From: cuno@arti1.arti.vub.ac.be (Cuno Duursma)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: INTELLIGENT AUTONOMOUS AGENTS - spring-school -
Date: 7 Jan 93 09:30:26 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: V.U.B AI laboratory

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Second anouncement: NATO Advanced Study Institute. 

THE BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY OF INTELLIGENT 
AUTONOMOUS AGENTS. 

1-12 March 1993. Castel Ivano (Trento) Italy. 

THERE ARE STILL A FEW SLOTS LEFT FOR LATE REGISTRATION. 
SEND APPLICATIONS BEFORE 1ST OF FEBRUARY TO:  

Luc Steels
ASI Agents 
University of Brussels (VUB)
AI Laboratory. 
Pleinlaan 2. B-1050 Brussels - Belgium. 
Fax: 32-2-640 63 26
Tel: 32-2-640 25 35
Email: springschool@arti.vub.ac.be

An application should contain: 1. full address, including email or 
fax if possible, 2.curriculum vitae, 3. list of publications and 
if possible copies of major publications, 4. motivation why 
you would contribute to the school, 5. arguments why a scholarship 
may be justified. 

OBJECTIVES

The Advanced Study Institute brings together top-level researchers and
practitioners from the emerging field of intelligent autonomous agents
(e.g. land-based mobile robots or autonomous undersea vehicles) in
order to establish a solid scientific and technological foundation for
the field. The institute will be biased towards the new methodologies
and techniques that have recently been developed in Artificial
Intelligence under the strong influence of biology, including
bottom-up AI research, artificial life, neural networks, and
techniques of emergent functionality. It stresses practical
technological know how as well as scientific insight into the
foundations and the implications for cognitive science and biology.
Participants have an opportunity to gain experience in the design and
construction of real autonomous robots capable of performing tasks
which require intelligent behavior.

The registration fee for industrial participants is 45.000 Bfr.  There
is no registration fee for academic participants. Every participant
covers their own travel and living expenses. There is a deposit on
chargeable living expenses of 7.500 Bfr. This deposit is
non-refundable in the case of late cancellation (after 15th february
1993). But will be deducted against the hotel cost.  The total amount
must be paid before 15 february 1993 otherwise there is an automatic
cancellation.  Participants are responsible for their own health or
accident insurance.

Format

Apart from the lectures, robot laboratories will be set up at the
institute site where it will be possible to acquire hands on
experience in building and programming physical mobile robots.
Computers and about 20 robots of different types will be available 
to successfully execute challenging projects. There is a competition 
for the most successful robot to be built towards the end of the
institute.  Participants will also have the opportunity to present their 
own work through posters as well as oral presentations and discussions.

LECTURES

Physical basis. Rodney Brooks (MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, Ma)
Autonomy. Tim Smithers (VUB AI lab, Brussels, Belgium)
Intelligence.  Luc Steels (VUB AI lab, Brussels, Belgium)
Adaptation. Carme Torras (Institute for Cybernetics, Barcelona). 
Evolution. Peter Schuster (Jena, Germany)
Learning. Tom Mitchell (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Advice taking. Leslie Kaelbling (Brown University, USA). 
Cognition. Rolf Pfeifer (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

The biology of behavior. David McFarland. (Oxford, Great Britain)
The biology of autonomy. Francesco Varela. (Ecole Polytechnique, France)
Biological neural networks. Rodney Douglas (Oxford, Great Britain)
Cooperating insect societies. Jean-Louis Deneubour (Univ of Brussels, ULB, Belgium) 
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets,sci.cognitive,comp.theory.cell-automata,bionet.neuroscience,bionet.molbio.evolution,bionet.software
From: paulf@manor.demon.co.uk (Paul Fawcett)