LICS Newsletter 45

Newsletter 45

July 29, 1997


[Past issues of the newsletter are available at
 http://www.bell-labs.com/topic/conferences/lics/ 


BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
  On Concurrent Programming
  Fred B. Schneider
  Springer-Verlag, 1997
  ISBN 0-387-94942-9 Hardcover, 473pp, $49.95.
* This graduate-level text provides a thorough and self-contained
  introduction to concurrent programming. The presentation is based on
  the use of assertional methods for reasoning about and deriving
  synchronization and communications structures.  The text is based on
  a graduate course taught at Cornell University.
* Contents. Introduction. Formal logic. Temporal logic. Notation and
  logic for sequential programming. Concurrency and inteference.
  Safety properties: Invariance. Safety properties with past
  terms. Verifying arbitrary temporal logic properties. Programming
  with fine-grained atomic actions. Semaphores, locks, and conditional
  critical regions. Message passing and distributed programming.
  Putting it together. References. Index


HYBRID SYSTEMS: COMPUTATION AND CONTROL
  April 13-15, 1998, Berkeley, California
* The first of a newly constituted series of annual workshops on
  hybrid systems will be organized at the University of California,
  Berkeley.  The purpose of the workshop is to bring together
  researchers from computer science and control theory, and to advance
  the theory of hybrid systems and its applications.
* Topics. Control engineering, modeling and system theory,
  specification and implementation languages, controller synthesis,
  computer-aided design and simulation, algorithmic and deductive
  verification, experimental results and applications.  Reports on
  case studies and tool development are particularly encouraged.  Tool
  demos will form an integral part of the workshop.
* Submission. Authors are requested to submit an extended abstract not
  exceeding ten pages. Send either a postscript file or six hardcopies
  by October 22, 1997. Electronic submission is strongly encouraged.
* Submission Address. E-mail submissions: tah@eecs.berkeley.edu
  (postscript only). Hardcopy submissions: Thomas A. Henzinger, EECS
  Department, Cory Hall, University of California Berkeley, CA
  94720-1770 USA.
* Program Committee.  R. Alur, P. Antsaklis, K. Astrom, A. Benveniste,
  A. Bouajjani, M. Branicky, P. Caines, D. Godbole, M. Greenstreet,
  V. Gupta, T. Henzinger, B. Krogh, S. Lafortune, K. Larsen, O. Maler,
  Z. Manna, S. Morse, A. Nerode, P. Ramadge, S. Sastry, R. Segala,
  H. Wong-Toi.


BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
  Politics, Logic, and Love: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort
  Anita Burdman Feferman
  A K Peters, 1993
  ISBN 1-56881-022-9, Hardcover, 432 pp, $44.00
* The fascination of this book lies in the unusual personality and
  dramatic life of its protagonist, Jean van Heijenoort.  He was known
  to most as a logician, historian of science, and the editor of the
  famous source book From Frege to Goedel; however, his life extended
  into many areas and this biography connects the various threads
  within the context of scientific, intellectual, and political
  history. After receiving his Ph.D. under James Stoker at the Courant
  Institute in New York, he switches his focus to logic and
  contributes substantially to the field and its history.  Based on
  taped interviews with his friends, colleagues, and van Heijenoort
  himself, , this account of his life becomes a prism for the personal
  and political undercurrents of the century and an intimate
  reflection of the important players of the time.  An appendix by
  Solomon Feferman, Jean van Heijenoort's Scholarly Work, provides a
  learned assessment of his accomplishments.


COMPUTING: THE AUSTRALASIAN THEORY SYMPOSIUM (CATS'98)
  Perth, Western Australia, 2-3 February, 1998
* CATS'98 will be held at the University of Western Australia as part
  of the Australasian Computer Science Week (ACSW98) which also
  includes: the Australasian Computer Science Conference (ACSC'98),
  the Australasian Database Conference (ADC'98), the Australasian
  Computer Architecture Conference (ACAC'98).
* Topics.  Algorithms and data structure Category theory, Complexity,
  Computational algebra, biology, geometry, logic, and number theory,
  Concurrency, Distributed and parallel computing, Formal semantics,
  specification, synthesis, and verification,
* Submission. Send a postscript file to cats98@cs.uwa.edu.au before 15
  August 1997.  The paper (an extended abstract or full paper) should
  not exceed 15 pages.
* Program committee. Cristian Calude, Hossam Elgindy, Matthew Hennessy,
  Xuemin Lin (chair), Bruce Maggs, Martin Odersky, Hong Shen, Harald
  Sondergaard, Antonios Symvonis, Tadao Takaoka, Ron van der Meyden,
  Lusheng Wang, Sue Whitesides, David Wolfram.
* Further information. E-mail cats98@cs.uwa.edu.au.


