CFP: 3rd International Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems and Collaborative Technologies (I-MASC'12)

[Wei Chen]

The 3rd International Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems and Collaborative
Technologies (I-MASC 2012)
http://cisedu.us/rp/cts12/2-conference/workshops/workshop-06-imasc

CALL FOR PAPERS

As part of
The 2012 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems
(CTS 2012)
http://cts2012.cisedu.info/

May 21 – 25, 2012
The Westin Westminster Hotel
Denver, Colorado, USA

Submission Deadline: January 16, 2012
*** A hard deadline without any extension ***

Submissions could be for full papers (8 pages) or short papers (4 pages)

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has grown into an interdisciplinary field that
includes various tracks and
embraces many previously distinctive research areas.  Particularly,
multi-agent coordination, a sub-area of
MAS, investigates how multiple intelligent computational agents work
together to achieve high-level
goals beyond the capabilities of single agents.  Many different approaches
have been investigated, such as
the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), task structure
analysis, coordination
communication protocols, etc.  Collaborative Technologies and Systems (CTS)
have evolved significantly
as well. These tend to investigate the design and development of effective
environments or tools that help
human users work together in a distributed collaborative, possibly virtual,
fashion.  Some notable examples
of CTS include Collaboratories, collaborative design/editing, and on-line
collaboration tools and
environments.  CTS is beginning to look at the challenges of supporting
coordinated, purposive activities.
MAS is still facing challenges of scaling to large numbers of entities and
real-world tasks (see, for
example, Hendler's question of, “where are all the intelligent agents?" ).

This workshop will explore potential synergy between CTS and
MAS/coordination because they share a
common ground: how multiple entities ? intelligent agents or humans alike -
work together to carry out
potentially related tasks.  We will ask questions of whether and how design
and development of
collaborative systems, promoting coordinated human activity, could be
enhanced by incorporating insights
from MAS.  Collaborative technologies embody practical considerations from
the human users' points of
view, allowing users to ignore how the underlying (agent) infrastructure is
implemented.  Meanwhile,
MAS/coordination investigates intelligent agents’ underlying algorithms and
mechanisms and, in some
cases, how artificial agents can interact with people as peers.
Conversely, intelligent agents will not see
significant acceptance, nor will they be able to manage the complexity and
knowledge-intensity of
meaningful practical applications, without developing some understanding of
how to make effective use of
human contributions throughout the specification, execution, evaluation,
and refinement stages of the
software lifecycle.

This workshop solicits papers that discuss synergies between MAS and CTS,
possible
advantages/disadvantages of hybrids between them for designing and
developing modern distributed
collaborative software systems, and research and/or real-world experience
and/or applications and/or
lessons learned that involve both CTS and MAS.  That is, any paper that
addresses both CTS and
MAS, preferably in one or a set of applications that share similar
underlying research challenges, is of
interest to this workshop.  An example could be: the design and development
of a collaborative
environment (say, a distributed planning tool) that enables multiple
heterogeneous, human experts and
agents to work in combination across computer networks on courses of
actions in response to cyber
attacks.  Another example might be systems or interfaces supporting the
division of labor between CTS
and MAS elements during execution.

The Workshop topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
* MAS: Coordination of and by Computational Agents
-    Agent Communication, Languages and Protocols
-    Agent Models and Architectures
-    Multi-Agent Coordination and Cooperation
-    Human-Agent Interaction
-    Multi-User/Multi-Agent Interaction
-    Teamwork, Coalition Formation, Coordination
-    Peer to Peer Coordination
-    Modeling the Dynamics of MAS
-    Agent-based System Development
-    Collective Decision Making
-    Bargaining and Negotiation
-    Auction and Mechanism Design
-    Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Agents
-    Complex MAS
-    Virtual Agents Applications
-    Conversational Agents
-    Distributed Task Planning and Execution
-    Cooperation with Humans and Robots
-    Collective Intelligence
-    Agent Reasoning
-    Mining Agents
-    Security Agents

* CTS:  Agent Technologies and Systems Supporting Collaboration Among Humans
-    Architectures and Design of Collaborative Systems
-    Frameworks and Methodologies for Collaboration
-    Cognitive and Psychological Issues in Collaboration
-    Collaborative Human-Centered Systems
-    Cultural Aspects & Human Factors in Collaboration
-    Interfaces for Collaborative Work
-    Social Software Based Collaboration
-    Visualization of Collaborative Processes
-    Web Infrastructure for Collaborative Applications
-    Information Infrastructure for Collaboration
-    Management of Metadata for Collaboration
-    Mobile and Wireless Collaboration Systems
-    Modeling and Simulation of Collaboration
-    Platforms for Collaboration
-    Collaboration in Domain Applications

Important:  A submitted paper must have keywords from BOTH lists of MAS and
CTS!

