Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence

August 4 - 8, 1996, Portland, Oregon

AAAI-96 -- the Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence --
is sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Important Dates:

Electronic title page submission deadline       January 3, 1996
Paper submission deadline                       January 9, 1996
Notification of acceptance                      March 11, 1996

Call for Papers

AAAI-96 is the thirteenth national conference on artificial intelligence
(AI). The purpose of the conference is to promote research in AI and
scientific interchange among AI researchers and practitioners.

Papers may represent significant contributions to any aspects of AI: a)
principles underlying cognition, perception, and action; b) design,
application, and evaluation of AI algorithms and systems; c) architectures
and frameworks for classes of AI systems; and d) analysis of tasks and
domains in which intelligent systems perform.

One of the most important functions served by the national conference is to
provide a forum for information exchange and interaction among researchers
working in different sub-disciplines, in different research paradigms, and
in different stages of research. Based on discussions among program
committee members during the past few years, we are continuing efforts to
expand active participation in the conference to include a cross-section of
the AI community and the community's research activities.

Accordingly, we encourage submission of papers that: describe theoretical,
empirical, or experimental results; represent areas of AI that may have been
under-represented in recent conferences; present promising new research
concepts, techniques, or perspectives; or discuss issues that cross
traditional sub-disciplinary boundaries. As outlined below, the paper review
criteria is intended to recognize this broader spectrum of research
contributions. We will continue the policy established in AAAI-94 of
accepting more of the papers that are submitted, relative to prior years.

Timetable for Submission

Authors must first submit their paper's title page (preferably
electronically, as described below) by January 3, 1996. Authors must then
submit six (6) complete printed copies of their papers to the AAAI office by
January 9, 1996. Papers received after that date will be returned unopened.
Notification of receipt will be mailed to the first author (or designated
author) soon after receipt. All inquiries regarding lost papers must be made
by January 23, 1996. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted
papers will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) by March
11, 1996. Camera-ready copy of accepted papers will be due about one month
later.

Electronic Title Page

Because of the huge number of submissions anticipated and the tight schedule
required to assign reviewers, we require that authors who desire to submit a
full paper declare their intention by sending AAAI a title page by
Wednesday, January 3, 1996. The preferred method is by using a
World-Wide-Web (WWW) browser such as Netscape to connect to:
http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/1996/submit.html
then filling out the form and finally pressing the submit button. (You can
also access a link to this page by connecting to AAAI's home page, which is
located at: http://www.aaai.org After submitting the form, the page will
display a unique tracking number which should be marked on the full paper
submission. Authors who do not have access to a WWW browser with forms
support should mail a printed page to the AAAI office to arrive by January
3. (These authors may omit the tracking number). The printed page should use
the following format:

