[agents] PRIMA 2015: call for workshops and tutorials

[Matteo Baldoni]

PRIMA 2015
(http://prima2015.apice.unibo.it)
Call for Workshop and Tutorial Proposals


Call for Workshop Proposals

The PRIMA2015 Program Committee invites proposals for the Workshop 
Program, to be held on October 25 2015, immediately prior to the 
technical conference. PRIMA2015 workshops will provide settings enabling 
participants to discuss technical topics in an atmosphere that promotes 
active exchange of ideas. They can concentrate in-depth on research 
topics, or be devoted to application issues, or to questions concerning 
agent-based and multi-agent systems. Interdisciplinary workshops that 
bring together researchers and practitioners from different communities 
are especially welcome.

Workshops can vary in length from half a day to one day. Full-day 
workshops will have a program of typically 8 hours including two 
30-minute coffee breaks and a 90-minute lunch break. Half-day workshops 
will have a 4-hour program with a 30-minute coffee break. We encourage 
proposers to aim for a program that is both varied and interesting. 
Especially where the format of the workshop is concerned, we would like 
you to think about ways of going beyond the usual list of presentations 
of accepted papers, for example by means of panels, discussions, demo 
sessions and invited talks.

Post-proceedings of PRIMA workshops are traditionally published as a 
Springer LNAI volume.

PRIMA 2015 is going to propose a very convenient all-inclusive package 
with registration, accommodation, and meals for ca. 800 euros for the 
whole event, including workshops/tutorials. So there will be no need for 
separate fees; however, you should make it clear from the first 
publicity that it will not be possible to pay a lower fee to attend only 
workshops. There will be discounted fees for students.

Proposal Submission Requirements

Workshop proposals for PRIMA2015 should include:

* Title
* Specific topics to be addressed and specific goals
* Relevance and significance of this workshop to the main conference.
* The distinctive characteristics of the workshop, including workshop 
theme, how the workshop shall be run
* A history of the workshop, if not being offered for the first time
* Estimated paper submission volume and paper acceptance rate
* Expected attendance
* Length – Full day or half day
* Indication if post-proceedings or a journal special issue arrangement 
for the published workshop papers is in process
* A draft workshop call for papers with:
* Names, affiliations, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 
the workshop organizers, who should be experts in the related topics 
andqq preferably from multiple institutions
* The paper selection process
* A list of potential Program Committee members and their affiliations
* Important dates

Workshop proposals should not exceed five single spaced pages and should 
be submitted as a PDF file to be sent to Matteo Baldoni 
(baldoni at di.unito.it). Submissions will be acknowledged via email a few 
days past the proposal deadline.

Important dates

The following deadlines are important for the workshop organizers:

7 June 2015: Workshop proposal submissions due
15 June 2015: Notification of acceptance of workshop proposals
Workshop webpages and 1st cfp due: asap after notification
15 August 2015: Workshop paper submissions due
31 August 2015: Workshop paper notifications due
15 October 2015: Workshop proceedings due
25 October 2015: Workshop date

These deadlines are somewhat flexible, but consider as constraints that 
the paper submission deadline should be after conference author 
notification and acceptance notification should be before the conference 
early registration deadline.
The notification for the conference papers is scheduled for July 24. The 
early conference deadline will be around the second week of September.



Call for Tutorial Proposals

The PRIMA2015 Program Committee invites proposals for the Tutorial 
Program, to be held on October 25 2015, immediately prior to the 
technical conference. PRIMA 2015 Tutorials should serve one or more of 
the following objectives:

* Introduce novices to major topics of research in the PRIMA community
* Provide instruction in established practices and methodologies
* Survey a mature area of PRIMA research or practice
* Motivate and explain topic of emerging importance to the PRIMA community
* Survey an area of research especially relevant for people from industry

PRIMA 2015 is going to propose a very convenient all-inclusive package 
with registration, accommodation, and meals for ca. 800 euros for the 
whole event, including workshops/tutorials. There will be discounted 
fees for students. For this reason, we expect large attendance to 
tutorials.

The PRIMA organization will not hand on any material to attendees, but 
we expect tutorialists to upload their material (e.g. slides, software, 
…) online before the event.

Proposal Submission Requirements

Tutorials are intended to provide an overview of the field; they should 
present reasonably well-established information in a balanced way. 
Tutorials should not be used to advocate a single avenue of research, 
nor should they promote a product.

Following the successful “spotlight” format introduced by recent 
conferences (e.g., ECAI 2014), each tutorial is expected to last 2 hours.

If needed, the conference facility 
(http://www.ceub.it/default.asp?id=411) has a computer lab equipped with 
24 computers, projector and microphones, so feel free to proposed 
hands-on tutorials for a limited audience if they fall in the scope of 
PRIMA. Notice however that no software can be installed on the lab 
computers, so the hands-on experience should be done using web 
technologies. All rooms are equipped with WiFi and power sockets so it 
is also possible to organize hands-on sessions using the participants’ 
laptops. A list of participant will be given to the organizer after the 
early registration deadline (around the second week of September).

Proposals should be no more than three pages long and should be sent as 
a PDF file to Cristina Baroglio (baroglio at di.unito.it). Tutorial 
proposals should contain the following information:

* The name and e-mail address of the corresponding presenter
* Title and brief description of the tutorial
* Detailed outline of the tutorial
* Characterization of the potential target audience for the tutorial, 
including prerequisite knowledge
* If you need the lab or if you require any special equipment
* A motivation of why the tutorial topic would be of interest to the 
PRIMA audience
* A brief resume of the presenter(s), which should include name, postal 
address, phone and fax numbers, email address, background in the 
tutorial area, any available example of work in the area, evidence of 
teaching experience (including references that address the proposer's 
presentation skills as applicable), and evidence of scholarship in the 
area.

The evaluation of the proposal will take into account the level of 
general interest for PRIMA attendees, the quality of the proposal, and 
the expertise and skills of the presenters. The selection of the 
tutorials be based upon a number of factors, including: the 
scientific/technical interest of the topics, the quality of the 
proposal, the need to avoid strictly overlapping tutorials, and the 
unavoidable need to limit the overall number of selected tutorials.

Important Dates

15 June 2015: Deadline for tutorial proposals
30 June 2015: Notification of acceptance
15 October 2015: Deadline for uploading slides/tutorial notes on the 
tutors' personal web sites