The dog days of the hot, humid summer are upon us in Tokyo.
Here in the AITEC office, we are suffering from lack of sleep at night
due to the intense heat and watching the scorching Atlanta Olympic games
on TV every night. (Most of the TV coverage is after midnight in Japan
due to the time difference.)
The Atlanta Olympics, one of the world's biggest festival, have given us
various impressions and thoughts. For example, we saw judo players from
so many countries appear in Atlanta to test their mettle. I was most
impressed to see just how popular judo has become in the world.
I was also surprised to see that Japanese players had become so strong in
such sports as baseball, softball, athletics, soccer, and tennis that they
could play on an equal level with the top players from other countries.
We had always believed that the Japanese were not suitable for these sports
due to our relatively small physiques and lack of experience in those sports.
Why has this change occurred?
One of the reasons, I believe, is that the frequent exchange of players
between countries has stimulated this kind of change.
Japanese judo players and trainers have traveled to other countries to
train players there, while foreign soccer stars and coaches have been
invited to Japan to practice and play together with Japanese players and
improve their skills.
Concerning information technology, on the other hand, Japan is often
considered to be far behind the United States in the software field.
The Japanese are thought to be not good at producing software due to the
Japanese social structure.
How can we break this situation by learning from the sporting world?
Of course, it is important to exchange people with other countries.
Other than that, how about the concept of "free software?"
In the network age of today, "free software" can spread not only in
Japan but also easily to the world, to be used by many and to be improved.
Such software can also carry research with it. "Free software" is now
recognized as an important medium for the exchange of new ideas.
AITEC has introduced IFS (ICOT free software) so far, and we have just
released new software in FY'96.
All the new software was developed in Japan and will travel abroad and be
improved. We hope that some of the new software can become like the sport
of judo, which has spread throughout the world beyond the borders of Japan.
We wish to join in this challenge together.
Let's start AITEC NEWS No.4.
(Chie Takahashi)
[ARTICLES THIS ISSUE]
1. How Far Will They Travel? Introducing FY'95 Software!
In FY'95, AITEC started soliciting research projects for the purpose of
more frequent use of IFS programs, expecting their improvements and
new developments. We have just released twenty new software programs,
including ones in the two-year project that was started last year,
as shown on the AITEC Home Page.
(http://www.icot.or.jp/) (English version is in preparation.)
Some of the programs produced in the two-year project may not be fully
functional and probably still include some bugs. However, as the project
progresses, your comments will be fed back to the researchers.
Please access the new IFS programs and feel free to make such comments as:
.I need a certain function added to the software.
.I found a bug in the program.
.I need a certain explanation added to the manual document.
Please develop various exchanges through discussion of the new software.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas, please contact us at:
ifs@icot.or.jp.
2. Challenge the "KLIC Programming Contest" and win a prize!
Detailed information on the "KLIC Programming Contest" can be found on
the AITEC Home Page.(http://www.icot.or.jp) (See "What's New?")
We are planning to hold several KLIC seminars for the participants who
are new to KLIC and also for those who have already taken the seminar.
Please join the contest to prepare for the coming age of parallel/
distributed processing.
3. Acceptance of Proposal Themes Decided for the "FY'96 Project"
The "IFS Dissemination and Further Development Project in FY'96" has
started following on from the project in FY'95. This project focuses
on developing new software extending from IFS and releasing it as
free software.
For this year, the evaluation committee selected the following eleven
new proposals from among the fourteen proposals submitted.
Sixteen proposals of the project in FY'95 are also continued.
