The world is full of physical systems about which we have incomplete, qualitative knowledge. Humans are amazingly effective at working with such knowledge, and many science, engineering, and educational applications could benefit greatly from similar capabilities. In seeking to understand, develop, and exploit the ability to reason qualitatively, the QR community pursues research at the interface of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Engineering, and Science. Some QR researchers study, from a cognitive modeling perspective, how humans represent and use incomplete knowledge about physical systems. Others develop algorithms and systems for constructing, simulating, and applying qualitative and semi-quantitative models. Still others exploit these insights to develop powerful methods for system modeling, explanation, diagnosis, and design, and in applications in science, engineering, and education.

The 20th International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning provides a forum bringing together researchers from all these perspectives. The Workshop will be held at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, from July 10 through 12, 2006.

Topics

Paper submissions are encouraged in the following research areas:

• Cognitive modeling (e.g., cognitive theories of reasoning about physical systems, theories and experiments concerning human reasoning and learning of mental models, QR models for spatial reasoning, cognitive maps, cognitive robots);
• Techniques (e.g., qualitative simulation, ontologies, management of multiple models, reasoning over time and space, mathematical formalizations of QR, qualitative algebras, qualitative dynamics, qualitative kinematics, qualitative optimization);
• Task-level reasoning (e.g., design, planning, monitoring, diagnosis and repair, explanation, tutoring and training, process control and supervision);
• Applications (e.g., engineering, education, business, biology, chemistry, ecology, economics, social science, environmental science, medicine, and law);
• Intersection with other modeling approaches (e.g., system dynamics and bond-graphs, signal processing, numerical methods, statistical techniques, differential equations);
• Knowledge acquisition methods (e.g., model building tools and techniques, automated model construction and machine learning, acquisition of models from data).
• Theoretical foundations of qualitative reasoning techniques.

Paper Submission and Review

By popular demand, the deadline has been extended to March 9. This date is firm.

• Full Paper. A PDF file of the full paper not to exceed 6000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to qr06@cs.dartmouth.edu by March 9, 2006.
• Poster. A PDF file of the poster paper not to exceed 2000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to qr06@cs.dartmouth.edu by March 9, 2006.
• Review Process. Both papers and posters will be selected according to their quality, significance, originality, and potential to generate discussion. Each contribution will be reviewed by at least two referees from the QR-06 Program Committee.
• Submission to Conferences or Journals. The accepted papers will be published as a collection of Working papers. As QR-06 is a workshop, not a conference, submission of the same paper to conferences (e.g., AAAI-06) or journals is acceptable.
• Format. Papers should be formatted according to the AAAI-06 guidelines, available from http://www.aaai.org/, and must be in PDF format.

Additional Participants

People who wish to receive an invitation to attend the workshop without submitting a paper or a poster should send a request to qr06@cs.dartmouth.edu.

Important Dates

• Submission (both papers and posters): March 9, 2006
• Notification: April 24, 2006
• Camera-ready copies: May 8, 2006
• Workshop: July 10-12, 2006

Organization

The Program chairs are Chris Bailey-Kellogg and Ben Kuipers; the program committee is as follows:

• Chris Bailey-Kellogg, Dartmouth College, USA
• Bert Bredeweg, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Marc Cavazza, University of Teesside, UK
• George Coghill, University of Aberdeen, Scotland/UK
• Ron Ferguson, Georgia Tech, USA
• Juan Flores, University of Michoacan, Mexico
• Ken Forbus, Northwestern University, USA
• Michael Hofbaur, Graz University of Technology, Austria
• Liliana Ironi, IMATI-CNR, Pavia, Italy
• Hidde de Jong, INRIA, France
• Johan de Kleer, PARC, USA
• Ben Kuipers, University of Texas-Austin, USA
• Chris Price, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
• Bernhard Rinner, Graz University of Technology, Austria
• Paulo Salles, University of Brasilia, Brazil
• Cem Say, Bogazici University, Turkey
• Qiang Shen, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
• Peter Struss, Technical University of Munich and OCC'M Software GmbH, Germany
• Dorian Suc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Stefania Tentoni, IMATI-CNR, Pavia, Italy
• Louise Trave-Massuyes, LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France
• Franz Wotawa, Graz University of Technology, Austria