tlug: 12/17/97 Artificial Intelligence

[drg <drg@example.com>]

  *** =============================================== ***med
***  Kansai Professional Computing Association News ***
*** =============================================== ***


RATE RESTRUCTURING
Membership and non-member meeting fees are going up in January 1998.

Join now at current 5000 yen membership rate and come to 1998 meetings free.
Join, renew, or extend your membership before the new year!
December   From Jan 1
Non-members fee (1 meeting)                      1,000 yen    2,000 yen
Membership (1 year, free entry to meetings)      5,000 yen    7,000 yen

DECEMBER PRESENTATION: Can machines think? Games and Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Dr. Ian Frank, Researcher, Electrotechnical Laboratory - Tsukuba
12/17/97-Wed, 6:45-9:00pm. Club KARMA's event hall, 5 minutes from Osaka JR.

What does it mean to be intelligent?
Gaming research has long been popular in Artificial Intelligence (AI).  In the 50's, the acceptance of the `Turing Test' focused attention on the mimicking of human behavior as a test of machine intelligence.  To pass this test, a computer must answer questions from a human interrogator in a way that makes it indistinguishable from a human responder.  Since this was beyond the capabilities of any practical fifties technology, attention was turned instead to easier problems such as simple, two-person games of strategy like chess and checkers.

Research on these games, and on chess in particular, has generated significant advances in computer science, as well as motivating cognitive studies into the ways that humans play games.  In checkers, a program called Chinook is now the strongest in the world.  In chess, the world champion Gary Kasparov famously lost his match against IBM's upgraded challenger, Deeper Blue.

Dr. Frank will talk about the progress of AI game-playing, giving an overview of the state of the art in a range of games, and covering some of the behind-the-scenes stories from human-computer matches.  He will also identify trends/developments of game-playing research.  In particular, he will talk about the game of Soccer, which presents a more dynamic, real-time, multi-player challenge for computers.  Mr. Frank will also talk about the commercial game industry and the impact games have on society and other fields of study. 

Ian Frank received a BSc in mathematics at Durham University before moving on to Artificial Intelligence for his MSc and PhD at Edinburgh.  His doctoral thesis on search and planning techniques for incomplete information games was a joint winner of the UK's annual Distinguished Dissertations Award in Computer Science.

He is currently half-way through a two-year contract at the Complex Games Lab of the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Tsukuba, where he works on computer Bridge and Soccer, and marvels that he can buy a Nintendo with laboratory funds.

PRICE: Through special arrangements with Club KARMA, the meeting fee is FREE for paid up annual members, others: 1000 yen(!). Drinks/food will be available starting at 300/600 yen.  Invite your friends!

NOVEMBER MEETING
Qunio Takashima, founder and President of Technology Interlink Management KK, spoke at the November meeting of the Kansai Professional Computing Association on the topic "Software Development Outsourcing to India".  The talk covered the past, present, and future of US to India outsourcing, as well as the Japanese perspective.

Since the opening of the Indian economy to foreign investment in 1991, India's software industry has logged a steady and healthy annual growth rate of around 50 percent.  Software exports earned US $1.2 billion during fiscal 1996-97 of which 90 percent is attributed to consulting services, projects, and turnkey assignments.  The next two years may bring even larger growth as India's software industry tries to grab part of the estimated US $1 trillion "Year 2000" market.

Why India?  The straightforward answer: first-world quality at nearly third-world prices.  India has a venerable tradition of excellence in mathematics and abstract thought.  And with a population nearing one billion, India is by far the world's largest English-speaking country. As such, technology transfer from the US to India (as compared with China, for example), has faced no insurmountable cultural or language barrier.  Indian programmers are well-versed in current trends such as C++, Java, client/server technology and the Internet.  Furthermore, due to the economic climate in India, the average Indian programmer demands a significantly lower salary than his Irish, Israeli or Singaporean counterpart.

It might seem that Japanese organizations might benefit just as well as US firms by outsourcing to India.   There are several reasons why this is not the case.  First and most significant is the language barrier between Japan and India.  Indian firms have little or no experience with Japanese 2-byte (Kanji) systems.  Mr. Takashima noted as well that there is an unfavorable time difference between Japan and India.  (The roughly 12 hour US/India time differential is considered ideal).  This led him to suggest that Japanese companies might do better to look towards China and other neighbors for their outsourcing projects.

Mr. Takashima went on to examine several outsourcing case studies, showing that for a medium-sized software project designed in the US and built in India, savings in the cost of coding, testing, and documentation can easily outweigh higher expenses in communication and project coordination.  One study showed a savings of 48 percent in final overall development costs.  Naturally, Indian programmers' salaries will rise as long as there is demand for their services. Nevertheless, according to Mr. Takashima, India can be expected to maintain a competitive advantage for at least a few more years.

Qunio Takashima received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Tokyo University before obtaining his Masters from MIT in Boston.  He influences opinion leaders and decision makers throughout the world, having spoken at the MIT Enterprise Forum, Japan India Venture Association Conference, India Summit, as well as events like Software Development Environment Seminar (formerly known as CASE Japan) on topics including "Technology Policy in the 90's" to "Status of Software Outsourcing from Japan to India".

OTHER:
RSA Conf 98 - San Francisco, Jan 14 to Jan 17 1998. URL for more info:

http://www.rsa.com

SPEAKERS SOUGHT! The KPCA is looking for speakers for future meetings. Come promote your pet project/product, your career. 

Email any/all response to:
Dennis Grass, KPCA-President

--------------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE PLEASE! FORM-med

__  I can probably attend on Wednesday, Dec. 17 (Artificial Intelligence)
__  Oops, I'm busy on the 17th. Please keep me informed of future events.
__  I can probably attend on Wednesday, Jan. 21
__  I can probably attend on Wednesday, Feb. 18
__  I can probably attend on Wednesday, March 18

__  Yes!  I am interested in speaking at a KPCA meeting.
My proposed topic:








--------------------------------------------------------------- TLUG Meeting Dec. 13, 12:30 at Tokyo station Yaesu Chuo ticket gate 13:30 Starbuck's coffee.  13:45 HSBC | info: joem@example.com At least 3 functional Sparc IPC machines will be raffled out --------------------------------------------------------------- a word from the sponsor: TWICS - Japan's First Public-Access Internet System www.twics.com  info@example.com  Tel:03-3351-5977  Fax:03-3353-6096