AITEC NEWS No.9
 |
June 5, 1997 |
Issue #9
(issued on Apr.23,1997 in Japanese) |
The cherry blossom season has now finished and we can now enjoy the beautiful
new leaves on the trees in town.
The new fiscal year began in April, and those who started their new jobs are
gradually adjusting to their new environment.
At AITEC, we began our third fiscal year here by welcoming some new staff.
Over the last year, we've been busy drafting plans which will enable us to
successfully cope with virtually any contingency, and we intend to make this
fiscal year even more of a success than our last.
Here are the headlines for this issue, AITEC NEWS No. 9.
(Chie Takahashi)
1. Greetings from Director Uchida for FY 1997
Director Shunichi Uchida will convey his greetings as we begin FY 1997.
He will highlight our accomplishments in FY 1996 and our plans for FY 1997.
(Article No. 9-1)
2. Workshop on "Research Funding Program FY 1996"
The workshop on the "Research Funding Program FY 1996" was held in Tokyo on
Tuesday, March 4th, and Wednesday March 5th.
This was the second workshop since the initial one in 1995, and was even more
interesting than last year's. Dr. Aiba, the AITEC principal researcher, will
discuss it.
(Article No.9-2)
3. Reunion of former ICOT Staff
It is over two years since ICOT was disbanded after the conclusion of the FGCS
project. On April 18th, at the Tokyo Station Hotel, the ICOT administrative
committee members, who were responsible for coordination between ICOT and its
eight member firms gathered once again. This meeting was organized by
Mr. Kitamura, director of the administrative division of ICOT, and
Mr. Okazaki (NEC) who was past chair of the ICOT administrative committee.
During the FGCS project, committee members cooperated to solve many problems
which arose between ICOT and their own companies, such as organizing human
resources, arranging for the funding of re-contracted projects and dealing
with account audits.
ICOT requested that its member firms provide younger experts--under 35 years
old--to serve as ICOT research members and also requested that they be
employed in leading edge research projects at the firms. This meant that
committee members often had to conduct difficult negotiations in order to
comply with these requests.
They devoted themselves completely to ICOT, and worked flat-out to fulfill
their ambition to develop the world's newest computer. In addition, due to
their efforts, the wind-up of ICOT (as well as the FGCS project), and the
launch of the IFS dissemination project went without a hitch.
On the day of the reunion, it was reported that, as with other related
activities at AITEC, the IFS dissemination was flawless. A reception party
followed afterwards. Dr. Fuchi (the ex-director at ICOT), Dr. Uchida
(the ex-manager of the research division) and other administrative staff
attended--there was much discussion and reminiscing about ICOT.
(Shunichi Uchida - No Referenced Article)
1. Greetings for FY 1997--Dr. Shunichi Uchida, Director
At the beginning of FY 1997, I imagine that you are all preparing for the new
fiscal year after completing last year's business.
It is almost a year and a half since AITEC was set up as a part of JIPDEC
(the Japan Information Processing Development Center) on October 1st, 1995.
We have just begun our third fiscal year as of this April.
As AITEC was started in October, we were only active in the latter half of
FY 1995. Accordingly, FY 1996 was the first full fiscal year when AITEC was
able to fully participate in both the department of FGCS Technology and the
department of Future Technology Studies.
Since FY 1995, the FGCS Technology department has continued with the following
two activities:
- Distribution of IFS
- A Research Funding Program to extend IFS for academic researchers
interested in IFS and related software
In the Research Funding Program, we select from solicited project themes at
the end of each fiscal year on the basis of our "open and competitive"
philosophy, and exchange existing projects for new projects dependent on the
results of their evaluation. Thus, we continually strive to build systems in
which excellent software are efficiently developed and distributed.
A `generation exchange' of sorts has gradually enabled younger members to
participate in the Research Funding Program. In FY 1997, 27 groups have been
funded. There were fewer ICOT-OBs in the group. Graduate students who did not
join ICOT or FGCS comprise the cores of the research projects. They will soon
be able to create powerful research groups of their own in the artificial
intelligence software field in Japan.
