[SMT-LIB] [ICCMA'17] Call for Solvers

[Marco Maratea]

==========================================================================
2nd International Competition on Computational Models of Argumentation 
                          (ICCMA'17)

                       Call for Solvers

               http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/iccma17
==========================================================================

Argumentation is a major topic in the study of artificial intelligence.
In particular, the problem of solving certain reasoning tasks on Dung's
abstract argumentation frameworks is central to many advanced
argumentation systems. The fact that problems to be solved are
intractable requires efficient algorithms and solvers.

The objectives of the competition are to provide a forum for empirical 
comparison of solvers, to highlight challenges to the community, to
propose new directions for research and to provide a core of common
benchmark instances and a representation formalism that can aid in the
comparison and evaluation of solvers.

The Second International Competition on Computational Models of
Argumentation (ICCMA'17) will be conducted in the first half of 2017.
ICCMA'17 will focus on reasoning tasks in abstract argumentation
frameworks. Submitted solvers will be tested on a selected collection of
benchmark instances (see Call for Benchmarks:
http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/iccma17/calls/benchmarks.txt).

Solvers will be evaluated based on their performance in solving the
following problems:

(SE) Given an abstract argumentation framework, determine some extension
(EE) Given an abstract argumentation framework, determine all extensions
(DC) Given an abstract argumentation framework and some argument, decide
whether the given argument is credulously inferred
(DS) Given an abstract argumentation framework and some argument, decide
whether the given argument is skeptically inferred

The above computational problems are to be solved with respect to the
following standard semantics:

(CO)  Complete Semantics
(PR)  Preferred Semantics
(ST)  Stable Semantics
(SST) Semi-stable Semantics
(STG) Stage Semantics
(GR)  Grounded Semantics (only (SE) and (DC))
(ID)  Ideal Semantics (only (SE) and (DC))

A task is a problem under a semantics. The tasks of a particular
semantics constitute a track. In addition to these seven main tracks, a
special track will be conducted:

Dung's Triathlon: Given an abstract argumentation framework, determine
all extensions under grounded, stable,  and preferred semantics,
respectively, at once.

Developers of solvers may decide to only provide support for a subset of
the above computational tasks and/or tracks. For each task and each
(special) track we will provide a ranking of the performance of the
submitted solvers. Awards go to the winners of tracks. Detailed
evaluation and ranking rules can be found at
http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/iccma17/rules.html.

Input and output format are adapted from the last edition and detailed
at 
http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/iccma17/SolverRequirements.pdf.

The evaluation process will consist of two phases: Initially, the
competitors will be given a set of representative AFs to test their
solvers on their own machines. Then, they will submit a final version of
the source code of their solvers that will be run by the organizers on
the actual competition benchmarks (unknown to the competitors until this
time). This way no fine-tuning of the solvers will be possible.

All competitors must submit a 2-page paper describing their solvers. The
system descriptions will be published on the competition web site.

Registration
------------
Potential participants are invited to send a mail to
iccma17 at dbai.tuwien.ac.at. 
The mail should indicate name and affiliations of each team member, name
of the solver and the tasks that the solver will be able to handle (a
complete list can be found at
http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/iccma17/participation.html).

Schedule
--------
The preliminary schedule of the competition activities goes as follows:

- Jan 15, 2017: Declaration of intent by participants
- Mar 15, 2017: Submission of solvers
- Apr 15, 2017: Submission of system descriptions
- Aug, 2017:    Presentation of results at TAFA'17

Possible additional (intermediate) deadlines will be communicated to the
registered participants by the organizers.


We are looking forward to an exciting competition!

Contact
-------
iccma17 at dbai.tuwien.ac.at

Organizers
----------
Sarah A. Gaggl, Computational Logic Group, TU Dresden, Germany
Thomas Linsbichler, Institute of Information Systems, TU Wien, Austria
Marco Maratea, DIBRIS, University of Genoa, Italy
Stefan Woltran, Institute of Information Systems, TU Wien, Austria

The ICCMA steering committee
----------------------------
Federico Cerutti, School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff
University, UK
Sarah A. Gaggl, Computational Logic Group, TU Dresden, Germany
Nir Oren, Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, UK
Hannes Strass, Computer Science Institute, Leipzig University, Germany
Matthias Thimm, Institute for Web Science and Technologies, University
of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Mauro Vallati, School of Computing and Engineering, University of
Huddersfield, UK
Serena Villata, WIMMICS Research Team, INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France