Committee on Emerging Computing Technology
Analysis and Computation TAC
ASCE Structural Division
Minutes of Meeting, April 17, 1993
1993 Structures Congress
Irvine, California
April 17, 1993
Attendees: N. Baker,
J. Garrett,
J. Ghaboussi,
K. Law,
H. Melhem
Agenda:
1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 4PM in Parlor II at the Hyatt
Regency. Garrett distributed copies of the meeting agenda, which
included:
a) copies of the minutes from the June ECT meeting;
b) a copy of the letter sent to Cheng concerning the 1994
Structures Congress Session organized at the June meeting;
c) a summary of the Special Issue on Neural Networks for
the Journal
of Computing in Civil Engineering being edited by Garrett;
d) a draft mission statement and action plan; and
e) a proposal for a workshop at the 1994 Structures Congress.
2. Review and acceptance of minutes from last meeting in June 1992.
The minutes were reviewed and accepted as is. The membership noted
that the email distribution list (set up by Baker) that is being used
to distribute copies of minutes and evoke discussion is working
reasonably well and should continue to be used.
3. Election of a new secretary.
Garrett noted that Richard Sause indicated that he was not able to
attend all of the ECT meetings and would not like to continue as
recording secretary. It was also noted that Rich had really only
agreed to be recording secretary for the June meeting. This issue was
tabled until the June 8, 1993 meeting in Anaheim. Until then, Garrett
agreed to produce the minutes and Law and Baker agreed to be recorders
at the meeting (Law for the first hour, Baker for the reminder of the
meeting).
4. Status Reports:
4.a. 1994 Structures Congress Session
Garrett presented the letter that he had sent to Cheng (chair of A&C
TAC) on January 19, 1993 describing the 1994 Structures Congress
Session. He then passed around a set of the six abstracts submitted
as part of this letter to Cheng. It was Garrett's understanding that
this was the final form of the session and that all was in order.
Baker than stated that he had received a letter (that Garrett did not
receive) in which Franklin Cheng had modified the conference session
as follows:
Title: Emerging Computing Technology and Infrastructure Systems
Co-Chairs: Cheng and Garrett
Speakers:
1. S. J. Fenves Recent Advances in Engineering Design
Methodology (theme paper)
2. S.C. Liu and Civil Infrastructure Systems -
K. Chong NSF Research Program (theme paper)
3. J. Ghaboussi Potential Applications of Neural
Networks in Structural Engineering
4. N. Baker Multimedia Applications for Structural
Engineering
5. G. Lee and A General Structural Representation
M. Elkordy of Neural Networks
The two speakers (Wilson and Hendricks) were placed in other sessions.
Wislon went to Session 8: Structural Control and Fatigue Analysis.
Hendricks went to Session 6: Integrated Computer-Aided Structural
Engineering Software.
Discussion: While the subcommittee was concerned that these changes
were made without consulting the subcommittee chair, it was felt that
the addition of the Liu/Chong paper was a good addition to the session
and the sessions in which the Wilson and Hendricks papers were placed
were better fits for those papers. Thus, the new form of the session
was accepted by the subcommittee.
Another issue concerning the 1994 Structures Congress was the poster
session that Kim Roddis was trying to organize. Garrett will contact
Kim to determine the status of that poster session and encourage her
to pursue it if it is still possible. Nelson Baker stated that it
still might be possible and will know by April 18. The sticking point
might be if the Congress organizers require abstracts in the
Proceedings. Garrett, Baker and Roddis will pursue this issue and
resolve it before the June 8, 1993 meeting in Anaheim.
Another opportunity to pursue is an "open house" at the Georgia Tech
Computing facilities in which different software projects might be
demonstrated. Baker will check on this possibility and report via
email to the ECT membership concerning this opportunity.
