ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCECONFERENCE

'86

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THE CONFERENCE

Artificial Intelligence (Al), the branch of computer science wherebycomputers can give inferences and make judgements rather that justpresent facts and figures, is spawning its own industry. Currentlyenjoyinga surge in interest and attention in developed countries like America, Japanand Europe the awarness of Al is beginning to percolate down to newlyindustrialising countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. It isenvisaged that the field of Al will revolutionize the electronics, electro-mechanical and computer worlds as well as business and industry in theyears to come.

Al promises to herald the "Second Computer Revolution" all over theworld and Singapore, which has already made significant inroads to theconventional comptuer markets and applications will be ready to ride thecoming Al wave. As such, the ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE '86 CON-FERENCE is ideally timed for Singapore to meet this new challenge.

The Sponsor, Science Council of Singapore and its co-sponsors haveassembled a gathering of 25 world renowed Al experts from the UnitedStates, Europe and Japan to examine in-depth Al and its Applications,presenting a State of the Art View of the emerging industry.

SPONSORS

£^£ Science Council of Singapore

IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

CO-SPONSORSa\ South East Asia Regional Computer ConfederationMl (SEARCC)

J& National Computer BoardNCB

_^J Economic Development Board

BS National University of Singapore

J22] Institute of System Science

ORGANISERS

SiSsS) Conference and Exhibition Management Services Re Ltd

2

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CONTENTS

Page No

Message from the Sponsor 4

> Message from the Organiser 5

Location Map of Conference Site/AI Products Display 6

Conference & Tutorial Arrangements 7

Conference & Tutorial Programme 9

Speakers 1 1

Tutorial/Conference Abstracts 13

Organising/Programme Committees 17

Index of Al Products Display Participants 18

Al Product Display Floor Plan 18

Al Products Display Participants Profile 19

Acknowledgements 20

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.

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MESSAGE FROM

The SponsorScience Council of Singapore

As the sponsor of Artificial Intelligence and Its Applications — A Stateof Art View, the Science Council is happy that we in Singapore haveeventually arrived at this point where the first major internationalmeeting of Al experts is taking place. Science Council and the co-sponsors are enthusiastic about the possibilities Al holds for us andbelieve that Singapore is well-poised to take on the Al challenge as wealready have a good foundation in information technology. This con-ference is a timely event to further our understanding of Al and itspotential and applications. The impressive list of sponsor and co-sponsors underscores the importance with which Singapore views thistechnology.

We are pleased that the forerunners of A I research are here to informand enlighten us and on behalf of the Organising Committee of thislandmark event, we wish all participants a fruitful and rewarding timeat this conference.

Dr Vincent YipChairmanOrganising CommitteeScience Council

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MESSAGE FROM

The OrganiserConference & Exhibition ManagementServices Pte Ltd.

As thefirst major international event of its kind in Asia, ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE '86 promises to chart a new landmark in thedevelopment of computer software technology in this part of theworld.

Significantly, the Singapore Government has also earmarked theemerging technology as one of thehigh-tech growth industriesto bedeveloped in the Republic. Hence the hosting of ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE '86 is most timely and appropriate.

As organisers, we are indeed grateful to all theeminent speakers forsharing their knowledge and expertise with us. We would also liketo extend our heartfelt thanks to the delegatesmaking this event possible.

and sponsors for

memorable stayinMay we wish all our foreign guests a pleasant andSingapore.

Edward Liv Choon SanManaging Director

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MAP OF CONFERENCESITE/AI PRODUCTS DISPLAY

HYATT REGENCY SINGAPORE(LEVEL 3)

7

CONFERENCE & TUTORIALSARRANGEMENTS

Registration

Registration desk, situated near the entrance of the Conference Site(HIBISCUS ROOM, LEVEL 3) will be open as follows:

Sunday 23 MarchMonday 24 MarchTuesday 25 MarchWednesday 26 MarchThursday 27 March

From 8.00 AMFrom 8.00 AMFrom 8.00 AMFrom 7.30 AMFrom 7.30 AM

All pre-registered participants are requested to report to the registrationdesk with CEMS's confirmation letter or telex to collect their sachetscontaining the conference materials.

On the spot registration for last-minute participants is also accepted.Payment should be made in cash or on cheques made payable to"Conference & Exhibition Management Services Pte Ltd".

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony by DrYeo Ning Hong, Ministerfor Communicationsand Information and Second Minister of Defence, will be held on 25 March1986 (Tuesday) at 9.00 am in the Crystal Ballroom, Level 2. This will befollowed by the key-note address, "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITSAPPLICATION" by Prof Edward Feigenbaum. A reception will be held afterthe key-note address.

Conference Proper

The Conference Proper, commencing with Prof Randall Davis's paper at10.45 AM will be held in the "Hibiscus Room" on Level 3. All remainingsessions will be conducted there.

Note: All Tuitorials will be held in the "Hibiscus" Room, on level 3.

