[agents] CFP: AAAI-08 Workshop on Metareasoning: Thinking about Thinking

[Raja, Anita]

(Please accept our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP.) 

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AAAI-08 Workshop on Metareasoning:
Thinking about thinking


Call for Papers
www.sis.uncc.edu/~anraja/Metareasoning
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The 21st century is experiencing a renewed interest in an old idea within artificial intelligence that goes to the heart of what it means to be both human and intelligent. This idea is that much can be gained by thinking of one's own thinking. Metareasoning is the process of reasoning about reasoning itself. It is composed of both meta-level control of computational activities and the introspective monitoring of reasoning to evaluate and to explain computation. Meta-level control is the ability of an agent to efficiently trade off its resources between object level actions (computations) and ground level actions to maximize the quality of its decisions. Introspective monitoring is necessary to gather sufficient information with which to make effective meta-level control decisions or to explain failed object-level reasoning. This workshop will explore the implications of this model by examining the various aspects of metareasoning and models of self and their role in single-agent and multiagent applications. 

A figure describing the above model for Metareasoning and an accompanying manifesto are available on the web (www.mcox.org/Metareasoning/Manifesto). To increase coherence of the workshop sessions and to help attendees to relate heterogeneous positions, all authors are encouraged to include and reference at least one of a set of provided figures, either positively, negatively, or as a contrast to their own alternative models. The goal is to use this as a unifying theme. This is especially important because authors of selected papers will be invited to prepare chapters based on their workshop contributions for a forthcoming book on metareasoning. The workshop will not simply collect a loosely affiliated set of technical papers; rather, the objective is to present a cohesive story of what metareasoning is, what its limitations are, what benefits it promises, and how these promises can be implemented computationally.

This two day workshop will include a number of short paper presentations, thematically organized discussion sessions, a break-out problem-solving session with discussion, and two speakers. Professor Don Perlis from the University of Maryland, College Park, will present on day one, and a speaker to be determined will present on the second day. We also will include panel discussions after each group of paper presentations so that the audience can ask follow up questions that compare and contrast the related positions. Finally a special track will be targeted for the topic of evaluation of metareasoning systems.

Potential Topics
•	Theoretical models of metareasoning
•	The integration of meta-level control and monitoring
•	Multiagent coordinated metareasoning
•	Meta-explanation and self-explanation
•	Self-adaptive systems and autonomic computing
•	Centralized versus distributed meta-level control
•	Human metacognition and metamemory
•	The role of state abstraction in metareasoning
•	Computational models of self and consciousness
•	Logical introspection and reflective logic programming
•	Bounded rationality
•	Learning agents and metareasoning
•	Evaluation of metareasoning systems

Organizing committee members. 
Michael T. Cox (co-chair)	Anita Raja (co-chair) 
Senior Research Scientist	Assistant Professor
Intelligent Computing	        Department of Software & Information Systems
BBN Technologies	        University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Cambridge, MA 02138	        Charlotte, NC 28223
mcox at bbn.com	                anraja at uncc.edu
(617) 873-3632 	                (704) 687-8651

Michael L. Anderson, Assistant Professor. Franklin & Marshall College.
David Leake, Professor, Indiana University.
Shlomo Zilberstein, Professor, University of Massachusetts.

Program committee members.
Vincent Conitzer, Assistant Professor, Duke University
Stefania Constanini, Professor, Univ. of L'Aquila, Italy
Ed Durfee, Professor, University of Michigan
Stan Franklin, Research Professor, University of Memphis
Andrew Gordon, Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California
Eric Horvitz, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
Victor Lesser, Professor, University of Massachusetts
Paul Robertson, Senior Research Scientist, BBN
Lenhart Schubert, Professor, University of Rochester
Steve Smith, Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Important dates.
Submission Deadline	 April 7, 2008
Acceptance Notification	 April 21, 2008
Camera-ready Copy	 May 5, 2008
AAAI-08 Workshop	 July 13-14, 2008

Submission procedure.
We encourage the submission of high quality, original papers that are not submitted for publication elsewhere. The submission should not exceed 8 pages in the AAAI style (www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php), either in PostScript or PDF format. Surface mail address, e-mail addresses should be included for all contributing authors. Submissions must be emailed to either chair (mcox at bbn.com or anraja at uncc.edu) by the deadline period and must include and reference at least one of the figures from www.mcox.org/Metareasoning/Figs. Short position statements are also accepted. 



 



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Anita Raja, Assistant Professor                                                  
Department of Software and Information Systems                           
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Phone: 704-687-8651 
Fax : 704-687-4893 
URL : http://www.sis.uncc.edu/~anraja