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[Ron Sun]

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                 Call For Papers and Participation

                      The IJCAI Workshop on
                   Connectionist-Symbolic Integration: 
                      From Unified to Hybrid Approaches



                        to be held at IJCAI'95 
                          Montreal, Canada
                          August 19-20, 1995
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There has been a considerable amount of research in integrating
connectionist and symbolic processing.  While such an approach has
clear advantages, it also encounters serious difficulties and
challenges.  Therefore, various models and ideas have been proposed to
address various problems and aspects in this integration. There is a
growing interest from many segments of the AI community, ranging from
expert systems, to cognitive modeling, to logical reasoning.

Two major trends can be identified in the state of the art: these are
the unified or purely and the hybrid approaches to integration.
Whereas the purely connectionist ("connectionist-to-the-top") approach
claims that complex symbol processing functionalities can be achieved
via neural networks alone, the hybrid approach is premised on the
complementarity of the two paradigms and aims at their synergistic
combination in systems comprising both neural and symbolic components.
In fact, these trends can be viewed as two ends of an entire spectrum.

Up till now, overall, there is still relatively little work in
comparing and combining these fairly isolated efforts. This workshop
will provide a forum for discussions and exchanges of ideas in this
area, to foster cooperative work.  The workshop will tackle important
issues in integrating connectionist and symbolic processing.


A tentative Schedule
---------------------

Day 1:

A. Introduction:

* Invited talks  
  These talks will provide an overview of the field and set the tone for 
  ensuing discussions. 
* Theoretical foundations for integrating connectionist and symbolic 
  processing

B. Definition of the two approaches: 

* Do they exhaust the space of current research in connectionist-symbolic 
  integration, or is there room for additional categories?
* How do we compare the unified and hybrid approaches?
* Do the unified and hybrid approaches constitute a clearcut dichotomy or
  are they just endpoints of a continuum?
* What class of processes and problems is well-suited to unified or hybrid 
  integration? The relevant motivations and  objectives.
* What type of model is suitable for what type of application? Enumerate 
  viable target domains.

C. State of the art:

* Recent or ongoing theoretical or experimental research work 
* Implemented models belonging to either the unified or hybrid approach
* Practical applications of both types of systems

Research addressing key issues concerning:

* the unified approach: theoretical or practical issues involving 
  systematicity, compositionality and variable binding, biologically 
  inspired models, connectionist knowledge representation, other 
  high-level connectionist models.

* the hybrid approach: modes and methods of coupling, task sharing between 
  various components of a hybrid system, knowledge representation and sharing.

* both: commonsense reasoning, natural language processing, analogical 
  reasoning, and more generally applications of unified and hybrid models.


Day 2:

D. Cognitive Aspects:

* Cognitive plausibility and relations to other AI paradigms
* In cognitive modeling, why should we integrate connectionist and symbolic 
  processing?
* Is there a clear cognitive rationale for such integration?  (we may
  need to examine in detail some typical areas, such as commonsense reasoning,
  and natural language processing)
* Is there psychological and/or biological evidence for existing models? 
  If so, what is it?

E. Open research issues:

* Can we now propose a common terminology with precise definitions for both 
  approaches to connectionist-symbolic integration and for the location on 
  the continuum?
* How far can unified systems go? Can unified models be supplemented by 
  hybrid models? Can hybrid models be supplanted by unified models?
* Limitations and barriers faced by both approaches
* What breakthroughs are needed for both approaches?
* Is it possible to synthesize various existing models? 


Workshop format
---------------
- panel discussions 
- mini-group discussions: participants will break into groups of 7/8
  to discuss a given theme; group leaders will then form a panel to
  report on group discussions and attempt a synthesis with audience
  participation 
- interactive talks: this is a novel type of oral presentation we will 
  experiment with. Instead of a classical presentation, the
  speaker will present a problem or issue and give a brief statement
  of his personal stand (5 min) to launch discussions which he will
  then moderate and conclude.
- classical slide talks followed by Q/A and discussions.


Workshop Co-chairs: 
-------------------
Frederic Alexandre, Crin-Cnrs/Inria-Lorraine
Ron Sun,   The University of Alabama 

Organizing Committee:
---------------------
John Barnden, New Mexico State University 
Steve Gallant,  Belmont Research Inc.       
Larry Medsker,  American University
Christian Pellegrini, University of Geneva
Noel Sharkey,  Sheffield University

Program Committee:
------------------
Lawrence Bookman (Sun Laboratory, USA)
Michael Dyer (UCLA, USA)
Wolfgang Ertel (FRW, Germany)
LiMin Fu (University of Florida, USA)
Jose Gonzalez-Cristobal (UPM, Spain)
Ruben Gonzalez-Rubio (University of Sherbrooke, Canada)
Jean-Paul Haton (Crin-Inria, France)
Melanie Hilario (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Abderrahim Labbi (IMAG, France)
Ronald Yager (Iona College, USA)


Schedule:
---------
- The submission deadline for participants is February 1, 1995.
- The authors and potential participants will be notified the acceptance 
  decision by March 15, 1995.
- The camera-ready copies of working notes papers will be due on April 15, 1995


Submission:
-----------
- If you wish to present a talk, specify the preferred type of presentation 
  (classical or interactive talk) and submit 5 copies of an
  extended abstract (within the limit of 5-7 pages) to:

Prof. Ron Sun   
Department of Computer Science
The University of Alabama 
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
(205) 348-6363

- If you only wish to attend the workshop, send 5 copies of a short
  (no more than one page) description of your interest to the same address 
  above.

- Please be sure to include your e-mail address in all submissions.