LICS Newsletter 40

Newsletter 40

December 10, 1996




[Past issues of the newsletter are available at
 http://www.bell-labs.com/topic/conferences/lics/ and 
 ftp://ftp.research.bell-labs.com/dist/lics/newsletters.]
 
LOGIC COLLOQUIUM 97
  European Summer Meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic
  University of Leeds UK, 6 - 13 July 1997
* Main topics: Computability Theory, Model Theory, Proof Theory,
  Set Theory, Philosophy and Psychology of Proof.
* Short course lecturers: R. Shore (Cornell), A. Wilkie (Oxford),
  M. Rathjen (Leeds), J. Steel (Berkeley).
* Plenary lecturers: P. Benacerraf (Princeton), U. Berger (Munich),
  L. van den Dries (Urbana), S. Goncharov (Novosibirsk), R. Jensen
  (Berlin), N. Jones (Copenhagen), B. Kim (Fields Inst), J. Knight
  (Notre Dame), I. Neeman (UCLA), L. Newelski (Wroclaw), J. van Oosten
  (Amsterdam), D. Over (Sunderland), P. Pudlak (Prague), G. Sacks
  (Harvard), R. Soare (Chicago), S. Solecki (UCLA), L. Rips (North
  Western), L. Wallen (Oxford).
* Special sessions. There will in addition be special sessions in the
  main topics, and sessions for short contributed talks. The following
  will chair the special sessions.  Computability Theory:
  K. Ambos-Spies (Heidelberg), S. Lempp (Madison).  Model Theory:
  A. Pillay (Urbana).  Proof Theory: H. Schwichtenberg (Munich),
  G. Jaeger (Bern).  Set Theory: S. Friedman (MIT).
* Programme committee. S. Buss (San Diego), B. Cooper (Chair - Leeds),
  W. Hodges (London), M. Hyland (Cambridge), A. Lachlan (Simon
  Fraser), A. Louveau (Paris), Y. Moschovakis (UCLA), L. Pacholski
  (Wroclaw), H. Schwichtenberg (Munich), T. Slaman (Chicago), J. Truss
  (Leeds), H. Woodin (Berkeley).
* Contact address: Logic Colloquium '97, School of Mathematics, The
  University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.  e-mail:
  logic97@amsta.leeds.ac.uk

HIGHER-ORDER ALGEBRA, LOGIC AND TERM REWRITING (HOA '97)
  4th-5th September 1997, Southampton, UK
  Immediately following ALP '97 and PLILP '97.
* Topics. The scope of the workshop includes higher-order aspects of
  algebra, logic and model theory; term rewriting; specification and
  verification languages; computational logic and theorem proving;
  system implementations and case studies.
* Submission. Extended abstracts (up to 4 pages) of papers to be
  submitted should be sent to the programme committee
  chairman. Submission by email is preferred. Otherwise send 3
  copies. Submission deadline: April 1, 1997.
* Programme committee chairman: Jan Heering, CWI, Kruislaan 413, 1098
  SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Email: jan@cwi.nl. Fax +31 20 592
  4199.  URL http://www.cwi.nl/~jan/
* Programme committee: Dan Dougherty, Gilles Dowek, Amy Felty, John
  Field, Mike Gordon, Jan Heering, Karl Meinke, Bernhard Moeller,
  Tobias Nipkow.

4TH WORKSHOP ON LOGIC, LANGUAGE, INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION (WoLLIC'97)
  Fortaleza (Ceara'), Brazil
  August 20-22, 1997
* Topics. Contributions are invited in the form of two-page (600
  words) abstracts in all areas related to logic, language,
  information and computation, including: pure logical systems, proof
  theory, model theory, algebraic logic, type theory, category theory,
  constructive mathematics, lambda and combinatorial calculi, program
  logic and program semantics, nonclassical logics, nonmonotonic
  logic, logic and language, discourse representation, logic and
  artificial intelligence, automated deduction, foundations of logic
  programming, logic and computation, and logic engineering.
* Invited speakers.  K. Devlin (Moraga,USA), A. Edalat (London,UK),
  Y. Gurevich (Ann Arbor), P. Johnstone (Cambridge,UK), R. Kossak (New
  York), D. Lehmann (Jerusalem), M. Moortgat (Utrecht), H. Rott
  (Konstanz).
* Submission.  Two-page abstracts, preferably by e-mail to
  wollic97@di.ufpe.br must be received by June 1st, 1997.
* Programme Committee.  A. Avron (Tel-Aviv Univ., Israel), J. van
  Benthem (ILLC, Amsterdam), W. A. Carnielli (UNICAMP, Campinas),
  N. da Costa (USP, Sao Paulo), I. Hodkinson (Imperial College,
  London), L. Moss (Indiana Univ., Bloomington), V. de Paiva
  (Birmingham Univ., UK), T. Pequeno (UFC, Fortaleza), R. de Queiroz
  (UFPE, Recife), P. Veloso (PUC, Rio).
* Further information.  Ruy de Queiroz, Departamento de Informatica,
  Univ. Federal de Pernambuco, CP 7851, Recife, PE 50732-970, Brazil,
  e-mail: ruy@di.ufpe.br, tel.: +55 81 271 8430, fax: +55 81 271 8438.
  Tarcisio Pequeno, Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial,
  Univ. Federal do Ceara', CP 12166, Fortaleza, CE 60455-760, Brazil,
  e-mail: tarcisio@lia.ufc.br, tel.: +55 85 287 1333, fax: +55 85 288
  9845.

THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING (CP97)
  Schloss Hagenberg, Austria 
  October 29 - November 1, 1997
* Topics.  Contributions are welcome from any discipline concerned
  with constraints, including: artificial intelligence, combinatorial
  algorithms, computational logic, concurrent computation, databases,
  discrete mathematics, operations research, programming languages,
  symbolic computation.  Contributions are welcome from any domain
  employing constraints, including: computational linguistics,
  configuration, decision support, design, diagnosis, graphics,
  hardware verification, molecular biology, planning, program
  analysis, qualitative reasoning, real-time systems, resource
  allocation, robotics, scheduling, software engineering, temporal
  reasoning, type inference, vision, visualization, user interfaces.
  Papers are especially welcome that bridge disciplines or combine
  theory and practice.
* Submissions.  The submission deadline is April 15, 1997. Submission
  is by email (up to exceptions). Send a message that contains a
  uuencoded postscript file preceded by the title page (title,
  authors, abstract) in plain text to cp97@ps.uni-sb.de, with
  "submission" as the subject line.
* Call for Tutorials.  Several tutorials will be held during the
  conference. Proposals for two-hour tutorials should be sent to the
  Program Chair until May 15, 1997.
* Call for Workshop Proposals.  There will be workshops on the last
  day of the conference.  Proposals for one-day or half-day workshops
  should be sent to the Workshop Chair as soon as possible but no
  later than May 15, 1997.
* Program Committee.  Franz Baader, Frederic Benhamou, Alex Brodsky,
  Yves Caseau, Hoon Hong, John Hooker, Joxan Jaffar, Claude Kirchner,
  Michael Maher, Kim Marriott, Dave McAllester, Ken McAloon, Bernhard
  Nebel, Tobias Nipkow, Martin Odersky, Catuscia Palamidessi, Andreas
  Podelski, Jean-Francois Puget, Francesca Rossi, Thomas Schiex, Bart
  Selman, Gert Smolka (chair), Peter J. Stuckey, Edward Tsang, Peter
  van Beek, Mark Wallace.

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
  Formal Methods for Industrial Applications (LNCS 1165)
  Editors Jean-Raymond Abrial, Egon Boerger, Hans Langmaack
  ISBN: 3-540-61929-1 
* This book, including CD-ROM, is the documentation of a unique
  collaborative effort in evaluating formal methods for usage under
  industrial constraints: The major techniques for formally supported
  specification, design and verification of large programs and complex
  systems are applied to a non-trivial and non-academic problem which
  is typical for industrial informal requirements specification


BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
  Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs
  Joseph Goguen and Grant Malcolm
  MIT Press, 1996
  ISBN 0-262-07172-X
* This book is a novel self-contained *executable* introduction to
  formal reasoning about imperative programs, and can be used as a
  text for a standard course on the semantics of imperative programs.
  Its primary goal is to improve programming ability by improving
  intuition about what programs mean and how they run.  The semantics
  of imperative programs is specified in a formal, implemented
  notation, the language OBJ; this makes the semantics both highly
  rigorous and simple, and also provides support for the mechanical
  verification of program properties.  This novel approach, in our
  experience, greatly helps students' intuitions and motivation.  The
  text can also be used as an introduction to universal algebra for
  computer scientists, and to applications of theorem proving.
* The book is intended for advanced undergraduate or beginning
  graduate students, and contains many examples and exercises in
  program verification, all of which can be done in OBJ.  The material
  has been extensively field tested at Oxford University.

DESIGN/CPN - COMPUTER TOOL FOR COLORED PETRI NETS
* Design/CPN is a tool package supporting the use of Colored Petri
  Nets. It is distributed free of charge to all kinds of users
  (including commercial companies).  The package is one of the most
  elaborate Petri net tools available. More than 40 man-years have
  been used for the design and implementation. The package is used by
  200 organization in 30 different countries - including 50 commercial
  companies.  The package is available on three different platforms:
  Sun Sparc machines (with Solaris), Intel PCs (with Linux), and
  Macintosh machines (with Mac OS).


