Agent-Directed Simulation Symposium (ADS'09)

Part of the 2009 Spring Simulation Multiconference (SpringSim'09)

 

Sponsored by: The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS)

in collaboration with
ACM/SIGSIM

Dates: March 22-27, 2009

San Diego, California

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Currently, there exist many agent conferences, as well as agent-based (social) simulation conferences. However, there are not many simulation conferences where agent and simulation technology are together a central theme. It is therefore that the ADS symposium fills a gap in the agent community as well as the simulation community.


The purpose of the ADS symposium is to facilitate dissemination of the most recent advancements in the theory, methodology, application, and toolkits of agent-directed simulation. Agent-directed simulation is comprehensive in the integration of agent and simulation technology, by including models that use agents to develop domain-specific simulations (this is often referred to as agent-based simulation), and by also including the use of agent technology to develop simulation techniques and toolkits that are subsequently applied, either with or without agents. Hence, agent-directed simulation consists of three distinct, yet related areas that can be grouped under two categories as follows:

  1. Simulation for Agents (agent simulation): simulation of agent systems in engineering, human and social dynamics, military applications etc.

  2. Agents for Simulation: agent-supported simulation deals with the use of agents as a support facility to enable computer assistance in problem solving or enhancing cognitive capabilities; agent-based simulation focuses on the use of agents for the generation of model behavior in a simulation study.

Through the theme of agent-directed simulation, the symposium will bring together agent technologies, tools, toolkits, platforms, languages, methodologies, and applications in a pragmatic manner. In this symposium, established researchers, educators, and students are encouraged to come together and discuss the benefits of agent technology in their use and application for simulation. It is a way for people to discuss why and how they have used agent technology in their simulations, and describe the benefit of having done so.
 

The theme of ADS'09 is based on the observation of the following premises.

  • The growth of new advanced distributed computing standards along with the rapid rise of e-commerce are providing a new context that acts as a critical driver for the development of next generation systems. These standards revolve around service-oriented technologies, pervasive computing, web-services, Grid, autonomic computing, ambient intelligence etc. The supporting role that intelligent agents play in the development of such systems is becoming pervasive, and simulation plays a critical role in the analysis and design of such systems.

  • The use of emergent agent technologies at the organization, interaction (e.g., coordination, negotiation, communication) and agent levels (i.e. reasoning, autonomy) are expected to advance the state of the art in various application domains. However, modeling and testing complex agent systems that are based on such technologies is difficult. Using agent-supported simulation techniques for testing complex agent systems is up and coming field.

  • To facilitate bridging the gap between research and application, there is a need for tools, agent programming languages, and methodologies to analyze, design, and implement complex, non-trivial agent-based simulations. Existing agent-based simulation tools are still not mature enough to enable developing agents with varying degrees cognitive and reasoning capabilities.

ADS 2009 will provide a leading forum to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse simulation societies within computer science, social sciences, engineering, business, education, human factors, and systems engineering. The involvement of various agent-directed simulation groups will enable the cross-fertilization of ideas and development of new perspectives by fostering novel advanced solutions, as well as enabling technologies for agent-directed simulation.
 

 

Program Topics:

 

Technical and position papers are solicited on the theory, methodology, technology, tools, toolkits, and environments as well as applications. Topics include, but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Theory/methodology:
     

    • High-level agent specification languages for modeling and simulation.

    • Agent programming and simulation modeling languages.

    • Distributed simulation for multi-agent systems.

    • Formal models of agents and agent societies.

    • Advanced agent features for agent simulation: e.g.,

    • Cooperation and coopetition modeling with holonic agents.

    • Agents with personality, agents with dynamic personality, agents with emotions, agents having different types of intelligence such as emotional intelligence, agents with several types of understanding abilities such as multivision understanding ability, trustworthy agents, moral agents.

    • Verification, validation, and testing of agent-directed simulations.
       

  • Technology, tools, toolkits, and environments:
     

    • Agent infrastructures and supporting technologies (e.g., interoperability, agent-oriented software engineering environments).

    • Modeling, design, and simulation of agent systems based on service-oriented technologies, pervasive computing, web-services, grid computing, autonomic computing, ambient intelligence.

    • Agent architectures, platforms, and frameworks.

    • Standard APIs for agent simulation programming.
       

  • Applications:
     

    • Simulation modeling of agent technologies at the organization, interaction (e.g., communication, negotiation, coordination, collaboration) and agent level (e.g., deliberation, social agents, computational autonomy).

    • Application of agent simulations in various areas such as biology, business, commerce, economy, engineering, environment, individual, group, and organization behavior, management, simulation gaming/training, social systems.

    • Conflict management simulation with holonic agents.

Author Guide:

  • Short position papers are targeted at raising a question or framing an issue for discussion during the symposium. Position papers are limited to 3 pages (min 10 pt, not including figures or references).
  • Technical papers provide a longer format for presenting experience reports, research results, or descriptions of  "work in progress". Technical papers are limited to 8 pages (min 10 pt).

If you wish to submit a position or technical paper please provide your manuscript by October 30, 2008 with the authors' complete addresses, phone, fax, and e-mail for consideration. Papers should be submitted electronically to http://www.softconf.com/scs/ADS09/ .  All technical  papers will be subject to a peer-reviewing process by three program committee members. A notification of acceptance will be sent by December 30, 2008. Full paper deadline is January 20, 2009

Final Paper Submission Guidelines:

All prospective authors, whose papers are accepted for inclusion in the program, will be invited to submit their position or technical  papers to ADS'08. Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings by the SCS. In addition, the committee will select a set of best papers. Authors of these papers will be encouraged to submit appropriately expanded versions of these papers for journal publication.

 

Key Dates:

 

Manuscript submission   October 30, 2008
Notification of acceptance    December 30, 2008
Full Camera-ready papers    January 20, 2009
ADS'08 Symposium   March 22-27, 2009


 

General Chair:

Dr. Tuncer Ören

SITE, Faculty of Engineering
University of Ottawa
800 King Edward, Room 4068
P.O. Box 450, Stn A
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5

 

 

 

 

Program Co-Chair:

Dr. Levent Yilmaz

Department of Computer Science

and Software Engineering

College of Engineering

Auburn University

Auburn, AL 36849 USA

Program Co-Chair:

Dr. Maarten Sierhuis
RIACS

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 USA 

 

Program Co-Chair:

Dr. Gregory Madey

Department of

Computer Science

and  Engineering

College of Engineering

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN 46556  USA

Publicity Chair:

Dr. Yu Zhang

Department of Computer Science

Trinity University

  

 

International Program Committee

Sponsored by The Society for Modeling and Simulation International

http://www.scs.org
P.O. Box 17900
San Diego, California 92177
Phone 858-277-3888
Fax 858-277-3930
E-mail scs@scs.org