SAB90 Announcement

Stewart Wilson wilson at Think.COM
Mon Jul 23 16:09:00 EDT 1990


Dear Connectionist list Manager,

Would you kindly post this Announcement for the SAB90 Conference
on your bulletin board?  Thank you.

Stewart Wilson

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                            ANNOUNCEMENT

         Simulation of Adaptive Behavior: From Animals to Animats
                      An International Conference
              To be held in Paris, September 24-28, 1990


                            Sponsored by

                      Ecole Normale Superieure
              US Air Force Office of Scientific Research
                       Electricite de France
                            IBM France
              Computers, Communications and Visions (C2V)
                             Offilib
                       and a Corporate Donor


1. Conference dates and site

The conference will take place Monday through Friday, September 24-28, 1990
at the Ministere de la Recherche et de la Technologie, 1 rue Descartes, Paris,
France.


2. Conference Committee

   Conference chair
         Dr. Jean-Arcady Meyer              Dr. Stewart W. Wilson
         Ecole Normale Superieure           The Rowland Institute for Science
         France                             USA
   Organizing Committee
         Groupe de BioInformatique
         Ecole Normale Superieure
         France
   Program Committee
         Lashon Booker, U.S. Naval Research Lab, USA
         Rodney Brooks, MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, USA
         Patrick Colgan, Queen's University at Kingston, Canada
         Patrick Greussay, Universite Paris VIII, France
         David McFarland, Oxford Balliol College, UK
         Luc Steels, VUB AI Lab, Belgium
         Richard Sutton, GTE Laboratories, USA
         Frederick Toates, The Open University, UK
         David Waltz, Thinking Machines Corp. and Brandeis University, USA


3. Official language: English

4.  Conference Objective

The conference objective is to bring together researchers in ethology,
ecology, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and related fields
so as to further our understanding of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms
that allow animals and, potentially, robots to adapt and survive in uncertain
environments.  Said somewhat differently, the objective is to investigate
how the robot can aid in comprehending the animal and, inversely, to seek
inspiration from the animal in the construction of autonomous robots.

The conference will provide opportunities for dialogue between specialists
with different scientific perspectives--ethology and artificial intelligence
notably--a dialogue that will be enhanced by the common technical language
imposed by simulation models.  As the first of its kind in the world, the
conference will make it possible to establish not only the state of the art
of "adaptive autonomous systems, natural and artificial", but a list of the
most promising future research topics.

The conference is expected to promote:

1. Identification of the organizational principles, functional laws, and
minimal properties that make it possible for a real or artificial system
to persist in an uncertain environment.

2. Better understanding of how and under what conditions such systems
can themselves discover these principles through conditioning, learning,
induction, or processes of self-organization.

3. Specification of the applicability of the theoretical knowledge thus
acquired to the building of autonomous robots.

4. Improved theoretical and practical knowledge concerning adaptive systems
in general, both natural and artificial.

Finally, special emphasis will be given to the following topics, as viewed
from the perspective of adaptive behavior:

    Individual and collective behaviors  Autonomous robots
    Action selection and behavioral      Hierarchical and parallel organizations
     sequences                           Self organization of behavioral
    Conditioning, learning and induction  modules
    Neural correlates of behavior        Problem solving and planning
    Perception and motor control         Goal directed behavior
    Motivation and emotion               Neural networks and classifier
    Behavioral ontogeny and evolution      systems
    Cognitive maps and internal          Emergent structures and behaviors
     world models



5.  Conference Proceedings

The proceedings will be published about two months after the end of the
conference by The MIT Press/Bradford Books.


6.  Conference Organization

Among the papers received by the organizers and reviewed by the Program
Committee members, approximately 50 have been accepted for publication in 
the proceedings.  They will be presented as talks or posters.
(To receive by e-mail a preliminary program please contact one of the
conference chairmen).

Since the conference intersects animal and "animat" research,
lively interaction can be expected, including controversy.  At least
one panel discussion will be organized around the theme of what each
viewpoint can contribute to the other.

Because the conference is emphasizing simulation models, it is anticipated
that many participants will have computer programs demonstrating their
work.  To make such demonstrations possible, the Organizers will provide
workstations and video equipment.  An evening session during the week
will be devoted to demonstrations.

Morning and afternoon coffee breaks will be provided.  To further promote
interaction among a diverse group of participants, the conference will
provide lunch each day.  


7.  Additional Information

Additional information can be obtained from the chairmen:

    Dr. Jean-Arcady Meyer
    Groupe de Bioinformatique
    URA686.Ecole Normale Superieure
    46 rue d'Ulm
    75230 Paris Cedex 05
    France
    e-mail: meyer at frulm63.bitnet
		meyer at hermes.ens.fr
    Tel: (1) 43.29.12.25
    FAX: (1) 43.29.81.72

    Dr. Stewart W. Wilson
    The Rowland Institute for Science
    100 Cambridge Parkway
    Cambridge, MA  02142
    USA
    e-mail: wilson at think.com
    Tel: (617) 497-4650
    FAX: (617) 497-4627


8. Travel and Lodging

Participants will be responsible for their own travel and lodging arrangements.
However, you may contact any of three hotel reservations services which have
agreed to offer advantageous locations and rates to participants in SAB90.
We advise making early reservations and mentioning "SAB90" in your request.

These services are:

 - Hotel Pullman Saint-Jacques(****): rooms at 800-900 FF, 
 						fax (33 1 45 88 43 93)

 - Tradotel(*** and **): rooms at 440-520 FF, fax (33 1 47 27 05 87)

 - AJF: student rooms at 80-90 FF, fax (33 1 40 27 08 71)



9.   Registration fees

Attendance at SAB90 will be open to any person paying the registration fee
which is set at $ 220 (or 1200 FF) for non-students and $ 110 (or 600 FF)
for students.  The registration fee covers five lunches, coffee-breaks, 
and a copy of the Proceedings.

 ******************************************************************************
 *WARNING: The audience size is strictly limited to 150 persons. Registrations*
 *will be closed beyond this number.                                          *
 ******************************************************************************


REGISTRATION FORM

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last name:                          First name:

Profession/Title:

Organization:

Address:



State/Zip Code/Country:

Telephone:

Fax:

E-mail:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This form should be sent to:

                  Dr. Jean-Arcady MEYER
                  Groupe de BioInformatique
                  URA686. Ecole Normale Superieure
                  46 rue d'Ulm
                  75230 PARIS Cedex 05
                  FRANCE

with a check for the registration fee to the order of:

                  J.A. MEYER 'SAB90'

The check can be in US Dollars or French Francs. To receive the student rate,
please attach evidence of student status from your University or Scientific 
Advisor.

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