4^th Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Applications

Focusing on a fundamental area of research in Artificial Intelligence, the 4th MASTA workshop will be, in the context of EPIA’07, the forum for presenting and discussing the most recent and innovative work in the area of multi-agent systems.

Departing, from the end of the 1980’s, from the two main branches of Decentralized AI and Distributed Problem Solving, research in Distributed Artificial Intelligence/Multi-Agent Systems has developed in areas of increase specialisation and autonomy as diverse as: agent-oriented programming and software engineering; cognitive modelling; swarm intelligence; coordination in MAS; social organisation modelling; social simulation; agent architectures; and many more.

Topics of Interest

- Agent Architectures
- Agent Programming Languages
- Agent-Based Applications
- Agent-Oriented Software Engineering
- Automated Negotiation and Decision Making
- Artificial Social Systems
- Cognitive models, including emotions and philosophies
- Cooperative Information Agents
- Communication: languages, semantics, protocols, and conversations
- Cooperation, Coordination and teamwork in MAS
- Ethical and legal issues raised by Agents and MAS
- Multi-Agent Evolution, Adaptation and Learning
- Multi-Agent Simulation & Modelling
- Formal Methods for Modelling Agent-Based Systems
- Scalability and Performance of MAS
- Industrial and Commercial Applications

Scope

Technical Description

Following the previous workshops on autonomous software agents and multi-agent systems that have been organized in the context of the EPIA conferences (MASTA in 1997, 2001 and 2005), the purpose of this workshop is to provide a high-profile, internationally respected discussion forum on the most recent and innovative scientific research and applications in the areas of multi-agent systems and autonomous agents. As in previous occurrences of MASTA, the unifying focus of the workshop will be on the methodological aspects. Both theoretical research and more practical one should be situated in the context of existing/new methodologies for agent-oriented software engineering. This framework is not intended to preclude any specific topic, but preference will be given to research work establishing some connection with the methodological aspects or to successful applications built upon some existing or developing methodology. Theoretical papers should make clear the significance and relevance of the theoretical results to the Multi-Agent community, while more practical, applied ones, should clearly relate to the state of the art and make clear their own contribution.

Interest of the Workshop

Since 1993 the area of Multi-Agent Systems / Distributed Artificial Intelligence has been present in the EPIA conferences, both as individual tracks in the main conference and as specific workshops. This is still a fundamental area of research in artificial intelligence as, for instance, the success of well known international AAMAS conferences has demonstrated. Therefore, we believe that it is crucial that the next Portuguese AI conference should provide a specific slot for presenting the most recent work in the area of multi-agent systems. Besides that, previous MASTA workshops were always a success in the context of EPIA. MASTA’05 was the most attended workshop in EPIA’05 having the largest number of submissions (36 out of 167), clearly showing the high attraction of Multi-Agent Systems area in the context of EPIA conference. 

Organising Committee

Luis Paulo Reis (contact person),
LIACC – Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciência de Computadores,
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal
Tel. +351 91 9455251
Fax. +351 22 5081443
http://www.fe.up.pt/~lpreis
E-mail: Este endereço de email está protegido contra spam bots, pelo que o Javascript terá de estar activado para poder visualizar o endereço de email

João Balsa
Departamento de Informática,
Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, Bloco C6, Piso 3,
Campo Grande, 1700 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel: +351 21 7500508
Fax: +351 21 7500084
http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jbalsa/
E-mail: Este endereço de email está protegido contra spam bots, pelo que o Javascript terá de estar activado para poder visualizar o endereço de email

Paulo Novais
Departamento de Informática,
Universidade do Minho
Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga
Tel: +351 253 604437
Fax: +351 253 604471
http://www.di.uminho.pt/~pjn/
E-mail: Este endereço de email está protegido contra spam bots, pelo que o Javascript terá de estar activado para poder visualizar o endereço de email

Eugénio Oliveira
LIACC – Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciência de Computadores,
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal
Tel. +351 22 5081829
Fax. +351 22 5081443
http://www.fe.up.pt/~eol/MEMBERS/eco.html
E-mail: Este endereço de email está protegido contra spam bots, pelo que o Javascript terá de estar activado para poder visualizar o endereço de email  

Program Committee

Ana Paiva (IST, Univ. Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
Ana Paula Rocha (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)
Andrea Omicini (DEIS, Italy)
Andreia Malucelli (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Curitiba, Brazil)
António Rocha Costa (Univ. Católica de Pelotas, Brazil)
Cristiano Castelfranchi (ISTC/CNR ,Italy)
David Hales (Università di Bologna, Italy)
Eugénio Oliveira (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)
Hélder Coelho (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Isabel Praça (ISEP/IPP, Portugal)
Sherief Abdallah (British Univ.Dubai, UAE)
Jaime Sichmann (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)
João Balsa (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
João Leite (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
John-Jules Meyer (University of Utrecht, Netherlands)
Jordi Sabater (IIIA, CSIC, Spain)
Jorg Muller (Siemens AG, Germany)
Jorge Louçã (ISCTE, Portugal)
Julian Padget (University of Bath, UK)
Klaus Fischer (DFKI, Germany)
Luis Antunes (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Luís Moniz (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Luís Nunes (ISCTE, Portugal)
Luís Paulo Reis (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)
Marie-Pierre Gleizes (Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, France)
Mark d'Inverno (Westminster University, UK)
Mikhail Prokopenko (CSIRO ICT Centre, Sidney, Australia)
Nikos Vlassis (Technical University of Crete, Greece)
Nuno Lau (Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)
Oliver Obst (University of Newcastle, Australia)
Paolo Petta (Austrian Research Institute for AI, Austria)
Paul Guyot (NII, Tokyo, Japan)
Paul Valckenaers (Katholic University Leuven, Belgium)
Paulo Leitão (IP Bragança, Portugal)
Paulo Novais (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)
Reinaldo Bianchi (FEI – São Paulo, Brazil)
Virginia Dignum (University of Utrecht, Netherlands)
Wojtek Jamroga (Clausthal University of Technology, Germany)
Yves Demazeau (IMAG, Grenoble, France)