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Past Issues: 1996 Nuggets, 1995 Nuggets, 1994 Nuggets, 1993 Nuggets


Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Nuggets 96:20, e-mailed 96-06-24

News:
* GPS, ComputerWorld: MasPar changes name to NeoVista and focuses
on Data Mining
* E. Yassa, Real-time system that can work with large data sets?
Siftware:
* S. Champion, New Data Mining Company: NeoVista Solutions,
www.neovista.com
* I. Savnik, FDEP program for induction of functional dependencies
from relations, martin.ijs.si/savnik/fdep.html
* M. Conkling, STATlab, http://www.slp-infoware.com
Positions:
* Computational Finance Program in Oregon,
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/CompFin/
* M. Amin, Position at Advanced Technology Center of
United HealthCare Corp. (UHC)
Meetings:
* E. Horvitz, UAI-96 program and registration information,
http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/

--
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery community,
focusing on the latest research and applications.

Contributions are most welcome and should be emailed,
with a DESCRIPTIVE subject line (and a URL, when available) to (kdd@gte.com).
E-mail add/delete requests to (kdd-request@gte.com).

Nuggets frequency is approximately weekly.
Back issues of Nuggets, a catalog of S*i*ftware (data mining tools),
and a wealth of other information on Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
is available at Knowledge Discovery Mine site, URL http://info.gte.com/~kdd.

-- Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro (moderator)

********************* Official disclaimer ***********************************
* All opinions expressed herein are those of the writers (or the moderator) *
* and not necessarily of their respective employers (or GTE Laboratories) *
*****************************************************************************

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quotable Quote ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Predicting the future is easy.
Getting it right is the hard part.
Howard Frank, Director of IT Office at DARPA

Previous  1 Next   Top
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 13:48:27 -0400
From: Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro (gps0@gte.com)
Subject: MasPar takes on new name and softer edge 6/17/96
X-Url: http://www.computerworld.com/search/AT-html/9606/960617SL24maspar.html

MasPar takes on new name and softer edge

Dan Richman

06/17/96


Say good-bye to MasPar Computer Corp. and say hello to NeoVista
Solutions, Inc., the most recent entrant in the data mining field.

Cupertino, Calif.-based MasPar, which in its eight years sold 260
massively parallel machines to military, scientific and engineering
sites, last week changed its name and mission, quitting the hardware
business to become a provider of data mining software.

The shift offers MasPar a fresh start and users an alternative to
competitors' data mining software, industry observers said.

NeoVista's Decision Series data mining product is based on
pattern-recognition algorithms that MasPar developed with end users of
its hardware. Designed for applications such as fingerprint
recognition or radar detection, those algorithms were easily adapted
to data mining, NeoVista CEO John Harte said.

Data mining refers to discovering unknown patterns within
data. It is antithetical to conventional querying of data, which seeks
specific answers to specific questions.

Beta user Denise Barnhart, chief of corporate analysis at Army
Air Force Exchange, said Decision Series will permit her organization
to examine sales trends at a much finer level. Army Air Force Exchange
stocks 15,000 stores at bases throughout the world.

'To estimate sales based on buying patterns and demographics, we
look at sales by stores and region today,' she said. 'We think
NeoVista will let us drop down to the category or even the product
level.'

The new software, expected to ship Oct. 1, will compete most closely
with Intelligent Miner from IBM and the Database Mining products from
HNC Software, Inc. in San Diego.

'[This] breathes new life into MasPar, which flourished in the
Cold War days but faded as its proprietary technology couldn't find
more generalized uses,' said Jeff Liebl, a research analyst at Smaby
Group, Inc. in Minneapolis.


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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 96 10:08:54 -0700
From: Essam Yassa (samjess1@ix.netcom.com)
Subject: ai

Hello
I am looking for a real time system ( program) that can work with my data:
the data are in groups of a , b, c, ... etc. , about 500,000 or more groups.
- for each group, there is life values being feed into it in real time .
- some data in time series relate to real time ( now ) and some data represent values for different segments of time in the past and some for different segments of time into the future .
- I need a real time system that helps in making designs and prediction ( in real time ) for any data or values of my choice in any group, by learning and pattern recognizing the historical data for different groups and find non linear relationship in data , or between different groups
some of the groups can have some kind of interlined relationships.
Some of the groups have time existence and some are on going for life...
- it must also support DDE, AND DLL

thank you very much ...
Sam Jesse
samjess1@ix.netcom.com
859 N. MOUNTAIN AVE # 1B
UPLAND CA 91786


