Knowledge Representation & Reasoning

Research Staff

Academics: Prof Norman Foo (PhD, Michgan 1974), A/Prof Ron van der Meyden (PhD, Rutgers 1992), Dr. Maurice Pagnucco (PhD, Sydney 1996), Dr. Nandan Parameswaran (PhD, IIS Bangalore)

Researchers: Dr. Dongmo Zhang (PhD, Nanjing U. Aeronautics and Astronautics 1996), Dr. Samir Chopra (PhD, City University, New York 2000), Dr. Kaile Su (PhD, Nanjing 1995)

PG Research Students: 8

Visitors: Yoram Moses (Technion), Ramaswamy Ramamajan (Instit. for Math Sciences, Madras), Mark Reynolds (Murdoch), Mark Ryan (Birmingham)

Capability

The group conducts research in logic-based knowledge representation schemes and inference mechanisms, particularly with applications in cognitive robotics, distributed computing and multi-agent technology as motivations.

The key areas of work are:

• belief revision, merging of multi-sourced information
• non-monotonic reasoning and other aspects of commonsense inference
• logics of action
• multi-agent reasoning and planning
• approximate and diagrammatic reasoning
• modal logics of time, knowledge and belief
• logic programming
• trust management in distributed systems
• theory of distributed systems

Track Record (1997-2001)

Research Grants:

• ARC Special Investigator
  - Norman Foo $520,000
• ARC Large
  - Knowledge Based Programming of Distributed Systems $165,000
  - Proof Theory for Extensions of Temporal Logic (with Murdoch) $174,000
  - Large Model Checking Logics of Knowledge and Belief $163,000
• ARC Small
  - $49,500
• ARC IREX
  - $39,000

Journal Papers: 31

Refereed Conference Papers: 62

Consulting: Mainly academic advice for Asian universities

Collaboration: University of Toronto, Dresden Technical University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Cornell, Rice, Technion, Imperial College, Oxford, Korean Adv Instit for Science and Tech, Murdoch. We exchange academics and graduate students with these universities, and have supervised their theses students.

PhD Completions: 5

Miscellaneous:

• Ron van der Meyden is program leader for the Smart Personal Assistant Research Program in the CRC for Smart Internet Technology

Facilities:

The group works in the AI and Software Engineering Labs of the School of CSE, and is principally software-focussed. It tests ideas, algorithms and paradigms using standard architectures, machines and platforms.