Titolo: Machine Learning oriented Natural Language Processing

Docente:
Prof. Kiril Ribarov
Charles University, Praga

The course will include:

• general machine learning procedures
• comparative, more or less successful application of learning algorithms for NLP
• characteristics of natural languages, qualitative and quantitative
• Introduction of large span annotation, example the Prague Dependency Treebank
• Morphology and Parsing
• Several innovative approaches in NLP

Periodo: 30 marzo - 8 aprile 2005

Titolo: Semantic Foundations for Computer and Network Security

Docente:
Prof. Roberto Gorrieri
Univeristà di Bologna

Argomenti:
The course (20 hours) will be divided into two parts. In the first part, some notions about process algebras and Petri nets are presented in order to provide formal models for concurrent communicating systems. In the second part, such formalisms are used to study security properties of computer systems (information flow security) and network protocols (e.g., secrecy, authentication, integrity). The focus will be on the theory of non-interference, which is presented in full detail, as well as its extension to timed and probabilistic systems.

Periodo: 18-29 aprile 2005

Titolo: Parallel Computing in Combinatorial Optimization

Docente:
Prof. Bernard Gendron
University of Montreal

Objectives:
At the end of this course, the student will be familiar with the current research on the design of parallel algorithms and software tools for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Both heuristic and exact methods will be reviewed, including tabu search, simulated annealing, variable neighbourhood search, genetic algorithms, ant systems, branch-and-bound algorithms, and constraint programming methods. The implementation of these algorithms on various parallel and distributed computing systems will be studied, including shared-memory systems, message-passing environments, networks of heterogeneous workstations and grid computing environments. We will consider classical problems, such as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP), as well as difficult network design problems arising from applications in the fields of transportation and telecommunications.

Periodo:
The course will take place during 3 weeks (between June 9 and June 30, 2005). We plan to have two lessons of three hours each every week, except for the last week, where we could need an additional three hours (depending on the number of students registered) to allow each student to give a talk on a research paper.

Titolo: Categories and Computer Science

Docente:
Prof. Robert Walters
Universit�dellInsubria

Argomenti:
The course will cover a number of advanced topics in Category Theory, each topic illustrated with examples from Computer Science. The topics covered will include:

• Distributive and extensive categories
  Distributive law and the relation between parallel and sequential; hierarchy; well-behaved sums; the Fam construction; further exactness properties; adhesive categories and graph rewriting; elementary topoi; cartesian closed categories and higher order.
  
• Monoidal categories
  Symmetry and Yang-Baxter equations; sums and monoid morphisms; generic algebras (Frobenius, separable) in monoidal categories; syntax of cobordisms, finite functions, cospans of graphs; algebras of automata.
  
• Categories with feedback and trace
  Compact closed categories; the geometry of the tensor calculus; feedback and the universal property of automata; categories for discrete and continuous linear system theory; well-supported compact closed; span and cospan categories; classical problems of concurrency; partita doppia; coordination languages; traced monoidal categories and the Int construction.
  
• Enriched categories
  Free V-categories and the Kleene theorem; colimits in V-cat; Cospan(V-cat) and the behaviour of processes; quantales; Cauchy completeness.
  
• Bicategories
  Bicategories of relations, spans, profunctors; adjoint arrows in bicategories, spans and bisimulations; compositional model checking; monoidal bicategories and braiding; asynchronous circuits.
  
• Sheaf Theory
  Sheaves as variable sets; sheaves as enriched categories; presheaves as generalized graphs, data for building categories with structure; famillial representability; Kan extensions.
  
• Computational category theory
  Rewriting and distributive laws; Kan extensions and the Todd-Coxeter algorithm; Knuth-Bendix, Groebner bases.

Periodo: Giugno 2005

Titolo: Systems biology: modeling, analysis and simulation

Docente:
Prof. Corrado Priami
Università di Trento

Argomenti:
The course will show the connection between concurrent languages (through their process algebra semantics) and dynamic behaviour of biological systems. It turns out that the modelling, analysis and simulation techniques of concurrent programs are very suitable to model, analyse and simulate cell behaviour. The neat results of this cross-fertilization between computer science and biology could lead to improve the performance of biological research and could provide hints to further push ahead the development of formal methods in the concurrency field.

Periodo: 30 Maggio - 11 Giugno 2005

Titolo: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems

Prof. Frederico Oliveira-Pinto
Universidade Independente
Lisbona

Argomenti:
A comparative study of discrete and continuous dynamical systems and of their stability.

Contenuti:

Discrete systems:
- Introduction
- Recurrence & difference equations
- General solutions of discrete systems
- Equilibrium values
- Dynamical stability
- Examples of linear systems with exponential growth and known general solutions
- Analytical solutions of discrete linear versus continuous linear growth models
- Quadratic dynamical systems
- Discrete quadratic versus logistic systems
- Closed-form solutions for discrete quadratic and discrete cubic dynamical systems with "chaotic" behaviour
- Study of their intrinsic instability


Continuous systems:
- Volterra-type predator-prey systems
- Military fighting models


Bibliography and additional reading:

1. G. Fulford & altri - "Modelling with differential and difference equations", Cambridge University Press, 1997.
2. R.A. Holmgren - "A first course in Discrete Dynamical Systems", (2 Ed.), Springer, 1996.
3. F. Oliveira-Pinto & M. Adibpour - "Analitical solutions of one- dimensional Discrete Dynamical Systems with "chaotic" behaviour", Non-linear Dynamics, 1 (1990) p 121-129.
4. F.Oliveira-Pinto & B.W. Conolly - "Applicable Mathematics of non-physical phenomena, Ellis Horwood, Chicherter, a Division of I Wiley & Sons, 1982.
5. IT. Sandefur -"Discrete Dynamical Systems, Theory and Applications, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990.

Periodo: 6 Ottobre - 21 Ottobre 2005