From: Ian Frank ETL GO JP> Date: 23 apr 2000 Subject: No Subject [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement] ****************************************************************************** * * COMPUTERS AND GAMES 2000 - SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS * ---------------------- * * Second International Conference on Computers and Games * Hamamatsu, Japan, 26-28 October 2000 * CURREAC Centre * * http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~ianf/cg2000/ * ****************************************************************************** NEW in this SECOND CFP: * Invited speakers: Michael Littman (Language games, Crosswords) John Conway *PROVISIONAL* (Mathematical Games) Keiichi Tainaka (Physics and Games) TBA (Commercial Games) * Student paper awards: Up to 5 awards of Y80,000 - Y100,000 for the student authors of the best papers (US dollar equivalent about $800 - $1000). * Call for review papers: Short papers reviewing the progress in individuals games since the last CG conference. CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION: This second International Conference on Computers and Games will build on the success of the first conference held in 1998. The conference will provide a unique international forum for researchers to gather and exchange ideas on all aspects of research related to computers and games. Selected papers from CG98 are soon to appear as a special issue of Theoretical Computer Science, and we anticipate a similarly high quality for CG2000. TOPICS OF INTEREST: Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: the current state of game-playing programs, new theoretical developments in game-related research, general scientific contributions produced by the study of games, social aspects of computer games, cognitive research on how humans play games, and issues related to networked games. INVITED SPEAKERS: In choosing invited speakers, the Program Committee decided to highlight four different Computers and Games themes: O a recently successful research project O mathematics and games O game theory in other fields O commercial games The current list of speakers is below. We look forward to an exciting program of invited talks at CG2000. Language Games: Michael Littman (Duke University) As a highlight of recent successes in Computers and Games Michael Littman will speak on crossword puzzle solving. Mathematics and Games: John Conway (Princeton University) [*PROVISIONAL*] Co-author of "Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays", and inventor of the game of Life Physics and Games: Keiichi Tainaka (Shizuoka University) Has worked extensively on phase transitions, criticalities and optimal strategies in iterated games, voter models, and ecosystems. Commercial Games: TBA A representative of a major games company will talk on AI, computers, and games in the entertainment industry. PAPER SUBMISSION: The proceedings of CG2000 will be published by Springer in the LNCS Series. Authors are requested to use the Springer style files (for "Proceedings and Other Multi-author Volumes") found at: phttp://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html Papers must not exceed 20 pages in this format, and must be in English. Authors are requested to submit 5 printed copies of the paper or a single postscript file to one of the addresses below. Each submission must include a cover page giving: the paper title, Author Name(s), affiliation(s), complete address(es), emails, and also a telephone and fax number for the principal author (to facilitate blind review, the paper body itself should not identify the authors in any way). Please also include the paper abstract and a list of keywords on the cover page. We strongly advise the use of LaTeX2e in document preparation. This produces the best results in the final copy, and also allows hyperlinks to be generated in Springer's on-line electronic version. Papers will be refereed (the CG2000 review form is publicly available from the Web pages), and those selected will be scheduled for presentation and printed in the proceedings of the conference. There may be a second round of review to allow authors to improve the presentation of papers that reviewers judge to have significant content but fall short in their level of English exposition. Authors of accepted papers, or their representatives, are expected to present their papers at the conference. IMPORTANT DATES: May 22, 2000 Deadline for papers. July 25, 2000 Accept/Reject notifications sent to authors. Aug 19, 2000 Deadline for camera-ready copy of accepted papers. (paper and electronic version required) SEND PAPERS TO: Prof. Tony Marsland OR Dr. Ian Frank (Program chair) (Program co-chair) Dept of Computing Science Electrotechnical Laboratory University of Alberta 1-1-4 Umezono Canada T6G 2H1 Tsukuba-shi Ibaraki-ken 305-8568 Japan Tel: +1-780-492-3971 Tel: 0298-54-3371 Fax: +1-780-492-1071 Fax: 0298-54-5918 E-mail: tony cs ualberta ca Email: ianf etl go