We also identify existing problems facing the construction of such systems
based on a spirit of "open and competition."
In the first KLIC programming contest, we were impressed to find that many
proficient programmers applied with well thought-out KL1 programs despite
being hampered by insufficient programming environments.
We would like to continue to solicit research funding for various projects,
aimed at improving software technology in Japan, and also organize another
KLIC programming contest, although this will depend on the budget in FY 1997.
At the department of Future Technology Studies (FTS), five principal
researchers have joined us from March to June, 1997 and yet another joined
this year. Six researchers are working on investigation and evaluation of new
software, new computer architecture technologies, and in analysis of various
Japanese national projects aimed at improving Japanese competitiveness in
these technologies.
In the course of this work, we are comparing Japanese advanced information
technology projects to ones in the US to study differences between them, in
both framework and actual implementation. Through this comparison and analysis
we are seeking a more efficient framework for, and implementation of, Japanese
national projects, which can then be offered to MITI and Japanese
manufacturers.
In FY 1997, we set up two working groups: the Petaflops Machine Technology
Working Group (PFM-WG) and the Network & AI Working Group (NAI-WG) for
advanced information technology research.
The PFM-WG has mainly surveyed massively parallel machine projects such as
petaflops machine projects and the ASCI project in the US as well as
activities for software development for these parallel machines. We learned
that the ASCI project had, in fact, built a machine with 9000 Intel Pentium
processors.
During the course of the FGCS project at ICOT, we developed PIM/p with 512
logic machines and PIM/m with 256 of the same machines; we also developed both
their OS as well as application software. Based on this experience, we can
well imagine the level of very high-technology and superb know-how required to
develop (and smoothly operate) parallel machines having 9000 processor
elements. We believe that these developments will allow the US to reap
substantial technological benefits.
To develop a petaflops machine, it will be required to develop parallel
machines with hundreds of thousands or even millions of inter-connected
processors. Considering the technology available in Japan, we discussed what
types of breakthroughs would be needed to make petaflops machines
a reality--we believe that these machines, now only a dream, may become
a reality in as little as 15 years.
The NAI-WG carried out research and held discussions on a variety of current
software technologies, for example, multi-modal interfaces using AI
technology, agent oriented programming, distributed databases based on open
networks, and application technologies such as digital libraries.
In addition, we have set up another working group to analyze Japanese R & D
systems in the IT field (Comp-WG). This working group will assess Japanese
competitiveness in software technology. Comp-WG will also prepare preliminary
reports for discussions on competitiveness for MITI.
In its assessment of Japanese IT, Comp-WG focused on some US government
funding systems, learned how they were organized, and served to encourage the
creation of markets.
After isolating some important features of the US systems, we compared these
to those used in Japanese national projects. We learned that in the US,
several funding agencies and research groups (including universities) are
searching for appropriate partners, depending on funding conditions and
fields of research. Usually, as a result of funding agency research field
overlap, any number of similar projects may be funded and compete with each
other.
On the other hand, in Japan, the nucleus of technology has often been taken
from other countries, resulting in a "catch-up" situation. Thus, competition
based on an "open and competitive" model framework has not developed
sufficiently among either manufacturers or universities. However, in recent
network software development, for example, successful software development
will hinge on the speed of a number of decision-making processes. In addition
to this, rapid distribution to end-users is essential to judge whether
end-users, (or in other words, the market), will select this software from
among several competitors. To win this competition for market share, rapid
improvements and better sales policies have to be developed before our
competitors. As far as software development is concerned, this "open and
competitive" model does not currently exist in Japan.
This is the point, therefore, that we must discuss with respect to software
development in Japan. There are many other systemic problems which may
prevent Japan from advancing in software development. We have discussed and
evaluated some of these problems at the Comp-WG. In FY 1997, we plan to
examine solutions to some of the above problems in Japan.
