International Collaboration Program


For the development, dissemination, and discussion of the ideas of Linguistic Geometry, and the following application to various practical problems, Professor Stilman is running an INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM of presentations, tutorials, and symposiums w hich resulted in the international collaboration of researchers and practitioners on topics related to Linguistic Geometry. Last year, 1995, was very productive for this PROGRAM. A list of invited extended presentations on LG around the world in 1995 incl udes 14 invitations from 9 countries. Also, in 1995, Dr. Stilman received a number of awards to support his scientific travels: from France, Venezuela, Spain, UK, two awards - from Australia, one - from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and one substantia l Faculty Grant Award - from the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD). The College of Engineering and Applied Science at UCD in recognition of his research awarded him title of the Researcher of the Year (94-95).

A number of invited presentations around the world, in particular in the USA, Germany, Australia, Czech Republic, Russia, etc., have already been scheduled for 1996 and 1997.

In February of 1995, Dr. Stilman traveled to Puerto Rico where he chaired the First Symposium on Linguistic Geometry and Semantic Control, which he organized within the framework of the World Congress on Intelligent Manufacturing together with r esearchers from the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Cornell University, Ithaca, and the Center for Optimization and Semantic Control at Washington University, St. Louis. Currently, the Linguistic Geometry team has been expanded. Now it also include s groups from the Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Phillips Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM. Three other institutions, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, the Center for Advanced Robotics and Automation at th e University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Processes Control of the St. Petersburg University, Russia, are also interested in the joint research efforts.

The Center for Optimization and Semantic Control at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, directed by Professor Ervin Rodin, is involved in the development of the new discipline called Semantic Control (SC). Semantic Control deals with the synthesi s of solutions to control problems that do not lend themselves to formulation and analysis via classical methodologies. They are mostly of defense nature in the form of multiagent pursuit-evasion games. Common to all is the use of a multi-disciplinary app roach, using systems theory, artificial intelligence, operations research and computational methods. Researchers of this Center consider Linguistic Geometry as one of the most worthwhile tools to attack problems in Semantic Control. In fact, they invited Dr. Stilman to St. Louis to teach an advanced short course on LG. Professor Rodin as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Computers and Mathematics with Applications invited him to submit papers on LG to this journal. To date, five substantial papers on LG have been published (or accepted for publication) in this journal. Researchers of this Center served as co-organizers and active contributors of the Symposium on LG & SC.

The Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI) at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, directed by Professor Anil Nerode, is involved in various research projects. As a result of the collaboration with Dr. Vladimir Yakhnis and Dr. Alex Yakhnis (they are curr ently with Sandia Nat'l Laboratories) it is expected to extend the application domain of LG to the area of verification of concurrent systems such as parallel programs and to the operating systems supporting persistent truly concurrent objects. It is also expected that LG would have extensive applications to the Hybrid Systems, being developed at MSI. This collaboration will generate a new, deeper understanding of the Foundations of LG, and, eventually, will explain theoretically the efficiency of LG app lications.
The Center for Automation and Robotics at the University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom, directed by Professor D. T. Pham, is involved in various major robotics projects. Researchers from Cardiff are interested in the collaboration in applicatio n of LG to Robotics. Professor Pham as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Systems Engineering invited Dr. Stilman to submit a paper about Concurrent Agents in LG to his journal. Also, they invited him come to Cardiff to give a 4-hour Tutorial on applicatio ns of LG to Robotics. The Tutorial that Professor Stilman taught in Cardiff in September of 1995 was a success. It resulted in highly productive discussions that significantly advanced research on LG.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD, does not require special introduction. Professor Stilman presented the LG approach in May 1994, at this Center at the 1994 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of AI. The Fall, 1994 specia l issue of the journal "Telematics and Informatics" contains selected papers from this conference. The guest editor for this issue, Mr. James Rash from GSFC, distinguished two papers in his Guest Editor's Note, one of which happens to be a paper on LG. He wrote: "I would like to also draw your attention to the paper by Boris Stilman, entitled "Heuristic Networks for Space Exploration" (page 403), as an example of a particularly enticing application of AI (within my own understanding of the term). This pap er presents "linguistic geometry" as an efficient method for searching large solution spaces with respect of problems that are known to be especially difficult, and applies the method to the problem of autonomous robot navigation planning". In 1995 Dr. St ilman was invited to submit a paper and teach a 4-hour Tutorial on LG at the 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of AI. This resulted in expansion of collaborative efforts. In particular, Mr. Rash proposed to be an Editor of the book on LG.

The U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM, is well known on its R&D on military and civilian space crafts. In the spring of 1995, Professor Stilman received a Faculty Associateship Award ($14K) from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and, during the summer of 1995, he worked on applications of Linguistic Geometry to aerospace problems at Phillips Lab in Albuquerque, NM. Specifically, he consulted development of a software prototype int ended for control of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (guided by the satellite based sensors) in order to detect and destroy adversarial mobile missile launchers. While in Albuquerque, Professor Stilman gave a number of presentations and taught a tutor ial to the joint audience of researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, Phillips Lab, and University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Sandia National Laboratories, a big name on the map of the USA, is currently involved in the development of a number of the most ambitious research projects, nationally and internationally. Extended discussions after my presentations showed that re searchers at Sandia are very interested in collaboration in the development of various applications of LG. Specifically, they are working on methodology and software tools for the development of the High Integrity Software. A set of tools should pr ovide an automated and/or computer-assisted generation of the mathematically proved software beginning from specifications through the whole life cycle including maintenance. The LG approach will support "mathematical proofs" for the large-scale problems which are practically intractable employing classic approaches. An advanced research group from Command and Control Software Department managed by Mr. Larry Dalton is currently developing LG applications. In December of 1995, Dr. Stilman's substantial research grant proposal "Linguistic Geometry: Theory and Applications" ($217K for 3 years) was awarded at Sandia.

In July of 1995, the Colorado Advanced Software Institute awarded Dr. Stilman's joint (with Dr. W. Wolfe) research proposal ($34K for one year) on application of LG to the development of "Next Generation Factory Planning and Scheduling Algorithms".