4.b. Special Issue of the Journal of Computing in CE
Garrett gave a report on the state of the Special Issue on Neural
Networks for the Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering that he is
editing. This special issue is being edited as a jointly sponsored
effort with the TCCP AI and Expert Systems Committee (of which Garrett
is also a member).
The special issue was reported to be on schedule and going well.
Garrett reported that he has received 9 papers that are in various
stages of the review process:
1 paper has been declined and resubmitted and it out for review.
1 paper has been declined and has not yet been resubmitted
4 papers have been tentatively accepted (2 w/rereview, 2 wo/rereview)
3 papers are still out for review.
Garrett also reported knowledge of four papers being sent to ASCE but
has not yet received them from New York (the authors sent him a copy
of their papers). Garrett also reported that two papers on the topic
of neural network applications were received and already reviewed by
other associated editors and were being sent to Garrett for
consideration for inclusion in the special issue. Thus, the target
publishing date of early 1994 advertised in the call appears to still
be achievable.
4.c. 1993 contribution to the Research Needs Session at the 1993 Structures
Congress organized by Richard N. Wright.
Garrett reported that in response to the ECT's response to the
Research Needs Session proposals that Law requested from all AC
subcommittees, Garrett was contacted by Emil Simiu at NIST to put
together a joint contribution on "Standards Representation and
Processing." Garrett reported that he will make a 10 minute
presentation at the Research Needs Session at the 1993 Structures
Congress (Monday, April 19, 1:30PM) on behalf of the committee.
5. Presentation and Discussion of Revised Mission Statement
Garrett asked the attending members to spend several minutes and read
through the draft of a mission statement and action plan. The members
then entered into a very active discussion of the mission, approach and
action plan spelled out in the draft.
The following is a summary of the major point made. A modified draft
of this mission statement is included as an attachment to these
minutes.
5.a. Our name.
There was some good discussion about our name led by Ghaboussi. He
pointed out that the name Emerging Computing Technology is misleading.
We are more interested in "soft" computing more than we are interested
in "emerging" computing. It so happens that the "emerging" computing
that we are looking at is "soft." Garrett suggested that the name
could be modified when the informal subcommittee (our current status)
is made a formal subcommittee of the Analysis and Computation
committee.
The membership is requested to submit alternatives for a new name of
this subcommittee that better reflects our mission. Suggestions can
be made via email to the membership distribution list, mail, or
directly at the Anaheim meeting.
5.b. Our status.
There was some confusion (caused by the terminology used in the
mission draft) about the current status of this subcommittee and our
aspirations. We are currently an informal subcommittee within the
Analysis and Computation committee. When we started this process, we
were promised Cheng to be elevated to a formal committee (within the
TAC committee Analysis and Computation and with control group funding)
if we demonstrate an active and product membership. It is Garrett's
desire to have the ECT subcommittee elevated to the status of
committee during this coming year. He will pursue this issue with
Cheng. When that elevation occurs, a name change will be possible.
(Note: During the Analysis and Computation TAC committee meeting,
Cheng moved, and Balling seconded, to elevate our ECT subcommittee to
full committee status. This is great news, however, for us to become
a full committee the the EXCOM of the Structures Division has to give
the OK to this elevation. I have not yet heard the decision from
Cheng at the time of writing of these minutes).
5.c. Our Mission.
The members in attendance were unanimous in their support of the
mission statement and approach. There was some discussion about our
commitment to software AND hardware. Most felt that any hardware
related conferences and workshops are not in our near-term future, but
should not be precluded from later consideration.
5.d. Additional Topics for Consideration by the Committee
In addition to the topics listed in the action plan of the mission
statement (e.g., ANNs, Multimedia, Logic, Fuzzy Logic, Distributed
Computing, Virtual reality, Genetic Algorithms), Baker suggested the
following topics for consideration by this subcommittee:
Advanced Communications for Engineers
Information Management and Concurrent Engineering
Garrett suggested that while not an emerging technology, "standards
representation and processing" is still a methodology poorly
understood and in need of some focussed attention of this committee.
