CALL FOR PAPERS

for

AI in ICT for Development – Workshop

 

Description

Information and Communication and Technologies for Development (ICTD) is a growing research area where computing is applied to address the challenges of underserved communities such as remote rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods. Our goal is to encourage the use of AI techniques in ICTD. AI has been applied to socio-economic development in the fields of medicine, agriculture, education, government, and finance. Some examples where AI has been put to use include remote, automated diagnosis of human illness, advice on effective interventions for agriculture, adaptive educational content based on the student aptitude, and different ways to analyze data using machine-learning techniques. This workshop is a forum for researchers applying techniques of artificial intelligence to developing-world problems.       

Topics of Interest

The main focus of this workshop will be the application of artificial intelligence algorithms and systems to development projects, whether they are in agriculture, education, or other domains.  Within this general theme we aim to bring together researchers to discuss the topics which include, but are not restricted to, the following:

  • AI in remote diagnosis of human and crop diseases
  • AI in computer-aided education, particularly for poorer schools
  • Use of machine-learning techniques for analyzing socio-economic data
  • Adaptive user interfaces targeted towards users from underserved communities
  • Speech, natural language, and vision for development
  • Robotics and other intelligent systems in development
  • Surveys of work that apply AI to development

 

 

 Why and to whom is this workshop of interest?

This workshop is interesting to the larger community of technical ICTD researchers who are exploring applications of computing in solving development regions problems. Researchers with a background in AI will be particularly interested, but given the interdisciplinary nature of ICTD, researchers with backgrounds in other technical areas, but with an inclination for ICTD will also find the workshop useful. 

Workshop Program

AI in ICT for Development - Workshop Program

 

AI in ICT for Development - Workshop

January 8, 2007

9:00 A.M. – 5:15 P.M.

Time

Welcome by Chair – Kentaro Toyama

(Kentaro Toyama, Assistant Managing Director of Microsoft Research India

http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem)

 

9:00-9:15

Invited Talk - Matt Steele from PATH

(Matt Steele, Clinical and Field Research Coordinator for Program for Appropriate Technology in

Health (PATH) (http://www.path.org)

 

9:15-10:00

Break 10:00-10:10

 

Paper Presentations (Morning Session)

Moderator: Krithi Ramarathnam

A Braille Writing Tutor to Combat Illiteracy in Developing Communities 10:10-10:30

 

Teaching technical creativity through Robotics: A case study in Ghana 10:30-10:50

 

Break 10:50-11:10

 

Towards Speech Interfaces for Health Information Access by Semi-literate Users 11:10-11:30

 

Extending the Reach of a Legal System with AI Techniques 11:30-11:50

Lunch Break 12:00-2:00

 

Paper Presentations (Afternoon Session)

Moderator: Anupam Basu

Simulated Decision Making for ICT Coordination in Disaster Relief Using Cognitive Agents 2:00-2:20

 

Creating Low-Cost Soil Maps for Tropical Agriculture using Gaussian Processes 2:20-2:40

 

How to Build a Low Cost Spoken Dialog System with Limited (or no) Language Resources 2:40-3:00

Break 3:00-3:15

Invited Talk – Venkataraman Balaji from ICRISAT

 

(Venkataraman Balaji, Head - Information Systems Unit ICRISAT, http://www.icrisat.org)

3:15-4:00

 

Break 4:00-4:15

Panel Discussion – ICT in Rural Agriculture

Moderator: Kentaro Toyama

Panel: Anupam Basu, Krithi Ramarathnam, Krishna Reddy, Bernardine Dias, Rajesh Veeraraghavan

 

4:15-5:00

Closing Remarks 5:00-5:15

 

 

Submission Instructions

The style for papers in the proceedings follows the style of the main conference. Please start your subject with "[IJCAI-ICTD]" when submitting the paper. The papers can be extended abstract or full research papers. Survey or position papers are also welcome. The papers should end with relevant bibliographic references and should be no longer than 10 pages. Selection of participants will be based on relevance to the indicated focus of the workshop, clarity of the work submitted, and the strength of the research.

Important Dates and Deadlines

· Deadline for the submission of papers for the workshop: September 25, 2006

· Notification of acceptance/rejection: October 23, 2006

· Deadline for the receipt of camera-ready papers: November 15, 2006

· Workshop Date: January 8, 2007

 

For further information, please see the conference website at 
http://research.microsoft.com/workshops/ijcai07/ICTD.htm
 
 
 
Inquiries should be sent to ijcaiict@microsoft.com
 

 

 

Organizing Committee

Kentaro Toyama (MSR India), Krithi Ramamritham (IIT Bombay), Anupam Basu (IIT Kharagpur), Rajesh Veeraraghavan (MSR India)

 

Program Committee

Chair: Kentaro Toyama (Microsoft Research India)

 

Krithi Ramamritham (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)

Umar Saif (Lahore University of Management Sciences)

Sriganesh Madhvanath (HP Labs, India)

S. Keshav (University of Waterloo)

Madelaine Plauche (UC Berkeley)

N. Balakrishnan (Indian Institute of Science)

Roni Rosenfield (Carnegie Mellon University)

Tapan Parikh (University of Washington)

Pushpak Bhattacharya (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)

Anupam Basu (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur)

Michael Best (Georgia Tech)

Uday Desai (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay)

Bernardine Dias (Carnegie Mellon University)

Rahul Tongia (Carnegie Mellon University)

Rajesh Veeraraghavan (Microsoft Research India)