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>~~~Siftware:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 1996 15:00:23 -0700
From: Steve Champion (steve@neovista.com)
Organization: NeoVista Solutions
Subject: Submitting company and software for listing

NeoVista Solutions, Inc. Description

*Name: NeoVista Solutions, Inc
*URL: http://www.neovista.com
*Description: NeoVista provides the Global 2000 business solutions that
combine the Decision Series integrated suite of scalable data mining
tools with Professional Services that can be assembled into powerful,
automated predictive business analysis solutions for decision support.
*Discovery methods: Neural Nets, Clustering, Genetic Algorithms,
Association Rules
*Comments: NeoVista specializes in advanced pattern detection techniques,
having deployed highly parallel computing solutions in some of the most
demanding, defense related environments in the world, where accuracy and
speed are essential. Now, NeoVista's Decision Series software suite
brings the same advanced technology to commercial data mining, allowing
Global 2000 organizations to better understand the patterns of their
business. These solutions can be deployed on scalable, parallel platforms
that are available from accepted, standard hardware providers and operate
against data resident in popular databases or in legacy systems. The data
mining solutions from NeoVista thereby augment existing decision support
environments by integrating with installed, standards based systems.
*Platform(s): HP, SUN, DEC, Oracle, Informix, Sybase
*Contact: Marketing, NeoVista, info@neovista.com, 408-777-2929,
408-777-2930, 10710 North Tantau Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014
*Status: product and services
*Source of information: S. Champion, Neovista, steve@neovista.com
*Updated: 1996-06-07 by S. Champion, steve@neovista.com


Previous  4 Next   Top
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Iztok.Savnik@ijs.si (Iztok Savnik)
Subject: Announcement: FDEP program
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 10:09:44 +0200 (MET DST)

Program for Inducing Functional Dependencies from Relations

*Name: FDEP

*URL: http://martin.ijs.si/savnik/fdep.html

*Description:

The program FDEP induces a set of functional dependencies from a given
input relation. By default, the output of the program is a set of
dependencies from which one can derive all functional dependencies
valid for a given relation.

The program uses the bottom-up technique of computing the functional
dependencies: it first computes the set of invalid functional
dependencies and after, using this set, determines the set of valid
functional dependencies. The candidates for the valid functional
dependencies are enumerated from more general to more specific
functional dependencies. The validity of the enumerated dependencies is
tested against the set of invalid dependencies.

*Platform(s):
FDEP is implemented in GNU C (v2.6). The program has been tested
on SPARC Station 10 running SunOS 4.1.3_U1.

*Contact:
Iztok Savnik (iztok.savnik@ijs.si) at J.Stefan Institute, Slovenia

*Status: public domain, version 1.0 beta


Previous  5 Next   Top
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 96 12:53:10 -0500 (CDT)
From: Melinda Conkling (melinda@airmail.net)
Subject: SIFTWARE information

Name: STATlab

URL: http://www.slp-infoware.com

=B7 Description
STATlab is an interactive, user-friendly exploratory data analysis software
for drilling-down into data and performing a multitude of analyses on that
data. STATlab allows any information user -- executive, managers,
researchers, students -- to import data from common formats such as a data
warehouse, relational databases, ASCII files, popular spreadsheets and most
of the popular statistical data systems, and interact with and manage the
data to perform a multitude of analyses.

=B7 Discovery methods: Clustering, Statistical & Scientific Visualization,
Statistics, Dimensional Analysis

=B7 Comments:=20
slp InfoWare is the only U.S. vendor offering an integrated data warehousing
solution, including a multi-dimensional database, data mining & drill-down,
statistical analysis and reporting tools in a client/server architecture.

=B7 Platform(s): Unix, Windows, DOS, Mac=20
Windows 95, OS/2, Windows 3.1, Windows NT, UNIX Motif, Macintosh

=B7 Contact: person, organization, e-mail, phone, fax, address
Sid Laxson, slp InfoWare, slaxson@onramp.net, P: 214-757-7850, F:
214-757-7851, 1950 Stemmons Freeway, Ste. 5052, Dallas, Texas, 75207

=B7 Status: public domain, product, prototype
Available now. STATlab=92s suggested retail price ranges from $300 for
STATlab to $600 for STATlabPRO, depending upon the module purchased.