WORKSHOP ON MANAGEMENT OF SEMISTRUCTURED DATA
  May 16, 1997, Ventana Canyon Resort, Tucson, Arizona
* Topics. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: data
  models, query languages, object integration and correspondence, data
  loading, data conversion, and implementation techniques ranging from
  storage management to query decomposition and processing.
* Submission information. Send a postscript file by e-mail
  (preferred), by March 31, 1997, to suciu@research.att.com, or 8
  hard-copies, 5 pages or less, to Dan Suciu, AT&T Labs, Room 2D-114A,
  600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
* Program Committee. Serge Abiteboul, Peter Buneman, Sophie Cluet,
  Alberto Mendelzon, Tova Milo, Guido Moerkotte, and Dan Suciu
* Further information: Dan Suciu (see the address above).

SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP on FIELD PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC and APPLICATIONS
  Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of
  London, UK                     
  September 1-3, 1997
* Submission.  Contributions are invited for regular presentation,
  poster and discussion sessions.  Prospective authors are invited to
  submit by 3rd March, 1997 an abstract of around 500 words or,
  preferably, a full paper to: FPL97 Programme Secretary Department of
  Computing Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine 180
  Queen's Gate London SW7 2BZ United Kingdom, e-mail:
  fpl97@doc.ic.ac.uk. 
* Scope.  Novel device, machine and system architectures, New software
  and hardware development tools, Run-time reconfigurable and
  partially reconfigurable designs, High-level design and compilation
  research, Industrial applications and experiences, Trade-offs
  between devices, architectures and technologies, Benchmark
  comparisons, Smart applications, Custom computers, Hardware/software
  co-design using field programmable devices, Evolvable and adaptable
  systems, ASIC emulators, hardware modelers and compiled
  accelerators, Fault modeling, testability methods and reliability
  issues, Educational experiences and opportunities.
* Program Committee: Doug Amos, Jeff Arnold, Peter Athanas, Stephen
  Brown, Klaus Buchenrieder, Bernard Courtois, Keith Dimond, Carl
  Ebeling, Patrick Foulk, Norbert Fristacky, Herbert Gruenbacher,
  Reiner Hartenstein, Udo Kebschull, Andres Keevallik, Patrick
  Lysaght, Will Moore, Klaus Mueller-Glaser, Wolfgang Nebel, Peter
  Noakes, Franco Pirri, Jonathan Rose, Zoran Salcic, Mariagiovanna
  Sami, Michal Servit, Stephen Smith, Steve Trimberger.

POSTDOC POSITION
  Department of Mathematics and Computing Science
  Eindhoven University of Technology
  Publication-style Programming
* A postdoc is required to play a leading role in the design and
  implementation of a programming environment designed to encourage
  the practice of literate, formal development of programs.  The
  programming environment will be based on a structure editor with the
  capability of on-the-fly (thus not pre-compiled) definition of
  abstract programming structures.
* Address enquiries about this position to: Roland Backhouse,
  rolandb@win.tue.nl . 
* Applications should arrive before 20th December, 1996.


POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT 
* A postdoctoral fellowship is available in applications of modal
  logic to distributed systems at the School of Computing Science,
  University of Technology, Sydney for a term of up to two years and
  six months.  The project, supported by a grant from the Australian
  Research Council, concerns the development of a distributed systems
  design methodology based on logics of knowledge.  Applicants should
  have, or be about to complete, a Ph.D. in computer science or
  equivalent research experience, knowledge of formal methods for
  distributed systems, and expertise in one or more of the following
  areas: logic of knowledge, temporal logic, refinement calculi,
  fault-tolerant protocols. For further information, contact Dr Ron
  van der Meyden (email: ron@socs.uts.edu.au, phone: +61 2 9514 1850,
  fax: +61 2 9514 1807) Closing date January 17.

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS
  in Logic, Computer Science, Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence  
  at the University of Amsterdam
* The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the 
  University of Amsterdam announces the opening of competition for its 
  graduate fellowships for 1997 for interdisciplinary research
  training in the field of Logic, Computer Science, Mathematics and
  Artificial Intelligence.
* Tuition, stipend.  Graduate fellowships include tuition, and a cash
  stipend. Graduate stipends are normally renewable for four years
  upon satisfactory performance. Moreover, partial teaching assistant
  position are possible. ILLC also invites Ph.D.'s with a grant from
  other sources (e.g.  research council) to apply for a supplementary
  partial ILLC-fellowship. Fellowships are intended to start on
  January 1, 1997, or, exceptionally, later in the year.
* Selection Committee. Krzysztof Apt, Johan van Benthem, Jeroen
  Groenendijk, Dick de Jongh, Erik-Jan van der Linden.
* More information: Dr. Dick de Jongh, tel: + 31 20 5256061,
  dickdj@fwi.uva.nl. 


