We invite submissions to the First Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems, which will take place in Palo Alto, California, on December 6, 7, and 8, 2012. Like the 2011 Fall Symposium on the same topic, the meeting will bring together researchers with interests in human-level intelligence, complex cognition, integrated intelligent systems, cognitive architectures, and related topics. The purpose is to provide a venue for research on the initial goals of artificial intelligence and cognitive science, which aimed to explain the mind in computational terms and to reproduce the entire range of human cognitive abilities in computational artifacts. Because many researchers remain committed to this original vision, there is need for a meeting that provides a place to present recent results and pose new challenges for the field.
The conference welcomes work on any topic related to the representation or organization of complex mental structures, their use in multi-step cognition, or their acquisition from experience or instruction. Some functional capabilities that arise in this context include:
Some research communities already address such issues, including those dealing with cognitive architectures, cognitive robotics, commonsense reasoning, qualitative modeling, and many others. We especially encourage participation from those working in these and other areas who are interested in complex cognition, human-level intelligence, and related topics.
We also invite researchers to submit papers for presentation at the conference. Submissions should follow the instructions provided at
which gives detailed information about format and provides Latex and Word templates. Papers should be typeset in single column and should be no more than sixteen (16) pages in length. Any papers that diverge from this format or that exceed this length will be returned without review. All papers must be submitted electronically at
In addition, each submission should state explicitly the problem or capability it addresses, describe its response to this problem, make claims about this approach, and provide evidence in support of these claims. Every paper should also discuss related efforts, examine limitations of the reported work, and outline plans for future research.
Because the conference aims to encourage research toward a broader understanding of intelligence, its criteria for determining contributions will differ from those used in traditional circles. Progress may take many forms, including demonstrating new functionality, integrating different facets of intelligence, presenting a novel approach to an established problem, explaining complex cognition in humans, and formally analyzing a difficult new task. We also welcome submissions on new problems or testbeds that challenge existing approaches. Papers that report incremental variants of existing methods, minor improvements on performance metrics for established tasks, or mathematical analyses of component algorithms are not in themselves relevant to this meeting unless they directly aid progress toward cognitive systems with broad functionality.
Each submission will be assigned to multiple referees who will evaluate the paper for its contribution to understanding cognitive systems, clarity of claims about this contribution, convincing evidence in support of those claims, and cogent presentation of its ideas to readers. We encourage authors to examine the review form before drafting their manuscripts to ensure that their submissions address all of the dimensions on which reviewers will evaluate them. Accepted papers will appear in Advances in Cognitive Systems (ISSN 2324-8416), an electronic journal associated with the conference.
Although we expect most submissions to be accepted or rejected outright, some papers may be accepted conditionally. In such cases, the authors will receive an itemized list of changes they must make in their final paper. Revised papers that satisfy these conditions will be included in the journal. To improve overall quality of these publications, some submissions may be accepted on a conditional basis. We may accept some submissions for poster presentation at the meeting.
The conference aims to be as inclusive as possible while still fostering innovative research on the computational nature of intelligence. The conference FAQ page attempts to clarify the scope of the event. Authors who have questions about whether their research is appropriate for the meeting should contact the Program Chair, Pat Langley (patrick.w.langley@gmail.com), for additional information.
The First Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems will run from 9:00 AM on Thursday, December 6, through 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 8, 2012, at the Oshman Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, California. Details about the speakers and talks are available in the online conference schedule.
The meeting will include extended technical presentations, leisurely breaks to encourage discussions, and evening poster receptions to foster additional interactions among participants. Additional details about registration, lodging, and transportation is available at the meeting's logistics page.