=B7 Updated: 1996-06-10 by Melinda Conkling, melinda@airmail.net.


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>~~~Positions:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: sma@uhc.com (Mack Amin)
Subject: Open Position
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 12:54:43 -0500 (CDT)

The Advanced Technology Center of United HealthCare Corp. (UHC)
has a senior opening (with emaphasis on data warehousing, VLDB,
data mining) as described below. If you have appropriate background,
please send your resume to the given addresses.

In case of any questions, email me at sma@uhc.com.

-Mack

=================================================================

Position Title: Sr. Technical Systems Analyst


I. Position Purpose:

o Coordinate ongoing technology assessment efforts throughout UHC
by leveraging the knowledge and experience of experts throughout
the corporation.
o Play a major role on implementation team addressing data and
systems integration, technology architecture, operations, and
change management.
o Establish and maintain relationships with key IT personnel, both
management and technical within UHC as well as with major vendor
representatives.
o Keep abreast of the latest technology advancements, make proposals
for analyzing new technologies, evaluate technology upgrades, and
consult on use.
o Actively participate in the various Technology Task Force and
Special Interest Group initiatives and provide leadership when
required.


II. Position Qualifications:

o MA or MS degree in Computer Science, MIS or equivalent experience
preferred.
o 7+ years experience in MIS related area (e.g. database design/
administration, data warehousing/decision support, software design/
development/support, hardware design/engineering/support, data
modeling, case tools, telecommunications, PC workstations, LAN/WAN
design/management, parallel computing, distributed domputing,
knowledge based/expert systems design/development, etc.) with
2+ years experience in data mining, VLDB, parallel DBMS, or data
warehousing.
o Large project management/consulting experience whose product/service
affected multiple organizations requiring cooperative involvement
is very desirable.


III. Special Skills:

o Must be a strong team player with excellent oral and written
communications skills.
o Must be able to act as a facilitator, integrator, and mediator with
people from various organizations having different interests, needs,
experiences, and expectations.
o Possesses strong planning, time management, analytical, and
organizational skills plus understand the relationship between
business needs and technical solutions.
o Have the ability to manage multiple tasks, prioritize work, work
independently and be self starting and self directed


Please send your resume (email/fax/snail) to any of the following
individuals:

Mack Amin Mike Biele
9705 Data Park, MN06-6130 9705 Data Park, MN06-613
Minnetonka, MN 55343 Minnetonka, MN 55343
Fax: 612-945-6502 Fax: 612-945-6502
Email: sma@uhc.com Email: mbiele@uhc.com



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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 96 10:44 PDT
From: compfin@cse.ogi.edu (Computational Finance)
Subject: New Computational Finance Program

Computational Finance at the Oregon Graduate Institute of
Science & Technology (OGI)

A Concentration in the MS Programs of
Computer Science & Engineering (CSE)
Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics (EEAP)

----------------------------------------------------------------
20000 NW Walker Road, PO Box 91000, Portland, OR 97291-1000
----------------------------------------------------------------

Program Overview

Today's technology has increased the level of technical pro-
ficiency required in the financial markets. At one time, for
example, spreadsheet skills and a good understanding of
financial instruments were all that were needed to build
practical derivative pricing tools. Today, leading edge
financial institutions routinely use advanced techniques
from engineering and computer science computers to create,
price, and manage risk for new instruments.

Computers of today are powerful enough to analyze and make
decisions based on real-time data (tick-by-tick). Further-
more, modern data analysis tools can consider many variables
simultaneously and capture complicated and often nonlinear
inter-dependencies between variables. This has opened up new
modeling possibilities for hedging, derivatives instruments,
and decision making.