In FY 1997, the FTS department plans to continue the three above working
groups. A report of their accomplishments in FY 1996 will be published on the
AITEC Homepage. We hope that this information will be of assistance to you in
your business activities.
Finally, I would like to express our appreciation to those people who
supported our activities in FY 1996; I look forward to collaborating with you
again in FY 1997. Please be sure to send us your comments, should you read
our WG reports on the WWW.
2. Workshop on the Research Funding Program FY 1996
As we announced in AITEC NEWS No. 8, a workshop on the "Research Funding
Program FY 1996" was held on March 4th and 5th, 1997 at the Shiba My Plaza
in Tokyo.
We had a total of 163 participants at this workshop, including researchers
from 26 universities and other institutions, who participated in 27 projects.
These participants even included some AITEC NEWS readers.
At first, Dr. Fuchi (chairperson of the program committee) and Dr. Uchida
(Director of AITEC) greeted the participants, and introduced the workshop.
Following this was each of this year's 27 research presentations.
This year, each project was presented in a 25-minute timeframe, and the use
of multi-media tools such as personal computers and videos was encouraged by
AITEC. Some of the presenters made use of some of these presentation tools,
particularly the WWW browser and videos.
An audience of between 40-50 people listened to these workshop presentations
and participated in lively discussions on each project.
There were presentations on a variety of common themes based on "parallel
knowledge processing", such as implementations of logic programming
languages, natural language processing, genetic information processing,
robotic systems and so on. I was impressed that researchers exchanged their
ideas on parallel knowledge processing (frequently straying outside their
different research specialties) at this workshop. It was my great pleasure to
support such an important occasion where researchers were able to meet and
carry on such exchanges. I believe AITEC should continue to support this.
Mr. Ogawa (director of the FGCS department) made the closing remarks
concluding the workshop for FY 1996.
We are introducing various contract projects for FY 1996 on our homepage, at
the following URL:
http://www.icot.or.jp/AITEC/FGCS/funding/main-E.html
Further, the software from these projects will also soon be made available on
the AITEC Homepage. Please feel free to try this software, and please don't
hesitate to send us your comments and suggestions after doing so.
We plan to continue the Research Funding Program and hold related workshops
for as long as possible. For FY 1997, program details will be announced in
a special newsletter, as well as on the AITEC homepage.
Please write to aiba@icot.or.jp, if you are interested in this program.
(Tel: +81-3-3456-3191)
We are looking forward to your participation.
--The programs of the workshop---
March 4(Tue)
Opening Session 10:10-10:30
10:10-10:20 Opening: Dr. Fuchi - Chairperson of Program Committee
10:20-10:30 Introduction:Dr. Uchida - AITEC Director
Session 1: 10:30 -12:10
10:30-10:55 "A Declarative 3-D Algorithm Animation System based on KL/1"
MATSUOKA Satoshi: Tokyo Institute of Technology
10:55-11:20 "A Pattern-Oriented Visual Parallel Programming Environment"
SHIBAYAMA Etsuya: Tokyo Institute of Technology
11:20-11:45 "Research on Visual Interface of KLIC"
TANAKA Jiro: University of Tsukuba
11:45-12:10 "A Proof Assistant with Commutative Diagram Interface"
SAKAI Ko: University of Tsukuba (ksakai@math.tsukuba.ac.jp)
Session 2: 13:10-14:50
13:10-13:35 "A Study on Parallel Robust Parsing based on GLR Algorithm"
KUNIFUJI Susumu:
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
13:35-14:00 "A Controlled Linguistic Model and its Application to
Intelligent Natural Language Processing"
NOMURA Hirosato: Kyushu Institute of Technology
