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<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">As part of the AISB conference to be held at the University of Sussex, UK, 1 to 2 July 2026</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">The conference is organised by The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB)</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"MS Mincho"">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif"><a href="http://www.aisb.org.uk/">http://www.aisb.org.uk/</a>
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">OVERVIEW:
</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">The symposium will be a one-day session of talks, Q&A’s, and panel discussions, structured around two themes: foundations, and
applications. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Each session will open with a keynote speaker (45 min presentation +15 min Q&A), include up to four further talks (15-30 min slots),
and will wrap up with a panel discussion and audience questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif">Confirmed speakers:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc">
<li class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif">Prof. Gualtiero Piccinini<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif">Dr. Fernando Rosas<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif">Dr. Kate Nave<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif">Dr. Nathaniel Virgo<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">TOPICS OF INTEREST
</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">1- Foundations:</span></u></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Foundational debates concerning the nature of computational processes, the status of formal and physical models, and the relationship
between abstraction and implementation - have been reopened by both theoretical developments and increasingly powerful real-world systems. Against this backdrop, the symposium’s foundations strand invites critical reflection on the conceptual terrain of computation,
motivating the following guiding questions:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What makes a process computational?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Are classic distinctions between syntax and semantics, or implementational, algorithmic, and computational levels of description sound?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Is computation subjective or objective, abstract or concrete, mathematical or physical?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What are the limits of computation? Is undecidability restricted to a mathematical realm?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">2- Applications:</span></u></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">The applications strand of the symposium will re-examine the role of computational concepts and tools across various research contexts
relating to intelligence and adaptive behaviour. To further discussion of this topic, we seek contributors to address the below questions:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What are the distinctive strengths and limitations of computational explanations —generally, and in specific fields?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Is cognition a computational process? If so, what makes certain computational processes cognitive, and others not?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What is gained, and is anything lost, by treating cognition, life, and other processes computationally?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What is the explanatory role of representations and algorithmic models in the cognitive sciences?
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsolistparagraph" style="margin-left:35.7pt;text-indent:-17.85pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol">·</span><span style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">What are the prospects for and obstacles to the development of a “computational phenomenology”? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION DETAILS
</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">We invite abstracts of up to 500 words on any of the above and related topics.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Each paper will receive at least two reviews. Selected papers will be published in the general proceedings of the AISB Conference,
with the proviso that at least ONE author attends the symposium, in person, in order to present the paper and participate in general symposium activities.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Accepted talks will be allotted 20, 30, 45-minute slots, plus a sit in the discussion panel.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Submission deadline: 15/05/2026</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Decision will be made and communicated to all contributors by the end of May.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif"> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">SYMPOSIUM ORGANISERS:
</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Adam Rostowski (<a href="mailto:a.rostowski@sussex.ac.uk" target="_blank">a.rostowski@sussex.ac.uk</a>), Department of Informatics, University
of Sussex</span></i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Ben White (<a href="mailto:B.White@sussex.ac.uk" target="_blank">b.white@sussex.ac.uk</a>), Department of Informatics, University of Sussex. </span></i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">Fernando Rodriguez-Vergara (<a href="mailto:f.rodriguez-vergara@sussex.ac.uk" target="_blank">f.rodriguez-vergara@sussex.ac.uk</a>), Sussex Neuroscience,
University of Sussex </span></i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif">SYMPOSIUM WEBSITE:
</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/foundations-of-computation">https://sites.google.com/view/foundations-of-computation</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;color:#284677;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before:always">
</span></b>
<p class="xmsonormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;color:#284677"> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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