Synergies of CTS and MAS topics are of interest with respect to any phase
of a human or software
systems lifecycle:  specification, implementation, testing, evaluation, and
deployment.

PAPER SUBMISSION
You are invited to submit original and unpublished research works on the
above and other topics related to
Collaborative Technologies and Multi-Agent Systems.  Submitted papers must
not have been published or
simultaneously submitted elsewhere.  Submission should include a cover page
with authors' names,
affiliation addresses, fax numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Please, indicate clearly the
corresponding author and include up to 6 keywords from the above list of
topics and an abstract of no
more than 400 words. We welcome prospective participants to submit either
full papers (up to 8 pages) or
short papers (up to 4 pages). The manuscript should use the two-column IEEE
format.  Additional pages
will be charged at additional fee.  In case of multiple authors, an
indication of which author is responsible
for correspondence must be indicated.  Please include page numbers on all
preliminary submissions to
make it easier for reviewers to provide helpful comments.  Submit a PDF
copy of your full manuscript to
the Workshop paper submission site at the link:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=imasc2012.

Notably, (1) only PDF files will be accepted; (2) papers should have the
following name format for easy
identification: ‘Surname_Initial_1.PDF’, where the Surname is that of the
first author; and (3) follow the
Easy Chair website instructions to login into the system (or create your
account if necessary) and upload
your paper accordingly.

Each paper will receive a minimum of three reviews.  Papers will be
selected based on their originality,
relevance, technical clarity and presentation.  Submission implies the
willingness of at least one of the
authors to register and present the paper, if accepted.  Authors of
accepted papers must guarantee that
their papers will be registered and presented at the workshop.

Accepted papers will be published in the Conference proceedings.
Instructions for final manuscript format
and requirements will be posted on the CTS 2012 Conference web site.  It is
our intent to have the
proceedings formally published in hard and soft copies and be available at
the time of the conference.  The
proceedings is projected to be included in the IEEE Digital Library and
indexed accordingly.

If you have any questions about paper submission or the workshop, please
contact the workshop
organizers.

IMPORTANT DATES
Paper Submissions: ------------------------------------------- January 16,
2012
Acceptance Notification: ------------------------------------- February 06,
2012
Camera Ready Papers and Registration Due: ------- March 01, 2012
Conference Dates:  -------------------------------------------- May 21 -
25, 2012

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
Wei Chen
Intelligent Automation, Inc.
15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20855, USA
Phone :  +1 (301) 294-5278, Email:  wchen at i-a-i.com

Edmund Durfee
Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
2260 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor MI 48109-2121, USA
Phone: +1 (734) 936-1563,  Email: durfee at umich.edu

International Program Committee:
All submitted papers will be reviewed by the workshop technical program
committee members following
similar criteria used in CTS 2012.

Giacomo Cabri       Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Bradley Clement     NASA JPL, USA
Geoffrey Fox          Indiana University, USA
Alexander Grushin  Intelligent Automation, Inc., USA
Peng Liu                Pennsylvania State University, USA
Frank Liu               Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA
William Mcquay     AFRL, USA
John Meier             Boeing, USA
Priya Ranjan          Human Development Foundation, India
Volkmar Schau       Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Waleed Smari        University of Dayton, USA
Jose Vidal             University of South Carolina

(*Additional committee members may be available pending confirmation
shortly.)

For information or questions about Conference's paper submission,
tutorials, posters, workshops, special
sessions, exhibits, demos, panels and forums organization, doctoral
colloquium, and any other information
about the conference location, registration, paper formatting, etc., please
consult the Conference’s web
site at URL: http://cts2012.cisedu.info/  or contact one of the
Conference's organizers or Co-Chairs:
Geoffrey C. Fox at gcf at indiana.edu  and Waleed W. Smari at Smari at arys.org.
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