14:00-14:25 "A System for Evaluating Linguistic Resources"
MATSUMOTO Yuji: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
14:25-14:50 "A Proposed Framework of LTB Japanese Grammar and Implementing
its Rules"
SANO Hiroshi: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Session 3: 15:10 -17:15
15:10-15:35 "Parallelization of PROGOL in KL1"
FURUKAWA Koichi: Keio University
15:35-16:00 "Design and Implementation of Concept Learning System
using Concurrent Logic Language KLIC"
ITO Takayasu: Tohoku University
16:00-16:25 "A Parallel Abductive Reasoning System"
ITO Hidenori: Nagoya Institute of Technology
16:25-16:50 "Fast Hypothetical Reasoing System"
ISHIZUKA Mitsuru: University of Tokyo
16:50-17:15 "Study on Strategy Acquisition in Tsume-shogi"
ITO Hidenori: Nagoya Institute of Technology
March 5(Wed)
Session 4: 10:00 -12:05
10:00-10:25 "An Optimization Technique of Efficient Goal Scheduling
for KL1 Programs"
NAKASHIMA Hiroshi: Kyoto University
10:25-10:50 "Improving the Runtime System of KLIC"
CHIKAYAMA Takashi: The University of Tokyo
10:50-11:15 "KL1 Programming Support System"
UEDA Kazunori: Waseda University
11:15-11:40 "An Implementation of a Parallel Active Database System in KLIC"
YOKOTA Haruo: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology
11:40-12:05 "Design of Multi-Agent Type Robot Language/System"
MIZOGUCHI Fumio: Science University of Tokyo
Session 5: 13:10 -15:15
13:10-13:35 "Development of an MGTP System on KLIC"
HASEGAWA Ryuzo: Kyushu University
13:35-14:00 "Extended Features of a Deductive Object-Oriented
Database Language Quixote for Practical Use"
YOKOTA Kazumasa: Kyoto University
14:00-14:25 "A Parallel Multilayer-Channel Router in CMGTP"
Neng-Fa Zhou: Kyushu Institute of Technology
14:25-14:50 "Set Constraint Solvers"
SATO Yousuke: Ritsumeikan University
14:50-15:15 "Development of Abductive Logic Programming Systems"
INOUE Katsumi: Toyohashi University of Technology
Session 6: 15:30-17:10
15:30-15:55 "Application of Parallel Logic Programming for Reconstruction of
Molecular Phylogenetic Trees using the Maximum Likelihood
Method"
SAITO Naruya: National Institute of Genetics,
Laboratory of Evolutionaly Genetics
15:55-16:20 "A Study on Legal Reasoning based on Goal-Dependent Abstraction"
HARAGUCHI Makoto: Hokkaido University
16:20-16:45 "Legal Reasoning with Situation Variable"
TOJO Satoshi:Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
16:45-17:10 "A Programming System for Statistical Modeling"
SATO Taisuke :Tokyo Institute of Technology
Closing Session: 17:10-17:30
17:10-17:20 "Prospect for FY1997" (Dr. Akira Aiba, Principal Researcher)
17:20-17:30 Closing (Mr. Ogawa, Manager of Dept. of FGCS)
Reception: 17:40-19:00
(Akira Aiba)
We hope you enjoyed AITEC NEWS No. 9.
In FY 1997, AITEC will carry out essentially the same activities as last
year, with the addition of a number of challenging new things, which we
invite you to participate in.
We will announce our updated plans and activities in the AITEC NEWS, so
please keep watching our newsletter in FY 1997.
If you know anyone who might wish to subscribe to the AITEC NEWS, or if you
have changed your email address, please let us know. Please also feel free to
send your comments, opinions and requests to the following address:
aitec-news@icot.or.jp
See you in the AITEC NEWS No.10.
**********************************************************************
* *
* A I T E C N E W S Issue #9 *
* AITEC NEWS Editorial Team: *
* Makiko Sato, Chie Takahashi, Akira Aiba *
* Hiroshi Sato, Shunichi Uchida *
* AITEC NEWS English Version Team *
* Masayo Fukushima, Shunichi Uchida *
* Issued on: April 23, 1997(Japanese Version) *
* June 3, 1997(English Version) *
* 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: +81-3-3456-3191 Fax: +81-3-3455-4877 *
* E-mail: aitec-news@icot.or.jp *
* http://www.icot.or.jp *
* *
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