At OGI, the demand within the financial industry for techni-
cally competent graduates that are well versed in state-of-
the-art analysis techniques is addressed by an intensive 12
month Computational Finance program. The program is offered
as a concentration in both the Computer Science & Egnineer-
ing (CSE), and Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics
(EEAP) departments. The program leads to a Master of Science
degree in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE track), or
in Electrical Engineering (EEAP track). Computational
Finance courses are also cross-listed in the Management of
Science & Technology (MST) program.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computational Finance Program is:
------------------------------------------------------------------

* An intensive 12 month track directed at training scen-
tists, engineers, and financial professionals in the theory
and practice of advanced quantitative financial analysis.
* An attractive alternative to a standard 2 year MBA, for
highly motivated and technically sophisticated students
who are considering a career in quantitative financial
analysis.
* A way of gaining a solid foundation in finance, cover-
ing material equivalent to 3 semesters of MBA level
finance and beyond, in only 3 quarters. Finance courses
are taken in parallel with demanding engineering and
computer science courses, and the program is not
recommended for students without mathematical skills
corresponding to an undergraduate degree in a scientific
or technical field.
* Based on a solid foundation in relevant data analysis and
signal processing techniques from Computer Science,
Electrical Engineering, and Statistics. These techniques
are utilized for modeling financial markets and developing
investment analysis, trading, and risk management systems.
* Geared towards adaptive and nonlinear signal processing
tools, like artificial neural networks.
* Strongly project oriented, using state-of-the-art com-
puting facilities and live/historical financial market data
provided by Dow Jones Telerate. Students are exposed to tools
and trading environments that reflect the modern facilities
at a typical Wall Street trading firm. Students are also
trained in using high level numerical, and analytical
packages, such as MatLab, Mathematica, SPlus, and Expo, for
analyzing and modeling financial time series.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Admission Requirements
------------------------------------------------------------------

Admission requirements are the same as the general require-
ments of the institution. GRE scores are required for the
12-month concentration in Computational Finance, although
they can be waived under certain circumstances.

A candidate must hold a bachelor's degree in computer sci-
ence, engineering, mathematics, statistics, one of the bio-
logical or physical sciences, finance, or one of the quanti-
tative social sciences.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Information
------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information, contact

Program Information Admission Information
E-mail: CompFin@cse.ogi.edu Betty Shannon, Academic
WWW: Coordinator
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/CompFin/ Computer Science and
Engineering Department
Oregon Graduate Institute
of Science and Technology
P.O.Box 91000
Portland, OR 97291-1000

E-mail:
academic@cse.ogi.edu
Phone: (503) 690-1255



Previous  8 Next   Top
>~~~Meetings:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 17:00:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Eric Horvitz (horvitz@cs.washington.edu)
Subject: UAI-96 program and registration information (fwd)

=========================================================

P R O G R A M A N D R E G I S T R A T I O N

=========================================================

THE TWELFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON

UNCERTAINTY IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


** U A I 96 **


August 1-4, 1996

Reed College
Portland, Oregon, USA

=======================================


UAI www page at http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/


The effective handling of uncertainty is critical in designing,
understanding, and evaluating computational systems tasked with making
intelligent decisions. For over a decade, the Conference on Uncertainty in
Artificial Intelligence (UAI) has served as a central meeting on advances
in methods for reasoning under uncertainty in computer-based systems. The
conference is the annual international forum for exchanging results on the
use of principled uncertain-reasoning methods to solve difficult
challenges in AI. Theoretical and empirical contributions first presented
at UAI have continued to have significant influence on the direction and
focus of the larger community of AI researchers.

The scope of UAI covers a broad spectrum of approaches to automated
reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. Contributions to the
proceedings address topics that advance theoretical principles or provide
insights through empirical study of applications. Interests include
quantitative and qualitative approaches, and traditional as well as
alternative paradigms of uncertain reasoning. Innovative applications of
automated uncertain reasoning have spanned a broad spectrum of tasks and
domains, including systems that make autonomous decisions and those
designed to support human decision making through interactive use.

* * *

UAI 96 events include a full-day course on uncertain reasoning on the
day before the main UAI 96 conference (Wednesday, July 31) at Reed
College. Details on the course are available at:
http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/tutor.htm

* * *

On Sunday, August 4, we will hold a UAI-KDD Special Joint Session
on Learning, Probability, and Graphical Models at the
Portland Convention Center. See information on the program below.

* * *

UAI-96 will begin shortly before KDD-96
http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov/kdd96/, AAAI-96
http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/1996/aaai96.html, and the AAAI
workshops, and will be in close proximity to these meetings.