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Catering

Morning and afternoon tea-breaksand luncheon will be served as follows:

TUTORIAL

23 March (Sunday)24 March (Monday)

: Afternoon Tea onlyMorning & Afternoon Tea(No luncheon served)

CONFERENCE

Morning Tea, Luncheon& Afternoon Tea

25 March (Tuesday)

26 March (Wednesday) : Morning Tea, Luncheon& Afternoon TeaMorning Tea, Luncheon& Afternoon Tea.

27 March (Thursday)

Note: Luncheon on 25 & 26 March will be served in JasmineRoom (Level 2)and on 27 March in Crystal Ball Room (Level 2).

There will be an Opening Cocktail for Conference Delegates on 25 March1986 (Tuesday) from 6.15 PM - 8.30 PM at the Crystal Ballroom.

Secretariat/Press Room

The Conference Secretariat/Press Room is located at CAMELLIA ROOMNo. m next to the Al Products Display area (level 3).

Session Chairmen and Speakers

There will be a Pool-Side Buffet Dinner for all Chairmen, Speakers, Organi-sing/Programme Committees and invited guests on 26 March 1986(Wednesday) at 7.30 pm at the Dynasty Hotel Pool-Side. This socialfunction is hosted by Science Council of Singapore, the sponsor ofARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE '86 CONFERENCE.

Pre and Post ConferenceTours/Travel Arrangements

For the benefit of our foreign delegates, pre and post conference tours(Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand) can be arranged throughour Official Travel Agent, Associated Tours Singapore. A representativefrom the company will be present to assist with tours and onward travelarrangements.

>

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CONFERENCE & TUTORIALSPROGRAMMES

TUTORIAL PROGRAMME CONFERENCE PROGRAMME3.00 PM Knowledge Representation

DAY ONE — 23 MARCH 1986 DAY ONE — 25 MARCH 1986 And Programming(SUNDAY) (TUESDAY) Chairman:—

Prof Hsu Loke Soo8.00 AM Registration National University of Singapore10.00 AM An Introduction To

SingaporeSpeakers:—

Knowledge 8.45 AM Guests to be seated for— Based Systems Opening Ceremony" Prof Reind van de Riet " Prof Peter Chen

Free University, Amsterdam Louisiana State University9.00 AM Arrival of Guest-of-Honour USADr. Yeo Ning Hong Minister12.00 LUNCH BREAKNOON

Title of Paper: "Emerging Trendfor Communications andInformation and Second of Data and Knowledge

Representation Techniques"4.00 PM TEA BREAK

Minister of Defence.Welcome Address by ProfChoo Seok Cheow, Chairmanof Science Council of Singapore.Address by Guest-of-HonourDr Yeo Ning Hong

1.00 PM Knowledge RepresentationProf Luc SteelsFree University, BrusselsBelgium 4.15 PM Prof Kenneth Bowen

Syracuse University3.00 PM TEA BREAK USA

Title of paper: "Metalevel3.30 PM Natural Language 9.15 AM Keynote Address: ArtificialIntelligence And Its Techniques in LogicProcessing Programming"Dr David Waltz Application

" Prof Edward FeigenbaumThinking Machines Ine and 5.15 PM " Dr Koichi FurukawaBrandeis University Stanford University Insitute of New GenerationUSA USA Computer Technology (ICOT)

Japan5.30 PM END OF SESSION 10.15 AM Reception/Tour of Al Products Title of paper: LogicDisplay Programming as a Basis for

Knowledge Programming.10.45 AM Expert SystemsChairman:— 6.15 PM COCKTAIL RECEPTIONDAY TWO — 24 MARCH 1986 Dr Don Walker(MONDAY) Bell Communications ResearchUSA

8.00 AM LISP Speakers:—" Dr Joseph Dreussi DAY TWO — 26 MARCH 1986

(WEDNESDAY)Prof Randall DavisMassachusetts Institute ofLISP Machines Ine

USA

10.00 AM TEA BREAK

10.30 AM PrologProf Kenneth BowenSyracuse UniversityUSA

12.30 PM LUNCH BREAK

1.30 PM Vision

" Dr Alex PentlandSRI InternationalUSA

3.30 PM TEA BREAK

4.00 PM Robotics

" Prof Raj ReddyCarnegie — Mellon UniversityUSA

6.00 PM END OF SESSION

TechnologyUSATitle of Paper: "Recent Work InKnowledge-Based Systems:From Empirical Associationsto First Principles"

11.45 AM " Dr James GriesmerIBM T.J. Watson ResearchLaboratoryUSA

Title of Paper: "A ContinuousReal-time Expert System ForComputer"

12.45PM LUNCH BREAK

2.00 PM " Prof Luc SteelsFree University, BrusselsBelgium

Title of Paper: "Towards SecondGeneration Expert Systems"

8.30 PM Special Address: RoboticsAnd-ManufacturingChairman:Prof Leong Shiu KeeNanyang Technological InstituteSingaporeSpeaker:—

" Prof Raj ReddyCarnegie — Melon UniversityUSA

9.30 AM VisionSpeaker:—

" Dr Alex PentlandSRI InternationalUSA

Title of Paper: "Parts AndPerception

10.30 AM TEA BREAK10.45 AM Natural Language Structures

Chairman:—Prof Hideo AisoKeio UniversityJapan

Note: Al! tutorials and Conference Sessions will be held inHibiscus Room (Level 3). The Opening Ceremony &Keynote Address by Prof Edward Feigenbaum on 25March 1986 will be held in Crystal Ballroom (Level 2).

