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