jp STUDENT PAPER AWARDS: CG2000 is pleased to announce a new system of Student Paper Awards to fund students to present papers at the conference. This year's awards will be in the form of a Y80,000 --- Y100,000 cash payment (dollar equivalent about $800 - $1000). To be eligible for the award, authors must: O be currently enrolled in a graduate program or have completed such a program no more than 12 months before submitting a paper, O first author their papers, with the only co-authors being direct academic supervisors, O complete the normal paper submission process by May 22 2000, and O by the same date, send to one of the program chairs a letter of reference from the student's department chair confirming student status. The papers will go through the standard refereeing process, after which the program committee will make up to five awards to the authors of the best student papers (only one award per individual). CG2000 will endeavour to grant the award prior to the conference so that the money may be used to support conference participation. To receive the grant, any Student Award paper must be presented by the first author at the conference. Note that in exceptional circumstances, the program committee may consider awarding assistance to authors who are not students. Such decisions would be made on a needs basis. Authors wishing to be considered for such support are advised to submit a letter setting out their case to the program chairs before the paper submission date. CALL FOR REVIEW PAPERS: An inevitable part of Computers and Games research is the construction of game-playing programs. Also inevitable is that these programs play against each other (and against humans) to find which are the strongest. Since the number of such competitions is increasing, in CG2000 we plan to provide the community with a common resource or quickly locating the latest results of such contests. To do this, we are calling for short summary papers of recent computer contests and progress in specific games. Whereas regular papers have 20 pages, review papers will be just 10 pages. Review papers must: O be titled "Review: Computer [Name of Game] 1988 - 2000" O cover all computer competitions in the time period. O be objective O highlight areas of improvement, current "hot" techniques for the game, and also point out promising directions for future research O be informal (the objective is to provide an accessible overview) O include an overview of aspects of a game other than playing that computers have been used for (e.g., producing opening books). The papers submitted for each game will be reviewed and the best selected. Preference will be given to papers that strike a balance between summary of recent contests and discussion of progress. Authors are encouraged to give the reader more than a list of names and scores by reflecting on non-trivial differences between programs and reasons for some systems doing better than others. The selected review papers will appear in the proceedings (same deadlines as other papers). Authors will be expected to present their paper in a poster session, where all authors of review papers will be available to talk about the games. CONFERENCE OFFICIALS: Organising Committee: Conference co-chairs: Hiroyuki Iida (Shizuoka Univ., Japan) Yoshiyuki Kotani (Tokyo Univ. of Agr. & Tech., Japan) Hitoshi Matsubara (ETL, Japan) Takenobu Takizawa (Waseda Univ., Japan) Atsushi Yoshikawa (NTT Basic Laboratory, Japan) Program Chairs: Tony Marsland (University of Alberta, Canada) Ian Frank (ETL, Japan) Program Committee: Tony Marsland (University of Alberta, Canada) Ian Frank (ETL, Japan) Don F. Beal (Queen Mary and Westfield College, UK) Michael Buro (NEC Institute, USA) Ken Chen (UNC Charlotte) Susan Epstein (Hunter College, USA) Aviezri Fraenkel (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) Reijer Grimbergen (ETL, Japan) Jaap van den Herik (Maastricht University) Shun-Chin Hsu (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) Takuya Kojima (NTT Basic Laboratory, Japan) Richard Korf (University of Calfornia, Los Angels, USA) Shaul Markovitch (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel) Martin Muller (ETL, Japan) Monty Newborn (McGill University, Canada) Jurg Nievergelt (ETH, Switzerland) Kohei Noshita (Univ. of Electro-Communications, Japan) Wim Pijls (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam, NL) Jonathan Schaeffer (University of Alberta, CN) Gerry Tesauro (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA) Jos Uiterwijk (Maastricht Univ., NL) Janet Wiles (Queenland University, AUS) Local Arrangements Committee Hiroyuki Iida (Shizuoka University, chair) Uri Globus (Shizuoka University) Reijer Grimbergen (ETL) Jin Yoshimura (Shizuoka University) Martin Muller (ETL) REGISTRATION FEE: The normal registration fee is 13,000yen (approx. US$ 130). For students, the rate is 7,000yen (approx US$ 70). This includes a free copy of the proceedings, and admittance to the conference reception.