Call for Papers and Participation

International Workshop on
Regulated Agent-Based Social Systems:
Theories and Applications (RASTA'02)

as part of AAMAS 2002

organised by
Institute of Science and Technology of Cognition - CNR, Italy,
MIT Sloan School of Management, USA,
Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, USA,
University of Washington, USA,
AI Lab of the Department of Computer Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, and
"Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science" Group, University of Hamburg

NEW: Programme
How to register
Some informal info: How to pay

Organizing Board    Programme Committee A    Programme Committee B    Programme Committee C    Submissions   


Agent Technology is the latest paradigm of software engineering methodology. The development of autonomous, mobile, and intelligent agents brings new challenges to the field. Agent technologies and multi-agent-systems are one of the most vibrant and active research areas of computer science. At the same time commercial applications of agents are gaining attention. The construction of artificial (agent) societies leads to questions that already have been asked for human societies. Computer Scientists have adopted terms like emerging behavior, self-organization, and evolutionary theory in an intuitive manner. Multi-agent-system researchers have started to develop agents with "social" abilities and complex "social" systems. However, most of these systems lack the foundation of the social sciences. It is the intention to bring together researchers from computer science as well as the social sciences who see their common interest in social theories for the construction of multi-agent-systems.

The workshop will take place during the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems ( AAMAS 2002 ) in Bologna, Italy from July 15-19, 2002.


Topic A

Social Theory for Agent Technology (Socionics)
The wide range of social theories offers many different solutions to problems found in complex (computer) systems. Which theories, to apply how and when is a major challenge. In developing agents and multi-agent systems computer scientists have used sociological terms like negotiation, interaction, contracts, agreement, organisation, cohesion, social order, and collaboration. Meanwhile an interdisciplinary area called Socionics, the bridge between sociology and computerscience, is beginning to establish itself. The realisation that the behaviour of societies cannot fully be explained by macro-theories only, and the progress made in agent technology opened the way to new models of societies in which both macro-theories and micro-theories are incorporated. The development of the socionics research area and the increased interest in dynamics of behaviour of agents in hybrid organisations requires the investigation of new modelling concepts like roles, groups, social intelligence, beliefs, desires, and intentions.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

 
Programme committee A
Sven Brückner ERIM, USA sbrueckner@erim.org
Enhong Chen University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China cheneh@ustc.edu.cn
Rosaria Conte National Research Council,Rome, Italy conte@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
Kerstin Dautenhahn University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom K.Dautenhahn@herts.ac.uk
Chris Dellarocas MIT Sloan School of Management, USA dell@mit.edu
Peter Dittrich University Dortmund, Germany dittrich@ls11.cs.uni-do rtmund.de
Michael Huhns University of South Carolina, USA huhns@sc.edu
Catholijn Jonker Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands jonker@cs.vu.nl
Henry A. Kautz University of Washington, USA kautz@cs.washington.edu
Stefan Kirn TU Ilmenau, Germany stefan.kirn@wirtsch aft.tu-ilmenau.de
Ioan Alfred Letia Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania letia@cs-gw.utcluj.ro
Gabriela Lindemann(co-Chair) Humboldt University Berlin,Germany lindeman@informatik.hu- berlin.de
Ivica Mitrovic University of Split, Croatia ivica.mitrovic@umas.hr
Daniel Moldt(co-Chair) University of Hamburg, Germany moldt@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Sascha Ossowski Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain s.ossowski@escet.urjc.es
Pietro Panzarasa University of Southhampton, United Kingdom pp@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Mario Paolucci(co-Chair) National Research Council,Rome, Italy mario.paolucci@thinkingo lem.com
Mirko Petric University of Split, Croatia mirko.petric@umas.hr
Paolo Petta University of Vienna, OFAI, Austria paolo@ai.univie.ac.at
Fiorella de Rosis University of Bari, Italy derosis@di.uniba.it
Bernd Schmidt University Passau, Germany bschmidt@fmi.uni-passau.de
Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer TU Berlin, Germany schulz-schaeffer@tu-berlin .de
Munindar P. Singh North Carolina State University, USA mpsingh@eos.ncsu.edu
Sorin Solomon Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel sorin@vms.huji.ac.il
Ingo Timm TZI Bremen, Germany i.timm@tzi.org
Inga Tomic-Koludrovic University of Split, Croatia inga.tomic-koludrovic@umas .hr
Adelinde Uhrmacher University Rostock, Germany lin@informatik.uni-rostock .de
Thomas Uthmann University Mainz, Germany uthmann@informatik.uni-mainz.de
Bin Yu (co-Chair) North Carolina State University, USA byu@unity.ncsu.edu