* * *

Refer to the UAI-96 WWW home page for late-breaking information:

http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/


========================================================================

** UAI-96 Conference Program **

========================================================================

** Wednesday, July 31, 1996 **


Conference and Course Registration 8:00-8:30am


Full-Day Course on Uncertain Reasoning 8:35-5:30pm

(See: http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/ for course details)


================================================================

** Thursday, August 1, 1996 **


Plenary Session I: Perspectives on Inference
8:45-10:15am


Toward a Market Model for Bayesian Inference
D. Pennock and M. Wellman


A unifying framework for several probabilistic inference algorithms
R. Dechter


Computing upper and lower bounds on likelihoods in intractable networks
T. Jaakkola and M. Jordan (Outstanding Student Paper Award)


Query DAGs: A practical paradigm for implementing belief-network
inference
A. Darwiche and G. Provan


Break 10:15-10:30am


Plenary Session II: Applications of Uncertain Reasoning
10:30-12:00am


MIDAS: An Influence Diagram for Management of Mildew in Winter Wheat
A. Jensen and F. Jensen


Optimal Factory Scheduling under Uncertainty using Stochastic
Dominance A*
P. Wurman and M. Wellman


Supply Restoration in Power Distribution Systems --- A Case Study in
Integrating Model-Based Diagnosis and Repair Planning
S. Thiebaux, M. Cordier, O. Jehl, J. Krivine


Network Engineering for Complex Belief Networks
S. Mahoney and K. Laskey


* Panel Discussion: 'Reports from the front: Real-world experiences
with uncertain reasoning systems' 12:00-12:45pm

Moderator: B. D'Ambrosio


Lunch 12:45-2:00pm


Plenary Session III: Representation and Independence
2:00-3:40pm


Context-Specific Independence in Bayesian Networks
C. Boutilier, N. Friedman, M. Goldszmidt, D. Koller


Binary Join Trees
P. Shenoy


Why is diagnosis using belief networks insensitive to imprecision in
probabilities?
M. Henrion, M. Pradhan, K. Huang, B. del Favero, G. Provan, P. O'Rorke


On separation criterion and recovery algorithm for chain graphs
M.n Studeny


Poster Session I: Overview Presentations
3:40-4:00pm


Poster Session I
4:00-6:00pm

Inference Using Message Propagation and Topology Transformation in
Vector Gaussian Continuous Networks
S. Alag and A. Agogino


Constraining Influence Diagram Structure by Generative Planning:
An Application to the Optimization of Oil Spill Response
J. Agosta


An Alternative Markov Property for Chain Graphs
S. Andersson, D. Madigan, and M. Perlman


Object Recognition with Imperfect Perception and Redundant
Description
C. Barrouil and J. Lemaire


A Sufficiently Fast Algorithm for Finding Close to Optimal
Junction Trees
A. Becker and D. Geiger


Efficient Approximations for the Marginal Likelihood of Incomplete
Data Given a Bayesian Network
D. Chickering and D. Heckerman


Independence with Lower and Upper Probabilities
L. Chrisman


Topological Parameters for Time-Space Tradeoff
R. Dechter


A Qualitative Markov Assumption and its Implications for Belief
Change
N. Friedman and J. Halpern


A Probabilistic Model for Sensor Validation
P. Ibarguengoytia and L. Sucar


Bayesian Learning of Loglinear Models for Neural Connectivity
K. Laskey and L. Martignon


Geometric Implications of the Naive Bayes Assumption
M. Peot


Optimal Monte Carlo Estimation of Belief Network Inference
M. Pradhan and P. Dagum


On Coarsening and Feedback
K. Reiser and Y. Chen


A Discovery Algorithm for Directed Cyclic Graphs
Thomas Richardson


Efficient Enumeration of Instantiations in Bayesian Networks
S. Srinivas and P. Nayak


UAI-96 Meeting on Bayes Net Interchange Format 7:30-9:30pm

(More information: http://cuai-96.microsoft.com/bnif.htm


================================================================

** Friday, August 2, 1996


Plenary Session IV: Time, Persistence, and Causality
8:45-10:15am

A Structurally and Temporally Extended Bayesian Belief Network
Model: Definitions, Properties, and Modelling Techniques
C. Aliferis and G. Cooper


Identifying independencies in causal graphs with feedback
J. Pearl and R. Dechter


Topics in Decision-Theoretic Troubleshooting: Repair and
Experiment
J. Breese and D. Heckerman


