Sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Self-organisation in Multi-agent Systems (SOMAS) Date: July 27-28, 2000 Milton Keynes, UK A Workshop organised by the Emergent Computing Network http://images.ee.umist.ac.uk/emergent/ Call for Contributors 1 Introduction Multi-agent systems (MAS) are collections of interacting autonomous entities. The behaviour of the MAS is a result of the repeated asynchronous action and interaction of the agents. Understanding how to engineer self-organisation is thus central to the application of agents on a large scale. Multi-agent simulations can also be used to study emergent behaviour in real systems. Interest in large-scale systems of agents is growing, as is illustrated by the recent Framework Five (Future and Emergent Technologies) action on the so-called Universal Information Ecosystem. Advances in telecommunications and the spread of the Internet, electronic commerce, etc. mean that information infrastructure operates as a global dynamic system. As time passes, the density and diversity of interconnections in such system will increase rapidly. Moreover, such systems are being required to service the needs of a diverse set of users (whatever their distinctive needs), not just a virtual 'representative' user. Thus, such systems must adapt to personal requirements, by providing highly customised packages of services. Simultaneously providing highly diverse services to a huge user population in an enormous, interconnected system is a task beyond centralised management techniques. The only way to manage this form of agent-based system is to utilise its emergent properties to make it self-organising and self-regulating. Desirable self-organisation is observed in many biological, social and physical systems. However, fostering these conditions in artificial systems proves to be difficult and offers the potential for undesirable behaviours to emerge. Thus, it is vital to be able to understand and shape emergent behaviours in agent based systems. Current mathematical and empirical tools give only a partial insight into emergent behaviour in large, agent-based societies. The goal of this workshop is to open a dialog among practitioners from diverse fields, including: agent based systems, complex systems, AI, optimisation theory and non-linear systems, neural networks, evolutionary computation, neuro-biology, and computer science The workshop will focus on localised means of measuring, understanding, and shaping emergent behaviour in large scale distributed systems. The workshop represents an important opportunity for those active or interested in emergent behaviour research, to hear about current work, discuss future directions and priorities, and form invaluable research contacts. 2 Venue and Format The Workshop will commence on July, 27th and will take place over 2 days at the BT Conference Facility in Milton Keynes, UK. Since the primary goal of this workshop is to provide time for communication between presenters and attendees ample opportunity will be provided for structured discussion. A detailed programme will be issued by June, 2000. 3 Invited Speakers We have a promising list of invited speakers to address the workshop's theme from a variety of perspectives. Names will be announced as they are confirmed. 4 Call for Contribution You are invited to contribute to this workshop. Your 250-300 word abstract should include title, authors, affiliations, keywords, source of external support (if any) and the body of the abstract should stress the relevance of your work to the workshop topic. All accepted talks will be allocated 20-25 minutes. Speakers will be asked to provide copies of their overheads for inclusion in the Workshop information pack. Selected contributions from this workshop and others in the series will be published by Springer-Verlag as a highlighted volume of their "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" series. Detailed submission instructions for this series publication will be issued later. 5 Registration Details of workshop registration are forthcoming. Please contact one of the organizers, listed below. 6 General Enquiries To obtain submission or registration instructions, or to make any general questions relating to this Workshop, please contact one of the organizers: Paul Kearney BT Labs, Adastral Park Phone: 01473 605544 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Robert Smith The Intelligent Computer Systems Centre The University of The West of England Phone: 0117 942 1495 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andy Wright BAe Sowerby Research (currently a Visiting Fellow at Bristol University) Phone: 0117 95 46883 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 7 Important Dates: Abstract Submission Deadline: May 21st, 2000 Notification of Acceptance of Abstract: June 30, 2000. Workshop Dates: July 27th-28th, 2000 8 Emergent Computing Workshop Series This is the 6th workshop being organised by the `Emergent Computing' network, to bring together multi-disciplinary ideas from complex systems, AI, optimisation theory and non-linear systems, neural networks, neuro-biology and computer science. The workshops are: 1. Self-Organising Systems at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK 2. Spatially Distributed Nonlinear Systems at the University of Leeds, UK (December 1999) 3. Associative Computing at the University of York, UK (February 2000) 4. Emergent Computation in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Hertfordshire, UK (April 2000) 5. Strategies for Implementing Large Scale Emergent Computing Systems at the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK (June 2000) 6. Self-organisation in Multi-agent Systems (SOMAS) at The BT Conference Centre, Milton Keynes, UK (July 27-28, 2000).
