Computing Community Consortium Blog

The goal of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is to catalyze the computing research community to debate longer range, more audacious research challenges; to build consensus around research visions; to evolve the most promising visions toward clearly defined initiatives; and to work with the funding organizations to move challenges and visions toward funding initiatives. The purpose of this blog is to provide a more immediate, online mechanism for dissemination of visioning concepts and community discussion/debate about them.


AAAI Fall Symposium Series- Cognitive Assistance in Government and Public Sector Applications

October 31st, 2017 / in Announcements, research horizons, Research News / by Helen Wright

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is pleased to present the 2017 Fall Symposium Series, to be held Thursday through Saturday, November 9-11, at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, Virginia.

One of the symposia is on Cognitive Assistance in Government and Public Sector Applications.

Cognitive Assistance is an important focus area for AI. While it has several facets and still lacks a precise definition (one of the reasons for this Symposium!), it has been called Augmented Intelligence, the
automation of knowledge work, intelligence amplification, cognitive prostheses, and cognitive analytics
in the past. It is generally agreed that even while fully automated AI is still being developed, there are
many aspects in which people can (and do already) benefit from automated support, when it is
appropriate and intelligently provided.

This symposium presents innovative contributions to the research, development, and application of
Cognitive Assistance technology for use in Government (executive agencies, legislative, and judicial
branches), education, and healthcare. These areas differ considerably, but they all share characteristics
that make them prime candidate application areas for Cognitive Assistance: complex knowledge
interdependencies that take years to master, the situation where human experts provide support to
less-informed clients with urgent needs, legal and social requirements for accurate and timely help.

This year’s symposium will include:

  • Keynotes by Mark Maybury, VP Mitre & Fellow of AAAI & Ken Forbus, Professor at Northwestern
    U. and Fellow of AAAI, Cognitive Science Society, and ACM
  • Talks on Cognitive Assistants for Pilots, Cybersecurity, Administrative Adjudication, Improving
    Housing for the Homeless, Analyzing the Federal Acquisition Regulations, and Multi-agency
    situational understanding.
  • Panel discussions on Emerging ideas for Cognitive Assistants, Cognitive Assistants for Civilian
    Government, and Cybersecurity
  • Discussion and Demonstration of Cognitive Assistance for the Blind

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) co-sponsored a Fall 2016 AAAI Symposium called A Grand Challenge for AI, which brought together researchers to articulate a research agenda aimed at addressing the AI grand challenge of accelerating science. Then in March 2017, the CCC co-sponsor another AAAI Symposium on AI for Social Good, which focused on the promise of AI across multiple sectors of society.

Please register here for the Fall 2017 AAAI Symposium

AAAI Fall Symposium Series- Cognitive Assistance in Government and Public Sector Applications

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