AAAI-08 and IAAI-08 Conferences Provide Focal Point for AI

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Sara Reese Hedberg

n This summer’s AAAI Conference on Artifi- cial Intelligence (AAAI-08) and its sister T Conference on Innovative Applications of AI his summer’s AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI- (IAAI-08) continued their long tradition of 08) and its sister Conference on Innovative Applications of AI (IAAI- being a focal point of AI. This year’s confer- 08) continued their long tradition of being a focal point of AI. “The ences were held in Chicago at the Hyatt Re- annual AAAI conference is a nexus for exchanging the latest ideas in gency McCormick Place, July 13–17, 2008. The multidimensional conference offerings the field,” according to Eric Horvitz, president of AAAI and a research included nine invited talks, 251 technical manager at Microsoft Research. This year’s conferences were held in papers, 22 innovative applications of AI pa- Chicago at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, July 13–17, 2008. pers, three competitions (poker, AI video, The multidimensional conference offerings included nine invited and general game playing), three special talks, 251 technical papers, 22 innovative applications of AI papers, tracks (AI and the web, integrated intelli- three competitions (poker, AI video, and general game playing), three gence, and physically grounded AI), 15 tu- special tracks (AI and the web, integrated intelligence, and physically torials, 15 workshops, and 11 intelligent grounded AI), 15 tutorials, 15 workshops, and 11 intelligent system system demonstrations, as well as a number of awards, a doctoral consortium, student demonstrations, as well as a number of awards, a doctoral consortium, poster session and programs, and a vendor student poster session and programs, and a vendor exhibit. This trans- exhibit. This translated into a plethora of lated into a plethora of choices for the 921 conference attendees. An choices for the 921 conference attendees. An additional 175 people exclusively attended the tutorials, workshops, additional 175 people exclusively attended or exhibit. the tutorials, workshops, or exhibit. Highly Distinguished Invited Speakers Perhaps one of the true litmus tests of any conference is the caliber of the invited speakers. The AAAI-08 and IAAI-08 conferences brought

Eric Horvitz Delivers His AAAI Presidential Address at AAAI-08. together nine distinguished speakers of Evolutionary History of the Human cial computing networks (“Sense and including Eric Horvitz (AAAI president Genome.” Sensibility: Sentiment Analysis, Opin- and research manager at Microsoft Re- The distinguished Robert S. Engle- ion Mining, and the Computational search) who gave his AAAI presidential more Memorial Award Lecture was de- Treatment of Subjective Language”), address, “Artificial Intelligence in the livered by Kenneth Ford (Florida Insti- while Seth C. Goldstein (Carnegie Open World.”1 tute for Human and Machine Cog- Mellon University) discussed revolu- Chris Urmson (Carnegie Mellon nition). In his lecture, “Toward Cogni- tionary work in self-reconfiguring pro- University), a leading member of the tive Prostheses,” Ford discussed hu- grammable matter composed of en- DARPA Urban Grand Challenge win- man-centered computing to amplify sembles of submillimeter robots in his ning team, described the race and win- human cognition and perception. talk, “Realizing Claytronics: A Chal- ning vehicle in his talk, “Boss, the Ur- In other invited talks, Stuart Russell lenge for AI.” ban Challenge, and the Promise of (University of California, Berkeley) ex- Autonomous Driving,” while Mark amined what has been achieved in AI Big Changes Come to Newman (University of Michigan) de- and what remains to be done to reach scribed some of the study of networks the goals imagined by the early AI pi- Mobile Robot Events across disciplines such as mathemat- oneers (“What Is to Be Done?”), Alex- The 2008 mobile robot events saw a ics, sociology, computer science, ei A. Efros (Carnegie Mellon Universi- significant departure from the past 16 physics, biology, and so on and pre- ty) discussed how to enable computers years of the Mobile Robot Competi- sented promising new research in ma- to reason about a scene from a photo- tion and Exhibition. Instead of the chine learning for network analysis in graph (“From Images to Scenes: Using popular competition, which has his talk, “Making Sense of Complex Lots of Data to Infer Geometric, Pho- pushed the envelope of mobile robot- Networks.” David Haussler (University tometric, and Semantic Scene Proper- ics since its inception, this year was of California, Santa Cruz) traced the ties from a Single Image”), and Lillian host to a Robot Workshop and Exhibi- growing understanding of the human Lee (Cornell University) covered work tion. genome in his talk, “100 Million Years in analyzing opinions expressed in so- The workshop afforded an opportu-

