Invited Speakers and Keynote for AAAI-06<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The keynote address<\/a> was delivered by Tim Berners-Lee. Lee is director of the World Wide Web Consortium. Invited talks were delivered by Karen Myers (SRI International), Dan Roth (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Pedro Domingos (University of Washington), and Ken Koedinger (Carnegie Mellon University). The Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Lecture was delivered by Bruce G. Buchanan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior Members Track<\/b> AAAI Member Posters<\/b> AAAI Nectar<\/b> Two Special Technical Tracks<\/b> For AAAI Members: Member Posters and Senior Member Papers<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the AI Researcher: The Technical Program and IAAI<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n For Junior and Senior Researchers: The Tutorial and Workshop Programs<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the AI Student: The Game Competition Raised the Stakes with a $10,000 Prize<\/b> The winner of the competition and the Stanford Prize was Fluxplayer, a general game player created by Stephan Schiffel and Michael Thielscher of Dresden University. Fluxplayer won the competition with a score of 2690.75, beating out second-place finisher and defending champion Cluneplayer of UCLA (which finished with 25.73.75 points) by 117 points. Greg Kuhlmann\u2019s and Peter Stone\u2019s UT-Austin-Larg finished third with 2370.50 points. The AAAI competition was designed to test the abilities The AAAI Mobile Robot Competition Demonstrated Cutting Edge in Robotics<\/b> Last-Minute Addition: AAAI Computer Poker Competition<\/b> The AAAI Mobile Robot Exhibition Demonstrated State of the Art Robotics Research<\/b> AAAI Intelligent Systems Demonstrations Showcased AI Implementations and Showed Research in Action <\/b> AAAI-06 Exhibitors Showcase State-of-the-Art AI Products and Books<\/b> AAAI-06 was held at the Seaport Hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following events were collocated with AAAI-06:<\/p>\n\n\n\nNew In 2006!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
New this year, senior members of AAAI had an opportunity to give a broad talk <\/a>on a well-developed body of research, an important new research area, or a thoughtful critique of trends in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal of this novel program<\/a> was to provide a forum in which AAAI members can present and discuss their work based on a submitted abstract, rather than a regular AAAI paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
AAAI conference attendees had an opportunity to learn about results from AAAI\u2019s sister conferences in a new special paper track <\/a>designed to highlight those results in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time, AAAI-06 had special technical tracks: one on integrated intelligent capabilities<\/a> (inviting papers that report on theoretical or empirical studies that highlight the role of integration of multiple components in achieving intelligent behavior),and the other on artificial intelligence and the web<\/a> (inviting technical papers on the use of AI techniques, systems and concepts
involving the Web).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAAAI-06 Offered a Broad Range of Programs for all<\/i> AI Practitioners and Researchers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The Student Poster Program and the Doctoral Consortium<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThank you, Sponsors!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nExciting Competitions Highlighted AAAI\u2019s Exhibit Area<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The second annual AAAI General Game Playing Competition, held from May to July 2006, ended in Boston at AAAI-06, where Fluxplayer and Cluneplayer met in a final showdown on July 19 to compete for the $10,000 prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of general game playing systems by comparing their performance on a variety of games. The competition consisted of two phases: a qualification round and a runoff competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now in its fifteenth year, the Mobile Robot Competition for 2006 included the Robot Challenge, the Human Robot Interaction, the Scavenger Hunt, the Robot Exhibition, and the Mobile Robot Workshop. The AAAI-06 Mobile Robot Competition celebrated AI\u2019s 50th anniversary with a scavenger hunt, where robots hunted for objects like a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Winning the Scavenger Hunt this year was Kansas State University\u2019s Willie, which used sonar to find ojects inside an area it had previously mapped. Other award-winners included Idaho National Labs (Judges\u2019 Choice Award for Outstanding Human\/Robot Interface) and UCLA (Judges\u2019 Choice Award for Outstanding Adaptation of Current Research).
In the Human Robot Interaction competition, Universit\u00e9 de Sherbrooke swept the award categories, winning the Judges\u2019 and Audience Favorite categories and being the overall competition winner.
Details on the participants are available on page 18 of the program<\/a>.<\/a> Additional information is available on the Robot<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AAAI-06 held the first AAAI Computer Poker Competition. The University of Alberta\u2019s Hyperborean won. The bot from Edmonton defeated four other competing bots, including bots from Carnegie Mellon and Monash Universities as well as two privately designed bots to take first place in the Bankroll (0.3925 small bets per hand) and Series Competitions (3wins, 0 losses).
BluffBot, the second place finisher, took second in the Bankroll competition (0.0954 small bets per hand) as well as the Series competition (2 wins, 1 loss).
Third place in the Bankroll Competition went to Monash BPP (Monash University, Australia). Third Place in the series competition went to GS2 from Carnegie Mellon University, with 1 win, and 2 losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAAAI-06 Exhibits Showcased Research in Action and in Print!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The mission of the robot exhibition<\/a> was to demonstrate state-of-the-art research in a less structured environment than the competition events. The exhibition gave researchers an opportunity to showcase current robotics and embodied AI research that did not fit into the competition tasks. In addition to research, exhibits that demonstrated how robotics could be used to enhance education in AI and other related courses were highly encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IS Demos program showcased state-of-the-art AI implementations and provided AI researchers with an opportunity to show their research in action. Implemented intelligent systems allowed us not only to experimentally validate AI research, but also to make AI research accessible to each other, to the broader scientific community, and to the public at large. The list of demonstrations presented at AAAI-06 can be found in the AAAI-06 proceedings.<\/a> Additional details are available on page 17 of the program<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
AAAI-06 exhibitors included AAAI Press, BAE Systems, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier\/Morgan Kaufmann, Googe, ITA Software, Inc., K\/Team \/ RoadNarrows, Microsoft, The MIT Press, Mobile Robots, Inc., Springer, and Yahoo! Research. Descriptions are available on page 16 of the program.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nCollocated Events<\/h4>\n\n\n\n