* author: 
* address: 
* author: * address:
* abstract: * content areas: , ..., Content Areas To facilitate the reviewing process, authors are requested to select one or more appropriate content area keywords from the list below, to appear on the electronic title page and submitted paper. Please use the exact phrases below; do not make up new keywords, since they will be ignored by the paper classification software. * AI architectures * applications * art and music * artificial life * automated modeling * automated reasoning * control * belief revision * case-based reasoning * causality * cognitive modeling * common sense reasoning * computational complexity * computer-aided education * constraint satisfaction * decision theory * decision trees * design * description logics * diagnosis * discourse * discovery * distributed AI * enabling technologies * expert systems * game playing * genetic algorithms * geometric or spatial reasoning * information retrieval * knowledge acquisition * knowledge representation * lifelike characters * machine learning * machine translation * mathematical foundations * multiagent systems * multimedia * natural language processing * neural networks * nonmonotonic reasoning * ontologies * perception * philosophical foundations * planning * probabilistic reasoning * problem solving * qualitative reasoning * reactive control * real-time systems * reinforcement learning, robotics * scheduling * scientific discovery * search * simulation * software agents * speech understanding * syntax * temporal reasoning * theorem proving * user interfaces * virtual reality, vision Paper Format For Blind Review All six (6) copies of a submitted paper must be clearly legible. Neither computer files nor fax submissions are acceptable. Submissions must be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch or A4 paper using 12 point type (10 characters per inch for typewriters). Double-sided printing is strongly encouraged. Reviewing for AAAI-96 will be blind to the identities of the authors. This requires that authors exercise some care not to identify themselves in their papers. Title Page Each copy of the paper must have a title page, separate from the body of the paper, including the title of the paper, the names and addresses of all authors, a short abstract of less than 200 words, a list of content areas (see above), word count, tracking number from electronic submission of title page (see above), statement with respect to multiple submissions (see below), and acknowledgements (if any). Paper Body The second page, on which the paper body begins, should include the same title, abstract, content areas, word count, tracking number, and statement with respect to multiple submissions, but not the names or affiliations of the authors. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, but should not include unpublished works. When referring to one's own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Weld [13] has shown that...", rather than "In our previous work [13] we have shown that...." Try to avoid including any information in the body of the paper or references that would identify the authors or their institutions. Such information can be added to the final camera-ready version for publication. Please do not staple the title page to the body of the paper. Length The body of submitted papers must be at most 7000 words, including footnotes, figure captions, tables, and appendices, but excluding the bibliography. The word count should appear on the title and second pages of the submitted paper. Papers longer than 7000 words will be returned without review. Review Process Program committee (PC) members will identify papers they are qualified to review based on the information electronically presubmitted (e.g., the paper's title, content areas, and abstract). This information, along with other considerations, will be used to assign each submitted paper to three PC members. Using the criteria given below, they will review the paper independently; these reviews will be blind to the identities of the authors and their institutions. If the majority of the reviewers of a paper agree to accept or reject it, that recommendation will be followed. If the reviewers are unable to decide, the paper will be discussed by an appropriate sub-group of the PC during its meeting in March. In general, papers will be accepted if they receive at least two positive reviews or if they generate an interesting controversy among the reviewers. The final decisions on all papers will be made by the program chairs. Review Criteria Questions that will appear on the review form appear below. Authors are advised to bear these questions in mind while writing their papers. Reviewers will look for papers that meet at least some (though not necessarily all) of the criteria in each category. Significance How important is the problem studied? Does the approach offered advance the state of the art? Does the paper stimulate discussion of important issues or alternative points of view? Originality Are the problems and approaches new? Is this a novel combination of existing techniques? Does the paper point out differences from related research? Does it address a new problem or one that has not been studied in depth? Does it introduce an interesting research paradigm? Does the paper describe an innovative combination of AI techniques with techniques from other disciplines? Does it introduce an idea that appears promising or might stimulate others to develop promising alternatives? Quality Is the paper technically sound? Does it carefully evaluate the strengths and limitations of its contributions? Are its claims backed up? Does the paper offer a new form of evidence in support of or against a well-known technique? Does the paper back up a theoretical idea already in the literature with experimental evidence? Does it offer a theoretical analysis of prior experimental results? Clarity Is the paper clearly written? Does it motivate the research? Does it describe the inputs, outputs, and basic algorithms employed? Are the results described and evaluated? Is the paper organized in a