 


Topic B

Norms and Institutions in MAS
Multi-agent systems are increasingly being considered a viable technological basis for implementing complex, open systems such as electronic marketplaces, virtual enterprises, military or political coalition support systems, etc. The design of open systems in such domains poses a number of difficult challenges, including the need to cope with unreliable communication and network infrastructures, the need to address incompatible assumptions and limited trust among independently developed agents, and the necessity of detecting and responding to systemic failures.
Human organisations and societies have successfully coped with similar problems of coordination, cooperation, etc., in short, with the challenge of social order, mainly by developing norms and conventions, that is, specifications of behaviour that all society members are expected to conform to, and that undergo efficient forms of decentralised control. In most societies, norms are backed by a variety of social institutions that enforce law and order (e.g. courts, police), monitor for and respond to emergencies (e.g. ambulance system), prevent and recover from unanticipated disasters (e.g. coast guard, firefighters), etc. In that way, civilised societies allow citizens to utilise relatively simple and efficient rules of behaviour, offloading the prevention and recovery of many problem types to social institutions that can handle them efficiently and effectively by virtue of their economies of scale and widely accepted legitimacy. Successful civil societies have thus achieved a division of labour between individuals and institutions that decreases the "barriers to survival" for each citizen, while helping increase the welfare of the society as a whole.
Several researchers have recognised that the design of open multi-agent systems can benefit from abstractions analogous to those employed by our robust and relatively successful societies and organisations. There is a growing body of work that touches upon the concepts of norms and institutions in the context of multi-agent systems. This work moves in several directions,including:
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

 
Programme committee B
Jose Carmo Technical University of Madeira, Portugal jcc@math.uma.pt
Helder Coelho University of Lisbon, Portugal hcoelho@di.fc.ul.pt
Rosaria Conte National Research Council,Rome, Italy conte@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
Chris Dellarocas MIT Sloan School of Management, USA dell@mit.edu
Frank Dignum Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands dignum@win.tue.nl
Rino Falcone Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology-CNR, Italy Falcone@ip.rm.cnr.it
David Hales Manchester Metropolitan University, UK daphal@essex.ac.uk
Michael Huhns University of South Carolina, USA huhns@sc.edu
Andrew Jones King's College London, UK ajijones@dcs.kcl.ac.uk
Henry A. Kautz University of Washington, USA kautz@cs.washington.edu
Victor Lesser University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA lesser@cs.umass.edu
Gabriela Lindemann(co-Chair) Humboldt University Berlin,Germany lindeman@informatik.hu-berlin.de
Daniel Moldt(co-Chair) University of Hamburg, Germany moldt@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Mario Paolucci(co-Chair) National Research Council,Rome, Italy mario.paolucci@thinkingolem.com
Michael Prietula University of Florida, USA prietula@ufl.edu
Juan Antonio Rodriguez-Aguilar Laboratory of Intelligent Software Components, Spain jar@isoco.com
Giovanni Sartor Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland sartor@cirfid.unibo.it
Carles Sierra IIIA-CSIC, Spain sierra@iiia.csic.es
Munindar P. Singh North Carolina State University, USA mpsingh@eos.ncsu.edu
Leon van der Torre Vrije University, The Netherlands torre@cs.vu.nl
Harko Verhagen Stockholm University and the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden verhagen@dsv.su.se
Pinar Yolum North Carolina State University, USA pyolum@eos.ncsu.edu
Bin Yu (co-Chair) North Carolina State University, USA byu@unity.ncsu.edu

 



Topic C

Agent-based social networks
Agent-based social networks are self-organizing networks of users, in which each user is assigned a software agent and software agents assist the users in maintaining their social relationships and searching relevant information in the networks on behalf of users. The new, multidisciplinary field might provide an effective tool for sociologists studying individual behaviors in a complex social system and testbed for the study and evaluation of artificial agent societies.

Agent-based social networks help to develop an effective, naturally occurring knowledge management system in the organizations, while each agent automatically learns one another's domains of expertise. The rapid change of organizational structure makes agent-based social networks even more important in which workers rely on their personal social networks, rather than unstable, weakening"organization charts".

Moreover, agent-based social networks are a natural nextstep in the evolution of networked computing. Agent-based social networks extend the stand-alone multiagent systems with users, and enable them to share their knowledge and experience on a wide scale. Interesting questions include how to find the users with needed information effectively with the local knowledge while the privacy of the users is preserved, and how the structure of social networks affects the information flow.


