MASENV@MAGS

 
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                      C A L L   F O R   P A P E R S

      International Journal on Multiagent and Grid Systems (IOS Press)
      Special Issue on ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENTS FOR MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS
            
		   Eds. Danny Weyns and Andrea Omicini
    
      http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~distrinet/events/e4mas/2006/mags/
		http://www.iospress.nl/html/15741702.php


Important Dates:

Paper submission deadline : January 30, 2007
Paper notification        : March 15, 2007
Camera ready paper        : April 30, 2007
Planned publication       : September, 2007


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INTRODUCTION

The successful series of workshops on Environments for Multiagent Systems 
(E4MAS) at the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and 
Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) 2004, 2005, and 2006 have put the environment 
on the agenda of the multiagent system research community. Research on 
environments recognizes the environment as a first-class abstraction in 
multiagent systems. On the one hand, the environment is an essential part 
of any multiagent system, it is the part of the world in with which the 
agents interact and in which the effects of the agents will be observed 
and evaluated. On the other hand, the environment can also be used 
creatively in the design of multiagent systems. Agents can exploit the 
environment to share information and coordinate their behavior. A clean 
separation of agent and environment concerns helps to manage the huge 
complexity of engineering complex real-world applications.


GOAL AND SCOPE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE

The goal of the special issue is to give an overview of state-of-the-art research on environment engineering in multiagent systems. Topics include:  

- Responsibilities of environments in multiagent systems
- Modularization of environments
- Architectural patterns and software architecture for environments
- Aspect-oriented software development for environments 
- Middleware support for environments, object/tuplespace-like 
  infrastructure
- Technologies for the practical implementation of environments 
- Implementation frameworks 
- Description languages and design support for environments engineering 
- Design and implementation of:  
  - infrastructure for perception, actions and communication
  - indirect interaction through the environment, stigmergic approaches: 
    use of marks, digital pheromones, field-based approaches, overhearing, 
    tag-based interaction, etc.
  - role of the environment in social structures (roles, organizations,
    etc.) 
  - role of the environment in self-organizing systems (self-configuration,
    self-tuning, self-healing, etc.)
  - environment mediation, law-goverened interaction 
  - electronic institutions 
  - topology and distribution of environments
  - mobility 
  - environment engineering and practical applications
  - environment engineering for MAS simulation


SUBMISSIONS

We welcome the submission of original research papers that are not 
under review for a workshop, conference or other journal. We seek 
theoretical, experimental, methodological as well as application papers. 

Submissions will be peer reviewed by at least reviewers. Selection 
criteria include: relevance, technical correctness, originality of 
the contribution and quality of exposition. 

The submission should be 15-18 pages in length, including figures and 
references. The paper must be formatted according to the MAGS style 
(http://www.iospress.nl/html/15741702_ita.html). 
Submissions must be sent in PDF format to mags-e4mas@cs.kuleuven.be.


GUEST EDITORS

Danny Weyns, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Andrea Omicini, Universit� di Bologna, Italy


INFO - CONTACT

Website: http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~distrinet/events/e4mas/2006/mags/
Email: mags-e4mas@cs.kuleuven.be


REVIEWERS

- Sven Brueckner, USA 
- Yves Demazeau, France 
- Marco Dorigo, Belgium 
- Alexis Drogoul, France 
- Jacques Ferber, France 
- Tom Holvoet, Belgium 
- Franziska Kluegl, Germany 
- Marco Mamei, Italy 
- Fabien Michel, France
- James Odell, USA 
- Eugenio Oliveira, Spain
- H. Van Dyke Parunak, USA 
- John Sauter, USA 
- Carles Sierra, Spain
- Karl Tuyls, The Netherlands 
- Adelinde Uhrmacher, Germany
- Paul Valckenaers, Belgium 
- Mirko Viroli, Italy
- Franco Zambonelli, Italy 


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