22nd International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning

The world is full of systems that have continuous aspects, and about which we have incomplete, qualitative knowledge. Humans are amazingly effective at working with such knowledge, and many science, engineering, and educational applications could benefit greatly from similar capabilities. In seeking to understand, develop, and exploit the ability to reason qualitatively, the QR community pursues research at the interface of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Engineering, and Science. Some QR researchers study, from a cognitive modeling perspective, how humans represent and use incomplete knowledge. Others develop algorithms and systems for constructing, simulating, and applying qualitative and semi-quantitative models. Still others exploit these insights to develop powerful methods for system modeling, explanation, diagnosis, and design, and in applications in science, engineering, and education.

The 22nd International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning provides a forum bringing together researchers from all these perspectives. The Workshop will be held at the University of Colorado at Boulder, from June 24 through 26, 2008.

Topics

Paper submissions are encouraged in the following research areas:

• Qualitative formalisms and their mathematical foundations
• Cognitive modeling (e.g., cognitive theories of reasoning about systems, theories and experiments concerning human reasoning and learning of mental models, QR models for spatial reasoning, cognitive maps, cognitive robots);
• Techniques (e.g., qualitative simulation, ontologies, management of multiple models, reasoning over time and space, mathematical formalizations of QR, qualitative algebras, qualitative dynamics, qualitative kinematics, qualitative optimization, automatic generation & abstraction of qualitative models);
• Task-level reasoning (e.g., design, planning, monitoring, diagnosis and repair, explanation, tutoring and training, process control and supervision);
• Real-World Applications (e.g., dynamical systems, engineering, education, business, biology, chemistry, ecology, economics, social science, environmental science, medicine, and law);
• Integration with other modeling approaches (e.g., system dynamics and bond-graphs, signal processing, numerical methods, statistical techniques, differential equations);
• Knowledge acquisition methods (e.g., model building tools and techniques, automated model construction and machine learning, acquisition of models from data).

Paper Submission and Review

• Full Paper. A PDF file of the full paper not to exceed 6000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to scmorris@cs.colorado.edu by 12 March 2008.
• Poster. A PDF file of the poster paper not to exceed 2000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to scmorris@cs.colorado.edu by 12 March 2008.
• Review Process. Both papers and posters will be selected according to their quality, significance, originality, and potential to generate discussion. Each contribution will be reviewed by at least two referees from the QR-08 Program Committee.
• Submission to Conferences or Journals. The accepted papers will be published as a collection of Working papers. As QR-08 is a workshop, not a conference, submission of the same paper to conferences (e.g., AAAI-08) or journals is acceptable.
• Format. Papers should be formatted according to the AAAI-08 guidelines, available from www.aaai.org, and must be in PDF format.

Additional Participants

People who wish to receive an invitation to attend the workshop without submitting a paper or a poster should send a request to lizb@cs.colorado.edu.

Important Dates

• Submission (both papers and posters): 12 March 2008
• Notification: 27 April 2008
• Registration opens: 27 April 2008
• Camera-ready copies: 19 May 2008
• Registration deadline: 23 May 2008
• Workshop: 24-26 June 2008

Organization

The QR 08 program chairs are Liz Bradley (University of Colorado) and Louise Trave-Massuyes (LAAS-CNRS); the program committee is as follows:

• Nuria Agell, ESADE Business School
• Chris Bailey-Kellogg, Dartmouth University
• Ivan Bratko, University of Ljubljana
• Bert Bredeweg, Univerersity of Amsterdam
• Philippe Dague, University Paris-Sud
• Andrei Doncescu, LAAS-CNRS
• Teresa Escrig, U. Jaume I, Castellón
• Ken Forbus, Northwestern University
• Michael Hofbaur, Graz University of Technology
• Liliana Ironi, IMATI - CNR, Pavia
• Hidde de Jong, INRIA Grenoble-Rhône-Alpes
• Johan de Kleer, Xerox PARC
• Ben Kuipers, University of Texas at Austin
• Antoine Missier, Lycee Saint-Sernin, Toulouse
• Ludovic Mailleret, INRA Sophia Antipolis
• Chris Price, Aberystwyth University
• Paulo Salles, University of Brasilia
• Qiang Shen, Aberystwyth University
• Peter Struss, Tech. Univ. Muenchen
• Yuhong Yan