[agents] Final CfP: EMAS at AAMAS2015

[Matteo Baldoni]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Like previous edition, the post-proceedings is planned to be published
as a:

                            Springer LNAI volume

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper submission deadline:                            20 February 2015
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                      3rd International Workshop on
                     Engineering Multi-Agent Systems
                              (EMAS 2015)

                           5 and/or 6 May 2015

                            Istanbul, Turkey
                 (held in conjunction with AAMAS 2015)

             URL: http://www.di.unito.it/~baldoni/EMAS2015/

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                            CALL FOR PAPERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The engineering of multi-agent systems  (MAS) is a  complex  activity.
These systems consist of multiple autonomous  and heterogeneous  agen-
ts, and the system's proper behavior depends on the effective interac-
tion of these agents. MAS have been used to a  certain extent in indu-
stry to realize self-* solutions, but a wider adoption  is hindered by
the fact that the  engineering  techniques for  building these systems
are not as mature as main-stream software engineering  techniques. Nu-
merous challenges have to be addressed:

* Design abstractions; how to effectively design agents and their
   interactions?
* Self-* capabilities; how to conceive and deliver self-* capabilities
   within new or existing solutions?
* Implementation solutions; how to effectively implement multi-agent
   coordination or organizations?
* Verification techniques; how to formally verify (un)desired proper-
   ties of individual agents and MAS?

These challenges can be tackled more effectively when considered toge-
ther within the overarching discipline  of MAS  engineering. For exam-
ple, design artifacts (e.g., agent or MAS  models) can be used to sup-
port and assist with debugging and testing. Another example is the de-
velopment of agent-oriented programming languages that result  in pro-
grams that are more readily verifiable. A final  example is the use of
declarative techniques for the design and implementation of self-* sy-
stems.

The International Workshop on Engineering  Multi-Agent Systems  (EMAS)
is the ideal venue for papers that relate to all aspects of agents and
MAS engineering. EMAS was created in 2013 as a merger of three separa-
te workshops (with overlapping communities) that focus on software en-
gineering aspects (AOSE), programming aspects (ProMAS), and applicati-
on of declarative techniques to design,  programming and  verification
(DALT). The EMAS community welcomes papers that describe lessons lear-
ned and engineering challenges and  solutions  identified in  building
and deploying multi-agent systems.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                           TOPICS OF INTEREST
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  The EMAS workshop aims to:

1- Progress and further develop the understanding of how to engineer
    multi-agent systems.
2- Bring together the communities that are concerned with the differe-
    nt aspects of engineering multi-agent systems, and by doing so, al-
    low for a better interchange of ideas among  communities,  thus ex-
    ploiting new and consolidated synergies.
3- Attract papers that report on  experiences and lessons learned from
    innovative applications of MAS.
4- Provide a "natural fit" for papers that describe  innovative ideas,
    solutions, and applications.
5- Investigate the use of MAS for the conception, implementation,  and
    deployment of self-* systems.

We thus call for papers that are concerned with any aspect of the engi-
neering of multi-agent systems. The list  of topics includes but is not
limited to:

* Programming frameworks, languages, models and abstractions for MAS
   ** cognitive notions such as beliefs, goals, plans
   ** social, organizational, and normative aspects
   ** agent coordination
   ** agent communication, trust, commitments, and reputation
   ** contracts, negotiation policies
   ** mobile agents

* Formal methods and declarative technologies for specification,
   verification and engineering of MAS
   ** semantics of multi-agent programming languages
   ** modal and epistemic logics for agent modeling
   ** game theory for multi-agent systems
   ** semantics of agent communication
   ** logic programming-based approaches for agent systems
   ** distributed constraint satisfaction
   ** declarative approaches to engineering agent-based systems
   ** high-level executable multi-agent specification languages
   ** algorithms for multi-agent programming (e.g., coordination,
      cooperation, negotiation)

* MAS software engineering methodologies and techniques, and development
   concerns
   ** software architectures for multi-agent systems
   ** qualities and tradeoffs of agent-based architectures
   ** goal-oriented design
   ** reusable design knowledge: patterns and reference architectures
   ** modeling languages for agents and MAS
   ** testing of agent-based software
   ** fault tolerance and load balancing for mobile MAS
   ** safety and security for mobile MAS deployment
   ** autonomy vs. dependability and robustness
   ** security and trust in multi-agent systems

* Interoperability and integration
   ** interoperability and standards for MAS
   ** standardization efforts for multi-agent systems
   ** integration of multi-agent and mainstream technologies
   ** integration of agents with legacy systems
   ** middleware integration of agent-based software
   ** implications of agent-based solutions on system development

* Tools and testbeds
   ** benchmarks and testbeds for comparing multi-agent programming
      languages and tools
   ** CASE tools for agent-oriented software development
   ** agent/environment/interaction/organization development tools
      and platforms
   ** generic tools and infrastructures for multi-agent programming
   ** coordination infrastructures for multi-agent systems

* Using MAS techniques for
   ** engineering self-* systems
   ** autonomic solutions
   ** systems of systems
   ** (semantic) service-oriented architectures
   ** multi-agent based simulation
   ** social engineering
   ** concurrent and distributed systems
   ** grid computing
   ** pervasive computing
   ** mobile/distributed applications

* Empirical studies and (industrial) experience reports on engineering
   MAS applications for
   ** e-health
   ** e-commerce
   ** e-learning
   ** socio-technical systems
   ** social networks
   ** (human-)robot systems
   ** big data
   ** crowd-based applications

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                        SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

We  welcome and  encourage  the submission  of high-quality,  original
papers, which  are not being submitted  simultaneously for publication
elsewhere.  Papers  should be written in  English, formatted according
to the Springer LNCS style,  and not exceed 16 pages. Paper submission
is electronic via the conference website.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                          WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pre-proceedings with all accepted papers are  provided  electronically
on a USB stick as part of the AAMAS workshop registration package. As-
suming a sufficient number of high-quality submissions,  we will  also
consider the publication of formal post-proceedings with an internati-
onal publisher. The post-proceedings of  EMAS  2013 (LNAI  8245), EMAS
2014 (LNAI 8758) have been published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture
Notes in Artificial Intelligence series.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                            IMPORTANT DATES
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Paper submission deadline:                    20 February 2015
Notification of acceptance/rejection:         10 March 2015
Camera-ready copies due:                      19 March 2015
Workshop Date:                                4 and/or 5 May 2015

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                          WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

* Matteo Baldoni (University of Torino, Italy)
* Luciano Baresi (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
* Mehdi Dastani (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)