From: Mamdouh Ibrahim
Subject: CFP-IJCAI99 Workshop on Intelligent Workflow and Process Management
Date: 
Message-ID: <36da9e1f.3477260@news.ses.cio.eds.com>
CALL FOR PAPERS

Intelligent Workflow and Process Management: The New Frontier for AI
in
Business - IJCAI-99 Workshop

August 1-2, 1999, Stockholm, Sweden.

Submission Deadline 2 April 1999

More Details: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~paj/ijcai-wflow-wshop/

BACKGROUND

Events such as the "AI meets the Real World'' Workshop recently held
in Newark, New Jersey have shown that a number of AI technologies have
reached a level of maturity which sees them being used to solve a
number of real world tasks in companies such as Boeing, NASA, Lucent
and Lockheed Martin. However, while there have been a number of
notable successes the impact of AI technologies has been less than
expected. One area which seems ripe for exploitation is process
automation or workflow which is at the heart of many organizations and
businesses. Workflow Management  Systems are integrated software tools
for supporting themodeling, analysis, and  enactment of business
process. The technology's development has been driven by  the move to
process oriented management in the 90s via initiatives like
"Continuous  Business Process
Improvement'' and "Business Process re-engineering''. The market for
workflow management software had grown from around $100 million in
1991 to $2.5 billion in 1996. From a research perspective DARPA has
identified workflow as one of its key "must have" technologies and is
investing heavily in developing the next generation workflow systems
for the military. However, the impact of such systems will go well
beyond the military and will be of great interest to the general
business community. The Object Management Group has recently
established an industry standard for interoperability of workflow
systems, opening the door to enterprise-level and inter-enterprise
process automation. Such standards will promote the development of
specialized workflow systems and components incorporating AI
functionality.

Conventional workflow management systems use explicit models and
representations of process, along with automated tools that support
the activation and ongoing management of a process instance. This
technology has to date found application only in areas characterized
by simple administrative type processes such as insurance claim
processing. The benefits alluded to by workflow technology are highly
desirable and the workflow research community has set the agenda of
developing techniques that enable these benefits to be achieved in
applications characterized by complex tasks performed in dynamic and
uncertain environments. These are precisely the classes of tasks and
environments that AI research has been investigating in the context of
controlling computational entities and physical devices.

While workflow has emerged over the last eight years the artificial
intelligence (AI) community has been involved with related  research
on process management for several decades. In contrast to workflow
focus on business and manufacturing processes, the AI community has
been motivated primarily by domains that involve reactive control of
computational entities and physical devices (e.g., robots, antennas,
satellites, computer networks, agent communities). Despite these
differing concerns and perspectives, there is much overlap between the
objectives, requirements, and approaches of these two communities.
Workflow provides the business drivers and the computational
infrastructure that respectively motivate and enable an industrial
deployment of AI technology. Such application will further develop the
commercial credibility of AI technology while simultaneously providing
immediate feedback to shape research programs.

GOALS AND FOCUS

The thesis underlying this workshop is that the AI community could be
leveraged to realize a vision for dynamic process management, at both
the modeling and technological levels. The objective of this Workshop,
is to bring together researchers, practitioners, and applied AI
specialists from diverse fields to discuss issues and emerging
technologies for developing workflow and process management systems.
In particular, we hope the workshop will address innovative ways of
putting intelligence into Workflow Management to Revolutionize
Business. The following are a partial list of AI disciplines that are
relative to the workshop theme:
      Planning and reactive control and their architecture
      Multiagent planning architectures
     Distributed and continuous planning techniques
     Distributed AI
     Scheduling
     Knowledge acquisition
     Knowledge representation and reasoning
     Knowledge based and expert systems.
     Reflection and meta-level architecture
     Machine learning and adaptive system techniques
     Knowledge management

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

     Definitions, terminology, and theoretical foundation for
     intelligent workflow management systems
     Knowledge representation schemes/techniques for building
     intelligent workflow management systems
     Incremental declarative specification and flexible coordination
of
     workflow activities
     Handling uncertainties in workflow applications
     Deriving active rules for workflow enactment
     Performance engineering of human and computerized workflow
     management systems
     Reasoning over workflow activities and processes (Knowledge Based
     Workflow Management)
     Workflow Agents (Intelligent Agents that monitor/activate
workflow
      processes and activities
     Innovative applications of intelligent workflow systems
     Workflow management systems that get smarter over time based on
usage patterns
     Knowledge management activities that support workflow management