THIRD NORTHEASTERN CONFERENCE ON TOPOLOGICAL METHODS IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE SEMANTICS
  University of Southern Maine
  April 12, 1997
* The Third Northeastern Conference on Topological Methods in
  Programming Language Semantics will take place on the campus of the
  University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine on April 12,
  1997. These conferences are devoted to areas of topology which are
  related to the semantics of programming languages. A key goal is to
  provide a forum where both topologists and computer scientists can
  meet and exchange ideas about problems of common interest.
* Invited speakers. Abbas Edalat and Regina Tix.
* Submission. Titles and abstracts for 25-minute contributed talks are
  due by March 25, 1997.  These should not exceed 18 lines of
  (12-point) text. Send them by e-mail (preferably) to one of the
  organizers at the addresses given below.
* Organizers. David Briggs (briggs@usm.maine.edu), Bob Flagg
  (flagg@usm.maine.edu),  Ralph Kopperman (rdkcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu) 


GOEDEL PRIZE, CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
* The Goedel Prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical
  computer science is sponsored jointly by the European Association
  for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Special Interest
  Group on Algorithms and Computing Theory of the Association of
  Computing Machinery (ACM-SIGACT).  This award is presented annually,
  with the presentation taking place alternately at the International
  Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP) and ACM
  Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC).  The fifth presentation
  will take place during the 1997 ICALP, July 7--11, 1997 in Bologna,
  Italy.  The Prize includes an award of $5000, sponsored by a grant
  from PWS Publishers in cooperation with International Thomson
  Publishing (ITP).
* Award committee. Ron Graham, Juris Hartmanis, David Johnson, Gordon
  Plotkin, Grzegorz Rozenberg (chair), Emo Welzl.
* Eligibility. Any research paper (or a series of papers) published
  (not reprinted) in a recognized refereed journal (by a single author
  or a team of authors) in the period 1990 -- 1996 is deemed eligible.
  This extended period is in recognition of the fact that the value of
  fundamental work cannot always be immediately assessed. The research
  work nominated for the award should be in the area of theoretical
  computer science. The term "theoretical computer science" is meant
  in a broad sense, and encompasses, but is not restricted to, those
  areas covered by ICALP and STOC. The Award Committee shall have the
  ultimate authority to decide whether a particular paper is eligible
  for the Prize.
* Nominations. Nominations for the award should be submitted to the
  Award Committee Chairman at the following address: Professor
  Grzegorz Rozenberg, Department of Computer Science, Leiden
  University, Niels Bohrweg 1, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands, email:
  rozenber@wi.leidenuniv.nl, telephone: +31-71-5277063.  To be
  considered, nominations for the 1997 prize must be received by
  January 6, 1997. Nominations may be made by any member of the
  scientific community. A nomination should contain a brief summary of
  the technical content of the paper and a brief explanation of its
  significance. A copy of the research paper (or papers) should
  accompany the nomination.

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON DEONTIC LOGIC IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
  Bologna Italy
  8-10 January 1998
  http://www.cirfid.unibo.it/~deon98
* Topics. (a) Any theoretical aspects of the logical study of
  normative reasoning, including formal systems of deontic logic,
  logic of action, or other areas of logic, provided that their
  connections with deontic logic or normative reasoning are made
  clear, and including formal analysis of normative concepts and
  normative systems. (b) Any logical aspects of
  Artificial-Intelligence models of normative reasoning. (c) Any
  aspects of the application of logical systems to normative aspects
  of computer science and public or private administration.
* Special Topic. A special workshop session is planned in honor of the
  late Carlos Alchourron, with an invited talk by David Makinson. 
* Invited speakers. Donald Nute, David Makinson, Georg Henrik von
  Wright. 
* Submission. The submission deadline is 15 May 1998. Send five hard
  copies or one electronic PostScript version of original, unpublished
  papers, written in English, and not exceeding 7500 words, to: Hard
  copies - Paul McNamara, Department of Philosophy, University of New
  Hampshire, Durham, NH 03820, USA; Postscript version -
  paulm@christa.unh.edu
* Program committee. Henry Prakken (Co-chair), Paul McNamara
  (Co-chair), Mark Brown, Daniel Bonevac, Jose Carmo, Frank Dignum,
  John Horty, Andrew Jones, Lars Lindahl, Tom Maibaum, John-Jules
  Meyer, Giovanni Sartor, Krister Segerberg, Marek Sergot, Lennart
  Aqvist.
* Further Information. Henry Prakken, c/o Faculty of Law, Free
  University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel. +31-20-44-46216 Email:
  henry@rechten.vu.nl; Paul McNamara, see address above.