2008 IAPR Workshop on
Cognitive Information Processing

June 9-10, 2008, Santorini, Greece

CIP 2008 logo

Message from the General Co-Chairs

On behalf of the Organizing Committee we are happy to welcome you to Santorini and to the first workshop on Cognitive Information Processing, CIP-2008.

Cognitive Information Processing extends the current systems engineering paradigm to one where knowledge and intelligence is central in the design as well as in the operation phase of any system or digital environment. In the era of information and knowledge society, there will be an increasing need for robust decisions and behaviour in a dynamic and interactive interplay between the setting of parameters to optimize the tasks to be carried out and perception of the changing environment.

Cognitive Information Processing is an exciting emerging interdisciplinary field with pillars founded on Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Signal Processing, and Communications. This was the reason for deciding to initiate a new series of workshops, after a discussion we had during ICASSP-2007 in Hawaii. We felt that this is the right moment to establish a scientific meeting where scientists from these research communities get together in an effort to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas.

We decided to host the first workshop of the series in the Greek island of Santorini, one of the nicest places in the world, where history and human culture meet pleasure. Ancient Greeks tried to combine the useful act with the joy of life: “το τερπνόν μετά του ωφελίμου.” Thus, for us, Santorini was the first place to come into our minds. Besides the picturesque volcanic nature of Santorini, with its unique beaches, Santorini is rich in history. The ancient city at Akrotiri is not merely the most important archaeological site on the island, it is also, thanks to its excellent state of preservation and the wealth of findings it has yielded, the most important prehistoric settlement found anywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. Akrotiri could be called the prehistoric Pompeii of the Aegean.

We would like to thank all those who made this workshop possible. The sponsoring organization, the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), as well as the IEEE SP Society and the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) for providing technical co-sponsorship. Also, the Greek Ministry of Education, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and NOKIA for sponsoring this event.

Last but not least we would like to thank Eleftherios Kofidis and Tülay Adali, for putting together the technical program, and Kostas Slavakis and Matina Gika, for taking care of all the important details!

Simon Haykin
Sergios Theodoridis