Speakers:—

" Dr Barbara GroszSRI International andStanford UniversityUSA

Title of Paper: "DiscourseStructure and Intentions"

to

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CONFERENCE & TUTORIALSPROGRAMMES (Con't)

11.45 AM " Dr David Waltz 4.00 PM " Prof John Seely BrownXerox Palo Alto ResearchCentre

THREE — 27 MARCH 1986(THURSDAY)Thinking Machines Ine and

Brandeis UniversityUSA USA

Title of Paper: "Some New Title of Paper:

"Qualitative

Reasoning About PhysicalSystems"

8.30 AM Knowledge InformationProcessingDirections For Real-World Al

Applications" Chairman:—Dr ChewTat LeongDefence Science Organisation12.45 PM

2.00 PM

LUNCH BREAK 5.00 PM Concluding Address: "TheFuture Of Artificial

Ministry of DefenceBusiness Applications Intelligence"Chairman:—Dr Vincent Yip

Chairman:— SingaporeSpeakers:—Mr Lim Joo Hong

Information Technology " Dr Don WalkerBell Communications Science Council of Singapore

SingaporeInstitute, NationalComputer Board Research Speaker-

USASingapore " Prof Randall DavisSpeakers:— Title of Paper: "Knowledge Massachusetts Institute of

Technology" Dr Martin ErnstArtrW D LittleUSA

Resource Tools ForInformation Access" USA

9.30 AM Natural LanguageTitle of Paper:- "Business 5.30 PM CLOSING OF CONFERENCE(Closing remarks by Chairmanof A.I. '86 Organising

ApplicationsApplications of ArtificialIntelligenceKnowledge Chairman:—

Prof C X YuenBased Systems" Committee)National University of Singapore

3.00 PM " Dr Mike Small SingaporeSpeaker-Knowledge Engineering

Business Centre, ICLUK " Dr Jonathan Slocum

MCC CorporationTitle of Paper: "Practical USAApplications Involving Title of Paper: "MachineUncertainty" Translation - An American

Perspective "4.00 PM

4.15 PM

TEA BREAK10.30 AM TEA BREAK

Panel: "Impact Of ArtificialIntelligence On Business 10.45 AM " Prof Makato NagaoAnd Industry" Kyoto UniversityChairman:— Japan

Title of Paper: "The JapaneseDr Juzar MotiwallaGovernmentProject ForInstitute of Systems ScienceMachine Translation"Singapore

Panelists: — 11.45 AM " Dr Harry Tennant" Prof Edward Feigenbaum Texas Instruments Ine" Prof Raj Reddy USA" Prof Hideo Aiso Title ofPaper: "Menu-Based" Dr Martin Ernst Natural Language" Dr F Stephen Wyle

" Dr Miroslav Benda Understanding"

12.45PM LUNCH BREAK6.30 PM END OF SESSION1.45 PM Learning & Reasoning

Chairman:—Prof Teh Hoon HengNational University of SingaporeSingaporeSpeakers:

" Prof Tom MitchellRutgers UniversityUSA

Title of Paper: "MachineLearning"

2.45 PM " Prof Chen-Ho KungNorwegian Institute ofTechnology Norway

NoteTitle of Paper: "HighParallelism And An Efficient " These programmes are subjectReasoning Procedure"

3.45 PM TEA BREAKlast-minute changes.

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CONFERENCE & TUTORIALPROGRAMMES SPEAKERS

A total of 25 international prominent Al experts have beenassembled to present their papers at ARTIFICIAL INTEL-LIGENCE '86 CONFERENCE.

KEY-NOTE SPEAKERSProf Edward A Feigenbaum

Prof Edward A Feigenbaum is Professor ofComputer Science at the Computer ScienceDeparment, Stanford University. He is PrincipalInvestigator of the Heuristic ProgrammingProject at Stanford, the world's leading labora-tory for work in Knowledge Engineering andExpert Systems. In particular, his work on theDENDRAL Program which commenced in1965, initiated these fields of applied artificialintelligence.

Prof D Raj Reddy is a University Professor andDirector of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he has been active inteaching and research in Al for fifteen years. Heis also the Chief Scientist of the World Centrefor ComputerScience and Human Resource inParis.

Prof Reddy's research interests in computerscience are in the areas of Artificial Intelligence,man-machine communications and signalunderstanding systems. He is working onspeech input to computers, visual input tocom-puters, robotics, graphics, distributed sensornetworks and computer architectures.