POST-DOC OPPORTUNITIES, M.S. AND PH.D. STUDENT POSITIONS
  Computational Logic at Bilkent University
  Ankara,  Turkey
* Bilkent University (see http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/) is a modern,
  private center of excellence in higher education and research,
  beautifully located at the fringe of Ankara, in the Anatolian
  heartland of the Republic of Turkey.  Faculty members received their
  Ph.D.s mostly from prominent universities in Europe and North
  America.  Research and publication standards are very high, and
  there are many international cooperations.  Research facilities,
  such as computers, software, Internet connection, books, journals,
  CD-ROMs, etc, are excellent and up-to-date.  Although Turkish-owned,
  Bilkent University follows the US academic model, and the language
  of instruction and research is English.  All students in the
  Computer Science Department are on full scholarships offered by the
  university, so entrance and studies are very competitive.  Graduated
  students pursue research and find jobs at the very best institutions
  world-wide.
* Further information. Contact Prof. Pierre Flener, Bilkent
  University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Computer Science,
  06533 Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey, Voice: +90/312/266-4000 ext.1450
  (GMT+3), Fax: +90/312/266-4126, Email: pf@cs.bilkent.edu.tr, or
  visit the web site (see the address above).

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL STATIC ANALYSIS SYMPOSIUM (SAS'97)
  Paris, France, September 8-10, 1997
  Call for participation
* See the above URL for further information. 


ACM KANELLAKIS THEORY AND PRACTICE AWARD
  Call for nominations
* The ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is given to an
  individual or group for a specific theoretical accomplishment that
  has had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of
  computing.  The nature of the theoretical accomplishment may be
  either an invention itself or a major analytic study of an existing
  technique that led practitioners to adopt it.
* Nomination.  A nomination will consist of three related parts.  (1)
  A discussion of the theoretical work being nominated, including
  copies of relevant publications or other documentation of the
  accomplishment.
  (2) A description of the claimed practical impact, together with
  evidence supporting the claims, either in the form of published
  references or attached statements by one or more top practitioners
  in the relevant field.
  (3) Evidence of the linkage between the theoretical work and the
  practical impact, either in the form of documentation that implies
  the linkage, or attached statements from the implementers attesting
  to it.
  It is not required that the nominees were involved in the transfer
  from theory to practice, though such an involvement will strengthen
  the nomination.  The theoretical contribution should have occurred
  within 25 years of the date of the award.  
* Committee. Barbara Liskov, David Johnson, Tom Leighton, Christos
  Papadimitriou (chair), Moshe Vardi, Peter Wegner.  
* Nominations should be sent by October 1, 1997 to Christos
  Papadimitriou, Computer Science Division, 689 Soda Hall, University
  of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94270-1776, (510) 642-1559,
  christos@cs.berkeley.edu.


THIRD
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSTRAINT
PROGRAMMING (CP97)
  Schloss Hagenberg, Austria, October 29 - November 1, 1997
  Call for participation
* See the above URL for further information. 

