The Power of Space and Time - How spatial and temporal structures can replace computational effort

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                Joint Seminar
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The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Human Language Technology Center
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
InterACT@HKUST
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Speaker:        Professor Christian FREKSA
                University of Bremen

Title:          "The Power of Space and Time - How spatial and temporal
                structures can replace computational effort"

Date:           Friday, 1 March 2013

Time:           2:00pm - 3:00pm

Venue:          Lecture Theater H (near lifts 27/28), HKUST

Abstract:

Spatial structures determine the ways we perceive our environment and the
ways we act in it in important ways. Spatial structures also determine the
ways we think about our environment and how we solve spatial problems
abstractly. When we use graphics to visualize certain aspects of spatial
and non-spatial entities, we exploit the power of spatial structures to
better understand important relationships. We also are able to imagine
spatial structures and to apply mental operations to them. Similarly, the
structure of time determines the course of events in cognitive processing.
In my talk I will present knowledge representation research in spatial
cognition. I will demonstrate the power of spatial structures in
comparison to formal descriptions that are conventionally used for
spatial problem solving in computer science. I suggest that spatial and
temporal structures can be exploited for the design of powerful 'spatial
computers'. I will show that spatial computers can be particularly
suitable and efficient for spatio-temporal problem solving but may also be
used for abstract problem solving in non-spatial domains.


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Biography:

Prof. Christian Freksa holds the Chair of Cognitive Systems at the Faculty
of Mathematics and Informatics at the University of Bremen, Germany. His
research concerns representation and reasoning with incomplete, imprecise,
lean, coarse, approximate, fuzzy, and conflicting knowledge about physical
environments. Particular emphasis is on qualitative spatial and temporal
reasoning. Prof. Freksa received a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from UC
Berkeley. He carried out research at the Max Planck Institute and at the
Technical University of Munich, at the International Computer Science
Institute in Berkeley, and at the University of Hamburg. In 2002 he
initiated the International Spatial Cognition Quality Network and the
Spatial Cognition Research Center in Bremen and Freiburg that he has been
directing since 2003. Prof. Freksa is a Fellow of the European AI society
ECCAI and served as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German
Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).