PRIMA 2014

Agent-based Computing addresses the challenges in managing distributed computing systems and networks through monitoring, communication,
consensus-based decision-making and coordinated actuation. As a result, intelligent agents and multi-agent systems have demonstrated the capability to use intelligence, knowledge representation and reasoning, and other social metaphors like 'trust', 'game' and 'institution', to not only address real-world problems in a human-like way but to transcend human performance. This has had a transformative impact on many application domains, particularly e-commerce, but also on planning, logistics, manufacturing, robotics, decision support, transportation, entertainment, emergency relief & disaster management, and data mining & analytics. As one of the largest and still growing research fields of Computer Science, agent-based computing today remains a unique enabler of inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary research. 

The PRIMA 2014 Program Committee invites submissions of original, unpublished, theoretical and applied work on any such topic, and encourages reports on the development of prototype and deployed agent systems, and of experiments that demonstrate novel agent system capabilities, which include the topics given below. Note: As last year, there will be a special track (special focus area) on applications of multi-agent systems. The papers for this track would report experiences on using agents in an application domain and also discuss the challenges (resolved and unresolved issues) in deploying them. In general, papers discussing lessons learned and general directions of research using agents are solicited for this track. This year, there will also be special tracks on "Big Data and Multi-Agent Systems" and "Agents for Computational Sustainability". Papers for the former special track would report on novel contributions of agents to sensing, archiving, analysing, sharing and/or visualising large datasets; papers for the latter track would report on innovative developments in using agents for management, curation and distribution of resources that supports sustainable development. 

Foundations of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 

• Logics of Agency 
• Logics of Multi-Agent Systems 
• Normative Systems 
• Computational Game Theory 
• Uncertainty in Agent Systems 
• Agent and Multi-Agent Learning 

Agent and Multi-Agent System Architectures 

• Agent Programming Languages and Platforms 
• Multi-Agent System Languages and Platforms 
• BDI Architectures and Extensions 
• Normative Multi-Agent Systems 

Agent-Oriented Software Engineering 

• AOSE Methodologies 
• Tools for Agent and Multi-Agent System Development 
• Formal Specification and Verification 
• Testing, debugging and evolution 
• Deployed System Case Studies 

Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation 

• Simulation Languages and Platforms 
• Artificial Societies 
• Virtual Environments 
• Workflow Simulation 
• Emergent Behaviour 
• Modelling System Dynamics 
• Application Case Studies 

Cooperation/Collaboration, Coordination/Communication 

• Agent Communication Languages and Protocols 
• Distributed Problem Solving 
• Teamwork Models 
• Coalition Formation 
• Argumentation 
• Negotiation 
• Bargaining 
• Auctions and Mechanism Design 
• Trust and Reputation 
• Computational Voting Theory 

Hybrid Technologies 

• Agents in Planning 
• Agent-Based Scheduling and Optimization 
• Distributed Constraint Satisfaction 
• Agents and Data Mining 
• Semantic Web Agents 
• Agents and Grid Computing 
• Agents and Service Oriented Computing 
• Agents and Pervasive Computing 
• Robotics and Multi-Robot Systems 
• Ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence 

Application Domains 

• Healthcare 
• Transport/Logistics 
• Emergency/Disaster Management 
• Energy/Utility Management 
• Sustainability/Resource Management 
• Games/Entertainment 
• eBusiness/eCommerce/eGovernment 
• eResearch/eLearning 
• Security/Surveillance 
• Smart Cities 
• Financial markets 
• Legal applications 

Applications 

• Adaptive Personal Assistants 
• Embodied Conversational Agents 
• Virtual Characters 
• Multi-Modal User Interfaces 
• Autonomous Systems 
• Mobile Agents 
• Human-Robot Interaction 
• Social Recommender Systems 
• Algorithmic trading agents