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https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3074/preface.pdf
Preface to the WILF 2021 proceedings:
Back together again!
Angelo Ciaramella1 , Corrado Mencar2 , Susana Montes3 and Stefano Rovetta4
1
Department of Science and Technology, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy
2
Department of Computer Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
3
Department of Statistics and Operational Research, University of Oviedo, Spain
4
DIBRIS, University of Genova, Italy
The 13th International Workshop on Fuzzy Logic and Applications, WILF 2021, was held in
Vietri sul Mare, Italy during December 20-22, 2021.
This is the latest instance of an established series of interdisciplinary meetings. Organised by
the Italian community of researchers in fuzzy logic and soft computing, it started as a national
workshop, but rapidly evolved into an event with an international perspective, hosting renown
scientists from all over the world in various capacities as delegates, organisers, keynote speakers.
The previous editions of WILF have been held in Naples (1995), Bari (1997), Genoa (1999), Milan
(2001), Naples (2003), Crema (2005), Camogli (2007), Palermo (2009), Trani (2011), Genoa (2013),
Naples (2016), and Genoa (2018).
For the 2021 edition, we wanted to provide an occasion for meeting each other and for person-
to-person interaction, rather than one-directional communication. We opted for a format that
emphasizes exchange of ideas and discussion. Contributions were of three types. Besides
regular ones, aimed at presenting novel research results, we also encouraged brief, “highlight”
presentations of mature research to give it higher visibility, and “ideas” that described research
in an early or preliminary stage, to foster discussion and produce suggestions. In this way, the
conference covered present, as well as past and future, research.
The topical focus of this edition was on the relationship of Fuzzy Set theory and methods
with humans, society, and data-driven approaches to Computational Intelligence, that is to
say essentially Machine Learning. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence has become an enabling
technology that pervades many aspects of our daily life. Machine Learning is of course at
the forefront of this advancement. However, as the role of Artificial Intelligence becomes
more and more important, so does the need for reliable solutions to several issues that go well
beyond technological aspects. These include, among many others: accountability and explain-
ability; interaction between artificial and human intelligence, including issues of nonverbal
communication; monitoring and minimising the effects of biases (gender, race, culture. . . ) on
machine-guided decision making.
Notwithstanding their huge success, purely data-driven technologies are showing their limits
precisely in these areas. There is a growing need for methods that, in a tight interaction with
them, provide different degrees of control over the several facets of automated decision making,
WILF 2021:The 13th International Workshop on Fuzzy Logic and Applications, December 20-22, 2021, Vietri sul Mare,
Italy
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CEUR
Workshop
Proceedings
http://ceur-ws.org
ISSN 1613-0073 CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
allowing the use of explicit knowledge beyond what can be extracted from data. The diversity
and complementarity of Computational Intelligence techniques in addressing these issues is
bound to play a crucial role.
The contributions we received were fully in line with these topics. After a rigorous peer-review
process, among the submissions received from all Europe we selected 20 high-quality regular
manuscripts, 6 idea papers and 4 highlight abstracts. These were accepted for presentation at
the conference and are published in this volume.
In addition, the event hosted three very interesting keynote talks by high profile researchers:
• Extensions of fuzzy integrals and applications to the computational brain – by Humberto
Bustince, full professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Public
University of Navarra (Spain) and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham
(UK).
• Fuzzy Logic and XAI: Past, Present, and Some Thoughts on the Future – by Scott Dick, pro-
fessor at the Faculty of Engineering - Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept, University
of Alberta (Canada).
• Fuzzy sets: the legacy and its future – by Didier Dubois, Emeritus Research Advisor at
IRIT, the Computer Science Department of Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France
and French National Centre for Scientific Resarch (CNRS).
Finally, two thematic round tables were held:
• Computational Intelligence methods for Digital Health, INdAM-GNCS research day – chair
Giovanna Castellano, University of Bari “Aldo Moro” (Italy)
• Towards national laboratories on soft computing – chair Antonio di Nola, University of
Salerno (Italy)
During the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic there have been many obstacles
to the organisation of meetings. Some WILF 2021 delegates were not able to travel, and the
event was held in a mixed format, in presence and in teleconferencing. Still, the participation
was high, and there was a very rich social activity program. The success of this edition can be
summarised by the motto we chose since the very beginning: “Back together again!”.
Credit for this success, however, is due to the contribution of many people, in particular the
Program Committee members for their commitment to providing high-quality, constructive
reviews, the keynote speakers, the round table organisers, all the contributors and delegates, and
last but by no means least the local organising secretariat (IIASS, Dr. Tina Nappi) for making
everything run smoothly and flawlessly.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the financial support of the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica “Francesco
Severi” and that of European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT) for student
travel grants.