IRList Digest Monday, 10 August 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 23 Today's Topics: Call for Papers - 2nd Int'l Conf. on Expert Database Systems Software Psychology Society - Fall 87 schedule, Potomac Chapter News addresses are ARPANET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet CSNET: fox@vt UUCPNET: seismo!vtisr1!irlistrq ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Aug 87 11:09 EST From: Subject: Call for Papers: Expert Database Systems Conference (Please Distribute this Call for Papers to associates) ===================================================== Call for Papers and Participation Second International Conference on Expert Database Systems April 25-27, 1988 The Sheraton Premiere Hotel, Tysons Corner, Virginia Sponsored by: George Mason University In Cooperation With: American Association for Artificial Intelligence Association for Computing Machinery -- SIGART and SIGMOD IEEE Computer Society -- T. C. on Data Base Engineering Conference Objectives The International Conference on Expert Database Systems has established itself as a leading edge forum that explores the theoretical and practical issues in making database systems more intelligent and supportive of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Expert Database Systems represent the confluence of R&D activities in Artificial Intelligence, Database Management, Logic, Information Retrieval, and Fuzzy Systems Theory. It is precisely this synergism among dis- ciplines which makes the Conference both stimulating and unique. Expert Database Systems will play an ever-increasing role in scientific, governmental and business applications. The key is to provide expertise to all facets of database systems, including: % providing knowledge-based access to large shared databases through intelligent user-interfaces and natural-language question-answering facilities, % endowing database systems with reasoning, planning, and justification capabilities, % defining new classes of knowledge/data models supporting diverse viewpoints and capable of both temporal and spatial reasoning, % creating architectures to support both loose- and tight- coupling of knowledge base and database systems, % creating tools and techniques to support the specifica- tion, manipulation, indexing, adaptation, and evolution of large knowledge/data bases, and % integrating AI and DB functional requirements into new software and hardware environments for the specification, prototyping, testing and debugging of knowledge/data based applications. In order to foster the interchange of ideas from these diverse fields, the conference will be composed of tutorial sessions, paper sessions, and panel discussions. Several invited keynote lectures are planned. Topics of Interest The Program Committee invites original theoretical and application papers (of approximately 5000 words) addressing (but not limited to) the following areas: Theory of Knowledge Bases (including knowledge representa- ------ -- --------- ----- tion, knowledge models, knowledge indexing and transforma- tion, knowledge servers, and formal semantics of knowledge/data bases). Object-Oriented Systems (including object-oriented data ------ -------- ------- models, query languages, transaction management, version control, and modeling applications for enterprises, CAD/CAM, VLSI, Materials Properties knowledge/data bases, etc.). Reasoning on Knowledge/Data Bases (including reasoning under --------- -- --------- ---- ----- uncertainty, sensor fusion, non-monotonic reasoning, analog- ical reasoning, deductive databases, logic-based query languages, semantic query optimization and constraint- directed reasoning). Knowledge Management (including methodologies for knowledge --------- ---------- acquisition, the knowledge engineering process, constraint and rule management, knowledge-based requirements gathering and specification, and knowledge administration). Distributed Knowledge/Data Bases (including loosely- and ----------- --------- ---- ----- tightly-coupled architectures, intelligent query decomposi- tion and processing, federated architectures, distributed problem-solving, and blackboard techniques for distributed control and problem solving). Intelligent Database Interfaces (including expert system -- ----------- -------- ---------- database communication, knowledge gateways, knowledgeable user agents and browsers). Natural Language Interaction (including question-answering, ------- -------- ----------- extended responses, cooperative behavior, explanation and justification). Conference proceedings will be available at the conference. Please send five copies of papers by October 14, 1987 to Professor Larry Kerschberg Dept. of Information Systems and Systems Eng. George Mason University 4400 University Drive Fairfax, Virginia 22030 USA Important Dates Submission Deadline October 14, 1987 Acceptance Notification: December 15, 1987 Camera-Ready Version: February 1, 1988 Conference Dates: April 25-27, 1988 =========================================================== EDS'88 Organizing Committee Conference General Chairman Edgar H. Sibley, George Mason University Program Chairman Larry Kerschberg, George Mason University Program Committee Robert Abarbanel, USA Matthew Morgenstern, USA Hideo Aiso, Japan John Mylopoulos, Canada Antonio Albano, Italy Sham Navathe, USA Stephen J. Andriole, USA Erich Neuhold, FRG Robert Balzer, USA Setsuo Ohsuga, Japan Francois Bancilhon, France D. Stott Parker, Jr., USA Don Batory, USA Alain Pirotte, Belgium Alex Borgida, USA W. Don Potter, USA Michael L. Brodie, USA Larry Reeker, USA Janis Bubenko, Sweden Nick Roussopoulos, USA Peter Buneman, USA Erik Sandewall, Sweden Stefano Ceri, Italy Timos Sellis, USA Umesh Dayal, USA John Miles Smith, USA Mark Fox, USA Reid Smith, USA Antonio L. Furtado, Brasil Arne Solvberg, Norway Herve Gallaire, FRG John Sowa, USA Barbara Hayes-Roth, USA Jacob Stein, USA Yannis Ioannidis, USA Michael Stonebraker, USA Sushil