logical fashion? Is the paper written in a manner that makes its content accessible to most AI researchers? Videotape Support If authors feel that an understanding of the dynamic behavior exhibited by their system is an important factor in judging the technical merit of the work, they may optionally include six (6) copies of a videotape of not more than five (5) minutes duration in NTSC-VHS (US standard only) format to the AAAI office by January 9, 1996, as part of their paper submission. Tapes should be labeled only with the tracking number and title of the paper submission; tapes cannot be returned. Submissions to Multiple Conferences Papers that are being submitted to other conferences, whether verbatim or in essence, must reflect this fact on the title page. If a paper appears at another conference (with the exception of specialized workshops), it must be withdrawn from AAAI-96. Papers that violate these requirements are subject to rejection without review. Publication Accepted papers will be allocated six (6) pages in the conference proceedings. Up to two (2) additional pages may be used at a cost to the authors of $250 per page. Papers exceeding eight (8) pages and those violating the instructions to authors will not be included in the proceedings. Copyright Authors will be required to transfer copyright of their paper to AAAI. Paper Submissions & Inquiries Please send papers and conference registration inquiries to: AAAI-96 American Association for Artificial Intelligence 445 Burgess Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025-3496 Registration and call clarification inquiries (ONLY) may be sent to the Internet address: NCAI@aaai.org. Please send program suggestions and inquiries to: Bill Clancey, Program Cochair Institute for Research on Learning 3450 Hillview Drive Palo Alto, CA 54301 bill_clancey@irl.org Daniel Weld, Program Cochair Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Washington P.O. Box 352350 Seattle, WA 98195-2350 weld@cs.washington.edu Ramesh Patil, Associate Program Chair USC/Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292 ramesh@isi.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Student Abstract & Poster Program AAAI-96 invites submissions to the student abstract and poster program. The goal of this program is to provide a forum in which students can present and discuss their work during its early stages, meet some of their peers who have related interests, and introduce themselves to more senior members of the field. The program is open to all pre-PhD students. Non-student advisors or collaborators should be acknowledged appropriately, as coauthors or otherwise. However, students are requested to honor the spirit of the program by submitting only work for which they are primary investigators. Requirements for Submission Authors must submit six (6) printed copies of a two-page abstract describing their research to the AAAI office by January 9, 1996. Abstracts received after that date will be returned unopened. Notification of receipt will be mailed to the author. All inquiries regarding lost abstracts must be made by January 23, 1996. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted abstracts will be mailed to the author by March 11, 1996. Camera-ready copy of accepted abstracts will be due about one month later. Abstract Format All six (6) copies of a submitted abstract must be clearly legible. Neither computer files nor fax submissions are acceptable. Submissions must be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch or A4 paper using 12 point type (10 characters per inch for typewriters). Each page must have a maximum of 38 lines and an average of 75 characters per line (corresponding to the LaTeX article-style, 12 point). Length All abstracts must be no more than two pages, including: title, author's full name, postal address, phone number, e-mail address, text, any figures, tables, diagrams, and bibliography. Papers exceeding the specified length and formatting requirements are subject to rejection without review. Submissions to AAAI-96 or Other Conferences Students are free to submit abstracts for work reported in a regular paper submitted to the AAAI-96 or another conference, but not for work that has already been published. Abstracts will be accepted or rejected for the student session regardless of the outcomes of related paper submissions. Review Criteria Each abstract will be reviewed against the following criteria: Significance: Does the work address an important problem? Originality: Is the problem or approach presented new? Clarity: Is the abstract clearly written? Publication Accepted abstracts will be allocated one (1) page in the conference proceedings. Students will be required to transfer copyright of the abstract to AAAI. Poster Session Accepted abstracts will be allocated presentation time and space in the Student Poster Display area at the conference. Student authors of accepted abstracts must agree to prepare a poster representing the work described in their abstracts and to be available to discuss their work with visitors during their allocated time in the Student Poster Display area. Student Abstract Submissions & Inquiries Please send abstracts to: AAAI-96 American Association for Artificial Intelligence 445 Burgess Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025-3496 Registration and call clarification inquiries (ONLY) may be sent to the internet address: NCAI@aaai.org. Please send student program suggestions and inquiries to: Maja J. Mataric Volen Center for Complex Systems Computer Science Department Brandeis University Waltham, MA 02254 maja@cs.brandeis.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For More Information Contact: American Association for Artificial Intelligence / 445 Burgess Drive / Menlo Park, California 94025-3496 / USA Telephone: 415-328-3123 / Fax: 415-321-4457 / Email: ncai@aaai.org / URL: http://www.aaai.org If you have any comments, suggestions, or additions to this site, please drop us a note. Copyright 1995, 1996, American Association for Artificial Intelligence. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------