[ACT-R-users] Quick Interest Poll: Biologically-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Symposium

[Jake Beal]

Patrick Winston, Michael Coen, Nick Cassimatis, and I are proposing
a AAAI Fall Symposium on Biologically-Inspired Artificial Intelligence.
I'm appending our draft CFP to the end of this email.

If you might be interested in participating, please send me an email
before close of business tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 25).  This is not a
commitment: we just need active indication of interest for the list of
potential participants in our proposal.  Apologies for the short
notice.

Thanks,
-Jake Beal
(Postdoctoral Associate, MIT CSAIL)

----- Begin Draft CFP -----
Biologically-Inspired Artificial Intelligence

The divide between how biological and computational systems solve
problems and adjust to novel situations is readily apparent.  Animals
display marked flexibility in adjusting to new situations, whereas
computational approaches excel in well-defined, formally structured
domains.

We are interested in new approaches to bridging this gap.  Our
perspective is that studies of natural and artificial intelligences
can and should be mutually informative.  Even juvenile animals solve
apparently difficult computational problems and we believe
understanding how they do this will enable the creation of more
sophisticated artificial systems.  Conversely, computational models
provide structure and insight into understanding animal learning and
cognition.  By combining biological and computational perspectives, we
expect to obtain new insights into furthering the historic goals of
artificial intelligence.

This symposium is intended to bring together researchers interested in
pursuing this agenda.  Participants are invited to submit either a
position paper or a brief report on relevant work.  Topics of
particular interest include, but are not limited to:

* Approaches to attaining breadth and flexibility
* Systems or models incorporating multiple cognitive capabilities
* Applying models of natural intelligence to engineered systems,
  or vice versa
* Case histories of recent success or interesting failure in crossing
  between these fields
* Near-term tractable problems deserving of greater attention
* Experimental techniques and measurement strategies

The symposium will mix short talks from participants with extensive
discussion on the challenges of doing research relevant to both
natural and artificial systems.
----- End Draft CFP -----