A Polynomial-Time Algorithm for Deciding Equivalence of
Directed Cyclic Graphical Models
T. Richardson (Outstanding Student Paper Award)


Break 10:15-10:30am


Plenary Session V: Planning and Action under Uncertainty
10:30-12:00pm


A Measure of Decision Flexibility
R. Shachter and M. Mandelbaum


A Graph-Theoretic Analysis of Information Value
K. Poh and E. Horvitz


Sound Abstraction of Probabilistic Actions in The Constraint Mass
Assignment Framework
A. Doan and P.Haddawy


Flexible Policy Construction by Information Refinement
M. Horsch and D. Poole


* Panel Discussion: 'Automated construction of models: Why, How, When?'
12:00-12:45pm

Moderator: D. Koller

Lunch 12:45-2:00pm


Plenary Session VI: Qualitative Reasoning and Abstraction of Probability
2:00-3:30pm


Generalized Qualitative Probability
D. Lehmann


Uncertain Inferences and Uncertain Conclusions
H. Kyburg, Jr.


Arguing for Decisions: A Qualitative Model of Decision Making
B. Bonet and H. Geffner


Defining Relative Likelihood in Partially Ordered Preferential
Structures
J. Halpern


Poster Session II: Overview Presentations
3:40-4:00pm


Poster Session II
4:00-6:00pm

An Algorithm for Finding Minimum d-Separating Sets in Belief
Networks
S. Acid and L. de Campos


Plan Development using Local Probabilistic Models
E. Atkins, E. Durfee, K. Shin


Entailment in Probability of Thresholded Generalizations
D. Bamber


Coping with the Limitations of Rational Inference in the Framework
of Possibility Theory
S. Benferhat, D. Dubois, H. Prade


Decision-Analytic Approaches to Operational Decision Making:
Application and Observation
T. Chavez


Learning Equivalence Classes of Bayesian Network Structures
D. Chickering


Propagation of 2-Monotone Lower Probabilities on an Undirected
Graph
L. Chrisman


Quasi-Bayesian Strategies for Efficient Plan Generation:
Application to the Planning to Observe Problem
F. Cozman and E. Krotkov


Some Experiments with Real-Time Decision Algorithms
B. D'Ambrosio and S. Burgess


An Evaluation of Structural Parameters for Probabilistic
Reasoning: Results on Benchmark Circuits
Y. El Fattah and R. Dechter


Learning Bayesian Networks with Local Structure
N. Friedman M. Goldszmidt


Theoretical Foundations for Abstraction-Based Probabilistic
Planning
V. Ha and P. Haddawy


Probabilistic Disjunctive Logic Programming
L. Ngo


A Framework for Decision-Theoretic Planning I: Combining the
Situation Calculus, Conditional Plans, Probability and Utility
D. Poole


Coherent Knowledge Processing at Maximum Entropy by SPIRIT
W. Roedder and C. Meyer


Real-Time Estimation of Bayesian Networks
R. Welch


Testing Implication of Probabilistic Dependencies
S.K.M. Wong



UAI-96 Banquet and Invited Talk
7:30-9:30pm


================================================================

** Saturday, August 3, 1996 **


Plenary Session VII: Developments in Belief and Possibility
8:45-10:00am


Belief Revision in the Possibilistic Setting with Uncertain Inputs
D. Dubois and H. Prade


Approximations for Decision Making in the Dempster-Shafer Theory
of Evidence
M. Bauer


Possible World Partition Sequences: A Unifying Framework for
Uncertain Reasoning
C. Teng


Break 10:00-10:15am


Plenary Session VIII: Learning and Uncertainty
10:15-11:45pm


Asymptotic Model Selection for Directed Networks with Hidden
Variables
D. Geiger, D. Heckerman, C. Meek


On the Sample Complexity of Learning Bayesian Networks
N. Friedman and Z. Yakhini


Learning Conventions in Multiagent Stochastic Domains using
Likelihood Estimates
C. Boutilier


Critical Remarks on Single Link Search in Learning Belief Networks
Y. Xiang, S.K.M Wong, N. Cercone


* Panel Discussion: 'Learning and Uncertainty: The Next Steps'
11:45-12:30pm

Moderator: Greg Cooper


Lunch 12:30-2:00pm


Plenary Session IX: Advances in Approximate Inference
2:00-3:45pm

Computational complexity reduction for BN2O networks using
similarity of states
A. Kozlov and J. Singh