88 AI MAGAZINE Reports nity to reflect on what has been achieved in mobile robotics and to dis- cuss possible future directions to move the science forward. Distinguished re- searchers from 15 leading U.S. univer- sities (including Stanford, the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon), three companies (Microsoft Research, Boeing Phantom Works, and Hanson Robotics), as well as program directors from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) discussed current research as well as their visions for the future of robots. The focus was on the emerging realm of robots and creativ- ity, and mobility and manipulation. The robot exhibition was a fascinat- ing amalgamation of cutting-edge ex- perimental robots such as a humanoid robot that extemporaneously danced to music, the first improvisational per- cussionist robot, a cuddly stuffed-ani- mallike robot initially being used to study early childhood social development, an assistive robot that opens doors and elevators it has never seen AAAI-08 Technical Program Cochairs Dieter Fox and Carla Gomes. before, and a snakelike articulated robot that climbed up willing attendees’ legs (protective jeans required.) miere venue for demonstrating cur- Game Playing Competition continues rent programs. to push the edges of this vein of re- Competitions The bar was raised significantly this search. Unlike specialized game play- Fuel Innovations year for two-player matches, along ers such as the much-touted Deep with the addition of a multiplayer Blue, the IBM program that beat world “AAAI has continued to promote chal- competition. “This year there was a chess champion Garry Kasparov in lenging competitions that energize re- great turnout and a high level of com- 1997, a general game player accepts searchers and fuel innovations,” Eric petition,” said Andrew Gilpin, the game descriptions at run time and can Horvitz says of this year’s competi- competition chair. “The 2008 compe- play the game without human inter- tions, “and these matches come to a tition had 19 entries from 12 research vention. While this line of research is head at the conference.” This year’s matches included competitions in groups hailing from six countries. Al- inherently interesting, it is already computer poker, general game play- most all of the entries played at a high showing practical applicability in ar- ing, and AI videos. “Such challenges level and included all of the top per- eas such as business process manage- can help to elucidate core principles of forming programs from previous years ment, e-commerce, and military oper- intelligence,” he concluded. (although they have each been im- ations. The AAAI computer poker competi- proved significantly). The entries this In 2008, the competition chal- tion, now in its third year, showcased year improved significantly over the lenged the general game players by state-of-the-art intelligent programs previous years’ entries. Interestingly, comparing their performance in a va- for playing poker. Recently, poker has the winning program of the six-player riety of previously unseen games. become an important challenge prob- competition was based on research Competition began in May 2008 with lem for AI because, unlike chess, play- performed several years ago, so it is the championship round held in ers do not know what cards the other clear there is still a huge amount of re- Chicago during the conference with players have, hence the information is search ground to be covered in multi- eight programs competing represent- “imperfect.” Thus traditional AI game- player poker.”2 The next competition ing six countries. “There was stronger playing techniques do not apply, and is planned for AAAI-09 in Atlanta, play than in previous years,” notes Er- novel approaches are needed. AAAI’s Georgia. ic Schkufza, the competition’s cochair. competition continues to be the pre- Now in its fourth year, the General “There were fun new games for the fi-

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The Poster Session was Well Attended.

nal rounds of competition designed to dents to consider entering the field of terpiece. (We’d love to encourage the highlight how general the players are; AI.” creation of similar ones for all areas of for instance, tic-tac-chess-checkers- While going about the serious busi- AI.)” four.”3 The fifth General Game Play- ness of the competition, this group This year’s entries ranged from a ing Competition is planned for the had some good old fashioned fun. video of bioinspired swarming flying 2009 IJCAI conference (cosponsored “Several of the videos had something robots to another documenting a sys- by AAAI) in Pasadena this coming fun in them,” says Aha. “Take, for ex- tem that helps art experts authenticate summer. ample, the best narrative video by alleged Van Gogh paintings.4 Plans are Back for its second year, the lively AI David Wilson (University of North underway for next summer’s competi- video competition entertained and ed- Carolina). His video, CBR Noir, is a tion. Lights, action, camera anyone? ucated while documenting 36 exciting 1940s-styled whodunit flick centered AI projects. This competition, the on a stereotypical private eye charac- brainchild of cochairs David Aha and ter’s attempt to solve a murder case. Innovative Sebastian Thrun, is exploring new He narrated it in character, focused it Applications of AI ways to document progress in the on introducing and exemplifying the field. “The motivation for this compe- case-based reasoning problem-solving For 20 years, the Innovative Applica- tition,” explains Aha, “is to encourage methodology, and mentioned no less tions of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) the creation and dissemination of than 27 names of famous case-based Conference has recognized high-im- videos related to AI research and prac- reasoning systems, all in horrible pact computer applications deployed tice so as to interest prospective stu- puns, throughout the video. It’s a mas- in the real world that utilize AI in nov-

