WASP -- Web Agent Support Program

BIJLAGE I: Description of Research Groups

The descriptions below are meant to augment the descriptions of the groups given in section 12.c of the proposal. Since the referees were unable to evaluate the theoretical competence of the applicants, the descriptions focus primarily on the theoretical interests of the applicants and their groups.

A. Eliens -- SE/VU

Anton Eliëns finished his study theoretical computer science in 1986 at the University of Amsterdam. As employee of the CWI he did research on formal aspects of expert systems and the semantics of distributed logic programming. His thesis DLP - A language for distributed logic programming, supervised by prof. dr. P. Klint and prof. dr. J.W. de Bakker, has been published as a book by Wiley (1992). In addition to the publications mentioned in the proposal, he also published papers on the mathematical semantics of distributed logic programming, some in collaboration with dr. E. de Vink. He is the originator and leader of of the DejaVu project, consisting of two AIOs and one scientific programmer, that deals with the various aspects of object oriented programming and distributed hypermedia. He is a member of the NVTI, ACM and IEEE.

J. Treur, F. Brazier - AI/VU

J. Treur completed his study and his thesis both in mathematics and logic at the Utrecht University. F.M.T. Brazier completed her study in mathematics and her thesis on information retrieval and user interfaces both at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The fundamental research of the VU/AI group addresses the following topics: The researchers involved in these fundamental topics are: dr. F.M.T. Brazier, drs. P.A.T. van Eck, drs. J. Engelfriet, dr. F. van Harmelen, dr. C.M. Jonker, prof. dr. J. Treur, dr. L.C. Verbrugge, drs. N.J.E. Wijngaards.

Formal semantics of reasoning and acting behaviour from a temporal perspective. Researchers: F.M.T. Brazier, J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, N.J.E. Wijngaards Specifications for systems performing the complex types of reasoning and acting processes can be formally interpreted in terms of temporal model structures. The approach has been elaborated succesfully to obtain formal semantics for specific types of complex reasoning processes, such as: strategic reasoning and reflection in meta-level architectures, default reasoning, hypothetical reasoning based on dynamic generation and rejection of assumptions, design processes, compositional systems.

  1. Brazier, F.M.T., Treur, J., Wijngaards, N.J.E.,Willems, M., Temporal Semantics of Complex Reasoning Tasks. In: B. Gaines, M. Musen (eds.), Proc. 10th Banff Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, KAW'96, University of Calgary, 1996
  2. J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, "A Temporal Model Theory for Default Logic". In: M. Clarke, R. Kruse, S. Moral (eds.), Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning and Uncertainty , Proceedings ECSQARU93, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 747, Springer-Verlag, 1993, pp. 91-96.
  3. J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, "Temporal Theories of Reasoning". In: C. MacNish, D.Pearce, L.M. Pereira (eds.), Logics in Artifical Intelligence, Proceedings JELIA 94, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 838, Springer-Verlag, 1994, pp. 279-299. Also in: Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics 5(2), 1995, pp. 239-261.
  4. J. Engelfriet, H. Herre, J. Treur, "Nonmonotonic Belief State Frames and Reasoning Frames (extended abstract)". In: C. Froidevaux, J. Kohlas (eds.), Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning and Uncertainty, Proceedings ECSQARU'95, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 946, Springer-Verlag, 1995, pp. 189-196.
  5. J. Engelfriet, H. Herre, J. Treur, "Nonmonotonic Reasoning with Multiple Belief Sets". In: D.M. Gabbay, H.J. Ohlbach (eds.), Practical Reasoning, Proceedings FAPR'96, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 1085, Springer-Verlag, pp. 331-344, 1996.
  6. J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, "Specification of Nonmonotonic Reasoning". In: D.M.Gabbay, H.J. Ohlbach (eds.), Practical Reasoning, Proceedings FAPR'96, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 1085, Springer-Verlag, pp.111-125, 1996.
  7. J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, "Semantics for Default Logic based on Specific Branching Time Models". To be published in: Proceedings ECAI'96, Wiley & Sons, 1996.
  8. J. Engelfriet, "Minimal Temporal Epistemic Logic". To be published in: Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, special issue: Combining Logics, 1996.
  9. J. Engelfriet, J. Treur, "Executable Temporal Logic for Nonmonotonic Reasoning". To be published in: Journal of Symbolic Computation, special issue: Executable Temporal Logics, 1996.
  10. J. Engelfriet, V.W. Marek, J. Treur, M. Truszczynski, "Infinitary Default Logic for Specification of Nonmonotonic Reasoning". To be published in: Proceedings JELIA'96, Springer-Verlag, 1996.
  11. J. Engelfriet, "Only Persistence Makes Nonmonotonicity Monotonous". To be published in: Proceedings JELIA'96, Springer- Verlag, 1996.
  12. Gavrila, I.S. and Treur, J. (1994). A formal model for the dynamics of compositional reasoning systems, in A.G. Cohn (ed.), Proc. 11th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI'94 , John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1994, pp. 307-311.
  13. Hoek W. van der, Meyer J.-J., Treur J., Formal semantics of temporal epistemic reflection, In: L. Fribourg and F. Turini (ed.), Logic Program Synthesis and Transformation-Meta-Programming in Logic, Proc. Fourth Int. Workshop on Meta-programming in Logic, META'94, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 883, Springer Verlag, 1994, pp. 332-352.
  14. Hoek W. van der, Meyer J.-J.Ch., Treur J.; Temporalizing Epistemic Default Logic; R.B. Feenstra, R. Wieringa (eds.), Information Systems-Correctness and Reusability. Selected papers from the IS-CORE-95 Workshop, World Scientific Publishers, 1995, pp. 173-190.
  15. Treur J., Temporal Semantics of Meta-Level Architectures for Dynamic Control of Reasoning. In: L. Fribourg and F. Turini (ed.), Logic Program Synthesis and Transformation-Meta-Programming in Logic, Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Meta-Programming in Logic, META'94. Springer Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 883, 1994, pp. 353-376.

