Course at the International School on Neural Nets "E. R. Caianiello"

[Dario Malchiodi]

Here enclosed you find the programme of the course FROM SYNAPSES TO RULES:
DISCOVERING SYMBOLIC RULES FROM NEURAL PROCESSED DATA.

Dario Malchiodi

malchiodi at dsi.unimi.it

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GALILEO GALILEI FOUNDATION
WORLD FEDERATION OF SCIENTISTS
ETTORE MAJORANA CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC CULTURE

GALILEO GALILEI CELEBRATIONS

Four Centuries Since the Birth of MODREN SCIENCE

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON NEURAL NETS
"E. R. CAIANIELLO"

5th Course: FROM SYNAPSES TO RULES: DISCOVERING
 SYMBOLIC RULES FROM NEURAL PROCESSED DATA

ERICE-SICILY: 25 FEBRUARY - 7 MARCH 2002

Sponsored by the:
	International Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies (IIASS)
	Italian Ministry of Education, University, Scientific Research and Technology
	Sicilian Regional Government
	Italian Society for Nerual Networks (SIREN)
	University of Salerno
	University of Milan



PROGRAMME AND LECTURERS




Inferential bases for learning
Theoretical foundations for soft computing
Integration of symbolic-subsymbolic reasoning methods
Physics and metaphysics of learning
Toward applications


* B. Apolloni, University of Milan, I
* D. Malchiodi, University of Milan, I
* D. Mundici, University of Milan, I
* M. Gori, University of Siena, I
* F. Kurfess, California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo, CA , USA
* A. Roy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
* R. Sun, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO, USA
* L. Agnati, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, S
* G. Basti, Pontificia Università Lateranense, Rome, I
* G. Biella, C.N.R. LITA, Milan, I
* J. G. Taylor, King's College, London, UK
* A. Esposito, Istituto Italiano Alti Studi Scientifici, Vietri, I
* A. Moise, Boise State University, ID, USA


PURPOSE OF THE COURSE

The school aims at fixing a theoretical and applicatry framework for
extracting formal rules from data. To this end the modern approaches will
be expounded that collapse the two typical goals of the conventional AI
and connectionism - respectively, deducing within an axiomatic shell
formal rules about a phenomenon and inferring the actual behavior of it
from examples - into a challenging inferential framework where we learn
from data and understand what we have learnt. The target reads as a
translation of the subsymbolic structure of the data - stored in the
synapses of a neural network - into formal properties described by rules.
To capture this trip from synapses to rules and then render it manageable
for affording real world learning tasks, the Course will deal in depth
with the following aspects: i. theoretical foundations of learning
algorithms and soft computing, ii. intimate relationships between symbolic
and subsymbolic reasoning methods, iii. integration of the related hosting
architectures in both physiological and artificial brain.

APPLICATIONS

Interested candidates should send a letter to:

* Professor Bruno Apolloni - Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Informazione
Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Comelico 39/41 20135 Milano, Italy
Tel: ++39.02.5835.6284, Fax: ++39.02.5835.6228
e-mail: apolloni at dsi.unimi.it

specifying:

i) date and place of birth and present activity;
ii) nationality.

Thanks to the generosity of the sponsoring Institutions, partial support
can be granted to some deserving students who need financial aid. Requests
to this effect must be specified and justified in the letter of
application. Notification of acceptance will be sent within the end of
January 2002.

* PLEASE NOTE

Participants must arrive in Erice on 25 February, not later than 5 p.m.

Closing date for applications: December 15, 2001 
No special application form is required




POETIC TOUCH

According to legend, Erice, son of Venus and Neptune, founded a small town
on top of a mountain (750 meters above sea level) more than three thousand
years ago. The founder of modern history - i.e. the recording of eventos
in a methodic and chronological sequence as they really happened without
reference to mythical causes - the great Thucydides (~500 B.C.), writing
about events connected with the conquest of Troy (1183 B.C.), says: "After
the fall of Troy some Trojans on their escape from the Achaei arrived in
Sicily on boats and as they settled near the border with the Sicanians all
together they were named Elymi: their towns were Segesta and Erice". This
inspired Virgil to describe the arrival of the Trojan royal family in
Erice and the burial of Anchise, by his son Enea, on the coast below
Erice. Homer (~1000 B.C.) , Theocritus (~300 B.C.), Polybius (~200 B.C.),
Virgil (~50 B.C.), Horace (~20 B.C.), and other have celebrated this
magnificent spot in Sicily in their poems. During seven centuries
(XIII-XIX) the town of Erice was under the leadership of a local
oligarchy, whose wisdom assured a long period of cultural development and
economic prosperity which in turn gave rise to the many chunches,
monasteries and private palaces which you see today. In Erice you can
admire the Castle of Venus, the Cyclopean Walls (~800 B.C.) and the Gothic
Cathedral (~1300 A.D.). Erice is at present a mixture of ancient and
medieval architecture. Other masterpieces of ancient civilization are to
be found in the neighbourhood: at Motya (Phoenician), Segesta (Elymian),
and Selinunte (Greek). On the Aegadian Islands - theatre of the decisive
naval battle of the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) - suggestive neolithic
and paleolithic vestiges are still visible: the grottoes of Favignana, the
carvings and murals of Levanzo. Splendid beaches are to be found at San
Vito Lo Capo, Scopello, and Cornino, and a wild and rocky coast around
Monte Cofano: all at less than one hour's drive from Erice.



More information about this Course and the other activities of the Ettore
Majorana Centre can be found on the WWW at the following address:
http://www.ccsem.infn.it


B. APOLLONI, A. MOISE
DIRECTORS OF THE COURSE
M. J. JORDAN, M. MARINARO
DIRECTORS OF THE SCHOOL
A. ZICHICHI
DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE