those trees, and for encoding uncertainly judgments about the presence of hypotheses. We discuss the motivations, theory, and assumptions that underlie CRSL. Also, some expert systems constructed with CSRL are briefly described.

This article provides some basic assistance to entrepreneurs involved in artificial intelligence, offering a synthesis of standard business-planning and capital-raising practices. Three main areas are discussed: (1) developing a corporate strategy, (2) developing a business plan that works, and (3) approaching sources of capital.

The first blackboard system was the Hearsay-II speech-understanding system (Erman et al. 1980), which evolved between 1971 and 1976. Subsequently, many systems have been built that have similar system organization and run-time behavior. The objectives of this document (a part of a retrospective monograph on the AGE Project currently in preparation) are (1) to define what is meant by blackboard systems and (2) to show the richness and diversity of blackboard system designs. In Part 1 we discussed the underlying concept behind all blackboard systems -- the blackboard model of problem solving. In order to bridge the gap between the model and working systems, we introduced and discussed the blackboard framework. We also traced the history of ideas and designs of some application systems that helped shape the blackboard model. In Part 2, we describe and contrast existing blackboard systems. Blackboard systems can generally be divided into two categories: application systems and skeletal systems. In application systems, the blackboard system components are integrated into the domain knowledge required to solve the problem at hand.

This is the second part of a two-part article describing AI work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Research and applications work in AI is being conducted by several groups at JSC. These are primarily independent groups that interact with each other on an informal basis. In the Research and Engineering Directorate, these groups include (1) the Artificial Intelligence and Information Sciences Office, (2) the Simulation and Avionics Integration Division, (3) the Avionics Systems Division, and (4) the Tracking and Communications Division. In the Space Operations Directorate, these groups include (1) the Mission Planning and Analysis Division (MPAD) - Technology Development and Applications Branch, (2) the Spacecraft Software Division, and (3) the Systems Division - Systems Support Section. This second part of the article describes the AI work in the Space Operations Directorate. The first part of the article, published in the last week of AI Magazine, (7:1, Summer 1986) described the AI work in the Research and Engineering Directorate.

Cambridge, can read this material and gain insight into some of the Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1985. The treatment is not detailed enough to be used as a text on The Connection Machine introduces a new type of parallel architecture design but it is illuminating and interesting computer which may lead to radically new ways of to read. Once the reader has been introduced to the basics of The author, Daniel Hillis, is the designer of the Connection Machine architecture, the author presents a machine and the founder of Thinking Machines Corporation, description of a prototype called CMl; a machine with a company committed to building "Connection Machines." Hillis discusses the Hillis' book describes the Connection Machine custom VLSI chip, details of the simple processor cells, and and the issues surrounding its design. At made up of thousands, potentially millions, of small, simple, times the Connection Machine appears so different from processors working simultaneously, each with its own current computers that it seems more akin to science fiction tiny memory.

This report describes recent and continuing research in artificial intelligence and related fields being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania. Although AI research takes place primarily in the Department of Computer and Information Science ( in School of Engineering and Applied Science), many aspects of this research are preformed in collaboration with other engineering departments as well as other schools at the University, such as the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine, and Wharton School.

The Portrait Programs Project grew out of hyperinterdisciplinarianism of the famed Gigabase Sculpture Group, in turn stimulated by recent cutbacks in government support for the arts. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation had jointly funded the Gigabase Sculpture Project to foster the literary/musical genre of composing genetic codes for novel organisms. Later, artists trained in recombinant DNA technology designed massive Brancusi-esque statues of living cytoplasmic jelly. However, Art For Art's Sake objectives of these giblet sculptors were compromised by precautions necessary after discovery of the "Gogol's-Theorem Bomb" that threatened to get loose and jam all DNA replication in the biosphere; not even viruses would have survived.