Prof Randall Davis is currently a tenuredAssociate Professor of Information Science atMlT's Sloan School of Management and amember of the Artificial Intelligence Lab. Hehas been one of the seminal contributors to thefield of expert systems, publishing some 40articles and playing a central role in the develop-ment of several systems. In 1984 he wasselectedas one of America's top 100 scientists undertheage of 40 by Science Digest.

Prof Feigenbaum also heads the nationalcomputer facility for applications of ArtificialIntelligence to Medicineand Biology known asthe SUMEX-AIM facility, established by NIH atStanford University.Prof D Raj Reddy

Prof Davis has been a consultant to severalmajor organizations in the area of Al and expertsystems, including the RAND Corporation, IBM,and Schlumberger, for whom he directed theinitial construction of the Dipmeter Advisor. Heis a founding consultant of Teknowledge and aco-founder of Applied Expert Systems.

Prof Randall Davis

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DR KOICHI FURUKAWAInstitute for new Generation

Computer Technology (ICOT)Japan

DR. STEPHEN WYLELISP Machine Inc.,

USA

PROF CHEN-HO KUNGNorwegian Institute ofTechnology Norway

DR JOSEPH DREUSSILISP Machines Ine

USA

DR DAVID WALTZThinking Machines Ine and

Brandeis University

DR JAMES GRIESMER PROF KENNETH BOWENIBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory Syracuse University

USA USA

DR MARTIN ERNSTArthur D Little

USA

DR. DON WALKERBell Communications Research

USA

DR MIKE SMALLKnowledge Engineering

Business

Centre,

ICL

DR HARRY TENNANTTexas Instruments Ine

PROF LUC. STEELSFree University, Brussels

Belgium

DR. JONATHAN SLOCUMMCC Corporation,

USA

PROF REIND VAN DE RIETFree University, Amsterdam

PROF MAKATO NAGAOKyoto University

Japan

DR BARBARA GROSZSRI International andStanford University

USA

PROF JOHN SEELY BROWN PROF TOM MITCHELL PROF HIDEO AISOXerox Palo Alto Research Center, Rugtgers University, Keio University,

USA USA Japan

DR. ALEX PENTLAND PROF PETER CHEN DR. MIROSLAV BENDAAl

Center,

SRI International, Louisiana State University, Boeing Computer

Services,

USA USA USA

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CONFERENCE/TUTORIALABSTRACTS

Featured here are some of the available conference/tutorial abstracts at the time of printing:

TUTORIAL

AN INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMSProf. Reind van de Riet

This paperhas been written to serve two purposes: it should givean introduction to the new field of KnowledgeBase Systems (KBS), while,at the same time, it is meant to describesome ideaswe have about building an actual

KBS,

within theframework of a research project: MOKUM.

We consider aKBS as an extension ofa DatabaseSystem (DBS), the extention being thatit is integratedwith a DataModel, which contains the meta-knowledge about the database, and some intelligence,so that the KBS has arudimentary facility toreason about itsdata, its modeland its users. The ultimateaim is to make theKBS more user-friendly, more robust, and more efficient. There is a close connection with Expert Systems, which maybe calledKnowledgebase d systems, because theyalsoconsist of large collectionsof knowledge. However, in contrast toour notion of

KBS,

they are developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence,where usually there is much morecomplex structure in the knowledge than in the databaseworld. Furthermore, a

KBS,

according to our view,willcontain orders of magnitude more data than an Expert System.

KNOWLEDGE PRESENTATIONProf. Luc Steels

The tutorial covers the problems,. methodologies and techniques of knowledge presentation. This summarycontains the main sections, summaries of each section and background literature.

CONFERENCEKEY NOTE ADDRESS: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Prof EdwardA. Feigenbaum

We can think through thefuture of our computerindustry (to a horizon oftento fifteen years), andwe must includein that thinking thecertaintyof computersthat think.The resultsof thefirst quarter-centuryof Artificial Intelligenceresearch are' now being transferred from university research laboratoriesto industrial development laboratories.This has been called "the second computer revolution" but it is really the IMPORTANT computer revolution.

Knowledge engineering, applied Artificial Intelligence, is a rapidly emerging area of software technology thatexploits the capabilitiesof computers for symbolic manipulation and inference to solve complex and difficultreasoning problems at the level of performance of human experts. The methods of this area are designed toacquire and represent both the formal and the informal knowledge that experts hold about the tasks of theirdiscipline.

The technology underlying knowledge engineering has been maturing rapidly since the mid-19705. Theincreasing command of the techniques, and the potential for applications of high economic value and highdefense relevance, have caught the attention of major industrial

firms,

entrepreneursand venturecapitalists, themilitary, and (of course) the high-technology planners of several nations, including Singapore. Numerousapplicationsto science, signal processing, medicine,

Defense,

and industrial activities and processes have beenaccomplished; a sample of these will be given in the talk.

