Reasoning about Space

From 17th to 21st of June 2003, the 2nd edition of the North American Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (NASSLLI '03), will take place in Bloomington, Indiana. As a part of the Logic & Computation section of this summer school we are organizing a (one-week) Workshop on Reasoning about Space.

Recent years have seen lots of exciting work in spatial reasoning in computer science, AI, and philosophy. The motivation for this work ranges from image analysis and geographical information systems in CS through attempts to exploit properties of space in diagrammatic reasoning, to purely mathematical issues of expressivity of languages with respect to particular spatial domains. As of now, much of the research has been carried out within the respective fields and without much interaction with researchers in other fields.

The aim of this workshop is to present some recent advances in the field with a particular emphasis on bringing researchers in various fields together for purposes of looking at unifying logical frameworks (such as, for instance, modal logic) and getting a better sense of the most fruitful avenues for further research.

We welcome submissions in the following areas of research on spatial reasoning:

• Spatial representation in general: what are good primitives
• Modal logics of topology and geometry
• Computational complexity and space
• Language and spatial reasoning
• Classical and new applications of spatial reasoning
• Spatial reasoning and conceptual graphs

We are proud to announce that the following researchers have accepted our invitation to participate and present their work:

• Johan van Benthem, Univ. of Amsterdam (NL) and Stanford Univ. (USA),
  TBA


• Grigori Mints, Stanford University (USA),
  Logics for Dynamical Topology


• Rohit Parikh, CUNY (USA),
  Topology, Modal Logics and Knowledge


• Ian Pratt, Manchester University (UK),
  Where spatial reasoning is (or should be) going


• David Randell, Imperial College (UK),
  Occlusion Calculi: A Cognitive Robotics Perspective

Tuesday, June 17
4:30-5:15 Randell (abstract)
5:15-6:00 Pratt (abstract)

Wednesday, June 18
4:30-5:15 van Benthem (abstract)
5:15-6:00 Shehtman (abstract)

Thursday, June 19
4:30-5:15 Mints (abstract)
5:15-6:00 Sarenac (abstract)

Friday, June 20
4:30-5:15 Parikh (abstract)
5:15-6:00 Steinsvold (abstract)

Saturday, June 21
4:30-5:15 Bezhanishvili (abstract)
5:15-6:00 Panel discussion on spatial reasoning

As usual, there is not much financing available for workshop contributors and speakers, as the organizers of the NASSLLI '03 want to keep the registration fee as low as possible, and be able to provide some grants to selected students. In view of this, we would all highly appreciate it if you can find alternative funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses during the workshop. All participants of the workshop are also expected to register for the summer school in due time, and all students are eligible for reduced registration fees.

With 5 sessions of one hour and a half, experience of previous one-week workshops has shown that an average of 12 contributions fills the schedule.

Papers should not exceed 15 pages. A postscript or pdf version of the paper should be submitted by e-mail to sarenac@stanford.edu. All contributions will be refereed. A reader containing extended abstracts of all contributions will be made available at the workshop.

Submissions by graduate students are encouraged.

We intend to provide to the participating students of NASSLLI '03 a good survey of the most interesting and promising recent research in the area. An ideal lecture would contain

1. a good motivation (either with respect to a domain of application or with respect to a theoretical problem--the former seems more desirable given the audience),
2. a clear statement of the problem that is solved by the paper,
3. a clear presentation that is both understandable to a wider audience and meets the highest technical standards.