CogSIMA 2023: Editor's Preface

To CogSIMA community members past, present, and future,

It is my great pleasure to write this preface on the 13^th annual Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA 2023), graciously hosted by Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, “The City of Brotherly Love” and sponsored by Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories. The CogSIMA conference series provides an annual venue for presenting multi-disciplinary research on complex heterogeneous dynamical systems – of interacting humans, machines, computer agents and/or networks – who’s individual and/or collective behavior depends on their situation awareness.

One burning question unites CogSIMA community members new and old: “what exactly is Cognitive Situation Management?” Our community brings together experts in human-AI teaming, healthcare, cybersecurity, behavior recognition, frameworks, ontologies, and even data fusion. With such a diverse set of domains, how would we go about defining Cognitive Situation Management? There’s the definition on the community website: “CogSIMA is the community for multi-disciplinary research on complex heterogeneous dynamical systems – of interacting humans, machines, computer agents and/or networks – whose individual and/or collective behavior depends on their situation awareness.” In many ways, that works, but in others it only scratches the surface. CogSIMA is knowing when your surgeon is distracted. It’s recognizing behavior and the intent behind it. It’s considering culture and bias and uncertainty in teaming. It’s measuring competency or decision-making. It’s making cyber security human-aware, large language models more intelligent, and risk-assessment more accurate. CogSIMA is all this and more, because each domain brings their own unique perspectives and challenges.

That is the word that served as the core philosophy for this year’s conference: Perspective. While our domains may be very different, we face many of the same challenges. Challenges we have overcome in different, yet often compatible ways. For attendees, each presentation was an opportunity at a new revelation, a tool to get past that stubborn roadblock, or perhaps a future collaboration that spawns an entirely new domain of research. Let these proceedings be a record of these perspectives, and let them help you, the reader, see your own problems in a new light. CogSIMA has always been a community that thrives in deeply engaging with each other’s research. Whether you are a long-time member, or a first-time visitor, we here on the CogSIMA 2023 Organizing Committee hope you walk away with a new perspective.