CfP: AAAI-07 workshop on Explanation-aware Computing ExaCt 2007

[Pierre Grenon]

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                         CALL FOR PAPERS
                  for the AAAI-07 Workshop on

            EXPLANATION-AWARE COMPUTING (ExaCt 2007)

              22 - 23 July 2007, Vancouver (Canada)

                   http://exact2007.workshop.hm/

            Paper submission deadline: April 2, 2007


OBJECTIVES
Explanation has been widely investigated in disciplines such as
artificial intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy
of science, and education. All these disciplines consider varying
aspects of "explanation", making it clear that there are many
different views of the nature of explanation.  Both within AI
systems and in interactive systems, the ability to explain reasoning
processes and results can have substantial impact. Within the field
of knowledge-based systems, explanations have been considered as an
important link between humans and machines to increase the confidence
of the user in the system's result, by providing evidence of how it
was derived. In mixed-initiative problem solving, explanations
exchanged between human and software agents may play an important
role in communication between humans and software systems. Additional
research has focused on how computer systems can themselves use
explanations, for example to guide learning. This workshop aims to
draw on multiple perspectives on explanation, to examine how
explanation can be applied to further the development of robust and
dependable systems and to illuminate system processes to increase
user acceptance and feeling of control.



GOALS AND AUDIENCE
The main goal of the workshop is to bring researchers, scientists
from both industry and academics, and representatives from different
communities and areas such as those mentioned above, together to
study, understand, and explore explanation in IT-applications. Besides
presentations and discussions of invited contributions and invited
talks, this symposium will offer organized and open spaces for
targeted discussions and creating an interdisciplinary community.


TOPICS OF INTEREST
Suggested topics for contributions (not restricted on IT views):
 * Models for explanations
 * Integrating application and explanation knowledge
 * Explanation-awareness in applications
 * Methodologies for developing explanation-aware systems
 * Learning to explain
 * Context-aware explanation
 * Confidence and explanations
 * Requirements and needs for explanations to support human
   understanding
 * Explanation of complex, autonomous systems
 * Cooperative explanation
 * Explanatory aspects of argumentation


SUBMISSIONS AND STYLE
Workshop submissions will be electronic, in pdf format only, using
a submission system on the workshop website.

Papers must be written in English and not exceed 5 pages in the AAAI
two-column format. At least one author of each accepted paper must
register for the workshop and present the contribution in order to
be published in the workshop proceedings.

Those wishing to participate providing a live system demonstration
should submit a proposal. A separate call for demos will be posted
for details at the workshop website.

Those wishing to participate without paper or demo submission should
submit a brief synopsis of their relevant work by XXXXXXX, 2007.

Attendance is limited to active participants only.


IMPORTANT DATES
  Submission deadline:                     April 2, 2007
  Notification of acceptance:              April 25, 2007
  Camera-ready versions of papers:         May 15, 2007


WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
The schedule will be made available on the workshop website.


INVITED TALK
 Douglas N. Walton, Department of Philosophy, University of
   Winnipeg, Canada


CHAIRS
 Thomas R. Roth-Berghofer, trb at dfki.uni-kl.de
   DFKI GmbH / TU Kaiserslautern, Germany
 Stefan Schulz, schulz at e-spirit.de
   The e-Spirit Company GmbH, Dortmund, Germany
 David B. Leake, leake at cs.indiana.edu
   Computer Science Department, Indiana University, USA

DEMO CHAIR
 Daniel Bahls, bahls at dfki.uni-kl.de
   DFKI GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany


PROGRAM COMMITTEE
 David W. Aha, Navy Center for Applied Research in AI, Washington
   DC, USA
 Derek Bridge, University College Cork, Ireland
 Michael T. Cox, BBN, USA
 Jörg Cassens, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
 Francisco Javier Díez, UNED Madrid, Spain
 Babak Esfandiari, Carleton University, Canada
 Peter Funk, Mälardalen University, Sweden
 Pierre Grenon, IFOMIS, University of Saarbrücken, Germany
 David McSherry, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
 Hector Muñoz-Avila, Lehigh University, USA
 Paulo Pinheiro da Silva, University of Texas, El Paso, USA
 Enric Plaza, IIIA-CSIC, Spain
 Michael M. Richter, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
 Christophe Roche, University of Savoie, France
 Sven Schwarz, DFKI, Germany
 Gheorghe Tecuci, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA