AGENDA:PAPERS:REGISTRANTS:RESULTS:| AGENDA: |
PAPERS: |
REGISTRANTS: | RESULTS: |
The World Wide Web was originally developed as an infrastructure for research collaboration. The ability for designers to combine multimedia to publish information relevant to the spectrum of the design process, from concept generation and prototyping to product realization and "virtual manufacturing," motivated the adoption of the Web as a design collaboration tool. This exponential growth of information of interest to designers also brings forth a new urgency to address the problems that impede the efficacy and utility of the Web as a design environment. For example, the pluralism of the Web shatters the possibility of a single system of epistemology to seek information in accordance with one standard.
To support collaboration, the Web-based design servers need to communicate the structure of the design representation so that users can pose queries about formal design concepts such as rationale and purpose or the causality between physical and functional design elements. However, the Web does not provide a protocol for advertising the information content or services of a particular site. While one could construct information agents similar to Lycos or Webcrawler to keep track of and retrieve interesting design information, how can these agents reconcile the various forms of design knowledge published on the Web?
The attractiveness of the Web for offering information makes it likewise attractive to the use of agents for accessing and manipulating this information automatically. The main thrust of the workshop is how to build the Web environment to make the designer/agent/server interaction successful.
The purpose of this workshop is to explore the application of artificial intelligence to further the Internet in general and the Web in particular as a viable design environment. To facilitate a viable design environment, Internet-based servers must engage users in a dialog-like interaction that encompasses a range of activities, such as geometric and semantic product modeling, design representation, user-interaction and design browsing and retrieval.
Information access is not the only major outstanding problem. In order to collaborate on a distributed project, remote engineers and designers need active help to coordinate their efforts. This coordination involves translation of terminology among disciplines, locating/providing generic analysis services (e.g., mathematics, finite element analysis), prototyping services, and project management. To the degree that Internet-based servers are not mere repositories of information but engage users, and each other, in active dialogs while providing such remote services in order to solve design problems, such servers may be called agents.
Our goal is to survey techniques in artificial intelligence which could help overcome the technical issues in order for Web-based design environments to interact efficaciously with the designers. We focus on the agent paradigm as a tactic for doing so.
We solicit papers addressing the following issues:
The first-half of the workshop will concentrate on implementation strategies for Web-based design environments and agent technology for collaborative design. Six (6) papers will be selected for presentation and general discussion moderated by a panel of non-presenting authors. The second half of the workshop will revolve around a moderated discussion of the papers presented.
We invite researchers to submit papers and extended abstracts or to galvanize the discussion. One of the above topics should be addressed, or an argument for a different topic included.
Electronic versions of papers should be submitted in PostScript®, Adobe® PDF® or Microsoft® Word® (Windows® or MacOS®) formats in _ONE_ of the following methods:
Please submit an accompanying e-mail to aid96ws8@best.ME.Berkeley.EDU with the filename and author(s) (including contact information) of the paper submitted.
All accepted papers will be made available on the Web for reading prior to the workshop. Candidates should also supply credentials that indicate their depth of experience with agent technologies and design or engineering applications.
NOTE: Audio-Visual Equipment
We are currently working to provide a video cassette recorder (VCR), computer projection and Internet hookups (10-Base T) in the workshop conference room. Currently, we can provide a VCR () if necessary. Please let us know if the other items are critical to your demo so that we can make accomodations accordingly.
DUE DATE: 30 April 1996
Exended to 15 May 1996
The goal of the workshop is to refine this set of issues and criteria into a consensus understanding of the potential for agent and Web technologies to facilitate collaborations among designers. The workshop will be limited to twenty people to allow for discussion in the half-day format.
For further information, please visit the workshop Web-site or send e-mail to the workshop Chair.