Keynotes Speakers:
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Artificial Life Simulation of Humans and Lower Animals: From Biomechanics to Intelligence
Demetri Terzopoulos
Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science
University of California, Los Angeles
Date: Saturday, July 11th
16:10 – 17:50 pm
Chair: Günther Raidl |
Biography:
Demetri Terzopoulos (PhD '84 MIT) is the Chancellor's Professor of
Computer Science at UCLA. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the
ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and
a member of the European Academy of Sciences. One of the most highly
cited authors in engineering and computer science, his numerous awards
include an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his pioneering research on
physics-based computer animation, and the inaugural Computer Vision
Significant Researcher Award from the IEEE for his pioneering and
sustained research on deformable models and their applications.
Abstract:
The confluence of virtual reality and artificial life, an emerging discipline that spans the computational and biological sciences, has yielded synthetic worlds inhabited by realistic artificial flora and fauna. The latter are complex synthetic organisms with functional, biomechanically-simulated bodies, sensors, and brains with locomotion, perception, behavior, learning, and cognition centers. These biomimetic autonomous agents in their realistic virtual worlds foster deeper computationally-oriented insights into natural living systems.
Virtual humans and lower animals are of great interest in computer graphics because they are self-animating graphical characters poised to dramatically advance the motion picture and interactive game industries. Furthermore, they engender interesting new applications in computer vision, medical imaging, sensor networks, archaeology, and many other domains.
More info
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Genetic Algorithms: Long Ago [Past] and Far Away [Future]
John H. Holland
Date: Sunday, July 12th
10:40-11:40am
Chair: Franz Rothlauf |
Biography:
John H. Holland is a professor of psychology and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
In 1959 he was the recipient of the first computer science Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He is known worldwide as the father of genetic algorithms. His current research interests include artificial intelligence, cognitive processes, and complex adaptive systems using mathematical models and computer simulation. John Holland is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and trustee of the Santa Fe Institute. He is an author of a number of books, including "Emergence:
From Chaos to Order" and "Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity."
Abstract:
It was in the mid-50’s of the 20th century when I realized that Fisher’s fundamental theorem could be extended from individual alleles to co-adapted sets of alleles, without linearization. That led to a realization that recombination, rather than mutation, was the main mechanism providing grist for the natural selection mill. There was little theory concerning recombination in those days, but now recombination is a standard explanation for biological innovations, such as swine flu.
Much later, in the early 1990’s, GA’s provided the “adaptive” part of rule-based models of complex adaptive systems (CAS), such as the artificial stock market pioneered at the Santa Fe Institute. Tag-based signal processing occurs in systems as different as biological cells, language acquisition, and ecosystems. CAS models offer a unified way to study the on-going co-evolution of boundary and tag networks in these systems.
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Book Discussion:
The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business
Robert Plotkin, P.C.
Boston, Massachusetts
Date: Friday, July 10th
16:10 pm |
We are pleased to announce a special session at GECCO 2009. Attorney Robert Plotkin will discuss his new book, The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business.
Attorney Plotkin will discuss the ways in which the work that people in GEC do raises thorny problems for patent law which the legal profession has not yet recognized, and provide an outline of his proposed solutions to these problems.
In a nutshell, the questions raised are whether technology that can produce inventions automatically should be patentable, whether the resulting inventions should be patentable, and whether the inputs to the technology should themselves be patentable. As part of this I would give a general overview of how patent law works and some of the problems that patent law has had when it has been applied to software in general.
A discussion period will be open to questions, comments, and critiques from the audience, as well as alternative proposals from anyone in the audience.
The session will take place on Friday, July 10, at 16:10.
About Attorney Plotkin
Attorney Plotkin’s new book from Stanford University Press, The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business, will be the first to explain how computers are automating the process of inventing and how the automation of invention is affecting inventors, high-tech companies, consumers, and the legal profession. Furthermore, it raises the question whether technology that can produce inventions automatically should be patentable, whether the resulting inventions should be patentable, and whether the inputs to the technology should themselves be patentable.
Attorney Plotkin blends his practical patent law expertise with an extensive academic background and ongoing work as a leading software patent theorist and educator. He holds a degree from MIT in Computer Science and Engineering and has an extensive background in computer science shared by few other attorneys. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Boston University School of Law, where he teaches an advanced course entitled "Software and the Law." Boston University School of Law’s Intellectual Property program has been named among the top 10 in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report.
For more info:
Robert Plotkin, P. C. (http://www.rplotkin.com/CM/Custom/Attorneys.asp)
Blog: Automating Invention: Computers, Invention, and the Law
(http://www.automatinginvention.com/)
Events:
Wednesday,
July 8: |
Evening
Student Party at Thomson House Pub, McGill University |
Thursday, July 9: |
Evening Poster Session and hors d'oeuvre
reception |
Friday, July 10: |
3rd Annual Job Shop |
Saturday, July 11: |
Evening Social Event with dinner and
birthday cake at Belvedere Hall, Montréal Science
Centre, a spectacular setting offering a remarkable panorama
of Old Montréal, the Old Port and the St. Lawrence
River from its terrace. |
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