Sample-and-Accumulate Algorithms for Belief Updating in Bayes
Networks
E. Santos Jr., S. Shimony, E. Williams


Tail Simulation in Bayesian Networks
E. Castillo, C. Solares, P. Gomez


Efficient Search-Based Inference for Noisy-OR Belief Networks:
TopEpsilon
K. Huang and M. Henrion


Break 3:45-4:00pm


* Panel Discussion: 'UAI by 2005: Reflections on critical problems,
directions, and likely achievements for the next decade'
4:00-5:00pm

Moderator: E. Horvitz



Report on the Bayes Net Interchange Format Meeting
5:00-5:20


UAI Planning Meeting
5:30-6:00


================================================================

** Sunday, August 4, 1996 **


UAI-KDD Special Joint Sessions
Portland Convention Center


Selected talks on learning graphical models from the UAI and KDD
proceedings. UAI badges will be honored at the Portland Convention
Center for the joint session.


Plenary Session X: Learning, Probability, and Graphical Models I
8:30-12:00pm


KDD: Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: Toward a Unifying
Framework
U. Fayyad, G. Piatetsky-Shapiro, and P. Smyth


UAI: Efficient Approximations for the Marginal Likelihood of
Incomplete Data Given a Bayesian Network
D. Chickering and D. Heckerman


KDD: Clustering using Monte Carlo Cross-Validation
P. Smyth


UAI: Learning Equivalence Classes of Bayesian Network Structures
D. Chickering


Break 9:45-10:05am


Plenary Session XI: Learning, Probability, and Graphical Models II
10:05-12:00pm


UAI: Learning Bayesian Networks with Local Structure
N. Friedman and M. Goldszmidt


KDD: Rethinking the Learning of Belief Network Probabilities
R. Musick


UAI: Bayesian Learning of Loglinear Models for Neural Connectivity
K. Laskey and L. Martignon


KDD: Harnessing Graphical Structure in Markov Chain Monte Carlo
Learning
P. Stolorz


================================================================

Organization:
-----------------

Program Cochairs:
=================

Eric Horvitz
Microsoft Research, 9S
Redmond, WA 98052

Phone: (206) 936 2127
Fax: (206) 936 0502
Email: horvitz@microsoft.com
WWW: http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/dtg/horvitz/



Finn Jensen
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Aalborg University
Fredrik Bajers Vej 7,E
DK-9220 Aalborg OE
Denmark

Phone: +45 98 15 85 22 (ext. 5024)
Fax: +45 98 15 81 29
Email: fvj@iesd.auc.dk
WWW: http://www.iesd.auc.dk/cgi-bin/photofinger?fvj



General Conference Chair (General conference inquiries):
========================

Steve Hanks
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, FR-35
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Tel: (206) 543 4784
Fax: (206) 543 2969
Email: hanks@cs.washington.edu



