MIND & BRAIN PRIZE -- 2007 EDITION TORINO -- OCTOBER 18, 2007 The Center for Cognitive Science of Torino will award the 2007 M&B Prize to: - *Michael Tomasello*, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig: for the outstanding theoretical and empirical advancements in the comparative study of social cognition in infants and in great apes. - *Cristiano Castelfranchi*, University of Siena and Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council of Roma: for his pioneering work in the integration of psychology within the broader cognitive sciences and for the advancements brought to the study of agents and agent interactions. - *Il Sole24Ore*: for the intellectual rigour with which the journal advances the scientific culture in our country and for the constant attention it dedicates to the field of the science of the mind. The Mind & Brain Prize was established in 2003 and aims at honoring the most relevant researchers in the field of Cognitive Science, as well as persons whose generous support and sponsorship has contributed to the growth and development of the discipline. In previous editions the Center for Cognitive Science awarded the prize to John R. Searle, Giovanni Liotti, Jerry A. Fodor, James L. McClelland, Philip Johnson-Laird, Domenico Parisi, Giacomo Rizzolatti and Carlo Umiltˆ. Every useful information about the present and the past editions of the Mind & Brain Prize can be found at the following web site: http://www.psych.unito.it/csc/mindbrain/default.html The 2007 award ceremony will be held in Torino on October 18, 2007. For more information please contact Valeria Manera: valeria.manera@unito.it ------ GK-News ----------------------------------------------------------------- Due to several requests we decided to extend the submission deadline for the following workshop: Applications of Spatial Cognition for Intelligent Assistance Systems www.sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de/ASCIAS KI 2007 -- 30th German Conference on Artificial Intelligence 10 September 2007, Osnabrueck, Germany Call for Contributions Workshop Description: Artificial Intelligence is one of the main contributors to the interdisciplinary field of spatial cognition. In the last decade or so, large progress has been made in the AI related research fields in spatial cog nition (e.g. in cognitive computational modeling, in autonomous robots, in spatial reasoning and planning, in geographic information and navigation systems, and in language processing). This work shop is dedicated to possible (fields of) applications that may result from the achievements in basic spatial cognition research in AI. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers working on approaches that are or may be employed for intelligent spatial assistance and that take into account and/or integrate results of cog nitive science. We are particularly interested in applications, i.e. computational systems already being developed, or on current approaches that may end up in computational spatial assistance systems. Topics and questions of interest include (but are not limited to): Wayfinding / navigation assistance: intelligent route planners or navigation systems capturing a user's previous knowledge, aspects of personalization, integration of environmental information (e.g., landmarks), path selection based on cognitive considerations, etc. Service robotics / (semi-)autonomous machines as assistance systems: support for the elderly, aspects of human-robot interaction, safety and security issues, etc. Applications in design and architecture: cognitive approaches to computer-aided architectural design, (semi-)automatic spatial design, systems supporting creativity and innovation, etc. Spatial planning and scheduling: decision support tools for spatial planning, spatial reasoning (e.g., in under-/over-constrained systems), representation and communication of solution spaces, etc. Typical questions to be discussed may be: What are the options for intelligent computational support of humans in spatial tasks? How can cognitive principles and mechanisms in AI systems be conceived of as a fruitful approach for representation of, reasoning about, and communication of spatial information? How can these mechanisms be implemented efficiently, both with respect to runtime and performance? When do we need to model cognitive processes (strong cognitive adequacy), and when is a cognitively plausible output sufficient (weak cognitive adequacy)? How do findings from spatial cognition may enhance approaches from (classical) AI? Participants are asked to submit extended abstracts of 2-4 pages to describe their ideas and work with respect to the workshop topic and to their current scientific work. Important Dates: 01 July 07: deadline for submitting contributions 20 July 07: notification of acceptance 04 Aug 07: final paper versions due 10 Sept 07: workshop Workshop Organizers: Thomas Barkowsky, Universitaet Bremen barkowsky@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de Kai-Florian Richter, Universitaet Bremen richter@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de Michael Schellenbach, MPI for Human Development schellenbach@mpib-berlin.mpg.de