2ND EUROMICRO WORKING
CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND REENGINEERING
  Florence,  Italy,  March  9-11, 1998
* Topics. Maintenance and Reengineering Tools (CARE-Tools), Reverse
  Engineering Tools, Support of Reengineering Tasks by CASE-Tools,
  Software Reusability, Tele-Maintenance (Concepts, Experiences, Use
  of New Technologies), Maintainability of Programming Languages (eg.,
  OOPLs), Models and Methods for Error Prediction, Measurement of
  Software Quality, Maintenance Metrics, Formal Methods, Maintenance
  and Reengineering of KBS, Reengineering and Reverse Engineering
  Concepts, Experiences from Redesign and Reengineering Projects,
  Millennium Problem (Year 2000), Euro Problem, Organizational
  Framework and Models for "RE"-Projects, Software Evolution,
  Migration and Maintenance Strategies, Design for Maintenance,
  Preventive Maintenance, Personnel Aspects of Maintenance
  (Motivation, Team building), Third Party Maintenance, Empirical
  Results about the Maintenance Situation in Businesses, Version and
  Configuration Management, Legal Aspects and Jurisdiction,
  Organization and Management of Large Maintenance Projects, Software
  Offloading, Related Areas such as Software Documentation.
* Submission.  There are two types of papers: full length papers (not
  exceeding 4000 words in length and including a 150-200 word
  abstract) and short papers (not exceeding 2000 words in length and
  including a 75-100 word abstract).  Authors are strongly encouraged
  to send a PostScript version of their paper by anonymous ftp to
  ftp.dsi.unifi.it and put this file into the directory
  pub/CSMR98/incoming (in order to avoid overwritings, the PostScript
  file should be named: .ps).
  In addition, they should send by e-mail to
  CSMR98@ozon180.ing.unifi.it the title of the paper, full names,
  affiliations, postal and e-mail addresses of all authors, fax and
  telephone numbers.  Alternatively, the paper can be sent by postal
  mail.  In that case, five copies of all the above items should be
  sent to a program chairman.
* Program Committee.  V.S. Alagar, V. Ambriola, G. Bakker, K. Bennett,
  A. Bertolino, F.  Brito e Abreu, G. Bucci, M. Campanai, A. Cimitile,
  I. Classen, L.  da F. Costa, J.A. de La Puente, A. Fantechi,
  J.-L. Hainaut, J.  Harauz, B. Henderson-Sellers, M. Hinchey,
  E.-A. Karlsson, T.M.  Khoshgoftaar, P. Laplante, S. Liu, M. Loewe,
  M. Marchesi, T.J.  Marlowe, J.-M. Morel, D. Natale, P. Nesi (chair),
  E. Miller, S.  Nocentini, M. Pezze`, P.T. Poon, L. Richter,
  D. Rombach, G.  Sechi, I. Sommerville, A. Stoyen, J. Taramaa,
  H. Toetenel, G.  Tsai, C. Verhofer, Y. Yamaguchi.
* Further information.  csmr98@ozon180.ing.unifi.it,
  http://www.isst.fhg.de/csmr, http://www.dsi.unifi.it/~nesi/csmr98.

SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
PRINCIPLES OF KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING (KR'98)
  Preliminary Call for Papers
  Trento, Italy, June 2-5, 1998
* Topics. Representational Formalisms, Reasoning Techniques,
  Implemented KR&R Systems, Significant Applications, Implications
  for/of Machine Learning, Decision Theory, Databases, Software
  Engineering.
* Submission. Send an extended abstract (at most 12 pages) before
  December 1, 1997. 
* Program chairs. Anthony G. Cohn and Lenhart Schubert.
* Further information. See the URL above.


LOGICAL FORMALIZATIONS
OF COMMONSENSE REASONING (COMMON SENSE 98)
  London, U.K., January 7-9, 1998.
* Topics.  Change, action, and causality, ontologies, including space,
  time, shape, and matter, non-monotonic reasoning, formal theories of
  context, mental attitudes including knowledge, belief, intention,
  obligation, etc.  belief change, update and revision, large common
  sense knowledge bases, cognitive robotics, reasoning about other
  agents and multi-agent systems, and other mathematical tools for
  capturing common sense reasoning.
* Submission.  Submit papers of up to 6000 words, excluding the
  bibliography. A postscript file, with formatting compatible with
  standard A4 size paper, should be emailed to rsm@dcs.qmw.ac.uk, with
  the subject title "CS98 Submission", to arrive on or before 10th
  October 1997.
* Program committee.  Rob Miller (co-chair), Murray Shanahan
  (co-chair), John Bell, Tony Cohn, Ernie Davis, Bob Kowalski, Ben
  Kuipers, Vladimir Lifschitz, John McCarthy, Leora Morgenstern, Ray
  Reiter, Erik Sandewall.
* Further information. http://www.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/~rsm/CS98/index.html. 


PRACTICAL APPLICATION  EXPO98
  Call for papers and participation
  23-27 March 1998, London, UK
* The Practical Application Company is pleased to announce the Call
  for Papers and Participation for PA EXPO98.  Held in cooperation
  with AAAI and sponsored to date by AI International, Amzi,
  CompulogNet, PMG, ISL, LPA, IF Computer, LPA, Prolog Development
  Centre and PrologIA.  PA EXPO98 is a world leading international
  conference and exhibition featuring the following four events.
* PAAM98 - The Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and
  Multi-Agents. http://www.demon.co.uk/ar/PAAM98/
* PADD98 - The Practical Application of Knowledge Discovery and Data
  Mining. http://www.demon.co.uk/ar/PADD98/
* PAP/PACT98 - Incorporating The Practical Application of Prolog and
  The Practical Application of Constraint Technology.
  http://www.demon.co.uk/ar/PAPPACT98/ 
* PAKeM98 - The Practical Application of Knowledge Management.
  http://www.demon.co.uk/ar/PAKeM98/