Hi,

I was wondering if you could include this in your conference listing 
section of ETAI NJ?  Thanks.

Charlie Ortiz



			Call for Participation
		        AAAI  Spring Symposium
   			  March 23-25 1998
			Stanford University

	  Prospects for a commonsense theory of causation

Description

The goal of this workshop is to stimulate efforts towards the
development of a commonsense theory of causation while also
encouraging discussion on the prospects for and impediments to such a
theory.  Ultimately, a theory of causation would play a central role
in many tasks of importance to AI: for example, planning, reasoning
about action, diagnosis, and explanation.  However, progress in these
areas has often been explored independently of considerations into the
general properties that a theory of causation might have.  Papers can
address, but are not limited to, any of the following issues.  In
addition, papers that draw connections to related disciplines, such as
philosophy and language, as well as position papers are also
encouraged.


* The expression of causal laws. Generality of causal laws;
axiomatizations of causation (direction, time, properties); relations of
laws at distinct levels of representation and granularity; qualitative
versus quantitative descriptions of physical systems.

* Acquisition of causal laws. Distinguishing causal laws from
other knowledge; probabilistic reasoning in support of acquisition of
causal models; inferring models from observations; lessons
from qualitative reasoning systems.

* Counterfactual reasoning. Role of counterfactual reasoning in
causation; is causation or counterfactual reasoning primitive;
similarity metrics on possible worlds.

* Causal explanation. Linking causal laws ranging over primitive
events to reports involving higher level events; choosing the most
``salient'' cause among a number of causes; identifying and
axiomatizing the most important causal relations that can be used to
construct a useful causal language.

* Analysis of philosophical issues.  Fail-safe causation, preemption,
causal-overdetermination, etc; impact on AI efforts; is commonsense
causation supervenient on, for example, scientific theorizing?


SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Paper submissions should be emailed in
postscript form and should not exceed ten single-spaced pages.  Those
wishing to attend without contributing a paper should submit a 1-2
page statement of background and interest.  Submissions and questions
should be directed to ortiz@eecs.harvard.edu.  Further information
will be posted on http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~ortiz/cause98.html.
Submissions for the symposia are due on October 24, 1997. Notification
of acceptance will be given by November 14, 1997. Material to be
included in the working notes of the symposium must be received by
January 17, 1998.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Charlie Ortiz (Chair), Harvard University
(ortiz@eecs.harvard.edu); Leora Morgenstern, IBM T.J. Watson Research
Center (leora@watson.ibm.com); Glenn Shafer, Rutgers University
(gshafer@andromeda.rutgers.edu); Rich Thomason, University of
Pittsburgh (thomason@isp.pitt.edu); Yoav Shoham, Stanford University
(shoham@cs.stanford.edu).