Topics of interest include but are not limited to:


 
Programme committee C
Karl Aberer EPF Lausanne, Switzerland karl.aberer@epfl.ch
Andreas Abecker DFKI, Germany aabecker@dfki.uni-kl.de
Mark S. Ackerman University of Michigan, USA ackerman@godzilla.ICS.UCI. EDU
Kathleen Carley CMU, USA Kathleen.Carley@cmu.edu
Rosaria ConteNational Research Council,Rome, Italy conte@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
Noshir Contractor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA nosh@uiuc.edu
Raymond D'Amore MITRE, USA rdamore@mitre.org
Chris Dellarocas MIT Sloan School of Management, USA dell@mit.edu
Rino Falcone Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology-CNR, Italy falcone@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
Andrea Hollingshead University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA hollings@uiuc.edu
Michael Huhns University of South Carolina, USA huhns@sc.edu
Henry A. Kautz University of Washington, USA kautz@cs.washington.edu
Henry Lieberman MIT, USA lieber@media.mit.edu
Gabriela Lindemann(co-Chair) Humboldt University Berlin,Germany lindeman@informatik.hu-berlin.de
Jiming Liu Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong jiming@Comp.HKBU.Edu.HK
Steve Marsh National Research Council, Canada steve.marsh@nrc.ca
Mark Maybury MITRE, USA maybury@mitre.org
Daniel Moldt(co-Chair) University of Hamburg, Germany moldt@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Bonnie Nardi Agilent Technologies, USA bonnie_nardi@exch.labs.agilent.com
Hiroaki Ogata University of Tokushima, Japan ogata@is.tokushima-u.ac.jp
Pietro Panzarasa University of Southhampton, United Kingdom pp@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Mario Paolucci(co-Chair) National Research Council,Rome, Italy mario.paolucci@thinkingolem.com
Michael Prietula Emory University, USA mike_prietula@bus.emory.edu
Bart Selman Cornell University, USA selman@CS.Cornell.EDU
Carles Sierra IIIA-CSIC, Spain sierra@iiia.csic.es
Munindar P. Singh North Carolina State University, USA mpsingh@eos.ncsu.edu
Katia Sycara CMU, USA katia@cs.cmu.edu
Bin Yu (co-Chair) North Carolina State University, USA byu@unity.ncsu.edu

 



 
Organizing Board
Rosaria Conte National Research Council,Rome, Italy conte@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
Chris Dellarocas MIT Sloan School of Management, USA dell@mit.edu
Henry A. Kautz University of Washington, USA kautz@cs.washington.edu
Gabriela Lindemann(co-Chair) Humboldt University Berlin,Germany lindeman@informatik.hu-berlin.de
Daniel Moldt(co-Chair) University of Hamburg, Germany moldt@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Mario Paolucci(co-Chair) National Research Council,Rome, Italy mario.paolucci@thinkingolem.com
Munindar P. Singh North Carolina State University, USA mpsingh@eos.ncsu.edu
Bin Yu (co-Chair) North Carolina State University, USA byu@unity.ncsu.edu

 


Submissions

Innovative and recent papers written in English are welcome for submission. The papers will be reviewed by at least two programme committee members. Selection criteria will focus on relevance to the special topic, originality with respect to the state of the art, and potential for discussion.

The program committee invites submissions of contributions as: long versions (up to 20 pages), short versions (up to 10 papges), and position statements / posters (up to 2 pages). Submissions should be in either POSTSCRIPT or PDF format and emailed to the chair of the topic to which it pertains:

Topic A - Socionics - papers should be emailed to rasta02@informatik.uni-hamburg.de .

Topic B - Norms and Institutions in MAS - papers should be emailed to Mario Paolucci at mario.paolucci@thinkingolem.com.

Topic C - Agent-based social networks - papers should be emailed to Bin Yu at byu@unity.ncsu.edu .

Accepted papers will be included in the workshop proceedings which will appear as a technical report of the Department of Computer Science, University of Hamburg, and which will be available at the workshop. After an additional review process we will publish the best submissions in a special book within the LNCS/LNAI series of Springer.
 
 

For further information about RASTA'02 contact the programme commiteeby email at rasta02@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
or have a look at the
RASTA'02 homepage

Last modified: 24.10.2002 Daniel Moldt
http://www2.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/tgi/events/rasta02/cfp.html