The world is full of systems that have continuous aspects, and about which we only have incomplete, qualitative knowledge. Humans are amazingly effective at working with such knowledge, and many science, engineering, and educational applications could benefit greatly from similar capabilities. In seeking to understand the ability to reason qualitatively, the QR community pursues research at the interface of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Engineering, and Science. This research includes:

• Development of algorithms and systems for constructing, simulating, and applying qualitative and semi-quantitative models
• Study, from a cognitive modelling perspective, how humans represent and use incomplete knowledge
• Development of methods for system modelling, explanation, diagnosis, and design, with applications in science, engineering, and education

 
The 23rd International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning will be held at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, from June 22 through 24, 2009.

TOPICS
 

• Qualitative formalisms and their mathematical foundations
• Cognitive modelling (cognitive theories of reasoning about systems, theories and experiments concerning human reasoning and learning of mental models, QR models for spatial reasoning, cognitive maps, cognitive robots, etc.);
• Techniques (qualitative simulation, ontologies, management of multiple models, reasoning over time and space, mathematical formalizations of QR, qualitative algebras, qualitative dynamics, qualitative kinematics, qualitative optimization, automatic generation & abstraction of qualitative models, etc.);
• Task-level reasoning (design, planning, monitoring, diagnosis and repair, explanation, tutoring and training, process control and supervision, etc.);
• Real-World Applications (dynamical systems, engineering, education, business, biology, chemistry, ecology, economics, social science, environmental science, medicine, law, etc.);
• Integration with other modelling approaches (system dynamics and bond-graphs, signal processing, numerical methods, statistical techniques, differential equations);
• Knowledge acquisition methods (model building tools and techniques, automated model construction and machine learning, acquisition of models from data, etc.).

In addition to traditional papers and posters submission, QR'09 will introduce a new category, "Late breaking papers" with late submission deadline of June 1. By this, we hope to encourage researchers to submit the work in progress and to discuss such work at the workshop.

PAPER SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

• Full Paper. A PDF file of the full paper not to exceed 6000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to jure.zabkar@fri.uni-lj.si  by 1 March 2009
• Poster. A PDF file of the poster paper not to exceed 2000 words (excluding references) must be submitted by e-mail to jure.zabkar@fri.uni-lj.si by 1 March 2009
• Review Process. Both papers and posters will be selected according to their quality, significance, originality, and potential to generate discussion. Each contribution will be reviewed by at least two referees from the QR-09 Program Committee.
• Submission to Conferences or Journals. The accepted papers will be published as a collection of Working papers. As QR-09 is a workshop, not a conference, submission of the same paper to conferences (e.g., AAAI-09) or journals is acceptable.
• Format. Papers should be formatted according to the AAAI-09 guidelines, available from www.aaai.org, and must be in PDF format. 

The workshop is also open to people who would like to attend without submitting a paper or a poster.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission (papers & posters): 15 March 2009 (EXTENDED)
Notification: 22 April 2009
Camera-ready copies: 8 May 2009
Early registration deadline: 22 May 2009
Late breaking papers: 1 June  2009
Workshop: 22 - 24 June 2009

 
PROGRAM CHAIRS

Ivan Bratko and Jure Žabkar, University of Ljubljana

PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

Nuria Agell, ESADE Business School
Chris Bailey-Kellogg, Dartmouth University
Gautam Biswas, Vanderbilt University
Liz Bradley, University of Colorado
Bert Bredeweg, University of Amsterdam
George Coghill, University of Aberdeen
Philippe Dague, University Paris-Sud
Sašo Džeroski, Jožef Stefan Institute
Teresa Escrig, University Jaume I Castellon
Ken Forbus, Northwestern University
Michael Hofbaur, Graz University of Technology
Liliana Ironi, IMATI - CNR, Pavia
Hidde de Jong, INRIA Grenoble-Rhone-Alpes
Johan de Kleer, Xerox PARC
Ben Kuipers, University of Texas at Austin
Mark Lee, Aberystwyth University
Chris Price, Aberystwyth University
Paulo Salles, University of Brasilia
Cem Say, Boğaziçi University
Qiang Shen, Aberystwyth University
Peter Struss, Technical University Muenchen
Stefania Tentoni, IMATI - CNR, Pavia
Louise Trave-Massuyes, LAAS-CNRS
Franz Wotawa, Graz University of Technology