The AI Journey: The road traveled and the (long) road ahead

Speaker: Ramon Lopez de Mantaras

Affiliation: Spanish National Research Council

Time: Thursday 31/10/2013 from 14:00 to 15:00

Venue: Access Grid UWS. Presented from Parramatta (EB.1.32), accessible from Campbelltown (26.1.50) and Penrith (Y239).

Abstract: In this talk I will first briefly remind what AI is about, then I will summarize the many impressive results we have achieved along the road so far traveled including some concrete results obtained at the IIIA-CSIC. Next I will describe some of the future challenges to be faced along the (long) road we still have ahead of us with an enphasis on the so-called "integrated systems" incorporating perception, learning, reasoning, communication and action. Finally I will comment on the importance of interdisciplinary research to build these integrated systems.

Biography: Ramon Lopez de Mantaras. Research Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA). Master of Sciences in Computer Science from the University of California
Berkeley, PhD in Physics (Automatic Control) from the University of Toulouse, and PhD in Computer Science from the Technical University of Barcelona. A pioneer of Artificial Intelligence in Spain, with contributions, since 1976, in Pattern Classification, Approximate Reasoning, Expert Systems, Machine Learning, Case-Based Reasoning, Autonomous Robots, and AI & Music. Author of over 250 papers. Invited plenary speaker at numerous international conferences. Former Editor-in-Chief of Artificial Intelligence Communications, current editorial board member of several international journals, and Associate Editor of the prestigious Artificial Intelligence Journal. Program committee member in numerious conferences. Program committee Chairman or Conference Chairman of several top AI Conferences (UAI-94, ECML'00, ECAI-04, ECML-07, PKDD-07, and IJCAI-07). ECCAI Fellow. Co-recipient of five best paper awards at international conferences. Recipient of the "City of Barcelona" Research Prize, and the "2011 American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Award" (first time that this major AI award has been given to a scientist working outside the US). Recipient of the "Spanish National Computer Science Award" from the Spanish Computer Society. President of the Board of Trustees of IJCAI (the major AI organization) from 2007 to 2009. He serves on a variety of panels and advisory committees for public and private institutions based in the USA and Europe. Presently working on case-based reasoning, machine learning for autonomous robots and AI applications to music.