RECENT WORK IN KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS:FROM EMPIRICAL ASSOCIATIONS TO FIRST PRINCIPLES

Prof Randall Davis

We begin by reviewing two well-understoodparadigmsfor building knowledge-based systems: rules and frames.We discuss thekinds of knowledge appropriatelycaptured in each and the styles of reasoningeach supports. Wesuggest that rules arewell suited to expressing "empiricalassociations", heuristicconnections between pheno-mena, whileframes are used to describeprototypical situations and areused in a processthatresemblesmatching.Existing systems are used to illustrate the discussion.

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This leads into an examinationof the shortcomingsof the paradigms. We exploreways in which theyfall short ofcapturing some importantforms of knowledge and reasoning.

We thenshowhowsome, but notall, of thesedifficultiescan beovercome byusing astyleweterm "reasoningfromfirst principles".The core of the ideaisto useknowledgeabout thestructure and function of adevice,alongwith anunderstanding of physical causality inside it. This produces a form of reasoning that is considerablymore widelyapplicable and more robust in the face of unexpected situations.

We illustrate this idea with several systems built in the MIT Al Lab Hardware Troubleshooting Group:

* a system that performs symptom-directed diagnosisof digital circuits. The system uses the circuit schematicand an understandingofelectronicstoreason from theexternalsymptoms back tothemalfunctioni ng component.It is capable of handling a much wider range of faults than traditionalsystems.

* a system that generatestest programs designedfor use as thefinal step in VLSI chip manufacturing. Thesystemuses thecircuit schematic, along withknowledge about testing, to produce asequence of inputs thatwill metho-dicallytest all the expectedfunctionality of a circuit. Unlike existing approaches, it doesnot rely on the D-algo-rithm, or on gate-level descriptions of the device. As a result it will not be overwhelmedby the complexityofexisting chip designs as is starting to be the case for the traditionaltest generationalgorithms.

* a system currently in progress that maybe capable of "design from first principles", i.e., theability to designacircuit completelyfrom a specificationof its desired functionality,withoutrelying on a libraryof previouslycreateddesigns.

Finally,we lookforward to consideroutstanding problems thatremain and suggestapproachesto them currentlyunder consideration.

A CONTINUOUS REAL-TIME EXPERT SYSTEM FOR COMPUTERDr James H Griesmer

The YorktownExpert System/MVS Manager (or YES/MVSfor short) is a continuous, real-timeExpertSystem thatexertsactive control over an operating system as an aid to computer operators.

YES/MVS provides advice on routine operations and detects, diagnoses and responds to problems in thecomputer operator's qomain.

This paper discusses the YES/MVS System, its domain of application, and issues that arise in the design anddevelopment of an Expert System that runs continuously in real-time.

EMERGING TREND OF DATA AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION

TECHNIQUES

Professor Peter Chen

There are some similaritiesand differencesbetweendataandknowledgerepresentationtechniques.Thecommontechniques used in datarepresentation are:1) The Hierarchical Model2) The Network Model3) The Relational Model and4) The Entity-Relationship (ER) Model

In these four models, the ER Model is generallyconsidered as the most suitablefor modeling conceptual data.On theother hand, the commonly used knowledge representation techniques are:1) Semantic Network2) Logic3) Frame and4) Object-Attribute Pair.

In this talk, both data and knowledge representation techniques will be reviewed. Then, the similarities anddifferences between the knowledge representation techniques and the ER Model will be discussed. Finally, thepossibility of merging dataand knowledge representation techniques will be presented.

LOGIC PROGRAMMING AS A BASIS FOR KNOWLEDGE PROGRAMMINGDr. Koichi Furukawa

A uniformframework to establish a multi-paradigm system forknowledge programmingis presented.The frame-work is based on logic programming,particularlyon parallel logic programming.Threekey issueswhich arevitalfor realizing a knowledge programming system are discussed. Theyare 1. the use of deductivepowerwhich isinherent in a logic programming language,2. optimizationof inferenceprogramsby theirpartialexecution undergiven

rules/facts,

and 3. the useof concurrentprogramming capabilitiesinparallel logicprogramminglanguages.

SPECIAL ADDRESS: ROBOTICS AND MANUFACTURINGDr Raj Reddy

Research inrobotics is directedtowardsthestudyofautonomoussystems capableofsensing, thinkingand acting.This research has two broad themes: The Factory of the Future, i.e. technologiesfor manufacturingautomation,

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and systems forhazardousenvironments. At present, nearly two thirdsof theactivity is in themanufacturingarea,but in the long run we expect roboticsfor hazardousenvironments such as space,oceans,mines, and radioactiveenvironments to become increasingly important. Thus our research efforts include studiesof stationary systemsfor manufacturing and mobile systems for remote tasks in hazardous environments. In this talk we will presentvarious examples illustrating these themes.

PARTS AND PERCEPTIONSDr Alex P. Pentland

To support our reasoning abilities perception must recover environmental regularities — e.g., rigidity, "object-

ness,"axesof

symmetry -for lateruse by cognition. Unfortunately, the representationsthatare currentlyavailablewere originallydevelopedforother purposes (e.g. physics, engineering) and have so far proven unsuitablefor thetask of perception.

