Call for Papers


Background

IAAI features real, deployed AI applications, selected for their
innovation.  An application is considered deployed if it has been used
for a minimum of several months and relied on for operational business
decisions.  Four categories of innovation are recognized:  demonstration
of a new technology, application of existing technology to a new domain,
application of existing technology to an old domain in an innovative
way, and demonstration of a novel integration of different
technologies.  Taken together, the award winners provide clear
evidence of the commercial value of AI technology as a key component of
complex information systems.  The papers presented at IAAI are case
studies that provide a valuable guide to designing, building, managing,
and deploying systems whose value depends on AI technology.  The papers
also illustrate the applicability and limitations of various AI
techniques.  

 
IAAI-96

IAAI was founded because of the belief that we, the AI community, needed 
to "get the story out."  The intent was to benefit AI and the AI 
community by demonstrating that AI research has significant operational 
payoffs in the real world.  The method was to feature innovative, 
deployed AI applications with measurable benefits.  The primary purpose 
of IAAI is to tell these success stories.  Other purposes are to 
recognize application developers at a national conference and to provide 
a forum for them to exchange experiences and lessons learned in the 
"heartland" of AI.  These purposes have, for the most part, been realized.

There is another important purpose that IAAI can serve, one which also 
directly benefits the AAAI membership:  to promote the interchange of 
ideas between basic and applied AI.  It is our experience that AI 
technology transfer is a two way street; i.e., not only that AI 
applications can benefit from the latest advances in AI research and that 
these benefits can increase support for AI research, but also that 
quality AI research is stimulated by real problems.  David Waltz 
expressed this idea best in his ballot statement as nominee for 
President-Elect of AAAI:  "It is essential to develop an effective dialog 
between basic and applied AI.  Applied AI needs a steady stream of 
fundamental AI results in order to generate novel applications of 
increasing power; basic AI needs to be informed by applied AI about the 
nature and relative importance of application domains, and the efficacy 
and relevance of various proposed systems and formalisms for building 
applications."  Collocating IAAI with the National Conference, and 
encouraging joint attendance and cross-fertilization, is an attempt to 
promote this dialog.

Our objectives for IAAI-96 are to enhance the content and maintain the 
focus of IAAI as an applications oriented conference, distinct from the 
research oriented National Conference, while minimizing - or even 
eliminating - the logistical barriers between them.  We aim to serve the 
AI community by highlighting success stories for the world at large, 
while also providing valuable and interesting content for the AAAI 
membership.  We want to expand the conference to cover the full range of 
AI technologies, to increase the number and quality of papers submitted 
and accepted, and to increase participation.  We want IAAI to be valuable 
for all members of the AI community, especially those graduate students 
who form the major portion of attendees at the National Conference and 
who are likely to find jobs not in academia but in organizations which 
apply AI.  Most important, we want IAAI to complement the National 
Conference in order to achieve the benefits of an effective interchange 
between basic and applied AI.  The following paragraphs discuss our plans 
for revitalizing IAAI.  Our ideas fall into two categories:  content and 
logistics.

We are broadening the program committee, to include representation from 
the speech, natural language, vision, and robotics communities.  We are 
asking AI vendors, especially those who exhibit at the National 
Conference, to encourage their customers to submit papers, or to submit 
joint papers, describing their most successful applications.  (Phil Klahr 
deserves special recognition for his extensive and largely successful 
efforts in this area for many years.)  We have asked the AAAI Fellows to 
make a special commitment to identify worthy applications and to 
encourage their submission.  We are contacting program committees of AAAI 
cosponsored conferences, to ask them to identify appropriate applications 
in their areas.  We are insisting on a renewed commitment from IAAI 
Program Committee members to solicit papers for submission personally and 
to assist potential submitters who have a worthy application but may have 
difficulty preparing a paper.

Logistically, we are proposing a single registration fee and a combined 
Proceedings for the National Conference and for IAAI.  These will allow 
for more extensive interactions between participants, and will ensure 
that all researchers are aware of the current state of  real AI 
applications.  We are working closely with the National Conference's 
Program Committee and with the KDD-96 Program Committee to schedule 
invited talks and panels to minimize potential conflicts on topics of 
mutual interest and, perhaps more important, to schedule joint sessions 
where appropriate. (Ed Feigenbaum's 1993 talk "Tiger in a Cage" was an 
extremely effective joint session.)  AI-on-Line panels, which originated 
as part of the National Conference and then became joint events, 
encouraged interactions between participants.  We are also trying to 
coordinate session times better, although this is difficult because of 
the different presentation lengths.

Finally, and most important, we solicit and welcome additional ideas,
suggestions, discussion, and, most of all, participation from the entire
cross-section of AAAI members.  IAAI is sponsored by AAAI for the benefit
of the members.  We promise to consider carefully all suggestions, and to
adopt those which are feasible, either for this year's conference or the
next.  Please keep an eye out for worthy applications, and submit papers
or encourage colleagues to do so.  Please submit Panel and Invited Talk
proposals, as described in the Call for Papers, Panels, and Invited Talks,
and also submit suggestions, ideas, etc. for panels or invited talks that
you would like to hear - even if you are unable to organize it yourself. 
We call upon the entire AAAI membership to take responsibility for the
success of this conference through active participation and to ensure an
effective and rewarding dialog between basic and applied AI.