UAI Program Committee
======================

Fahiem Bacchus, University of Waterloo, Cananda
Salem Benferhat, IRIT Universite Paul Sabatier, France
Philippe Besnard, IRISA, France
Mark Boddy, Honeywell Technology Center, USA
Piero Bonissone, General Electric Research Laboratory, USA
Craig Boutilier, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jack Breese, Microsoft Research, USA
Wray Buntine, Thinkbank, USA
Luis M. de Campos, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Enrique Castillo, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain
Eugene Charniak, Brown University, USA
Greg Cooper, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Bruce D'Ambrosio, Oregon State University, USA
Paul Dagum, Stanford University, USA
Adnan Darwiche, Rockwell Science Center, USA
Tom Dean, Brown University, USA
Denise Draper, University of Washington, USA
Marek Druzdzel, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Didier Dubois, IRIT Universite Paul Sabatier, France
Ward Edwards, University of Southern California, USA
Kazuo Ezawa, AT&T Labs, USA
Nir Friedman, Stanford University, USA
Robert Fung, Prevision, USA
Linda van der Gaag, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Hector Geffner, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela
Dan Geiger, Technion, Israel
Lluis Godo, Campus Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain
Robert Goldman, Honeywell Technology Center, USA
Moises Goldszmidt, SRI International, USA
Adam Grove, NEC Research Institute, USA
Peter Haddawy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
Petr Hajek, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Joseph Halpern, IBM Almaden Research Center, USA
Steve Hanks, University of Washington, USA
Othar Hansson, Thinkbank, USA
Peter Hart, Ricoh California Research Center, USA
David Heckerman, Microsoft Research, USA
Max Henrion, Lumina, USA
Frank Jensen, Hugin Expert A/S, Denmark
Michael Jordan, MIT, USA
Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Brown University, USA
Uffe Kjaerulff, Aalborg University, Denmark
Daphne Koller, Stanford University, USA
Paul Krause, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK
Rudolf Kruse, University of Braunschweig, Germany
Henry Kyburg, University of Rochester, USA
Jerome Lang, IRIT Universite Paul Sabatier, France
Kathryn Laskey, George Mason University, USA
Paul Lehner, George Mason University, USA
John Lemmer, Rome Laboratory, USA
Tod Levitt, IET, USA
Ramon Lopez de Mantaras, Spanish Scientific Research Council, Spain
David Madigan, University of Washington, USA
Christopher Meek, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Serafin Moral, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Eric Neufeld, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Ann Nicholson, Monash University, Australia
Ramesh Patil, Information Sciences Institute, USC, USA
Judea Pearl, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Kim Leng Poh, National University of Singapore
David Poole, University of British Columbia, Canada
Henri Prade, IRIT Universite Paul Sabatier, France
Greg Provan, Institute for Learning Systems, USA
Enrique Ruspini, SRI International, USA
Romano Scozzafava, Dip. Me.Mo.Mat., Rome, Italy
Ross Shachter, Stanford University, USA
Prakash Shenoy, University of Kansas, USA
Philippe Smets, IRIDIA Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
David Spiegelhalter, Cambridge University, UK
Peter Spirtes, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Milan Studeny, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Sampath Srinivas, Microsoft, USA
Jaap Suermondt, Hewlett Packard Laboratories, USA
Marco Valtorta, University of South Carolina, USA
Michael Wellman, University of Michigan, USA
Nic Wilson, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Yang Xiang, University of Regina, Canada
Hong Xu, IRIDIA Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
John Yen, Texas A&M University, USA
Lian Wen Zhang, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology



==============================================================

UAI-96 REGISTRATION FORM

==============================================================


Please return this form via email to hanks@cs.washington.edu or use
the web-based registration form available at the UAI-96 home page at
http://cuai-96.microsoft.com to register online.


=================================

Registrant Information

=================================


Name: __________________________________

Affiliation: ____________________________

Address: ____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

Phone: ____________________________

Email address: ____________________________



=================================

Registration information

=================================


____ Register me for the conference
Non-student $275
Student $150


Students, please supply:

Advisor's name and Email address:

_______________________________________


____ Register me for the full-day course on
uncertain reasoning (July 31)


Non-student
with conference registration $85
without conference registration $135
Student
with conference registration $35
without conference registration $50


=================================

Dormitory accomodation

=================================


Singles, doubles, and triples are available.
All include a private bedroom; doubles and
triples share a bathroom.


Rates: Single $26.50 per night
Double $21.50 per night
Triple $16.50 per night


_____________ Arrival date (earliest July 30)


_____________ Departure date (latest August 4)


I am paying for _____ people

for _____ nights

at a daily rate of _________

for a total of _________


_______________________ Sharing with (doubles and triples only)

_______________________ Sharing with (triples only)


===============================

Meal service

===============================


Conference registration includes the conference banquet on
August 2nd.

Reed college offers a package of three lunches during the
conference for a total of $24.


____________ Please register me for the lunch service



=================================

Payment Summary

=================================



$______________ Conference registration

$______________ Full-day course registration

$______________ Lodging charges

$______________ Meal charges

$______________ TOTAL AMOUNT


__________ Please charge my ____ Visa
____ MasterCard

___________________ Card Number

______________ Expiration date


_________ I will send a check via surface mail.

Address for checks:
Steve Hanks
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Washington
Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350



_________ I will pay at the conference



======================================================================

For questions about arrangements and registration issues, contact the
Steve Hanks (hanks@cs.washington.edu). For questions about the program,
contact Eric Horvitz (horvitz@microsoft.com) or Finn Jensen (fvj@iesd.auc.dk).

======================================================================



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