In answer to this problem we present a representation that has proven competent to accurately describe anextensivevariety of natural forms (e.g., people, mountains,clouds, trees),as wellas man-made

forms,

inasuccinctand natural manner.The approach taken in thisrepresentational system is to describescene structure ata scalethat is similar to our naive perceptual notion of "a party", by use of descriptionsthat reflect a possible formativehistory of the object, e.g. how the object might have been constructed from lumps of clay.

For this representation to be useful it must be possible to recover such descriptions from image data; we showthat the primitive elements of such descriptions may be recovered in an overconstrainedand thereforereliablemanner. We believethat this descriptivesystem makesan importantcontributiontowardsolving current problemsin preceiving and reasoning about natural forms by allowing us to construct accurate descriptions that areextremelycompact and that capturepeople's intuitivenotionsabout thepartstructure of three-dimensionalforms.

DISCOURSE STRUCTURE AND INTENTIONSDr Barbara J. Grosz

The current generationof natural-languageinterfacesare single-query systems that interpreteach user inputasthough it were produced in isolation. Except for a few limited techniques applyingto a very restricted range ofexpressions, the interpretations ignore the dialogue context and treat the task context implicitly if at all. In thistalk I outlinea theoryofdiscoursestructure (being developedjointlywith Sidnerat BBN) thatprovidesthebasisforovercoming these limitations.

In the theory, discourse structure is casually connected with two nonlinguistic notions—intention and attention.The structure of any discourse is seen as a composite of three interacting constituents: the structure of theactual sequence of utterances in the discourse, a structure of intentions, and an attentional state. Intentions play aprimary role not only in providing a basis of explaining discourse structure, but also in defining discoursecoherence, and providing a coherent notion of the term "discourse" itself.Attentional state is central to theproces-sing of utterances in a discourse; it provides the basis for determining the meaning in context of an utterance.

The separation of discoursestructure into these threecomponentsallowsus to generalizeand simplifya numberof previous results and is essential to explainingvarious discourse phenomena. I will illustrate its use in inter-preting several discourse samples that include a range of referring expressions (e.g., "it," "the Europeancompanies") and various kinds of interruptions.

SOME NEW DIRECTIONS FOR REAL-WORLD Al APPLICATIONSDr David Waltz

This talk will describefour very largedatabaseapplications that use the Connection Machine and novel combi-nations of old and new Al and Information Science ideas.The Connection Machine is a massively parallelsystemconsisting of 64K processor/memoryunits, richly interconnectedso thateachprocessorcan rapidlycommunicatewith any other processor. Results will be presented in the areas of (1) very easy and rapid retrieval of documen-from a largetext database (2) automatic indexingof large bodiesoftext and (3) decision-makingbased on directreasoning about cases in a database. Ideas will also be presented for extending these results to the problem of(4) automatically constructing Rule-Based Systems from databases. The architecture and programming of theConnection Machine will be described briefly.

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEMSDr. Martin Ernst

During the past three years, a large amountof attention has been focussed on businessKBS systems. How-ever, because of long development times, few such systems have been deployedand proved themselves inoperations. In spite of this lack of extensivedirect experience,a greatdeal has been learnedabout: thepotentialbenefits to business of

KBSs;

the typesof systems of greatestinterest to businessmen, appropriatepracticesfordevelopingbusiness

KBSs,

and the barriers to rapid introduction of such systems.

These lessons will bedescribedfrom theviewpointofaconsulting firmthat hasassistedclients inthe developmentof KBSs. The framework for presenting these lessons is based on two important systems characteristics: theintended role of the system, which can range from a weekadvisorysystem to one that provides an almost fullyautomated response to a situation, and the complexityof the environment in which the system is expectd tooperate.

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PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS INVOLVING UNCERTAINTYDr. M. Small

This paper presents an outline description of some of the practical problems which ICL has solved usingknowledgeengineering tollsand techniques.These problems describedall involvesome measure of uncertainty.The problems include thefollowing:

Forecasting energy demandby a public utility taking into account the undertaintiesregarding theweatheraswell as users reactions to different weatherpatterns.

— Managingcomputer capacity; herethe problem is bothplanningand control.Planning involvesforecasting theimpact ofchanges in business circumstanceson the useof com puter systems.Control involvescomparisionofactual usage and performance levels with those forecast and determing appropriateactions.

— Forecasting of stores inventoryapplying expertknowledge to use incomplete data concerning actual stockmovementstogether with plans and historical information to forecast future stock levels.

— Corporatestrategyandbusiness modellingto forecastthe likelydemandforproducts and hencethenecessaryresources to support commercialambitions. An aim of this project is to assist thecontributing departmentstoarticulatetheir assumptions and dependencies.

KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE TOOLS FOR INFORMATION ACCESSDonald E Walker,

This paper provides an overviewof a research program under developmentat Bell Communications Research.The objective is to developfacilitiesforworking with largedocumentcollectionsthatprovidemorerefined accessto the information contained in these "source" materials than is possible through current information retrievalprocedures. The tools being used for thispurpose are machine-readabledictionaries,encylopedias, and related"resources"

That provide geographical, biographical, and other kinds of specializedknowledge. A major feature of theresearch program is the exploitationof the reciprocal relationships between sources and resources. The inter-actions between texts and tools were intended to support expert who organize and use information in a work-stationenvironment.Twosystems underdevelopmentwillbe describedto illustrate theapproach : One providingcapabilitiesfor full-text subject assessment = The otherfor concept elaborationwhile reading text.

THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT PROJECT FOR MACHINE TRANSLATIONProf. Makoto Nagao

The outline of our mahcine translation system will be presented, with a particular reference to the difficulties inthe translation between two languagesof different language families such as Japaneseand English. We have toapplystructural transformationsin the analysis,

transfer,

and generationof a sentence. The transfer dictionarymust containword selectioncriteriaand the informationabout thesentential structure in thetarget language.Thepaperwill giveseveral typical examplesof this kind in our system. Finallythepaperwill givea methodof qualityevaluation of translated sentences, and the evaluation valuesof our current system.

MENU-BASED NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDINGDr. Harry Tennant

Menu-Based Natural LanguageUnderstanding is aa new approach to buildingnatural languageinterfaces. It retainsthe main goalsof natural languagesystems: flexibility, expressivepower, learnabilityand mnemonicity.However,it solves most of the problems inherent in conventional natural languagesystems. All queries are understood bythe system, interface generation is much simpler and less computing power is required. Many interfaces havebeen built using the menu-based natural language technology.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language

Interfaces,

Natural Language Processing, Language Parsingand Understanding, NLMenu

HIGH PARALLELISM AND AN EFFECTIVE REASONING PROCEDUREProf. Cheng-Ho Kung

Rapid developmentof computer hardwaretechnology provides us with much more powerful, reliable whereasmuch cheaper computing devices. Parallel processing of a computation on a large numberof CPU's is not onlyattractive, desirable but also feasible today. One of the challenges is to developsuitable software architectureand algorithms for parallelprocessing. This paper presentsa reasoningprocedurecharacterized by high paralle-lism in the sense that an unlimited number of CPU's can be used to carry out thecomputation in parallel. Themethod belongsto the indirectproof methods, or refutation systems and is based upon Prawitz'smatrixreductionmethod and Robinson's unification algorithm. The method is also characterized by bit manipulationrather thansymbol manipulation.Its parts can be easily implementedby VLSI pipelines as needed.

Key words and phrases: First order logic, Artificial intelligence, Problem-solving, Logic programming, Fifthgeneration computer system, NP-completeness.

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ORGANISING/PROGRAMMECOMMITTEES

International Programme Committee Local Organising CommitteeChairman : Dr Vincent YipChairman : Dr Donald Walker

Executive DirectorCo-Chairman : Assoc Professor Bernard Tan Science Council of Singapore

Singapore Science Council/National University of Singapore Deputy Chairman : Assoc Professor Bernard Tan

Vice DeanMembers : Dr R P van de Riet Science Faculty

Free University/Amsterdam National University of SingaporeDr H Aiso Members Mr Lim Swee SayKeio University/Japan Director, Joint Software Enrg

ProgrammeLocal Programme Committee National Computer BoardChairman Assoc Professor Bernard Tan Mr Lim Joo HongSingapore Science Council Information Technology InstituteDeputy Chairman : Prof Teh Hoon Heng National Computer Board

National University of Singapore Dr Thio Hoe TongMembers : Mr Lim Joo Hong Director

National Computer Board Computer CentreNational University of Singapore

Prof Hsu Loke SooNational University of Singapore Dr Juzar Motiwalla

DirectorDr Low Hwee Boon Institute of Systems ScienceInstitute of Systems Science National University of SingaporeDr Chew Tat Leong Mr Yee Wee Hong

Assistant DirectorDefence Science OrganisationJapan-Singapore Institute ofSecretariat : Mr Edward Liv Choon San Software TechnologyCEMS Pte LtdMr Wee Tew LimMr Loo Leak Tiang

CEMS Pte Ltd PresidentSingapore ComputerSociety

Ms Rosa TanSingapore Federation ofComputer Industry

Science Council of Singapore

Secretariat Mr Edward Liv Choon SanDirector, CEMS Pte LtdMr Loo Leak TiangPR & Conference Manager,CEMS Pte LtdMs Rosa TanAsst Head, Int'l Relations &PromotionScience Council of Singapore

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Al PRODUCTS DISPLAY(FLOOR PLAN)

Index of Al Products Display Participants

Booth No.Automated Systems 7 & 8North Holland (Elsevier Science Publishers BY) 10Science Council of Singapore 9Texas Instruments Asia Ltd 1, 2, 3, 4

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Al PRODUCTS DISPLAY PARTICIPANTS PROFILE___>__zsij_j

SYSTEMS (PTE) LTD (Booth 7 & 8)203 Henderson Road#12-07/14 Henderson Industrial Park Singapore0315Tel: 2789566 Telex: RS 33111 ASLSINThe Computer Systems Advisers Group was formed in1970 primarily as a consultancy company for softwareprojects. Since its establishmentby the 4 Asian computerprofessionals, CSA has developed into one of the largestand most specialised company organisation in the AsiaPacific region. One of the majorshareholdersof thegroupisthe Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). Oneof the largest bankingcorporationin theregion,OCBCowns60% of the total group's interest in CSA.

