Symbolic Systems Forum - Dave Barker-Plummer, CSLI

Dave Barker-Plummer, "Heterogeneous Reasoning, Hyperproof and Playfair"

ABSTRACT:

Heterogeneous reasoning is the name that we have given to reasoning which involves information presented in mixed representational forms. Finding a route to a party using written instructions and a map of the area is an example of heterogeneous reasoning. In this talk I will discuss heterogeneous reasoning and why we think that it is important. I will demonstrate a computer program called Hyperproof, which implements a formalized system of heterogeneous natural deduction. The representation systems here are first-order logic, and pictures of a blocks world. Finally I will discuss Playfair, a package that we are currently working on which extends Hyperproof to use more and different representations. If time permits I will also talk about how the heterogeneous reasoning framework can be used to represent (non-deductive) design reasoning.

BIO:

Dave Barker-Plummer is a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information. Since 1995 he has managed the Openproof project's work on educational software for teaching logic at the undergraduate level. He has taught computer science and logic at Stanford, Swarthmore College and Duke University.