Call for Papers

18^th International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning

August 2-4, 2004, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Qualitative Reasoning is an exciting research area at the interface between Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence that combines the quest for fundamental understanding of how people reason about physical systems with new ways to supplement conventional modeling, analysis, diagnosis, and control techniques to tackle real-world applications. The 18th edition of the workshop will be held in Evanston, Illinois, co-located with the 26th Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, which will be in Chicago, Illinois (a subway ride away) from August 4^th through August 8^th.  

Paper submissions are encouraged in the following research topics:

• QR and 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);
• QR 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);
• QR applications engineering, (e.g.,  engineering, education, business, biology, chemistry, ecology, economics, social science, environmental science, medicine, and law);
• QR techniques and 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). 

The Program Chairs are Johan de Kleer (PARC, Inc.) and Kenneth D. Forbus (Northwestern University). 

Important Dates

Please note: Due to the Easter holidays, the deadline for submitting papers has been moved to April 26th, providing an additional two weeks to polish your work.

• Paper and Posters: April 26, 2004
• Acceptance notification: May 27, 2004 Notifications will be going out shortly.
• Camera-ready copies: June 16, 2004
• Registration: July 2, 2004. An earlier registration date may be posted. Please, check back for an up-date after June 18th.
• Workshop: August 2-4, 2004

Submission of Papers 

• Full Paper A PDF file of the full paper not to exceed 6000 words (excluding references) must be submitted via e-mail to QR04@cs.northwestern.edu by April 26, 2004.
• Posters A PDF file of the full paper not to exceed 2000 words (excluding references) must be submitted via e-mail to QR04@cs.northwestern.edu by April 26, 2004.
• 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 QR2004 Program Committee.
• Submission to Conferences or Journals The accepted papers will be published as a collection of Working papers. As QR2004 is a workshop, not a conference, submission of the same paper to conferences or journals is acceptable.

Format for submissions: Please use the format for the Cognitive Science Society, available at http://www.cogsci.northwestern.edu/cogsci2004/submissions.html.   The relevant format is the format for papers, which we are using for both papers and posters in this meeting.  Please note that we can only accept electronic submissions, in PDF format.  If you are not familiar with how to generate PDF files, detailed instructions can be found here, including a pointer to a free service.  

Additional Participants

People who wish to attend the workshop without submitting a paper or a poster should send a request to QR04@cs.northwestern.edu.

Program Committee

• Johan de Kleer, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), USA (co-chair)
• Ken Forbus, Northwestern University, USA (co-chair).
• Núria Agell, ESADE, Spain
• Chris Bailey-Kellogg, Purdue University, USA  
• Gautam Biswas, Vanderbilt University, USA
• Anders Bouwer, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands  

• Ivan Bratko, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Bert Bredeweg, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

• Philippe Dague, Paris-Nord University, France

• Hidde de Jong, INRIA, France

• Ron Ferguson, Georgia Tech, USA
• Juan Flores, University of Michoacana, Mexico
• François Guerrin, INRA/CIRAD, France
• Michael Hofbaur, Technische Universität Graz
• Liliana Ironi, IMATI-CNR, Italy
• Ben Kuipers, University of Texas at Austin, USA
• Mark Lee, University of Wales, United Kingdom
• Juan Ortega, University of Sevilla, Spain
• Chris Price, University of Wales, United Kingdom
• Bernhard Rinner, Technische Universität Graz
• Paulo Salles, University of Brasilia, Brazil
• Cem Say, Bogaziçi University, Turkey
• Qiang Shen, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Peter Struss, Technical University of Munich, Germany
• Stefania Tentoni, IMATI-CNR, Italy
• Tetsuo Tomiyama, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Louise Travé-Massuyès, LAAS, France
• Franz Wotawa, Technical University of Graz, Austria

Accommodations

We have reserved a block of rooms at a hotel near campus:

Hilton Garden Inn
1818 Maple Avenue
Evanston IL 60201
847/475-6400

The name of the block is “QR04 Workshop” at $109/room.  You must reserve a room before July 9, 2004 to guarantee this rate.  (Please note: Students may double up to save money.  Dormitory rooms at Northwestern, due to the extremely high demand, are more expensive than this rate.)

For more information

For questions, please contact QR04@cs.northwestern.edu. 

Last edited 06/11/04, by JS.