(With apologies for multiple postings)
The University of Bristol is hosting next years AISB convention, and we 
are soliciting symposia proposals.
   Best wishes,
	James Marshall


AISB 2006: Call for symposia proposals
    DEADLINE: 14 August 2005
    Contact: [log in to unmask]

************** AISB 2006 CONVENTION *************

Adaptation in Artificial and Biological Systems

           CALL FOR SYMPOSIUM PROPOSALS

************** DEADLINE: 14 August 2005 *********

The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of
Behaviour (AISB) is pleased to announce its forthcoming convention and
to invite proposals for the Symposia which will largely constitute the
event.

DATES: April 3-6 2006 inclusive

LOCATION: University of Bristol, Bristol, England

WEBSITE: www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb06/ (to be updated regularly)

FORMAT: approximately 10 serial/parallel Symposia on AI or Cognitive 
Science topics preferably related to the overall Convention theme of 
Adaptation in Artificial and Biological Systems

CONVENTION CHAIRS, ORGANISERS and LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS:
Tim Kovacs (General chair, [log in to unmask])
James Marshall (General chair, marshall-at-cs.bris.ac.uk)

Local Organising Committee:
Tom Troscianko
Trevor Martin
Jonathan Lawry
Peter Flach
Colin Campbell
Rafal Bogacz

***********************************************************************
THE AISB'06 SYMPOSIA

By default an AISB'06 Symposium will last for two days within the four
days of the Convention. However, we will also consider proposals for
one-day and three-day Symposia.

Each Symposium will have a Programme Chair, who will be responsible
for administration of the programme, recruiting a programme committee,
arranging the refereeing of extended abstracts for presentation of
papers at the event, and collecting full papers for a pre-proceedings.
It is hoped that each Symposium programme chair will try to arrange
for post-Convention publication of revised papers from the Symposia in
the form of book, special journal issue, etc. Given that the name of
the Society includes the phrase "Simulation of Behaviour" we welcome
Symposia that have a Cognitive Science or interdisciplinary flavour as
opposed to a more narrowly Artificial Intelligence flavour.

***********************************************************************
OTHER ASPECTS OF THE CONVENTION

We plan for there to be approximately four invited plenary keynote talks,
including:

Nigel Franks, University of Bristol 
http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/people/staff.cfm?key=687

***********************************************************************
CONVENTION THEME:

ADAPTATION IN ARTIFICIAL AND BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Adaptation is key to intelligence. Seemingly intelligent behaviour is
brittle unless it is adaptive. Intelligence in biological systems has
arisen as a result of adaptation on multiple levels, including
evolutionary, social, and individual. Similarly, Turing proposed that
artificial intelligence be pursued through adaptation when he outlined
his idea of an artificial child.

Although biological inspiration has long played a role in engineering
artificial systems, the flow of ideas and tools in the other direction
has been increasing. Neural networks were inspired by brain function
and in turn are used to model it. So too with reinforcement
learning. Genetic algorithms are inspired by evolutionary processes
and now form the basis of models used to investigate evolutionary
theory. Algorithms derived from social insect research find
applications in engineering, while computer models of insect colonies
advance understanding of the decision-making capabilities of these
natural systems.

Artificial systems are typically engineered in (or, rather, on top of)
silicon, but recent work on DNA and cellular computing has blurred the
lines between the implementation details of artificial and natural
systems.

The convention theme reflects the rich interaction between study of
the artificial and biological. While the theme covers a huge range of
potential symposia, we are particularly interested in those which
touch on both areas.

Example areas include, but are not limited to:

- bio-inspired machine learning
- adaptation in social insects
- self-organising systems
- theories of mind
- multi-agent systems
- cognitive modelling
- evolutionary computation
- artificial immune systems
- vision in animals and machines
- robotics
- emotion and affective computing
- language processing
- automated reasoning
- economic agents

***However, it is to be emphasised that PROPOSALS IN ALL AREAS OF
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE WILL BE CONSIDERED***

We would welcome sequels to symposia held at previous AISB
conventions, and co-location: AISB symposia that do double duty as
members of some other series. Symposia held at previous AISB conventions
can be found on their web sites via:

http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/index.shtml

***********************************************************************
INTERNATIONAL NATURE

Although the AISB may be thought of as a national AI society for the
United Kingdom, we enthusiastically welcome Symposium proposals and
participants from anywhere in the world.

***********************************************************************
MAKING A PROPOSAL

Proposals should be made by EMAILING IN PLAIN TEXT to Tim Kovacs at
[log in to unmask], enclosing the following information. (Prior
informal email enquiries from possible proposers are welcomed):

TITLE of Symposium

NAME & AFFILIATION of Symposium Chair - including both postal and
email addresses and both fax and telephone numbers.

ABSTRACT for Symposium - not more than 200 words, explaining the
remit of the Symposium. This should be suitable for inclusion in a
call for papers.

CASE FOR SUPPORT - not more than 1000 words, arguing the case for
including your Symposium at the AISB'06 event. You may put
observations about your own background and suitability in the
Additional Comments section below.

SYMPOSIUM LENGTH JUSTIFICATION -- if you are proposing a Symposium of
a length other than two days, please briefly indicate the reasons.

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE - names and affiliations of (at least) four people
who have agreed in principle to serve on your Symposium's programme
committee. The programme committee should represent (at least) four
different institutions, preferably including international
participation. It should as far as possible cover the intended breadth
of the Symposium, especially if it is multidisciplinary.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS -- no more than 500 words, on, for example, the
relevance of your background to the proposed Symposium.

BIBLIOGRAPHY -- any literature references cited above.


Proposals will be selected with the aid of the Committee of the AISB.
Unless there are very special circumstances, please do not expect us to
consider web pages or other documents referenced by the proposal.

*** TO FACILITATE THE PROPOSAL CONSIDERATION PROCESS,
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANYTHING OTHER THAN PLAIN-TEXT EMAILS.
SO, no Word attachments, postscript, HTML, etc.

***********************************************************************
TIMETABLE

Symposium Proposal submission deadline: 14 August 2005
Notification re Symposium acceptance: 5 September 2005
Suggested deadline for Call for Extended Abstracts: 2 October 2005
Suggested Extended Abstract submission deadline: 30 October 2005
Suggested Extended Abstract notification deadline: 28 November 2005
Required submission deadline for Full Papers: 15 January 2005

Convention: 3-6 April 2006

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PLEASE NOTE SYMPOSIUM PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 14 August 2005!!!
************************************************************************


-- 
Dr James A. R. Marshall
Department of Computer Science
University of Bristol
http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/home/marshall