Jajodia, USA Adrian Walker, USA Matthias Jarke, FRG Andrew B. Whinston, USA Jonathan King, USA Gio Wiederhold, USA Roger King, USA Eugene Wong, USA Robert Meersman, Netherlands Carlo Zaniolo, USA Tim H. Merrett, Canada Tutorial and Panel Coordinator Lucian Russell, USA Conference Coordinator Nancy D. Joyner, USA Exhibits Coordinator Diane Entner, USA Publicity Chairman Jorge Diaz-Herrera, USA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jul 87 12:25:28 EST From: Ben Shneiderman Subject: Fall Schedule for Potomac Chapter, Software Psychology Soc. below is the troff file for the next Software Psychology Society announcement...Please carve it up into your format and circulate on IRLIST. . . . I leave tomorrow AM for SF and then the conference in Hawaii...returning Aug 30. Have fun...Ben __________________________________________________________ SOFTWARE PSYCHOLOGY SOCIETY POTOMAC CHAPTER VOLUME 12 NUMBER 1 FALL 1987 Note: All meetings will be held at the George Washington University's Marvin Center (800 21st Street, N.W.) between 10:00 AM and noon. Coffee and doughnuts will be provided by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci- ences. Send correspondence for this newsletter to: Software Psychology Society, c/o Skip Williamson, Knowledge Systems, Inc., 5705 Stillwell Rd., Rockville, MD 20851. September 11 Room 413-414 TWO PSYCHOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED INVENTIONS FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL Tom K. Landauer, Bell Communications Research 435 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960 Our goal has been to identify human performance obstacles in cognitive tasks and then to invent computer-based tools to help overcome them. Two examples of current projects will be described. INFOSCALE: Traditional information retrieval methods rely on matches between individual words in queries and documents or indexes. But individual words are unreliable indicants of conceptual content. As a result, most desired documents are not found, and most documents that are found are not desired. We have been exploring a powerful statistical method, singular value decompo- sition, as a way to characterize the semantic content of whole documents or queries. Results are promising. SUPERBOOK: The effective use of reference and instructional text is hampered by the difficulty of searching for and displaying all and only those segments of interest. We have been building a multi-windowed system that exploits several methods for improved computer-aided search and display in an effort to augment the utility of text. October 9 Room 413-414 PERCEPTUAL AND COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF IMAGE PROCESSING James Howard, Jr., Human Performance Laboratory The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064 The use of high-resolution imagery has become widespread in a variety of applications. Many interactive image processing algorithms have been developed for enhancing and/or reconstructing imagery data, but relatively little research has addressed the ability of human users to apply them effec- tively. A program of research which addresses this need will be described. Two complementary aspects of the interactive imaging problem will be examined. First, the perceptual implications of frequency-domain image operators will be considered for detection, classification, and search. These results relate to previous findings which suggest an important role of spatial-frequency sensi- tive channels on attention in human vision. Second, the user's strategy in applying a set of operators will also be examined. Users appear to develop stable strategies which can be described in terms of simple productions or rule systems. The theoretical and practical implications of the results will be reviewed. November 13 Room 413-414 STRATEGIES FOR ESTABLISHING A USABILITY TESTING LABORATORY IN A CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT Patricia Shearer and Roxanne Smith, EDS Corporation Usability Testing Laboratory, 225 Grandview Avenue (6-10), Camp Hill, PA 17011 The scope of a usability testing laboratory goes beyond the test room itself. Establishing and operating a usability lab within a business environment involves some interesting challenges. There are business politics to overcome which make operations difficult. And acceptance of human factors and usabil- ity testing doesn't always come easy. There are many challenges in incorporating a usability testing laboratory into a corporate environment. Strategies influencing EDS product developers to include human factors concerns in the development process will be presented. Application domains include forms design, data entry, pop-up menus, documenta- tion, and error messages. Finally, successful procedures for usability testing and findings as a result of testing -- both product-related and organizational -- will be discussed. December 11 Room 413-414 TOUCH SCREEN INTERFACES: CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCERNS Russ Benel, IBM Federal Systems Division 9201 Corporate Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20850 Touch sensitive displays have been implemented commonly as the simple inter- face to menu systems in information kiosks, but have the potential for use as the main interface to complex systems. The human factors necessary to design an optimal touch sensitive human computer interface have not been derived from an extensive base of empirical research. The available standards appear to have been developed originally for mechanical pushbutton switches. Decisions of when and how to employ touch screens frequently have not been made on the basis of user requirements. The interaction between touch technology type and intended use is often ignored. This discussion will examine these issues and suggest approaches. Reference will be made to empirical studies that have been conducted. ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************