This talk will cover various aspects of Logic Programming. We examine Logic Programming in the contexts of Programming Languages, Mathematical Logic and Machine Learning.

We will we start with an introduction to Prolog and metaprogramming in Prolog. We will also discuss how miniKanren and Core.Logic differ from Prolog while maintaining the paradigms of logic programming.

We will then cover the Unification Algorithm in depth and examine the mathematical motivations which are rooted in Skolem Normal Form. We will describe the process of converting a statement in first order logic to clausal form logic. We will also discuss the applications of the Unification Algorithm to automated theorem proving and type inferencing.

Finally we will look at the role of Prolog in the context of Machine Learning. This is known as Inductive Logic Programming. In that context we will briefly review Decision Tree Learning and it's relationship to ILP. We will then examine Sequential Covering Algorithms for learning clauses in Propositional Calculus and then the more general  FOIL algorithm for learning sets of Horn clauses in First Order Predicate Calculus. Examples will be given in both Common Lisp and Clojure for these algorithms.

Pierre de Lacaze has over 20 years’ experience with Lisp and AI based technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. He is one of the Director's of LispNYC.org and is currently a Senior Developer at Shareablee.

Pizza and beer will be generously provided by Shareablee.

Links will be provided shortly.