*** Cancelled ***
New Methods for Preference Elicitation
*** Cancelled ***
As intelligent agents become more and more adept at making (or
recommending) decisions for users in various domains, the need for
effective methods for the representation, elicitation, and discovery
of preference and utility functions becomes more pressing. Deciding on
the best course of action for a user depends critically on that user's
preferences. While there has been much work on representing and
learning models of the world (e.g., system dynamics), there has been
comparatively little similar research with respect to preferences. The
need to reason about preferences arises in electronic commerce,
collaborative filtering, user interface design, task-oriented mobile
robotics, reinforcement learning, and many others. Many areas of
research bring interesting tools to the table that can be used to
tackle these issues: machine learning (classification, reinforcement
learning), decision theory and control theory (Markov decision
processes, filtering techniques), Bayesian networks and probabilistic
inferences, economics and game theory, among others. The aim of this
workshop is to bring together a diverse group of researchers to
discuss the both the practical and theoretical problems associated
with effective preference elicitation and to highlight avenues for
future research.
We would like as diverse an group of researchers and practitioners as
possible to participate in this 2-day NIPS workshop, held in
December 7-8 in Whistler, B.C.
We hope to have short talks and lots of discussion of important
issues. Note that sessions run from 7:30-10:30am and 4:00-7:00pm each
day. (And did we mention that Whistler has terrific skiing?)
Call for Participation
If you would like to participate, please email David Poole at poole@cs.ubc.ca either:
- An extended abstract describing research you would like to present
at the workshop. This should be approximately 3-6 (single column
Latex-style) pages. Abstracts outlining preliminary results are more
than welcome. Abstracts should preferably be in pdf format.
- A statement of interest for those who wish to participate in the
workshop, but not necessarily present a talk. This should be 1-2
(single column Latex-style) pages. Statements should preferably be
in pdf format.
The deadline for extended abstracts and statements of interest is
October 19.
Organizing Committee
Craig Boutilier (University of Toronto),
Holger Hoos (University of British Columbia),
David Poole
(University of British Columbia) (chair) and
Qiang Yang (Simon Fraser University).
Last updated 17 September 2001, David Poole, poole@cs.ubc.ca