Professor Don Perlis Awarded AAAI Blue Sky Ideas Prize

Professor Don Perlis was awarded the 'Blue Sky Ideas Prize' at the thirtieth Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference that was held in Phoenix, Arizona from February 12-17, 2016.  He was recognized for his paper "Five Dimensions of Reasoning in the Wild."  

Perlis received the award from the Computing Community Consoritum (which is a part of the CRA).  According to the CCC, the award "seek[s] out papers that present ideas and visions that can stimulate the research community to pursue new directions."

Perlis also has appointments in UMIACS and the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science.

Abstract from "Five Dimensions of Reasoning in the Wild."

"Reasoning does not work well when done in isolation from its significance, both to the needs and interests of an agent and with respect to the wider world. Moreover, those issues may best be handled with a new sort of data structure that goes beyond the knowledge base and incorporates aspects of perceptual knowledge and even more, in which a kind of an-ticipatory action may be key."