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Ken Ford (right) Receives the Robert Engelmore Award from AI Magazine Editor David Leake (left), and IAAI Cochair Karen Haigh. el ways and have a significant eco- award-winning deployed applications high-impact real-world applications nomic return on the investment costs and 18 emerging applications. Togeth- that utilize AI in novel ways and have required to develop and deliver the er, they constitute a current sampling a significant economic return on the system. To study this legacy of IAAI of the myriad ways that AI techniques investment costs required to develop award-winning applications is to see are being harnessed to solve a wide and deliver the system or that are un- the evolution of trailblazing AI systems range of problems and issues around der development and show signifi- from rare stand-alone applications the globe. (See the sidebar: “Twenty- cant promise. In 2008, the number of running on LISP machines to highly Two Far-Reaching IAAI Applications selected papers from outside the Unit- ubiquitous applications threaded Putting AI to Work around the Globe”) ed States grew to reflect the increas- through the fabric of modern-day life. ing globalization of AI and our AAAI Several years ago, the IAAI organizers expanded the scope of the confer- Far-Reaching IAAI organization. Topics convered in ence to include not only fully de- Applications Putting AI 2008 included aerospace, computing ployed applications, but also emerging to Work around the Globe and networks, education, the envi- innovative applications under devel- ronment and earth sciences, medical opment that show promising early re- The Innovative Applications of Artifi- and health care, and resource sched- sults. IAAI-08’s 22 papers included 4 cial Intelligence Conference honors uling and allocation.

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Wake Forest University presented “In-the-Dark Network Traffic Classifi- cation Using Support Vector Ma- chine,” a system that improves network management by classifying network packet traffic. The University of Maryland presented “Finding Ontological Corre- spondences for a Domain-Indepen- dent Natural Language Dialog Agent,” a system that offers an intelligent speech-based dialog interface for vari- ous devices (such as PDA, GPS, and hospital service robots). BT (UK), 4C, and UCC (Ireland) presented “Personalization of Telecom- munications Services as Combinatori- al Optimisation,” a system that allows users to select and compose telecom- munications network features while automatically resolving conflicts. Knexus Research Corp., CDM Tech- nologies, and the Naval Research Lab- oratory presented “Enabling the Inter- operability of Large-Scale Legacy Systems,” a system that addresses the problem of achieving interoperability of disparate large-scale legacy relational databases across client military organizations. It employs an intelligent mapping toolkit using a distributed “federation” of mapping agents, case- based similarity assessment, and learning to semiautomatically acquire domain specific lexicons and thesauri. Education In the area of education, the IAAI conference had three presentations. Peking University (China) presented IAAI Chair Mehmet Goker. “A Case Study of AI Application on Language Instruction: CSIEC.” Com- Aerospace Oregon State University presented puter Simulation in Educational Com- Electrical power systems in aerospace “Reinforcement Learning for Vulnera- munication (CSIEC) is an intelligent vehicles support critical subsystems bility Assessment in Peer-to-Peer Net- web-based human-computer system such as avionics and life support. works” for proactive assessment of for English instruction for students in NASA Ames Research Center and the computer network vulnerability and China using natural language process- University of California Los Angeles security in the context of denial-of- ing. Currently there are more than presented “Diagnosing Faults in Elec- service attacks in peer-to-peer net- 30,000 registered users. trical Power Systems for Spacecraft and works. Their results suggest some pos- Alelo, Inc., presented “Tactical Lan- Aircraft,” a system that provides a di- sible network design lessons for guage and Culture Training Systems: agnostic capability including a high- reducing the attack potential. Using Artificial Intelligence to Teach level specification language that sup- The University of New Brunswick Foreign Languages and Cultures,” a ports autogeneration of Bayesian presented “Real-Time Alert Correla- system that helps users quickly ac- networks. tion Using Stream Data Mining Tech- quire communication skills in foreign niques,” a network intrusion-detec- languages and cultures through an in- Computing and Networks tion system that automatically teractive game format. Between Six IAAI presentations were con- aggregates real-time alerts, then mines 20,000 and 50,000 learners worldwide, cerned with computing and networks. them into structure patterns. largely U.S. soldiers, have used the

