Austin Tate is Emeritus Professor of

Knowledge-based systems A knowledge-based system (KBS) is a computer program that reasons and uses a knowledge base to solve complex problems. The term is broad and refers to many different kinds of systems. The one common theme that unites all knowledge based systems i ...

in the School of Informatics at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. From 1985 to 2019 he was Director of AIAI (

Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute The Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh was a non-profit technology transfer organisation that promoted Artificial Intelligence research. History AIAI was creat ...

) in the School of Informatics at the

. He is known for his contributions to AI Planning, applications of

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

, and work on collaborative systems in

Virtual Worlds A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

Early life and education

Tate was born 12 May 1951,

Knottingley Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503, inc ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, UK. He completed his B.A. (Hons) Computer Studies, Lancaster University, 1969-1972. He completed his postgraduate study in

Machine Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech rec ...

, supervised by

Donald Michie Donald Michie (; 11 November 1923 – 7 July 2007) was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve " Tunny ...

, 1972-1975 and a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in

e-Learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

at the

, 2011-2012.

Research and career

Tate's research interests are in

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

Selected publications

* Tate, A. (1977) Generating Project Networks, Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-77), pp. 888–893, Cambridge, MA, USA, Morgan Kaufmann. * * Tate, A., Levine, J., Dalton, J. and Nixon, A. (2003) Task Achieving Agents on the World Wide Web, in "Spinning the Semantic Web" (Fensel, D., Hendler, J., Liebermann, H. and Wahlster, W.), Chapter 15, pp. 431–458, MIT Press, 2003. * * * Other Publications
O-Plan Papers

Honours and awards

Tate's awards and honours include: * 1993 – Elected

AAAI Fellow Fellowship of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (abbreviated as AAAI Fellow or FAAAI) is an award granted to individuals that the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), judged to have made ...

* 1998 – Fellow of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) * 1999 – Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This socie ...

( FRSE) * 1999 – Fellow of the

European Association for Artificial Intelligence The European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) (formerly European Co-ordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI)) is the representative body for the European artificial intelligence community. EurAI was established in 19 ...

(EurAI) * 2000 – Fellow of the British Computer Society (

FBCS Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...

) * 2006 – Fellow of the

Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour or SSAISB or AISB is a nonprofit, scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behaviou ...

(SSAISB) * 2012 – Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from aroun ...

(FREng)

Personal life

He was married in 1975 to Margaret (née Mowbray) at

, England.

References

External links

* Research
AIAI Planning and Activity Management Group website
* AI Planners
TraverserInterplanNonlinO-PlanI-X/I-Plan
* Example Projects: AKT (Advanced Knowledge Technologies)
CoAX (Coalition Agents eXperiment)
FireGrid, OpenKnowledge
I-RoomOpenVCE
* Virtual World Avatar
Ai Austin's website
* Interests
Austin Tate's Gerry Anderson Web Area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Austin 1951 births People from Knottingley Living people Artificial intelligence researchers Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British computer scientists Fellows of the British Computer Society Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Fellows of the SSAISB Fellows of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence