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PITTSBURGH—The School of Information
Sciences (SIS) at the University of Pittsburgh will host
the 9th International
Conference on User Modeling from June 22 to 26 in the conference
center at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown campus.
The conference, a major forum for the presentation
and discussion of latest developments in academic research
on user modeling and adaptive systems as well as industrial
experience in deploying adaptive and personalized systems
in “real-world” applications, is organized
under the auspices of User Modeling Inc. User Modeling
Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1994
to serve the user modeling research community. The
primary purpose of the organization is to sponsor an
international conference on user modeling every two
years. Previous conferences have been held at sites
that include Sonthofen, Germany; Banff, Canada; Sardinia;
and Hawaii.
“Computer systems suffer from an inability to
satisfy the heterogeneous needs of many users,” said
Peter Brusilovsky, SIS assistant professor and conference
chair. “Being unable to take into account unique
features of their individual users, they can be compared
to a store that sells ‘one-size-fits-all’ clothing.
“A remedy for the negative effects of this approach
is to develop systems with an ability to adapt their
behavior to the goals, tasks, interests, and other
features of individual users. These systems are known
as user-adaptive computer systems. A distinctive feature
of an adaptive system is an explicit user model that
represents user knowledge, goals, interests, and other
features that enable the system to distinguish among
different users. Due to that, the field of research
that explores and develops adaptive systems is briefly
called ‘user modeling.’”
The International Modeling Conferences bring together
researchers and practitioners from fields, such as
artificial intelligence, linguistics, psychology, and
human-computer interaction. The conference series is
characterized by high quality technical programs and
discussions.
More than 200 researchers are expected to attend the
conference. Among the invited speakers are Michael
Pazzani, professor of information and computer science,
University of California-Irvine; Rosalind Picard, director
of affective computing research and associate professor
of media arts and sciences, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology; and Kurt VanLehn, professor of computer
science and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary
Research on Constructive Learning Environments (CIRCLE),
at Pitt.
For more information about the conference, please
visit his web site at http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/%7Epeterb/ . |
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