[Computer-go] CFP: ICAPS 2011 Workshop on Monte-Carlo Tree Search

[Martin Mueller]

CALL FOR PAPERS
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Monte-Carlo Tree Search: Theory and Applications
ICAPS 2011 Workshop
http://icaps11.icaps-conference.org/workshops/mcts.html

Important Dates
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Submission deadline: February 11, 2011
Author notification: March 11, 2011
Camera-ready version: March 25th, 2011
Workshop date: June 12th or 13th, 2011

Background
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MCTS planners were developed to combat the curse of dimensionality in
large state spaces and appear to have a different portfolio of
strengths and weaknesses compared to traditional search methods. One
example of an algorithm in this class, Upper Confidence applied to
Trees (UCT), is credited with providing the foundations for new
human-competitive Go-playing programs.

The success in Go motivated further work on understanding the
theoretical properties of MCTS algorithms. The success of this class
of methods in real applications points towards the necessity of
developing a better understanding of the type of inputs for which
these algorithms perform well. The goal of this workshop is to
understand the techniques that led to the breakthroughs in computer
Go, leverage these gains in other domains and push forward the
theoretical understanding of this probabilistic planning framework.
The topics include (but are not limited to):

-MCTS planning in MDPs and POMDPs.
-MCTS planning in games (Go, RTS, etc.).
-Exploration and exploitation in MCTS algorithms.
-Bandit-algorithm foundations for MCTS.
-Integration of learning and planning.
-Representational aspects of MCTS algorithms.
-Theoretical foundations of MCTS.
-Open problems.
-Innovative applications of MCTS algorithms.

Submission
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Work still in-progress is welcomed to the workshop in the form of
position papers (which will be candidates for short, 5 minutes talks)
while full-fledged research papers will be considered for long, 20
minutes talks (see submission procedure for details). The length of
the papers should be 2 pages for position papers and 6 pages for
research papers (including references).

Organizing Committee
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Chris Mansley, Rutgers University
Alan Fern, Oregon State University
Sergiu Goschin, Rutgers University
Michael Littman, Rutgers University