ADVANCED SCHOOL ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 94 (Escola Avancada em Inteligencia Artificial 94) Promoted by APPIA - The Portuguese AI Assotiation TITLE: Artificial Intelligence for Multi-Agent Systems: Methodologies and Applications LOCATION: Hotel do Mar Sesimbra/Portugal DATE: 25th - 30th of September 1994 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Eugenio Oliveira Helder Coelho Pavel Brazdil PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Eugenio Oliveira (U.Porto) Helder Coelho (U.Lisbon\& Inesc) Nick Jennings (Queen Mary College) Thies Wittig (Atlas Elektronik) Antonio Porto (New U.Lisbon) Pedro Barahona (New U.Lisbon) Pavel Brazdil (U.Porto) SPEAKERS (Provisional List): Edmund Durfee (Univ. Michigan-USA) Nick Jennigs (Univ. London- Queen Mary W.College) Thies Wittig (Atlas Elektronik- Research Dept.) Pavel Brazdil (University of Porto) Eugenio Oliveira (University of Porto) Helder Coelho (University of Lisbon) Camarinha de Matos (New University of Lisbon) Jacques Ferber (Laforia, Paris) (Minor changes to this list may occur) ====================================================================== MOTIVATION Distributed Artificial Intelligence is a discipline aiming to develop methods and techniques concerning the solution of complex problems by means of intelligent behaviour of a distributed system.The intelligence may either reside on separate unities called Agents or just emerge from their interconnection. Therefore, both types of agents: Cognitive and Reactive, may be used for implementing DAI systems and testbeds. Decision theories based either on symbolic or utilitarian policies are also respectively related with those types of Agents. Moreover, DAI can also be seen along another different axe as providing methods for Distributed Problem Solving (DPS) or for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) design. Research on Distributed Problem Solving is finding out how to divide the search for the solution among a number of cooperative modules, and how knowledge has to be shared in order to enable Agents joint work. Research in the Multi-agent area, concerns the intelligent coordination of pre-defined Agents, displaying a certain degree of autonomy, which join their intensions to take an action or solve a specific problem. A number of workshops and Conferences took place in the last 10 years, first in the United States (DAI Workshops), then in Europe (Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World - MAAMAW) and now in Japan (International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems - ISADS). Several books have also been published about the DAI theme. Bond and Les Gasser, Les Gasser and Huhns, Demazeau and Muller are the editors of several important collections of papers in DAI that give an overview of the different subjects under research as well as testbed implementations. Application domains where the DAI methods have been tried out include: Air traffic Control, Power Networks Management, Intelligent Robotics, Sensor Fusion, Automatic meeting schedule and others. This Advanced School will be more focused on the Symbolic approach to Multi-Agent Systems but, we hope, some hints on other directions (utilitarian decision strategies, Distributed Problem Solving methods) will also be taken into account. DAI Advanced School topics include: * Multi-Agent Systems Architectures (Cognitive, Reactive, Situated Agents) * Coordination: Cooperation, Negotiation and Conflict * Communication (protocols, languages and formalisms) * Multi-Agent Systems Applications and Testbeds * Distributed algorithms for multi-agent interactions * Learning in the Multi-Agent environment * Truth Maintenance in the Multi-Agent Systems * Conceptual and theoretical foundations of multi-agent Systems * Distributed Intelligence for Robotics and FMS * Agent-oriented Languages and Formalisms PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME OF THE ADVANCED SCHOOL ON AI FOR MAS September, 25th: Morning: DAI: A Survey of the Field Intensions in DAI Systems Afternoon: DAI Applications Strategies for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution September, 26th: Morning: DAI: Principles of Coordination Architectures for Multi-Agent Systems Afternoon: Pannel on Current Research Work in DAI DEMOS September, 27th: Morning: Learning in the Multi-Agent environment Truth Maintenance in the Multi-Agent environment Afternoon: FREE September, 28th: Morning: The Reactive Agent Paradigm Utilitarian Decision Policies for MAS Afternoon: DAI, Social Sciences and Economics DAI and CIM environments September, 29th: Morning: Modeling Cooperation and Coordination in DAI Systems Pannel on Cognitive versus Reactive Agents Afternoon: DAI Research in Portugal (Groups presentations) Closure ==================================================================== REGISTRATION DETAILS REGISTRATION FEE: Early (before 31/5/94) On site (sharing a double room) 75.000 85.000 (Portuguese Escudos) (single room) 90.000 100.000 (Portuguese Escudos) The price includes Room for 5 nights, Breakfast and Lunches Please send check, made payable to EAIA94, to: Eugenio Oliveira EAIA94 Chairperson Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Rua dos Bragas 4099 PORTO codex PORTUGAL ===================================================================== ===================================================================== NOTICE: PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE STATING YOUR INTENSION TO ATTEND THE SCHOOL TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS OR BY E-MAIL TO: eco@garfield.fe.up.pt =======================================================================