92 AI MAGAZINE Reports courses. A pilot Chinese course for col- lege and high school Chinese programs is under development, as well as a pilot Cherokee game intended to help preserve Native American language and culture. The University of North Carolina presented “The Law of Choice and the Decision Not to Decide,” a system that helps parents choose a public school based on the parents’ preferences and the students’ needs, interest, abilities, and talents. Environment and Earth Sciences There were four applications in the environment and earth sciences area. Air turbulence prediction is critical to air- plane safety. The current automated turbulence forecasting system, funded by the Federal Aviation Administra- tion and used by the National Ocean- ic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aviation Weather Center, is based largely on subjective observations re- Decadal Landsat Images,” an applica- Medical and Health Care ported by pilots coupled with large- tion that is being developed to help Five IAAI applications were in the scale quantitative atmospheric data. automate the selection of images from medical and health-care fields. Coro- The National Center for Atmospheric the Landsat data from 2004–2006 to nary heart disease (CHD), the leading Research and the University of Col- construct a data map that will be dis- cause of death worldwide, can be de- orado at Boulder presented “Applica- tributed to the public at no charge tected using an echocardiogram, tion of Artificial Intelligence to Opera- through a U.S. Geological Survey web- which is difficult to interpret even for tional Real-Time Clear-Air Turbulence site. The system will likely become the experts. Siemens and Motorola pre- Prediction,” a system that applies AI next generation backdrop for Google- sented “Learning Sparse Kernels from techniques to take advantage of the Earth and also assist Earth scientists by 3D surfaces for Heart Wall Motion Ab- better and more plentiful source of providing improved automated tools normality Detection,” a project that is turbulence data that has become re- to study the Earth’s changing ecosys- cently available from aircraft sensors tem. More than 300,000 images must exploring a novel automatic tech- with promising results. be evaluated to select the roughly nique using a machine learning classi- NASA Ames Research Center (Mof- 9,500 that will compose the map. fier to detect the abnormalities that in- fett Field, CA) presented “Learning to The Universidad Nacional de Asun- dicate coronary heart disease. Improve Earth Observation Flight ción (Paraguay) presented “Crop Se- McGill University (Canada) present- Planning,” a system that integrates lection for Optimal Soil Planning used “Adaptive Treatment of Epilepsy machine learning with planning and ing Multiobjective Evolutionary via Batch-mode Reinforcement Learn- data visualization for the management Algorithms,” a system that aids farm ing” a system that utilizes machine of mobile sensors for Earth science in- managers in developing optimized learning techniques to optimize the vestigations related to understanding plans for crop cultivation based on soil deep brain stimulation strategy for the changes to the Earth’s ecosystem characteristics, and thus minimizes treatment of epilepsy to minimize the (such as climate change or pollution). the need for soil treatment, thereby re- frequency and duration of seizures. The system supports missions that ducing the costs and potential envi- Traditional Chinese medicine combine observations from heteroge- ronmental damages. The system is (TCM) is an ancient medical system neous ground, airborne, and space- geared toward sustainable land use that still accounts for 40 percent of all borne sensors that must be managed practices, with benefits that decrease health care in China. Zhejiang Uni- in concert. rural poverty, protect watersheds, in- versity (China) presented “Semantic NASA Ames Research Center, God- crease biodiversity, increase sustain- Web Development for Traditional dard Space Flight Center, and the able agricultural production, and in- Chinese Medicine,” a system that Aerospace Corporation jointly pre- crease food security. It employs bridges the gaps between a plurality of sented “Local Search for Optimal multiobjective evolutionary algo- legacy and heterogeneous relational Global Map Generation Using Mid- rithms using eight processors. databases from both TCM and West-

