The Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MABS) workshop is the thirteenth of a series that began in 1998 (http://www.pcs.usp.br/~mabs/). Its scientific focus lies in the confluence of social sciences and multi-agent systems, with a strong application/empirical vein, and its emphasis is stressed on  exploratory agent based simulation as a principled way of undertaking scientific research in the social sciences and (ii) using social theories as an inspiration to new frameworks and developments in multi-agent systems.

The excellent quality level of this workshop has been recognized since its inception and its proceedings have been regularly published in Springer's Lecture Notes series. MABS 2015 will be hosted at AAMAS 2015, the 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 4th-5th, 2015.

The range of technical issues that MABS has dealt with and continues to deal with is diverse and extensive and includes:

• Simulation methodologies:

• • standards for MABS
  • methodologies and simulation languages for MABS
  • simulation platforms and tools for MABS
  • visualization and analytic tools
  • approaches for large-scale simulations
  • scalability and robustness in MABS
  • Data-driven simulations
  • MABS that link real-world data in real time.
  • Handling Big Data in MABS including sense-making
  • Simulation modelling of multidirectional (bottom-up and top-down) dynamics in complex social systems
  • Provenance and ontology-driven approaches in building simulations
  • Design and analysis of simulation experiments including uncertainty analysis
  • Synthetic population generation

• Simulation of social and economic behavior:

• • formal and agent models of social behavior
  • cognitive modeling and social simulation
  • game theory and simulation
  • social structure: social networks and simulating organizations
  • simulating social complexity (e.g. structures and norms, social order, emergence of cooperation and coordinated action, self-organization, the micro-macro link)
  • Use of qualitative Evidence to inform behavioral rules

• Applications:

• • MABS in environmental modeling
  • agent-based experimental economics
  • participative-baMABS and games
    
    These topics are important for both the MAS community doing simulation, and for economic/social/organizational scientists doing simulation. The workshop is therefore relevant to the main conference, as simulation is one of the topics of the latter. On the other hand, as the workshop is already established as an important event during the conference it will bring more attendees from the social and economic domains to the main conference.