Dear All,

The AI-2006 conference (below) welcomes submissions in
evolutionary/natural computation and more generally the AI/OR interface.

It has a specific applications stream, which may be of particular interest
to those working on real-world applications.

The poster track may be of particular interest to research students.

Dr Andrew Tuson MA(Oxon) MSc(Edin) PhD(Edin) MBCS ([log in to unmask])

Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing, City University, London, UK.

*************

*** DEADLINE FOR PAPER/POSTER SUBMISSION: MONDAY 5TH JUNE 2006 ***

AI-2006: Cambridge, UK, December 11th - 13th 2006

Organised by BCS SGAI: The British Computer Society Specialist 
Group on Artificial Intelligence (an ECCAI Member Society)

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

http://www.bcs-sgai.org/ai2006/

AI-2006 is the Twenty-sixth SGAI International Conference on
Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence.

The scope of the conference comprises the whole range of AI
technologies and application areas. AI-2006 reviews recent 
technical advances in AI technologies and to show how these 
advances have been applied to solve business problems. Key 
features of AI-2006 are:

- The Technical Stream presents the best of recent developments 
  in AI, covering a wide range of technical areas.
- The Application Stream is the largest annual showcase in Europe
  of real applications using AI technology. 
- The best papers will be published in a special issue of the
  journal Knowledge Based Systems.
- The Poster Session is a forum for disseminiating new 
  developments and latest work in progress, especially suited to 
  MSc and PhD students.
- Prizes for Best Paper in each stream and Best Poster. 
- The programme also includes tutorials and workshops to provide
  greater depth in selected topics. 
- The Machine Intelligence (MI) competition exhibts working systems that
  are a significant step toward machine intelligence. 
- UKCBR11, the 11th UK CBR Workshop, will be co-located with AI-2006. 
- The conference qualifies for the IEE and BCS CPD schemes. 
- AI-2006 will be held at Peterhouse College in Cambridge. 
- In addition to the formal sessions, the conference programme includes a
  welcome reception and a Gala Dinner.

AI-2006 offers a valuable opportunity to keep up to date with
developments in AI and to share experiences in the practical 
issues of developing AI systems.

IMPORTANT DATES

- Paper/Poster Submission:     Monday 5th June 2006
    (This deadline will not be extended)
- Notification of Acceptance:    Monday 24th July 2006
- Camera Ready Paper:           Monday 4th September 2006

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Contributions are invited in the form of papers of up to fourteen A4
pages presenting original work in AI. Contributions are welcome to two
streams, and a parallel poster session.

Technical Stream:

Areas of interest include (but are not restricted to): knowledge based
systems; knowledge engineering; semantic web; constraint satisfaction;
intelligent agents; machine learning; model based reasoning;
verification and validation of AI systems; natural language
understanding; speech-enabled systems; case based reasoning; neural
networks; genetic algorithms; data mining and knowledge discovery in
databases; robotics and pervasive computing.

Application Stream:

Case studies are welcomed describing the application of AI to real-
world problems. Papers in recent years have covered all application
domains, including commerce, manufacturing and government, and every
major AI technique. In addition to case studies and specific
applications of AI, we would welcome papers that discuss issues such
as managing the transfer from research to production of AI- based
products. Papers are selected to highlight critical areas of success
(and failure) and to present the benefits and lessons of value to
other developers. Submitted papers should make these points clear.
Guidance notes for Application Stream authors are available from the
website.

Poster Session:

The Poster Session is intended for the presentation of work which
meets the high standards of AI-2006, but which is more topical and
preliminary than the work presented in the main two streams. It is an
excellent forum for disseminiating new developments and latest work in
progress, especially suited to MSc and PhD students. 

Papers submitted to the Technical and Application streams will be
automatically considered for poster presentation if they fall short of
the standards for oral presentation.

Publication of Papers:

Papers accepted for oral presentation at the conference will be
published in book form by Springer SBM. 

- The books will be prepared from camera-ready copy supplied by 
  the authors of accepted papers. 
- Formatting specifications for the proceedings have been provided by
  the publisher and are available from the AI-2006 website. - Authors
  will retain copyright in all papers published in the two volumes of
  proceedings. 
- The best six refereed papers in each stream will be reprinted as a
  special issue of the international journal Knowledge Based 
  Systems.

Papers accepted for poster presentation at the conference will be
published in the BCS-SGAI magazine Expert Update. Authors will retain
their copyright.

Submission of Papers:

Papers must be submitted as either Word 2000 or PDF files and
uploaded to the conference website by *** Monday June 5th 2006 
*** at the latest. Please note:

- Authors must indicate the stream to which their papers are being
submitted. - At least one author of each accepted paper must register
for and attend the conference to present it in person, for the paper
to be published. - Presenting authors will be asked to register for
the conference at the discounted speakers' rate when they return the
final camera- ready printed versions of their papers.

Tutorials & workshops:

The Conference Committee invites proposals for tutorials and
workshops to be presented on the first day of the conference.
These should be directed in the first instance to the
Tutorial/Workshop Organiser.

Prizes:

There are sponsored prizes (a trophy plus 500 pounds) for the best
paper submitted in each stream and a trophy plus a cash prize for the
best poster, awarded on the basis of delegate voting.

Machine Intelligence Competition:

A permanent trophy awarded for one year plus a 1,000 pounds cash
prize, sponsored by Electrolux, will be awarded to the winner of
the annual machine intelligence competition. This prize will be
awarded to the working system that is considered to be the most
significant step forward towards Machine Intelligence on display
at the competition.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

ALL CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD BE SENT BY EMAIL TO THE 
CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT: [log in to unmask]

- Conference Chair: Dr. Andrew Tuson, The City University
  ([log in to unmask])
- Deputy Conference Chair: Dr. Tony Allen, The Nottingham Trent
  University ([log in to unmask])
- Conference Administrator: Mark Firman, The City University
  ([log in to unmask])
- Treasurer: Rosemary Gilligan, University of Hertfordshire
  ([log in to unmask])
- Deputy Conference Chair (Electronic Services): Dr. Alun
  Preece, University of Aberdeen ([log in to unmask])
- Deputy Conference Chair (Local Arrangements): Dr Frans
  Coenen, University of Liverpool ([log in to unmask])
- Technical Programme Chair: Professor Max Bramer, University
  of Portsmouth ([log in to unmask])
- Deputy Technical Programme Chair: Dr Frans Coenen,
  University of Liverpool ([log in to unmask])
- Application Programme Chair: Professor Ann Macintosh,
  Napier University ([log in to unmask])
- Deputy Application Programme Chair: Richard Ellis, Stratum
  ([log in to unmask])
- Research Student Liaison: Alice Kerly, University of Birmingham
  ([log in to unmask])
- Tutorial/Workshop Organiser: Prof. Adrian Hopgood,
  The Nottingham Trent University ([log in to unmask])
- Poster Session Organiser: Dr Nirmalie Wiratunga, The Robert 
  Gordon University, Aberdeen ([log in to unmask])

Note that papers must be submitted electronically. See the 
website for details.