5.e. Additional mechanisms for information dissemination.
There were several suggestions about where to possibly publish some
committee sponsored articles, in addition to the TCCP and SD journals.
Some suggestions were:
Computers and Structures
ASCE magazine
ENR
After some discussion, it was felt that the best thing to do
immediately would be to put together a "white paper" on the topic of
the potential to affect the practice of structural engineering of the
"soft computing" that we are currently investigating in our research.
The intent of the article would be to call attention to the need to
"pay attention" to the application of the knowledge that we discover.
Ghaboussi agreed to take the lead on this paper. Garrett offered to participate as well. Others were encouraged to consider participating, too.
6. Workshop/Session proposals:
6.a. 1994 Structures Congress
Garrett proposed a workshop on neural networks for the 1994 Structures
Congress. Those in attendance at the meeting felt that this would be
a good workshop. Ghaboussi suggested that the workshop be modified to
have only a 1/2 hour introduction, followed by a 2 hour session in
which several applications are presented in a "case-based" mode,
followed by a 1 hour discussion of the applications presented and the
potential of new applications. Ghaboussi also agreed to participate
in this workshop with Garrett.
Baker asked how much we should charge per person for this workshop.
The members suggested that a $125 fee would not be excessive and would
make the workshop attractive to ASCE.
A modified version of this workshop proposal was given to Baker to
present to the 1994 Structures Congress Organizing Committee on April
18, 1993. A copy of this modified proposal is attached to these
minutes.
6.b. 1995 Structures Congress (session proposals due 6/15/93)
This item refers to the action plan of the mission statement attached
to these minutes and briefly discussed in section 5.
Melhem agreed to organize a conference session on "Fuzzy Logic
Applications in Structural Engineering" for the 1995 Structures
Congress.
Garrett reported Lakmazehari, Roddis and Chen are putting together a
workshop on "Logic Programming" also for the 1995 Structures Congress.
They will put together their proposal before the June 8 meeting in
Anaheim. This was shown incorrectly on previous drafts of the mission
statement and action plan.
Garrett committed to organizing a workshop on Virtual Reality for the
1995 Structures Congress (if the ASCE organizing committee for 1995
will permit them). Garrett will contact Emil Troupe to determine the
possibilities for workshops at the 1995 Structures Congress (Note:
after this meeting, Garrett did see Troupe at the Structures Congress
and discussed this workshop idea with him. Troupe was very receptive
and liked the idea of a workshop on the Sunday morning before the
congress starts. Garrett will send a follow letter to Troupe
concerning this issue as soon as he sees how the 1994 workshop
proposal plays out.)
6.c 1994 TCCP Computing Congress (Session Titles + Authors by 6/10)
Garrett reported that he and Iris Tommelein are organizing a Symposium
track (20 sessions of 45 authors) at the 1994 TCCP Computing Congress
on the topic of AI and Expert Systems. As part of this effort, the
ECT will have an opportunity to sponsor a few conference sessions.
The abstracts must be submitted by Aug 20 to Iris Tommelein.
Garrett committed to putting together a conference session on Standards
Processing for this 1994 TCCP Computing Congress as a joint effort
between the ECT and the AIES committee.
Baker stated that he is organizing a session on Multimedia for a
different committee and would be willing to have it be a jointly
sponsored activity by ECT.
Thus, we will have two ECT co-sponsored conference sessions at the
1994 Computing Congress: one on Standards Processing and one on
Multimedia. Garrett encouraged all ECT members to consider other
sessions that they might like to organize for the 1994 Congress on
Computing. This issue will be discussed again at the Anaheim meeting.
7. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM by Garrett and the attending
members were thanked for their active participation and their
interesting discussions.
The next meeting will be held in Anaheim at the 1993 Computing
Conference on Tuesday, June 8, from 6-9PM. Nelson and Kincho will
come late to that meeting because they have another meeting that
overlaps with ours.