[agents] CFP: Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations (ACAN'09) Workshop @ AAMAS'09

[Valentin Robu]

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ACAN 2009 Call for Papers.

The Second International Workshop on
Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations (ACAN09).

To be held in conjunction with
the Eighth International Joint Conference on Autonomous and Multi- Agent
Systems (AAMAS 2009),
10-15 May 2009

http://www-itolab.mta.nitech.ac.jp/ACAN2009/

Submission page:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2009
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Scope and Background
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Complex Automated Negotiations have been widely studied and are
becoming an important, emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and
Multi-Agent Systems.  In general, automated negotiations can be complex,
since there are a lot of factors that characterize such
negotiations. These factors include the number of issues, dependency
between issues, representation of utility, negotiation protocol,
negotiation form (bilateral or multi-party), time constraints, etc.
Software agents can support automation or simulation of such complex
negotiations on the behalf of their owners, and can  provide them with
adequate bargaining strategies. In many multi-issue bargaining
settings, negotiation becomes more than a zero-sum game, so bargaining
agents have an incentive to cooperate in order to achieve efficient
win-win agreements. Also, in a complex negotiation, there could be
multiple issues that are interdependent. Thus, agent's utility will become
more complex than simple utility functions. Further,
negotiation forms and protocols could be different between bilateral
situations and multi-party situations. To realize such a complex
automated negotiation, we have to incorporate advanced Artificial
Intelligence technologies includes search, CSP, graphical utility
models, Bays nets, auctions, utility graphs, predicting and learning
methods. Applications could include e-commerce tools, decision-making
support tools, negotiation support tools, collaboration tools, etc. We
solicit papers on all aspects of such complex automated negotiations in
the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, including but not
limited to:

- Complex Negotiations
- Multi-Issue Negotiations
- Concurrent Negotiations
- Multiple Negotiations
- Sequential Negotiations
- Bilateral Negotiations
- Multilateral negotiation
- Negotiation and Coordination Mechanisms
- Negotiation under Asymmetric Information
- Large Scale Negotiation
- Matchmaking and Brokering Mechanisms
- Coordination for Local and Global Consistency
- 2-sided Matching
- Predicting Opponent's Behaviours in Negotiation.
- Utility models and Preference models
- Complexity aspects of Multi-issue negotiation
- Negotiation Simulation
- Negotiations in Social Networks
- Preference Elicitation
- Practices

These issues are being explored by researchers from different
communities in Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent systems. They are, for
instance, being studied in agent negotiation, multi-issue
negotiations, auctions, mechanism design, electronic commerce, voting,
secure protocols, matchmaking & brokering, argumentation, and co-
operation mechanisms. The goal of this workshop is to bring together
researchers from these communities to learn about each other's
approaches, form long-term collaborations, and cross-fertilize the
different areas to accelerate progress towards scaling up to larger and
more realistic applications.

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Important dates
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* FEBRUARY 8, 2009 - Submission of contributions to workshop
* MARCH 1, 2009 - Workshop paper acceptance notification
* MAY 10 and 11 - Workshop takes place in conjunction with AAMAS 2009

Please note that these are preliminary dates, which will be confirmed in
the next few weeks.


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Submission
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Submission page:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2009

The workshop welcomes submissions of original works relevant to the topics
described above. This year, the workshop will accept
submissions of both full papers (maximum 8 pages) and short papers
(maximum 4 pages).

For gathering high quality papers, each paper needs to be reviewed by at
least two PC members or experts in the field.  Acceptance standards
include its technical soundness, novelty, impact and readability.
Also, we will assume that papers accepted should have full-paper
quality with small revisions for special issue in a journal.

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Organization
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Organization Chairs
Takayuki Ito (Massachustts Institute of Technology, US / Nagoya
Institute of Technology, Japan)
Minjie Zhang (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Valentin Robu (National Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, the
Netherlands)
Shaheen Fatima (Loughborough University, England)
Tokuro Matsuo (Yamagata University, Japan)
Naoki Fukuta (Shizuoka University, Japan)
Hirofumi Yamaki (Nagoya University, Japan)

Program Committee
Hiromitsu Hattori (Kyoto University, Japan)
Mark Klein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States)
Brahim Chaib-draa (Laval University, Canada)
Joaquin Delgado (Yahoo, inc., United States)
Wei Li (Central Queensland University, Australia)
Katia Sycara (Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States)
Paul Scerri (Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States)
Zili Zhang (Deakin University, Australia)
Guoming Lai (Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United State)
Miniar Hemaissia (THALES Research & Technology France, France)
Miquel Angel Lopez Carmona (University of Alcala, Spain)
Marsa Maestre Ivan (University of Alcala, Spain)
Catholijn Jonker (Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands)
Koen Hindriks (Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands)
Pedro Szekely (USC/ISI, United States)
Lotzi Boloni (University Florida, United States)
Kate Larson (University of Waterloo, Canada)