A general framework for reasoning about change

The capability to represent and use concepts like time and events in computer science is essential to solve a wide class of problems characterized by the notion of change. Real-time, databases and multimedia are just a few of several areas which needs good tools to deal with time. Another area where this concepts are essential is artificial intelligence because an agent must be able to reason about a dynamic environment. In this work a formalism is proposed which allows the representation and use of several features that had been recognized as useful in the attempts to solve such class of problems. A general framework based on a many-sorted logic is proposed centering our attention in issues such as the representation of time, actions, properties, events and causality. The proposal is compared with related work from the temporal logic and artificial intelligence areas. This work complements and enhances previously related efforts on formalizing temporal concepts with the same purpose. Juan Carlos Augusto, Ph.D.: He is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina), where he graduated as Licenciado en Ciencias de la Computacion and Doctor en Ciencias de la Computacion. Currently on leave in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (United Kingdom). His research interests are focused in the dynamic aspects of computing systems. This involves solving conceptual problems related to the specification of time and change and designing tools to improve systems in several areas of computer science, such as artificial intelligence, databases, multimedia, software verification and real-time systems. He has been conducting research on temporal representation and reasoning since 1993. Throughout these years he had the opportunity to contribute to several research projects as a researcher and has head or co-head of research groups. Other activities and contributions to highlight are the organization of international events, editorial work and supervision of postgraduate students, all of which contributes to the generation and dissemination of knowledge about the dynamic aspects of computing systems.