SPRING 2009 93 Reports ern medicine, enabling ontology- of Technology (China), Red Jasper Ltd. honor to serve the community.” He based query and search across data- (Hong Kong), and the Hong Kong urged the audience to follow suit: base boundaries providing knowledge University of Science and Technology “When the opportunity for service to TCM practitioners on herb and presented “A Vehicle Routing System knocks, please step up and serve the drug usage and Chinese herb–Western to Solve a Periodic Vehicle Routing community. It is our responsibility to prescription drug interactions. The Problem for a Food Chain in Hong build and maintain the service organ- Kong,” a system that optimizes the project illustrates how the semantic izations that make the field possible.” web can connect data across domain supply delivery schedule for one of the The proceedings for AAAI and IAAI-08 and community boundaries to facili- largest food and restaurant chains in are available in paper or CD format tate interdisciplinary and cross-cultur- Hong Kong. Results shows that at least from AAAI Press.5 al studies. It also leverages the progress 14 vehicles can be saved, each valued of biomedical informatics to address at one million Hong Kong dollars with Plans are already underway for fu- the preservation and modernization 0.3 million Hong Kong dollars of run- ture AAAI and IAAI conferences. The of the ancient Chinese cultural her- ning cost for a total of 18.2 million an- next IAAI conference will be held July itage of TCM. nually ($2.34 million U.S.) Savings of 11–15, 2009, in Pasadena, California. Technische Universität München up to 23 percent in asset costs and an- In 2010, IAAI and AAAI go to Atlanta, (Germany), LORIA-INRAI (France), nual operating costs for the food chain Georgia July 11–15, while in 2011, the Klinikum Rechts der Isar (Germany) are forecasted. two conferences will be held for the presented “On-line Recognition of very first time in San Francisco, Cali- Surgical Activity for Monitoring in the Volunteers fornia, from August 7–11. Operating Room,” a project that aims to design support systems for the op- Essential to AAAI Thanks to Our erating room ranging from simple Planning and preparing for such an tasks such as the activation of lights to ambitious conference was a tremen- Generous Sponsors more complex tasks such as surgical dous undertaking—the product of AAAI would like to thank the follow- procedures. countless volunteer hours from dedi- ing organizations and individuals for Finally, Bar-Ilan University (Israel) cated AAAI members. For instance, as their generous support of the AAAI-08 and the University of Haifa (Israel) part of the organization’s mission of presented “COACH—Cumulative On- promoting education, a small number conference: Microsoft Research, Na- line Algorithm for Classification of of students had the opportunity to tional Science Foundation, Google Handwriting Deficiencies,” an online chat with an AAAI fellow over an in- Inc., Michael Genesereth, NASA Ames handwriting evaluation tool for classi- formal lunch during the conference. Research Center, Yahoo Research Labs, fying and remediating handwriting This provided a unique opportunity Intel, Naval Research Laboratory, Uni- deficiencies using machine learning for students to meet some of the most versity of Southern California/Infor- and data mining. noted and accomplished scientists in mation Sciences Institute, Boeing, IBM Resource Scheduling and the field. Research, Toyota Motor Engineering AAAI is particularly grateful for the Allocation and Manufacturing North America efforts of this year’s Conference Com- Inc., Cornell University Intelligent In- There were three applications in the mittee Chair Yolanda Gil, Technical formation Systems Institute, D. E. resource scheduling and allocation do- Program Cochairs Dieter Fox and Carla Shaw, and ACM/SIGART. main. City University of Hong Kong Gomes, and IAAI-09 Chair Mehmet (Hong Kong SAR) presented “Using AI Goker and Cochair Karen Haigh. So Notes for Olympic Equestrian Event Prepara- many organizers and participants, such 1. For a précis and an MP3 recording, see re- tion,” a web-based workforce schedul- as special track organizers Oren Etzioni, search.microsoft.com/~horvitz/AAAI_Pres- ing system for approximately 1,000 Craig Knoblock, Pat Langley, Alan idential_Lecture_Eric_Horvitz.htm. part-time volunteers and staff at the Schultz, Drew Bagnell, and Wolfram 2. For all the results, see www.cs.ualberta. 2008 Beijing Olympic Equestrian Burgard; competition chairs and ca/~pokert/2008/results. Events held in Hong Kong. cochairs Mike Genesereth, Eric The National University of Singa- Schkufza, Andrew Gilpin, David Aha, 3. See www.general-game-playing.de/teach pore presented “A Hybrid Approach to and Sebastian Thrun; and mobile robot ing.html for results. Convoy Movement Planning in an Ur- exibition and workshop cochairs Paul 4. For more information on entries and de- ban City,” a system that dynamically Oh, Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Young- tails about the seven winners, please visit routes up to 100 military convoys in a moo Kim, and Monica Anderson, gave the competition website (www.aivideo. real city road network addressing the generously of their time and talents. org). need for a defensive strategy, dynami- During his acceptance speech for 5. See www.aaai.org/Press/Proceedings/aaai cally replanning when changes occur the AAAI Distinguished Service Award, 08.php. (such as road congestion, enemy at- Ronald J. Brachman, vice president, Sara Reece Hedberg is an independent tacks, and so on). Worldwide Research Operations, Ya- journalist and owner of Emergent, Inc. She Finally, the South China University hoo Research, noted, “It is actually an can be reached at [email protected].

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