[agents] CFP: Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation Workshop (ACAN 2010) @ AAMAS

[Valentin Robu]

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ACAN 2010 Call for Papers.

The Third International Workshop on
Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations (ACAN10).

To be held in conjunction with
the Eighth International Joint Conference on
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2010),
Toronto, Canada, 10-14 May 2010.

http://www-itolab.mta.nitech.ac.jp/ACAN2010/

Submission page:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2010
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Important Dates
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*FEBRUARY 7th, 2010 - Submission of contributions to workshop
*MARCH 2, 2010 - Workshop paper acceptance notification
*MAY 10 and 11, 2010 - Workshop takes place in conjunction with AAMAS 2010

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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.

This year, ACAN will collaborate with ANAC (Automated Negotiating Agents
Competition).


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Submission
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Submission page:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2010

Submissions should conform to the ACM SIG style (see
http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates for more
details) and should not be more than 8 pages long (excluding appendices).
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).



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Organization
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Organizing Chairs
Takayuki Ito (MIT, US / Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
Minjie Zhang (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Valentin Robu (University of Southampton, UK)
Shaheen Fatima (Loughborough University, UK)
Tokuro Matsuo (Yamagata University, Japan)
Naoki Fukuta (Shizuoka University, Japan)
Hirofumi Yamaki (Nagoya University, Japan)
Miquel Angel Lopez Carmona (University of Alcala, Spain)
Quan Bai (CSIRO, Australia)

Program Committee (TBD)
Hiromitsu Hattori (Kyoto University, Japan)
Mark Klein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 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)
Ivan Marsa Maestre (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)