Formalisation of cooperation in multi-agent systems. Researchers: F.M.T. Brazier, C.M. Jonker, J. Treur, L.C. Verbrugge A formalisation of a cooperation model based on joint intentions (informally introduced by N. Jennings) has been developed and applied to project coordination. A logical framework for collective commitments has been introduced.

  1. Brazier, F.M.T., Jonker, C.M., Treur, J., Formalisation of a cooperation model based on joint intentions, In: J. Muller, M. Wooldridge, N.R. Jennings (eds.), Intelligent Agents III, (Proc. Third Int. Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages , ATAL'96), Lecture Notes in AI, Springer Verlag, 1996, to appear
  2. B. Dunin-Keplicz, L.C. Verbrugge, Collective commitments, Proc. of the Second Int. Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, ICMAS'96, MIT Press, 1996, to appear

Formal foundations for verification and validation. Researchers: F.M.T. Brazier, F. van Harmelen, C.M. Jonker, J. Treur Formal foundations have been developed within which static properties to be verified and validated are defined at a semantic level, independent of syntactical aspects of any specific representation language. Based on the temporal semantics approach discussed above, some first explorations have been performed to extend the logical foundation to dynamic properties.

  1. Harmelen, F. van and Aben, M., Applying rule-base anomalies to KADS inference structures; In: R. Gamble (ed.), Proceedings of the IJCAI'95 Workshop on Validation and Verification of Knowledge-Based Systems, 1995.
  2. Treur J., Willems M., A logical foundation for verification. In: A.G. Cohn (ed.), Proc. of the 11th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI'94. John Wiley \& Sons, Chichester, 1994, pp. 745-749.
  3. Treur J., Willems M.; Formal Notions for Verification of Dynamics of Knowledge-Based Systems; M. Ayel and M.-C. Rousset (eds.), Proc. of EUROVAV-95, European Symposium on the Validation and Verification of Knowledge-Based Systems, ADERIAS-LIA, Chamb\'ery, France, 1995, pp. 189-199.

A logical theory of design . Researchers: F.M.T. Brazier, J. Treur As a formal foundation for design tasks a logical theory of design has been developed. The basic notions in design processes such as (partial) design object descriptions, requirements and their relations are formally defined in logical terms. As in design processes usually not only design object descriptions but also requirements evolve over time, and often strategic reasoning takes place, logical foundations for the dynamic aspects are crucial. The dynamics of design processes as formally defined in the logical theory of design are based on the temporal semantics approach discussed above.

  1. Brazier F.M.T., Langen P.H.G. van, Treur J.; A logical theory of design; J.S. Gero and F. Sudweeks (eds.), Proc. IFIP WG5.2 Workshop on Formal Design Methods for CAD, Chapman and Hall, 1996, to appear

P. De Bra - IS/TUE

Paul De Bra completed his study in mathematics at the University of Antwerp in 1981, with a thesis on "Conditional Dependencies". In February 1987 he obtained his doctorate in (computing) science, with a thesis on "Horizontal Decompositions in the Relational Database Model", of which results have been presented at several conferences, including the International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT) and the conference on Mathematical Foundations for Data Base Systems (MFDBS). Also the more recent publications [9] and [10] of the WASP proposal show the competence of the applicant in fundamental research. The shift in focus of attention towards more practical and applied research in hypermedia and the Web dates back only about three years. Paul De Bra is still a member of the "Vereniging voor Fundamentele Informatica" (in Belgium) and of the NVTI (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Theoretische Informatica). He is also member of the ACM. Paul De Bra has recently been appointed to full-professor, heading the Information Systems section at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Apart from the applicant this research group has expertise in executable specification formalisms for information systems (prof. dr. K.M. Van Hee and dr. ir. W. van der Aalst), software engineering (dr. L. Somers), different formalisms for logic and their application to protocols (dr. F. Dignum), object-oriented databases (prof. dr. J. Paredaens, dr. A. Aerts) and hypermedia (dr. ir. G.J. Houben).

mailto:eliens@cs.vu.nl ( Thu Sep 26 14:04:17 MET DST 1996 )