2024-25   /   CoDesign @ Ten

|   2024 - 2025   |

   TRAINING SCHOOL (2024)   >   REPRESENTATION MEDIATED MULTIMODALITY
EU COST ACTION Multi3Generation  /  @University of Malta, Malta - Jan 30 to Feb 2 2024   

   WORKSHOP (2025)   >   ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITION
Europe (venue and dates to be confirmed)   

   TUTORIAL (2025)   >   COGNITIVE VISION  /  NEUROSYMBOLIC VISUAL COMMONSENSE
Cape Town, South Africa (as part of CAPE-KR 2025)   

   (MULTI-YEAR) SPECIAL TRACK   >   HUMAN-CENTRED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). 1st Track: IJCAI 2024, Jeju Aug 3-9 2024   
International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). 2nd Track: IJCAI 2025, Montreal Aug 16-27 2025   

   INSTITUTE 2024   >   ARTIFICIAL AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
@Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany - Sep 22-27 2024   

The training school on ``Representation Mediated Multimodality'' provides a consolidated perspective on the theoretical, methodological, and applied understanding of representation mediated multimodal sensemaking at the interface of language, knowledge representation and reasoning, and visuo-auditory computing. Intended purposes -addressed in the school- encompass diverse operative needs such as explainable multimodal commonsense understanding, multimodal generation/synthesis for communication, multimodal summarisation, multimodal interpretation guided decision-support, adaptation & autonomy, and analytical visualisation.

At the heart of the thematic focus of the school are the themes of grounding and grounded meaning-making:

linguistic expressions and/or relational categorisations are called grounded when they are linked to non-linguistic, especially quantitative perceptual data, such as information coming from modalities such as vision and audition in space-time. Such perceptual data could pertain to, for instance, dynamic spatio-temporal phenomena both in an embodied as well as disembodied interaction context. Grounding is in essence a key aspect of semiotic construction, e.g., enabling high-level meaning acquisition, analogy, and has been a long-standing challenge in Artificial Intelligence and related disciplines.

The training school particularly consolidates and presents a novel and emerging view of state-of-the-art multimodal, neurosymbolic grounding primarily through a confluence of methods in Artficial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Vision, Speech and their impact on interactional and communicative acts/artefacts in everyday life and specialist professional work. Here, multimodal interpretation is to be construed in the context of diverse forms of imagery, e.g., encompassing perceptual and communicative data sources such as image, video, language, audition, text, eye-tracking, neurophysiological markers in behavioural / clinical settings.
In this backdrop, the training school particularly focusses on grounded knowledge representation, reasoning, and learning (for linguistic purposes) through the following emerging research-driven themes that are of high interest:

• Space and Language
• Computational Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Cognitive Vision
• Vision and Language
• Neurosymbolism
• Narrative - Discourse
• Computational Models of Narrative
• Speech and Language Technologies
• Human-Centred AI

The principal training school programme --consisting of keynotes, invited talks, and tutorials-- will categorically address questions such as:

• Explainability and transparency in multimodal models
• Neurosymbolism / Interaction between symbolic & sub-symbolic representations in models
• Commonsense knowledge representation and reasoning, and its role in multimodal models
• Complementarity / redundancy among data sources or modalities
• Situated reasoning, e.g., for language generation, decision-making

   TRAINING SCHOOL   >   REPRESENTATION MEDIATED MULTIMODALITY
EU COST ACTION Multi3Generation  /  @University of Malta, Malta - Jan 30 - Feb 2 2024.  /  JOIN US!   

We present recent and emerging advances in computational cognitive vision addressing artificial visual and spatial intelligence at the interface of (spatial) language, (spatial) logic and (spatial) cognition research. With a primary focus on explainable sensemaking of dynamic visuospatial imagery, we highlight the (systematic and modular) integration of methods from knowledge representation and reasoning, computer vision, spatial informatics, and computational cognitive modelling. A key emphasis here is on generalised (declarative) neurosymbolic reasoning & learning about space, motion, actions, and events relevant to embodied multimodal interaction under ecologically valid naturalistic settings in everyday life. Practically, this translates to general-purpose mechanisms for computational visual commonsense encompassing capabilities such as (neurosymbolic) semantic question-answering, relational spatio-temporal learning, (non-monotonic) visual abduction etc.

The presented work is motivated by and demonstrated in the applied backdrop of areas as diverse as autonomous driving, cognitive robotics, design of digital visuoauditory media, and behavioural visual perception research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. More broadly, our emerging work is driven by an interdisciplinary research mindset addressing human-centred responsible AI through a methodological confluence of AI, Vision, Psychology, and (human-factors centred) Interaction Design.

   Cape Town, South Africa - Feb 2025   

IJCAI, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence Series, is the premier international gathering of researchers in AI. The 33rd edition of IJCAI in 2024 is to be held during August 3-9 2024 in Jeju (South Korea). The 34th edition of IJCAI in 2025 is to be held during August 16-27 in Montreal (Canada).

• recognise and articulate a nuanced view of computational intelligence in relation to the depth, diversity and multi-faceted nature of `human intelligence’ in naturalistic real-world problem solving, or in everyday human activity contexts.


• concretely address the practical `design implications’ emanating from the (human-centric) cognitive, social, ethical and legal dimensions driving AI and ML method development. By design, implied are questions pertaining to the human-centric engineering, deployment, usability, evaluation, and standardisation of AI/ML techniques.

Insitute 2024 on Artificial and Human Intelligence will held during September 22 - 27 2024 at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

• formal and computational foundations of next-generation AI and cognitive technologies with a principal emphasis on human-centred knowledge representation, semantics, commonsense reasoning, and integration of reasoning & learning. A key focus is reasoning & learning about space, action and motion in human-scale embodied multimodal interactions.
• behavioural research in cognitive science & psychology and neuroscience aimed at investigating human intelligence from the viewpoints of embodiment, multimodal interaction, and visuospatial thinking. Special emphasis is on aspects pertaining to visual perception, high-level event perception, inattention blindness, perception of motion, and narrative-based perceptual sensemaking.