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Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems. IPMU 2020
We are very pleased to present you with the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2020), held during June 15–19, 2020. The conference was scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, located in a vibrant renovated area 10 minutes from downtown. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel restrictions around the globe, the Organizing Committee made the decision to make IPMU 2020 a virtual conference taking place as scheduled. The IPMU conference is organized every two years. Its aim is to bring together scientists working on methods for the management of uncertainty and aggregation of information in intelligent systems. Since 1986, the IPMU conference has been providing a forum for the exchange of ideas between theoreticians and practitioners working in these areas and related fields. In addition to many contributed scientific papers, the conference has attracted prominent plenary speakers, including the Nobel Prize winners Kenneth Arrow, Daniel Kahneman, and Ilya Prigogine. A very important feature of the conference is the presentation of the Kampé de Fériet Award for outstanding contributions to the field of uncertainty and management of uncertainty. Past winners of this prestigious award are Lotfi A. Zadeh (1992), Ilya Prigogine (1994), Toshiro Terano (1996), Kenneth Arrow (1998), Richard Jeffrey (2000), Arthur Dempster (2002), Janos Aczel (2004), Daniel Kahneman (2006), Enric Trillas (2008), James Bezdek (2010), Michio Sugeno (2012), Vladimir N. Vapnik (2014), Joseph Y. Halpern (2016), and Glenn Shafer (2018). This year, the recipient of the Kampé de Fériet Award is Barbara Tversky. Congratulations! The IPMU 2020 conference offers a versatile and comprehensive scientific program. There were four invited talks given by distinguished researchers: Barbara Tversky (Stanford University and Columbia University, USA), Luísa Coheur (Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal), Jim Keller (University of Missouri, USA), and Björn Schuller (Imperial College London, UK). A special tribute was organized to celebrate the life and achievements of Enrique Ruspini who passed away last year. He was one of the fuzzy-logic pioneers and researchers who contributed enormously to the fuzzy sets and systems body of knowledge. Two invited papers are dedicated to his memory. We would like to thank Rudolf Seising, Francesc Esteva, Lluís Godo, Ricardo Oscar Rodriguez, and Thomas Vetterlein for their involvement and contributions. The IPMU 2020 program consisted of 22 special sessions and 173 papers authored by researchers from 34 different countries. All 213 submitted papers underwent the thorough review process and were judged by at least three reviewers. Many of them were reviewed by more – even up to five – referees. Furthermore, all papers were examined by the program chairs. The review process respected the usual conflict-of-interest standards, so that all papers received multiple independent evaluations. Organizing a conference is not possible without the assistance, dedication, and support of many people and institutions. We are particularly thankful to the organizers of special sessions. Such sessions, dedicated to variety of topics and organized by experts, have always been a characteristic feature of IPMU conferences. We would like to pass our special thanks to Uzay Kaymak, who helped evaluate many special session proposals. We would like to acknowledge all members of the IPMU 2020 Program Committee, as well as multiple reviewers who played an essential role in the reviewing process, ensuring a high-quality conference. Thank you very much for all your work and efforts. We gratefully acknowledge the technical co-sponsorship of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT). A huge thanks and appreciation to the personnel of Lisbon’s Tourism Office ‘Turismo de Lisboa’ (www.visitlisboa.com) for their eagerness to help, as well as their enthusiastic support. Our very special and greatest gratitude goes to the authors who have submitted results of their work and presented them at the conference. Without you this conference would not take place. Thank you! We miss in-person meetings and discussions, yet we are privileged that despite these difficult and unusual times all of us had a chance to be involved in organizing the virtual IPMU conference. We hope that these proceedings provide the readers with multiple ideas leading to numerous research activities, significant publications, and intriguing presentations at future IPMU conferences.