Today, CSA has offices in Singapore,Malaysia,HongKong,Indonesia, and Australia. Automated Systems (Pte) Ltd is awholly-owned subsidiary of the CSA Group and providesthe marketing services (software and engineering) arm ofthe group's operations in Singapore.

NUW NORTH HOLLAND

(Booth 10)

North-Holland Parrys Book CentrePO Box 10960Elsevier Science Publisers BY

Molenwerf 1 50730 Kuala LumpurMalaysia.P.O. Box 1991

1000 BZ AmsterdamThe Netherlands.North Holland, the Information and business division/branch of ElsevierSciencePublishers B.V. willbe displayingpublications relating to Artificial Intelligence. They arerepresented by Parrys Book Centre in this region.

Elsevier North Holland are the publisers for the RoyalNetherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

£j? SCIENCE COUNCIL OF?Q? SINGAPORE (Booth 9)63, Block 1, Science Park Drive Singapore0511Tel: 7797066 Telex: RS 39055 SCICOThe Science Council was established in 1967 byan ACTofParliamentwith the broadobjectivesof making reports andrecommendationson:

a) the scientific and technology research and develop-ment in Singapore

b) the effective training and utilisation of scientific andtechnologymanpower in Singapore.

c) the establishment of official relations with scientificorganisations of other countries.

The main thrust of the council is towardstheapplicationofscience & technology for economic and social develop-ment. The main activities are classified into thefollowing 4main areas:1) Administration and promotion of the Singapore

Science Park

2) Administration and promotion of the Research andDevelopmentAssistance Scheme (RDAS)

3) Promotion of Science & Technology.4) International relations in Science & Technology.One of the long-term aimsof theScience Council is to buildup a science tradition or culture and among their manypromotional activities are international Conferences/Exhibitions like the ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE '86 event

, Texas*? (Boom 1' * * 4)

InstrumentsTEXAS INSTRUMENTS ASIA LTD12 Lorong Bakar Batu#02-08 Kolam Ayer Industrial Estate Singapore 1334.Tel: 7472255 Telex: RS 36871 Fax: 7434345Texas Instruments has made an extensive commitmenttothe application of Artificial Intelligence (Al) technologyfor in-house productivityand to solve customer problems.TI began theirR&D efforts in 1978and are leadingthe wayin bringing practical, cost-effective Al products to themarket.

Making technology affordable and accessible to morepeople is a prime objective at TI. In putting Al research topractical use, TI now offers a range of Al products, fromsimple

PC-based,

up to advanced,dedicatedAl systems forResearch and Development.NaturalLink(TM), invented in Tl's Artificial IntelligenceResearch Laboratory, allows people to communicate withcomputers in everyday English sentences, rather than inmore traditionalcomputer commands.

TI has applied advanced speech technologiesto PCs withTI-Speech(TM) system. This system permits users to ver-ballyentercommandsinthecomputerand providessophis-ticated telephonemanagement functions.

Arborist(TM) software illustrates the application of Altechniques to solve conventional problems. It breaksthrough old barriers to makedecision-treeproblem solvingtechniques available to anyone who needs to make betterand faster decisions.

The Personal Consultant(TM)softwarepackagefrom TI letsthe user developand run expertsystemson a TI ProfessionalComputer(TM), TI Business-Pro(TM) or other personalcomputers.

The Explorer(TM)system from TI is an advancedsymbolicprocessing computer designed for development anddelivery of Al-based applications. It executes the languageof Al, LISP.

TI will continue to providepractical and affordableproductsand services to assist their customers in applying Al andsymbolic processing technology to real world applications.TI is committedto being the industrial leader in customersupport and service, and in product quality and reliability.

*Designed, Typeset and Printed byWIWI 272188020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the following for their kind support inorganising this conference and Al Products Display:

Science Council of Singapore

International Federation For Information Processing (IFIP)

South East Asia Regional Computer Conferation (SEARCC)National Computer BoardEconomic Development BoardNational University of Singapore.

Institute of Systems Science

Information Technology Institute, NCBDefence Science Organisation, Ministry of Defence

Japan-Singapore Institute of Software TechnologySingapore Computer Society

Singapore Federation of the Computer Industry (SFCI)

Singapore Airlines Limited

Associated Tours (S) Pte Ltd

Hyatt Regency SingaporeKingsmen Exhibition Builders Pte LtdTrans-link Express Pte Ltd.

Viva Lithographers Pte Ltd

Texas Instruments Asia Ltd

Automated Systems

North-Holland (Elsevier Science Publishers BY)

Parrys Book Center

Appreciation and thanks are also extended to all individuals who have inone way oranother have contributed to make ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE'86 CONFERENCE a success.

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