Conference Announcement and Call For Papers

[Maja Mataric]

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             Conference Announcement and Call For Papers

                      FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS

 Fourth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB96)

          Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, September 9-13, 1996

The objective of the conference is to bring together researchers in
ethology, psychology, ecology, artificial intelligence, artificial
life, robotics, and related fields so as to further our understanding
of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms that allow natural and
artificial animals to adapt and survive in uncertain environments.

The conference will focus particularly on well-defined models,
computer simulations, and robotics demonstrations, in order to help
characterize and compare various organizational principles or
architectures capable of inducing adaptive behavior in real animals or
synthetic agents.

Contributions treating any of the following topics from the
perspective of adaptive behavior will receive special emphasis:

   		
   Action selection			Learning and development
   Perception and motor control         Evolutionary computation
   Neural correlates of behavior        Coevolutionary models
   Emergent structures and behaviors    Parallel and distributed models
   Motivation and emotion               Collective and social behavior
   Internal world models                Autonomous robots
   Characterization of environments     Applied adaptive behavior


Authors should make every effort to suggest implications of their work
for both natural and artificial animals.  Papers which do not deal
explicitly with adaptive behavior will be rejected.


Submission Instructions

Authors are requested to send five copies (hard copy only) of a full
paper to the Program Chair (Pattie Maes) arriving no later than Feb
9th, 1996.  Late submissions will not be considered. Papers should not
exceed 10 pages (excluding the title page), with 1 inch margins all
around, and no smaller than 10 pt (12 pitch) type (Times Roman
preferred).  The Web site listed below contains the latex .sty file
producing the preferred format for submissions. Each paper must
include a title page containing the following: (1) Full names, postal
addresses, phone numbers, email addresses (if available), and fax
numbers for each author, (2) A 100-200 word abstract, (3) The topic
area(s) in which the paper could be reviewed (see list above).  Camera
ready versions of the papers, in two-column format, will be required
by May 10th.

Computer, video, and robotic demonstrations are also invited for
submission.  Submit a 2-page proposal plus a title page as above to
the program chair. Indicate equipment requirements and relevance to
the themes of the conference.


Conference Chairs
 
	  Pattie Maes, Program
          MIT Media Lab
	  20 Ames Street Rm 305
	  Cambridge, MA 02139
          USA
          email: pattie at media.mit.edu

	  Maja Mataric, Local Arrangements
          Volen Center for Complex Systems
          Computer Science Department
          Brandeis University
          Waltham, MA 02254
          USA
          email: maja at cs.brandeis.edu

          Jean-Arcady Meyer, Publicity
          Groupe de Bioinformatique
          URA686.Ecole Normale Superieure
          46 rue d'Ulm
          75230 Paris Cedex 05
          France
          email: meyer at wotan.ens.fr

	  Jordan Pollack, Local Arrangements/Financial
          Volen Center for Complex Systems
          Computer Science Department
          Brandeis University
          Waltham, MA 02254
          USA
          email: pollack at cs.brandeis.edu

	  Herbert Roitblat, Financial
          Department of Psychology
          University of Hawaii
          2430 Campus Road
          Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
          email: roitblat at uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu

          Stewart Wilson, Proceedings
          The Rowland Institute for Science
	  100 Edwin H. Land Blvd.
          Cambridge, MA  02142
          USA
          email: wilson at smith.rowland.org


(Tentative) Program Committee:

M. Arbib, USA; R.  Arkin, USA; R.  Beer, USA; A.  Berthoz, France; B.
Blumberg, USA; L.  Booker, USA; R. Brooks, USA; D. Cliff, UK; P.
Colgan, Canada; T. Collett, UK; H. Cruse, Germany; J.  Delius,
Germany; A. Dickinson, UK; J. Ferber, France; D. Floreano, UK; N.
Franceschini, France; S. Giszter, USA; S. Goss, Belgium; J. Hallam,
UK; I. Harvey, UK; I. Horswill, USA; P.  Husbands, UK; L. Kaelbling,
USA; H. Klopf, USA; L-J. Lin, USA; M. Littman, USA; D. McFarland, UK;
J. Millan, Spain; G. Miller, UK; R. Pfeifer, Switzerland; J. Slotine,
USA; T. Smithers, Spain; O. Sporns, USA; J. Staddon, USA; L. Steels,
Belgium; L. Stein, USA; F. Toates, UK; P. Todd, USA; S. Tsuji, Japan;
W. Uttal, USA; D. Waltz, USA.


Official Language: English
Publisher: MIT Press/Bradford Books

Important Dates
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         FEB 9, 1996:    Submissions must be received 
         APR 12:         Notification of acceptance or rejection (via email)
         MAY 10:         Camera ready revised versions due
         JUN 10:         Early registration deadline
         AUG 8:          Hotel reservations and regular registration deadline
         SEP 9-13:       Conference dates

General queries to: sab96 at cs.brandeis.edu
WWW Page: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/conferences/sab96

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