AI*IA 2011
XIIth Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence
“Artificial Intelligence Around Man and Beyond”
PALERMO, SEPT. 15-17 2011
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

AI*IA 2011 is the twelfth International Conference on Advances in Artificial Intelligence held bi-annually by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA). This year the main focus will be on the theme "Artificial Intelligence Around Man and Beyond". Nowadays, AI-enabled technologies support a sort of "distributed intelligent environment”. Men in this environment are so better capable to manipulate information and perform tasks involving a huge cognitive effort more efficiently. Moreover, such technologies shift the theoretical speculation towards philosophical themes that are "beyond the humans" like design of metacognitive artificial agents and machine consciousness. The debate is no more about merely intelligent or cognitive machines but it rather focuses on their ability of being conscious and/or thinking about their cognition.

The Main Conference will host the following scientific sessions:
- Machine Learning
- Distributed AI: Robotics and MAS
- Theoretical Issues: Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Planning, Cognitive Modeling
- Natural Language Processing
- AI Applications

Finally, several short papers will be presented in the Poster session.

A series of workshops dedicated to specific topics will complement the main conference program:
- Semantic Technologies in Enterprises
- AI and Cultural Heritage
- Intelligent Social and Service Robots
- Technological Challenges and Scenarios of the Ageing Society
- Learning by reading in the real world
- Analyzing, Modeling, Evaluating, and Fostering Metacognition with Intelligent Learning Environments
- Mining Complex Patterns
- DART 2011 - 5th Int.l Workshop on New Challenges in Distributed Information Filtering and Retrieval

The conference will host three prestigious invited speakers:

- Professor Stephen Grossberg is Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, and Founding Chairman, at the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems - Boston University. He developed the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) and the related neural architecture. Prof. Grossberg will talk about how brain mechanisms support conscious experiences, as well as explicit brain representations of these experiences.

- Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro is director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, part of the Department of Adaptive Machine Systems at Osaka University, Japan. This laboratory has developed the Geminoid, a humanoid robot with lifelike appearance and visible behavior such as facial movements. Prof. Ishiguro will talk about the story of the development of the several Geminoid generations, and of his researches about interaction involving humans and human-like robots. Moreover, the Geminoid-F setup will be presented and demonstrated. Geminoid-F is the latest generation of Geminoid. A human actress will interact with Geminoid-F in the “Sayonara” play. Moreover, brief demos of the Geminoid-F will be performed throughout the Conference.

- Professor Roger Azevedo is with the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology of the McGill University. He is involved in the following research fields: Cognitive science, human and computer tutoring, self-regulated learning, metacognition, motivation, emotions, problem solving, knowledge representation and organization, learning about complex topics and domains, and the use of computer-based learning environments as metacognitive tools for enhancing learning. Prof. Azevedo will talk about his researches about the role of the metacognitive skills in the design of computer-based learning environment.

Important dates
Conference: September 15-17, 2011

Organizing Committee
General Chairs: Roberto Pirrone, and Filippo Sorbello, University of Palermo, Italy
Program Chair: Salvatore Gaglio, University of Palermo, Italy

Refereeing Chair: Edoardo Ardizzone, University of Palermo, Italy
Workshop Chair: Antonio Chella, University of Palermo, Italy
Sponsorships Chair: Antonio Gentile, University of Palermo, Italy
Local Events Chair: Rosario Sorbello, University of Palermo, Italy

Other Info
Website: www.aixia2011.it
contact: aixia2011@dinfo.unipa.it