EXPLANATION-AWARE COMPUTING (ExaCt 2010)

                   FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS
               for the 5th International and
                   ECAI 2010 Workshop on

          EXPLANATION-AWARE COMPUTING (ExaCt 2010)

             16-17 August 2010, Lisbon, Portugal

                http://exact2010.workshop.hm

        ** Paper submission deadline: May 7, 2010 **


Both within AI systems and in interactive systems, the ability to explain reasoning processes and results can substantially affect system usability. For example, in recommender systems good explanations may help to inspire user trust and loyalty, increase satisfaction, make it quicker and easier for users to find what they want, and persuade them to try or buy a recommended item.

Current interest in mixed-initiative systems provides a new context in which explanation issues may play a crucial role. When knowledge-based systems are partners in an interactive socio-technical process, with incomplete and changing problem descriptions, communication between human and software systems is a central part. Explanations exchanged between human agents and software agents may play an important role in mixed-initiative problem solving.

Other disciplines such as cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy of  science, psychology, and education have investigated explanation as well. They consider varying aspects, making it clear that there are many  different views of the nature of explanation and facets of explanation to explore. Within the field of knowledge-based systems, explanations have been considered as an important link between humans and machines. There, their main purpose has been to increase the confidence of the user in the system’s result, by providing evidence of how it was derived. Additional AI research has focused on how computer systems can use explanations themselves, for example to guide learning.

This workshop series aims to draw on multiple perspectives on explanation, to examine how explanation can be applied to further the development of robust and dependable systems and to illuminate system processes to increase user acceptance and feeling of control.

If you would like to participate in discussions on this topic or like to receive further information about this workshop you might consider joining the Yahoo!-group
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/explanation-research.
Information on explanation research is also collected here:
 http://on-explanation.net.


GOALS AND AUDIENCE
We invite original contributions to the research on explanations from a variety of areas and communities such as computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy of science, psychology, and education. In addition to presentations and discussions of invited contributions and invited talks, this workshop will offer organised and open sessions for targeted discussions and creating an interdisciplinary community. Demonstration sessions will provide the opportunity to showcase explanation-enabled/-aware applications.


TOPICS OF INTEREST
Suggested topics for contributions (not restricted to IT views):
* Models for explanations / explanation representation languages
* Integrating application and explanation knowledge
* Explanation-awareness in applications and software design
* Methodologies for developing explanation-aware systems
* Learning to explain
* Context-aware explanation vs. explanation-aware context
* Confidence and explanations
* Security, trust, and explanation
* Requirements and needs for explanations to support human understanding
* Explanation of complex, autonomous systems
* Co-operative explanation
* Explanation exchange among intelligent agents
* Explanation visualisation

Submissions on additional topics are welcome as well.


SUBMISSIONS AND STYLE
Workshop submissions will be electronic, in pdf format only, using the EasyChair submission system linked from the workshop website.

Papers must be written in English and not exceed 12 pages in the Springer LNCS format. At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the workshop and the ECAI conference and present  the contribution in order to be published in the workshop  proceedings. The organising committee is considering editing a special issue of an appropriate international journal (e.g., Kluwer’s Knowledge-based Systems, Elsevier’s Expert Systems with Applications, or Springer’s Information System Frontiers) depending on the number and quality of the submissions.

Those wishing to participate providing a live system demonstration should submit a proposal (1-2 pages).

Those wishing to participate without paper or demo submission should submit a brief synopsis of their relevant work or at least a brief statement of interest.

All accepted papers will be published as ECAI workshop notes as well as electronically at http://CEUR-WS.org.

If you have questions please contact the chairs using the following email address: chairs@exact2010.workhop.hm.


IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline:                     May 7, 2010
Notification of acceptance:              June 7, 2010
Camera-ready versions of papers:         June 20, 2010
ExaCt Workshop:                          August 16-17, 2010


WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
The schedule will be made available on the workshop website. See the workshop website for an agenda overview and links to past workshops.


INVITED TALKS
Talks by two invited speakers, each representing a different community addressing explanation issues, are planned.


CHAIRS
Thomas R. Roth-Berghofer, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany
thomas.roth-berghofer at dfki de

David B. Leake, Computer Science Department, Indiana University, USA
leake at cs indiana edu

Nava Tintarev, University of Aberdeen
n.tintarev at abdn ac uk

DEMO CHAIR
Daniel Bahls, MIMOS BERHAD, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
daniel.bahls at mimos my


PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Agnar Aamodt, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
David W. Aha, Navy Center for Applied Research in AI, Washington DC, USA
Martin Atzmüller, University of Würzburg, Germany
Patrick Brézillon, LIP6, France
Jörg Cassens, University of Lübeck, Germany
Babak Esfandiari, Carleton University, Canada
Ashok Goel, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Pierre Grenon, KMI, The Open University, UK
Anders Kofod-Petersen, SINTEF, Norway
Deborah McGuinness, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
Hector Muñoz-Avila, Lehigh University, USA
Paulo Pinheiro da Silva, University of Texas, El Paso, USA
Enric Plaza, IIIA-CSIC, Spain
Michael M. Richter, University of Calgary, Canada
Christophe Roche, University of Savoie, France
Sven Schwarz, DFKI, Germany
Gheorghe Tecuci, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
Douglas Walton, University of Windsor, Canada