New research themes for FY'96:
1. A Parallel Multilayer-Channel Router in CMGTP
Neng-Fa Zhou, Assistant Prof, Kyushu Institute of Technology
2. A Proof Assistant with Commutative Diagram Interface
Sakai Ko, Assistant Prof., University of Tsukuba
3. Legal Reasoning with Situation Variable
Tojo Satoshi, Assistant Prof.,
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
4. Study on Strategy Acquisition in Tsume-shogi
Ito Hidenori, Prof., Nagoya Institute of Technology
5. A Declarative 3-D Algorithm Animation System based on KL/1
Matsuoka Satoshi, Lecturer, University of Tokyo
6. A Parallel Abductive Reasoning System
Ito Hidenori, Prof., Nagoya Institute of Technology
7. A Pattern-Oriented Visual Parallel Programming Environment
Shibayama Etsuya, Assistant Prof., Tokyo Institute of Technology
8. A Programming System for Statistical Modeling
Sato Taisuke, Prof., Tokyo Institute of Technology
9. A Proposed Framework of LTB Japanese Grammar
and implementing its rules
Sano Hiroshi, Lecturer, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
10. A Controlled Linguistic Model and its Application
to Intelligent Natural Language Processing
Nomura Hirosato, Prof., Kyushu Institute of Technology
11. Design and Implementation of Concept Learning System
using Concurrent Logic Language KLIC
Takayasu Ito, Prof., Tohoku University
The abstracts for the above proposals are being prepared for the AITEC
Home Page.
4. Why Japanese Software is Outstripped by the United States?
--The first report issued by the Department of Future Technology Studies
The Department of Future Technology Studies of AITEC has started and
has published the report, "How the US Government effectively stimulates
the R&D in IT?"
The report explains that the US Government provides IT researchers
with a legal system and mechanism that motivates them to transfer
the fruits of their research to industry on the fundamental concept of
being open and competitive. It is clear that research funds from
the US Government are much larger than in Japan. This report explains
some of the reasons why Japanese software is outstripped by the US.
The report can be found on the AITEC Home Page.(http://www.icot.or.jp/)
(English version is in preparation.)
5. IFS Seminar Held at Keio University Yagami Campus
--Would you like to host the seminar at your campus?
As a part of the "IFS Dissemination and Further Development Project,"
the IFS Seminar focusing on KLIC was held on 22 and 23 July, 1996
at the Yagami Campus of Keio University.
Both Dr. Kazuhiro Fuchi and his staff of the Department of Administration
Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University
and the Computing Center joined forces to organize the seminar.
A demonstration of MGTP (Parallel Model Generation Theorem Prover)
developed at ICOT and transferred to the Kyushu University was executed
remotely using PIMs (Parallel Inference Machines) at Kyushu University.
The participants looked excited and satisfied with the dynamic demonstration
using real parallel machines via a network.
This was the fourth seminar since AITEC started and the twelfth
since ICOT started, with much work from the helpers. We plan to continue
to hold the IFS seminar.
If you are interested in hosting the seminar at your place,
please contact: kaneda@icot.or.jp.
[MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK]
We hope you enjoyed AITEC NEWS No.4.
In this issue, we focused on the new IFS programs introduced on
the AITEC Home Page.
When Kimiko Date, Japan's top female tennis player beat Steffi Graf
in the Federation Cup last April, Matsuoka, Japan's top male tennis player,
acted as a cheerleader for Kimiko and attracted enough support to enable
her to win the tough game. The victory against Steffi gave her great
confidence, and pushed her to play better in another game against Steffi
at Wimbledon last July. Steffi commented after the game,
"Kimiko has greatly changed in the last three months."
I felt that Kimiko was full of confidence in her game with Arantxa
Sanchez Vicario at Atlanta, and believe that the cheering at the
Federation Cup was definitely a turning point and breakthrough in her
tennis career.
In the same way, I call for your great cheering for our software which
has just been put up on the AITEC Home Page. Of course, we need your
requests and comments to improve the new software, so please don't
hesitate to write us at: ifs@icot.or.jp.
We wish to develop the new software together with you in order to spread
it throughout the world just like judo.
We are looking forward to your participation in the KLIC Programming Contest.
Take care of yourself and see you in the next AITEC NEWS.
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* *
* A I T E C N E W S Issue #4 *
* AITEC NEWS Editorial Team: *
* Makiko Sato, Chie Takahashi, Akira Aiba *
* Hiroshi Sato, Shunichi Uchida *
* Issued: August 20, 1996 *
* By: Research Institute for Advanced Information *
* Technology (AITEC), a subcenter of *
* Japan Information Processing Development *
* Center (JIPDEC) *
* 2-3-3, Minato-ku, Shiba, Tokyo 105, Japan *
* Tel: 03-3456-3191 Fax: 03-3455-4877 *
* E-mail: aitec-news@icot.or.jp *
* *
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