Workshop on Neural Architectures and Distributed AI

[Jim Liaw]

Please note the change in deadline of submission of abstracts.

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The Center for Neural Engineering
University of Southern California
announces a Workshop on

Neural Architectures and Distributed AI:
>From Schema Assemblages to Neural Networks
October 19-20, 1993

[This Workshop was previously 
scheduled for April 1993]

Program Committee: Michael Arbib (Organizer), 
George Bekey, Damian Lyons, Paul Rosenbloom, and 
Ron Sun

To design complex technological systems, we need a 
multilevel methodology which combines a coarse-
grain analysis of cooperative or distributed 
computation (we shall refer to the computing agents 
at this level as "schemas") with a fine-grain model 
of flexible, adaptive computation (for which neural 
networks provide a powerful general paradigm).  
Schemas provide a language for distributed 
artificial intelligence and perceptual robotics 
which is "in the style of the brain", but at a 
relatively high level of abstraction relative to 
neural networks.  We seek (both at the level of 
schema asemblages, and in terms of "modular" neural 
networks) a distributed model of computation, 
supporting many concurrent activities for 
recognition of objects, and the planning and 
control of different activities.  The use, 
representation, and recall of knowledge is mediated 
through the activity of a network of interacting 
computing agents which between them provide 
processes for going from a particular situation and 
a particular structure of goals and tasks to a 
suitable course of action.  This action may involve 
passing of messages, changes of state, 
instantiation to add new schema instances to the 
network, deinstantiation to remove instances, and 
may involve self-modification and self-
organization. Schemas provide a form of knowledge 
representation which differs from frames and 
scripts by being of a finer granularity.  Schema 
theory is generative: schemas may well be linked to 
others to provide yet more comprehensive schemas, 
whereas frames tend to "build in" from the overall 
framework.  The analysis of interacting computing 
agents (the schema instances) is intermediate 
between the overall specification of some behavior 
and the neural networks that subserve it.   The 
Workshop will focus on different facets of this 
multi-level methodology.  While the emphasis will 
be on technological systems, papers will also be 
accepted on  biological and cognitive systems.


Submission of Papers

A list of sample topics for contributions is as 
follows, where a hybrid approach means one in which 
the abstract schema level is integrated with neural 
or other lower level models:

Schema Theory as a description language for 
neural networks

Modular neural networks

Alternative paradigms for modeling symbolic 
and subsymbolic knowledge

Hierarchical and distributed representations: 
adaptation and coding:

Linking DAI to Neural Networks to Hybrid 
Architecture

Formal Theories of Schemas

Hybrid approaches to integrating planning & 
reaction

Hybrid approaches to learning 

Hybrid approaches to commonsense reasoning by 
integrating neural networks and rule-based reasoning 
(using schemas for the integration)

Programming Languages for Schemas and Neural 
Networks

Schema Theory Applied in Cognitive 
Psychology, Linguistics, and Neuroscience

Prospective contributors should send a five-page 
extended abstract, including figures with 
informative captions and full references - a hard 
copy, either by regular mail or fax - by 
August 30, 1993  to Michael Arbib, Center for 
Neural Engineering, University of Southern 
California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA [Tel: 
(213) 740-9220, Fax: (213) 746-2863, 
arbib at pollux.usc.edu].   Please include your full 
address, including fax and email, on the paper. 

In accepting papers submitted in response to this 
Call for Papers, preference will be given to papers 
which present practical examples of, theory of, 
and/or methodology for the design and analysis of 
complex systems in which the overall specification 
or analysis is conducted in terms of a network of 
interacting schemas, and where some but not 
necessarily all of the schemas are implemented in 
neural networks.  Papers which present a single 
neural network for pattern recognition ("perceptual 
schema") or pattern generation ("motor schema") 
will not be accepted.  It is the development of a 
methodology to analyze the interaction of multiple 
functional units that constitutes the distinctive 
thrust of this Workshop.

Notification of acceptance or rejection will be 
sent by email no later than September 1, 1993.  
There are currently no plans to issue a formal 
proceedings of full papers, but (revised versions) 
of accepted abstracts received prior to October 1, 
1993 will be collected with the full text of the 
Tutorial in a CNE Technical Report which will be 
made available to registrants at the start of the 
meeting.


A number of papers have already been accepted for 
the Workshop.  These include the following:

Arbib: Schemas and Neural Networks: A Tutorial 
Introduction to Integrating Symbolic and 
Subsymbolic Approaches to Cooperative Computation

Arkin: Reactive Schema-based Robotic Systems: 
Principles and Practice

Heenskerk and Keijzer: A Real-time Neural 
Implementation of a Schema Driven Toy-Car

Leow and Miikkulainen, Representing and Learning 
Visual Schemas in Neural Networks for Scene 
Analysis

Lyons  & Hendriks: Describing and analysing robot 
behavior with schema theory

Murphy, Lyons & Hendriks: Visually Guided Multi-
Fingered Robot Hand Grasping as Defined by Schemas 
and a Reactive System

Sun: Neural Schemas and Connectionist Logic:  A 
Synthesis of the Symbolic and the Subsymbolic

Weitzenfeld: Hierarchy, Composition, Heterogeneity, 
and Multi-granularity in Concurrent Object-Oriented 
Programming for Schemas and Neural Networks

Wilson & Hendler: Neural Network Software Modules

Bonus Event: The CNE Research Review: 
Monday, October 18, 1993
The CNE Review will present a day-long sampling of 
CNE research, with talks by faculty, and students, 
as well as demos of hardware and software.  Special 
attention will  be paid to talks on, and demos in, 
our new Autonomous Robotics Lab and Neuro-Optical 
Computing Lab.  Fully paid registrants of the 
Workshop are entitled to attend the CNE Review at 
no extra charge.


Registration
The registration fee of $150 ($40 for qualified 
students who include a "certificate of student 
status" from their advisor) includes a copy of the 
abstracts, coffee breaks, and a dinner to be held 
on the evening of October 18th.

Those wishing to register should send a check 
payable to "Center for Neural Engineering, USC" for 
$150 ($40 for students and CNE members) together 
with the following information to Paulina Tagle, 
Center for Neural Engineering, University of 
Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, 
CA 90089-2520, USA.



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SCHEMAS AND NEURAL NETWORKS
Center for Neural Engineering, USC
October 19-20, 1993
NAME:  ___________________________________________ 
ADDRESS: _________________________________________ 
PHONE NO.: _______________ 
FAX:___________________ 
EMAIL: ___________________________________________
I intend to submit a paper: YES  [   ]      NO   [   ]

I wish to be registered for the CNE Research 
Review: YES  [   ]      NO   [   ]


Accommodation
Attendees may register at the hotel of their 
choice, but the closest hotel to USC is the 
University Hilton, 3540 South Figueroa Street, Los 
Angeles, CA 90007, Phone:  (213) 748-4141, 
Reservation: (800) 872-1104, Fax: (213) 7480043.  A 
single room costs $70/night while a double room 
costs $75/night.  Workshop participants must 
specify that they are "Schemas and Neural Networks 
Workshop" attendees to avail of the above rates.   
Information on student accommodation may be 
obtained from the Student Chair, Jean-Marc Fellous, 
fellous at pollux.usc.edu.