Multi-Agent Programming Contest (MAPC 2012) -- CfP

[Tristan Behrens]

=== CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ===============

     Multi-Agent Programming Contest (MAPC 2012)
     http://multiagentcontest.org/2012

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1. AIMS AND SCOPE

This competition is an attempt to stimulate research in the area
of multi-agent system development and programming by
1. identifying key problems,
2. collecting suitable benchmarks, and
3. gathering test cases which require and enforce coordinated
     action
that can serve as milestones for testing multi-agent programming
languages, platforms and tools. We also expect that participating
at the contest helps to debug existing systems and to identify their
weak and strong aspects.

The performance of a particular system will be determined in a
series of games where the systems compete against each other.
While winning the competition is not the main point, we hope it will
shed light on the applicability of certain frameworks to particular
domains.



2. HISTORY

The Multi-Agent Programming Contest was initiated in 2005 and since
then it has passed through three distinct phases. The first phase began in
2005 with the "food-gatherers"-scenario, where a pre-specified multi-agent
system had to be implemented. These MASs were later examined in order
to determine the winner. From 2006 - 2007 we ran the "goldminers"-scenario.
This time we provided the environment by means of an online-architecture,
and automatically determined the winner. Then from 2008 - 2010 we ran
the "cows and cowboys"-scenario. Again on the same online-architecture,
but this time with a slightly changed objective.



3. THE FOURTH PHASE: "AGENTS ON MARS"

In 2011 we began the fourth phase with the definition of a new scenario:
"Agents on Mars".
The goal is to implement a team of cooperating agents with different roles
in order to occupy zones on planet Mars. The challenge of the scenario is
its increased complexity, that is that we have defined 5 roles of agents with
different properties and capabilities. In this year's iteration we will work with
the 2011 scenario again.



4. ENROLLING

We would like to invite potential participants to join the MAPC 2012 list.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to

           agentcontest2012-subscribe [at] in.tu-clausthal.de

with the subject "subscribe". The confirmation request and welcome message
will be sent to you shortly afterwards. Please follow the instructions in the automatic
mailing list replies. And please do not hesitate to say hello on the mailing list.



5. PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

The participation in this contest consists of these parts:

1. Declaring the intent to participate by registering to the mailing list.
2. Submission of a short team description. Thus registering to the contest officially.
3. Participation in the contest tournament by taking part on the final tournament.
4. Submitting the source-code of your application right after the tournament.
5. Submission of a paper after the tournament.



6. ROUGH TIMELINE

Early April: release of the first software package.

Until June: preparing the final software package, that is fixing bugs,
adding useful functionality, and fine-tuning the scenario.

June: release of the final software package.

August: registration phase.

August: testing phase. In which you are invited to test
your agents using our servers.

End of August: qualification phase. In which you have to prove
that your agents' connections to our servers are stable and reliable.

Early September: tournament.

After tournament: publications.



7. PUBLICATIONS

After the tournament we invite every participant to submit a paper
about their team. The organizers will select a couple of high-quality
papers and publish them in the ProMAS 2012 post-proceedings.
The others will be published in the Department of Informatics,
Clausthal University of Technology, Technical Reports Series.



8. PRICE

The winner of the contest will be awarded with a voucher for
500 EUR worth in books, thankfully provided by Springer Verlag.
Requirements are the submission of a paper and the sourcecodes
of the agents.



9. PEOPLE

Organizers:
   Tristan Behrens (Clausthal University of Technology)
   Jürgen Dix (Clausthal University of Technology)
   Jomi Hübner (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
   Michael Köster (Clausthal University of Technology)
   Federico Schlesinger (Clausthal University of Technology)

Steering Committee:
   Mehdi Dastani (Utrecht University)
   Jürgen Dix (Clausthal University of Technology)
   Peter Novak (Delft University of Technology)