WORKSHOP FORMAT AND ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS

We are seeking technical and experience papers, demonstrations of
working prototypes, and suggestions for a panel that are related to
one or more of the above mentioned topics or other topics that are
relevant to the workshop theme. Several invited talks by prominent
industry and research representatives are planned as part of the
workshop activities. However, our goal is to allow ample time for the
workshop attendees to participate in what we hope to be a lively
discussion

The workshop will be of great interest to a wide range of participants
with diverse background since it addresses a central problem faced by
nearly almost all business. We expect that the workshop will be
attended not only by academic AI researchers interested in applying
their research to practical problems, but we also expect advanced
industry IT professional, looking for such innovative solutions, to
take part of this forum. The results of the workshop will be of
interest to the AI and workflow and process management communities at
levels ranging from funding bodies through to researchers, developers,
and end users.

IMPORTANT DATES AND SUBMISSION DETAILS

Submissions should focus on the role that technologies emerging from
both US and international research programs can play in the
construction of workflow engines that manage complex processes, while
remaining robust, reactive, and adaptive in the face of environmental
changes.

     Submission deadline: 2 April 1999
     Notification of acceptance: 1 May 1999
     Camera ready copy and author registration due: 15 May 1999
     Workshop: 1 and 2 August 1999

Submissions must be formatted in accordance with the IJCAI guidelines.
Submissions should (preferably) be submitted electronically in gzipped
postscript format to Brian Drabble. Alternatively, four paper copies
can be mailed to: Brian Drabble, Computational Intelligence Research
Laboratory, 1269 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1269, USA. Due
to the tight reviewing schedule, papers received after March 1, 1999
will be returned.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

     Brian Drabble (co-chair), Computational Intelligence Research
     Laboratory,
     1269 University of Oregon,
     Eugene, OR 97403-1269, USA.
     Tel: +1-541 346 0470
     Fax: +1-541 346 0474

     Mamdouh Ibrahim (co-chair),
     EDS,
     Leading Technologies and Methods,
     5555 New King Street,
     Troy, MI 48098, USA
     Tel: +1-248-696-7129
     Fax: +1-248-696-2325

     Pauline Berry, SRI International
     Christoph Bussler, Boeing Research & Technology
     Fred Cummins, EDS/Leading Technologies and Methods
     Rose Gamble, Tulsa University
     Peter Jarvis, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, The
     University of Edinburgh
     Steve Marney, EDS Intelligent & Object Systems
     Karen L. Myers, SRI International
     Dan O'Leary, University of Southern California
     Santanu Paul, IBM TJ Watson Research

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

     Ruth Aylett (The Information Technology Institute, Salford
     University, UK)
     Abraham Bernstein (Sloan School of Management, MIT, USA.)
     Paul Chung (Chemical Engineering Department, Loughborough
     University, UK)
     Barbara Dellen (Expert Systems Group, University of
Kaiserslautern,

     Germany)
     Sigrid Goldmann (Expert Systems Group, University of
     Kaiserslautern, Germany)
     Marie desJardins (SRI International, USA)
     Tom Garvey (SRI International, USA)
     Mark Klein (Center for Coordination Science, MIT, USA)
     Terri Lydiard (IBM, Global Services, UK)
     Azad Madni (Intelligent Systems Technology, Inc, USA)
     Ann Macintosh (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute,
     Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, UK)
     Jonathan Moore (Chemical Engineering Department, Loughborough
     University, UK)
     Charles Petrie (Center for Design Research, Stanford University,
     USA)
     Jussi Stader (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute,
     Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, UK)
     Austin Tate (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute,

IJCAI-99 Conference Details

This workshop will be held as part of the Sixteenth International
Joint
Conference Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99) in Stockholm, Sweden
during late July and early August 1999. Please see the conference site
for more information.




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Mamdouh Ibrahim, Ph.D.
EDS Leading Technologies and Methods
5555 New King Street,
Troy, MI 48098, USA
Tel:  +1-248-696-7129
Fax: + 1-248-696-2325
E-mail: ···············@eds.com