The European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI) was formally established on July 14, 1982, during the Constitutional Meeting held at the University of Paris-Sud, Campus d'Orsay, in France. (At that time, the name included Co-ordinating rather than Coordinating.) During the AISB-80 Conference in Amsterdam, Dennis de Champeaux agreed to act as coordinator to explore the possibility of setting up ECCAI. The initiative came especially from AISB and GI.

Founding organisations were AISB, GI, AFCET, AICA, ARC, NVKI, and ÖGAI; very soon SAIS, BAAI, DAIS, APPIA, NJSZT and YUGAI had also joined. (AICA was later dismantled; AIIA took its place in 1988.)

The first Board of ECCAI, elected in Orsay, consisted of Wolfgang Bibel (Chair), Yves Kodratoff (Vice-Chair) and Stefano Cerri (Secretary); it seems that no treasurer was deemed necessary.

European Conferences on AI (ECAI)

Retrospectively, four conferences organised by AISB (with the help from other organisations) were relabelled European Conferences on AI. With that relabelling, the list of European Conferences is:

1974 Brighton
1976 Edinburgh
1978 Hamburg
1980 Amsterdam
1982 Paris
1984 Pisa
1986 Brighton
1988 München
1990 Stockholm
1992 Wien
1994 Amsterdam
1996 Budapest
1998 Brighton
2000 Berlin
2002 Lyon
2004 Valencia
2006 Trentino
2008 Patras
2010 Lisbon
2012 Montpellier

Advanced Courses on AI (ACAI)

In the summer of odd-numbered years, ECCAI sponsors a specialized course in Artificial Intelligence, called Advanced Course on AI (ACAI). So far, the following courses have been held:

1985 Vignieu, France
1987 Oslo, Norway
1989 Lugano, Switzerland
1991 Bilbao, Spain
1993 Capri, Italy
1995 Perros-Guirec, France
1997 Vilnius, Lithuania
1999 Chania, Greek Islands
2001 Prague, Czech Republic
2003 Bremen, Germany
2005 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2007 Leuven, Belgium
2009 Belfast, Northern Ireland
2011 Freiburg, Germany

ECCAI Board

Every two years, at the general assembly meeting held during the ECAI conference, a board of directors is elected. Board members serve a two year term and are eligible for reelection twice. Former ECCAI chairs are:

1982-1986 Wolfgang Bibel (Germany)
1986-1988 Girard Guiho (France)
1988-1990 Margaret King (Switzerland)
1990-1992 Anthony G. Cohn (United Kingdom)
1992-1994 Oliviero Stock (Italy)
1994-1995 Jean-Pierre Laurent (France)
1995-1996 Nicolaas J.I. Mars (The Netherlands)
1996-2000 Wolfgang Wahlster (Germany)
2004-2008 Werner Horn (Austria)
2008-2012 Gerhard Brewka (Germany)

ECCAI Secretariat

In January 1988, a technical secretariat (located at IRST, Trento, Italy) was instituted to maintain contact between member organizations and the board of directors and to serve as a source of information for members. This position was held by Susan Struthers from IRST (Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), in Povo, Trento, Italy until 1995.
In 1995, this situation was changed to a rotating secretariat that moves with the Chair of the ECCAI Board. From July 1995 until September 1996, this position was held by Els van der Heijden from the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

From October 1996 until September 2000, the ECCAI Secretariat moved with the Chair to the German Research Center for AI (DFKI). The Position was held by Sigrid Herzog from DFKI.

Last update: 05-Nov-2012