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2022: The Year of Prolog
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Prolog

The Prolog Day Symposium

November 10, 2022

The Prolog Day Symposium presented the highlights of the Year of Prolog, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the birth of Prolog. There were more than 230 registered participants, both in-person at the auditorium and on line. It was broadcast online and recorded.

The Symposium included several sessions with presentations and round tables and the awarding of the inaugural edition of the ALP Alain Colmerauer Prolog Heritage Prize (in short: the Alain Colmerauer Prize) for recent practical accomplishments that highlight the benefits of Prolog-inspired computing for the future.

The morning was devoted to the nature and importance of Prolog, Prolog thinking, and Prolog education. The first session visited the past, present, and future of Prolog and explored its advantages as a language for explainable AI and for computing more generally. The second session discussed the topics of Prolog thinking and Prolog Education and presented the ongoing Prolog education initiative for introducing young people to Prolog.

The afternoon was devoted to the applications of Prolog, including also the session devoted to the Alain Colmerauer prize, with presentations of the Prolog applications selected as the five finalists for the prize. This was followed by the awarding of the prize and the launching of the "Future of Prolog Initiative".

A brochure was edited with details on the day, the speakers, and sponsors. You can also browse through some photos of the event.

Detailed Program:

Welcome and ringmaster of the morning: Jean Rohmer

  • 09h00 – 09h15: Opening Addresses Jean Rohmer and Guy-Alain Narboni
  • 09h15 – 10h45: Session 1 What is Prolog and why is it important? - Chair: Robert Kowalski

    Talk: 50 years of Prolog and Beyond by Manuel Hermenegildo, and Round Table including Stefania Costantini, Randy Goebel, Gopal Gupta, Michael Genesereth, Manuel Hermenegildo, Jean Rohmer, and David S. Warren. Questions posed to the panel.

  • 10h45 – 11h15: Break
  • 11h15 – 12h45: Session 2 Prolog Thinking and Education - Chair: Veronica Dahl

    Talk: Prolog's Educational Potential by Veronica Dahl and Round Table including Laura Cecchi, Robert Kowalski, José Francisco Morales, Asya Stoyanova-Doycheva, and Markus Triska. Questions posed to the panel.

  • 12h45 – 14h15: Lunch
Welcome and ringmaster of the afternoon: Célestin Sedogbo

  • 14h15 – 14h45: Alain Colmerauer and the Prolog Adventure (film)
  • 14h45 – 15h00: On stage: Several generations of Prolog Heroes




The Year of Prolog and its activities, including the Alain Colmerauer Prize, are sponsored by the Association for Logic Programming, the Prolog Heritage Association, the AI Journal, Institut Carnot Cognition, and Institut Fredrik Bull, among others.