Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 13:34:11 +0200
From: Christine.Pierret@lri.fr (Christine Pierret)
Message-Id: <199505311134.NAA22165@sun6.lri.fr>
To: gracq@laforia.ibp.fr
Subject: CFP KEML'96


            		   KEML'96

                      CALL FOR PAPERS:
                      6th Workshop on
          KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING: METHODS & LANGUAGES
               Paris, France, January 15-16, 1996


IMPORTANT DATES:
Submission:	September 1, 1995
Notification:	November 1, 1995

INTRODUCTION:
The aim of this workshop is to attract researchers from all areas
associated with modelling languages for knowledge-based systems, both
informal, formal and operational. We are also interested in establishing
relationships with researchers from other specification languages in other
areas of software engineering.

This workshop is the sixth in the series of workshops on modelling
languages for knowledge-based systems (kbs). This workshop extends the scope
of previous "KADS-languages Workshops" and "Formal Specification Workshops". 
Papers from theses previous workshops are available at ftp://swi.psy.uva.nl/pub/keml 
or WWW ftp://swi.psy.uva.nl/pub/keml/keml.html

Topics include:

   - modelling languages (conceptual, formal, operational) for kbs
   - integration of informal and formal specification techniques for kbs 
   - problem-solving methods
   - reuse of problem-solving methods or domain ontologies
   - tools support for kbs development (e.g. for acquisition and verification) 
   - methodological support for developing kbs
   - link to modelling languages for information systems 
   - semantics (static and dynamic) of modelling languages
   - verification and validation of kbs


Besides the more general part of the workshop, we will reserve a part of
the workshop for focusing on the Sisyphus-II sample problem (VT task) as
this application turned out to be a valuable test case for understanding,
comparing, and evaluating a number of different approaches in knowledge
engineering. The VT task defines a routine design problem (parametric
design) in which the goal is to configure an elevator.  A huge amount of
domain knowledge is provided as the VT task is based on a real-world
application. Typical pitfalls of toy examples and block worlds can
therefore be avoided. The main goal of this section is to gain a better
understanding of the different approaches to knowledge level modelling by
using a common example.  In order to facilitate the comparison between
alternative modelling languages contributions should especially focus on
the following two aspects of their solution:

- Explicitly discuss the modelling decisions taken when solving the VT
task, in particular highlighting any possible shortcoming/limitation of the
modelling language used in the exercise.
- Discuss in detail the problem-solving method used to solve the problem.
The discussion should cover its dynamic behaviour, its assumptions, its
competence (i.e., its functionality), its efficiency etc.

All the relevant domain knowledge as well as the proposed problem-solving
method are described in [1], [2], [3]. Three solutions to the problem
can be found in [4], [5], [6], further solutions are in [7]. [8] discusses
assumptions of a specification of the problem-solving method propose-and
-revise and [9] discusses problems with the Ontolingua-based VT ontology.

FORMAT

Contributions are invited that describe their approach in the form of a
full paper, an extended abstract, or a statement of interest. In any case
the title page must state name, affiliation, and e-mail address of the
contributor. Papers will be judged on their contribution to the discussion,
and some will be selected for presentation. Electronic submissions (in
Postscript or ASCII) are highly encouraged. The organisers plan to produce
a book based on the workshop submittions.

SUBMISSIONS

Papers, abstracts, or statements of interest must be received by Christine
Pierret-Golbreich no later than September 1, 1995 at the following address.
Invitation letters and reviews will be posted by e-mail no later than
November 15, 1995.

     Christine PIERRET-GOLBREICH
     Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique
     Batiment 490 (Bur 121B)
     Universite de Paris-Sud
     91405 ORSAY-CEDEX
     FRANCE
     E-mail : pierret@lri.fr
     Tel : +33 (1) 69 41 64 99
     Fax : +33 (1) 69 41 65 86

ORGANISERS

Christine Pierret-GOLBREICH (chair-organiser)
Dieter Fensel, University of Amsterdam, fensel@swi.psy.uva.nl
Enrico Motta, The Open University, e.motta@open.ac.uk
Mark Willems, Vrije University Amsterdam, willems@cs.vu.nl

REFERENCES

[1] G.R. Yost: Configuring Elevator Systems. Technical
report, Digital Equipment Co., Marlboro, Massachusetts, 1992.
ftp://camis.stanford.edu/pub/protege/s2-word.sea.hqx     (MS Word/Mac)
ftp://camis.stanford.edu/pub/protege/S2WFW.ZIP           (MS Word/Windows)
http://camis.stanford.edu/protege/sisyphus-2/index.html

[2] VT Ontology:
http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/knowledge-sharing/ontologies/html/vt-domain
ftp://ksl.stanford.edu/pub/knowledge-sharing/ontologies

[3] S. Marcus, J. Stout, and J. McDermott: VT: An Expert Elevator Designer
That Uses Knowledge-based Backtracking. In AI Magazine, 1988, vol 9, no 1.

[4] F. Brazier, P. H. G. van Langen, A. Philipsen, N. J. E. Wijngaards and
M. Willems: DESIRE: Designing an Elevator Configuration. In Proceedings of
the 8th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based System Workshop
(KAW'94), vol 3, Banff, Canada, Januar 30th - February 4th, 1994.

[5] E. Motta, K. O'Hara, N. Shadbolt, A. Stutt, Z. Zdrahal: A VITAL
Solution to the Sisyphus II Elevator Design Problem. In Proceedings of
the 8th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based System Workshop
(KAW'94), vol 3, Banff, Canada, Januar 30th - February 4th, 1994. To
appear in IJHCS, Special Issues on the VT Elevator Design Problem.
Available as KMI Technical Report 4, KMI-TR-4, from http://kmi.open.ac.uk
/kmi-tr-list.html

[6] K. Poeck, D. Fensel, D. Landes & J. Angele: Combining KARL And
Configurable Role Limiting Methods For Configuring Elevator Systems.
In Proceedings of the 8th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge
-Based System Workshop (KAW'94), vol 3, Banff, Canada, Januar 30th -
February 4th, 1994. ftp://swi.psy.uva.nl/pub/papers/fensel/vt.ps.Z

[7] G. Schreiber and B. Birmingham (eds.): Proceedings of the 8th Banff
Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based System Workshop (KAW'94),
vol 3, Banff, Canada, Januar 30th - February 4th, 1994.

[8] D. Fensel: Assumptions and Limitations of a Problem-Solving Method:
A Case Study. In Proceedings of the 9th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for
Knowledge-Based System Workshop (KAW'95), Banff, Canada, February 26th
- February 3th, 1995. ftp://swi.psy.uva.nl/pub/papers/fensel/HCS.ps.Z

[9] E. Motta and Z. Zdrahal: The Trouble with What: Issues in Method-
Independent Task Specifications. In Proceedings of the 9th Banff Knowledge
Acquisition for Knowledge-Based System Workshop (KAW'95), Banff, Canada,
February 26th - February 3th, 1995. Available as KMI Technical Report 3,
KMI-TR-3, http://kmi.open.ac.uk/kmi-tr-list.html.