[agents] CFP OptMAS at AAMAS17: International Workshop on Optimisation in Multi-Agent Systems

[Archie Chapman]

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CFP: International Workshop on Optimisation in Multi-Agent Systems (OptMAS)

To be held in conjunction with the Sixteenth International Conference on Autonomous and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2017), Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 8 or 9, 2017.
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The OPTMAS workshop invites work from different strands of the multi-agent systems community that pertains to the design of algorithms, models, and techniques to deal with multi-agent optimization problems, and applications of these to novel or interesting domains and real-world problems. 

OptMAS website: http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~wyeoh/OPTMAS2017 

Conference submission site: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=optmas2017

Important dates
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* February 7, 2017 - Workshop submission deadline

* March 2, 2017 - Workshop paper acceptance notification

* March 9, 2017 - Submission of camera-ready version

* May 8 or 9, 2017 - Workshop takes place in conjunction with AAMAS 2017


Background
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The number of novel applications of multi-agent systems has followed an exponential trend over the last few years, ranging from online auction design, through multi-sensor networks, to scheduling of tasks in multi-actor systems such as logistics and smart grids. Multi-agent systems designed for all these applications generally involve some form of very hard optimization problems that are substantially different from problems traditionally dealt with in other areas (e.g., industrial processes or job scheduling applications). More specifically, the technical issues that multi-agent algorithm designers have to deal with include:

*  Open systems: algorithms to compute solutions to mechanisms that deal with different stakeholders, who may be self-interested or may have different computation/communication capabilities from their peers.

*  Distributed systems: algorithms that are distributed across different system components, such as those that deal with agents that are tied to physical devices. This involves considerations of computation and communication constraints, and the possibility of failures of the components and/or communication links.

*  Privacy concerns: optimizing while minimizing the exchange of private information.

*  Solution quality bounds: problems requiring algorithms with quality bounds.

*  Robust optimization: techniques to deal with optimization problems that are repeated with only slight changes in the input data and/or that use unreliable input data.

*  Highly parallel architectures: e.g., multi-core, GPGPU, which deal with large-scale problems.

OptMAS places particular emphasis on distributed constraint reasoning (DCR) approaches, which include the modeling, formulation and solution of DCR problems, including both Distributed Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization Problems. DCR problems arise when pieces of information about variables, constraints or both are relevant to independent but communicating agents. They provide a promising framework to deal with the increasingly diverse range of distributed real world problems emerging from the evolution of computation and communication technologies. Papers addressing DCR-specific technical issues are welcome.


Keywords
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Topics include but are not limited to the theory and applications of:

*  Winner determination algorithms in auctions
*  Coalition formation algorithms
*  Scheduling and task allocation problems
*  Complete and incomplete algorithms for solving distributed constraint reasoning problems
*  Unified frameworks for distributed constraint reasoning
*  Handling privacy issues in multi-agent systems and distributed constraint reasoning
*  Algorithms to compute solutions to games (cooperative or non-cooperative)
*  Optimization under uncertainty
*  Optimization with incomplete or dynamic input data
*  Algorithms for real-time applications
*  GPU for general purpose computations (GPGPU)
*  Multi-core and many-core computing
*  Cloud, distributed and grid computing


Submission
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Participants should submit a paper (maximum *15* pages in LNCS Springer style), describing their work on one or more of the topics relevant to the workshop. Alternatively, participants may submit a shorter paper (maximum *5* pages in LNCS Springer style) presenting a research statement or perspective on topics relevant to the workshop.

Submissions should include the name(s), affiliations, and email addresses of all authors. We welcome the submission of papers rejected from the AAMAS 2017 technical program. 

The deadline for receipt of submissions is February 7, 2017. Papers received after this date may not be reviewed.

All submissions are conducted via the OptMAS 2017 EasyChair website: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=optmas2017


Reviewing process
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Papers will be reviewed by at least 2 program committee members. Criteria for selection of papers will include: technical quality, novelty, significance, and clarity.


Publication
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Pre-proceedings containing all accepted papers are provided electronically on a USB stick as a part of the AAMAS workshop registration package.


Best and Visionary papers
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The most “visionary paper” will be published by Springer in a book under the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) Hot Topics series. The book will be a compilation of the most visionary papers of the AAMAS2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS2017 workshop.

Additionally, the “best paper” will be published by Springer in a book under the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) series. The book will be a compilation of the best papers of the AAMAS2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS2017 workshop.

Authors of the selected most visionary paper and the best paper are expected to provide their latex files promptly upon request.


Organizing committee
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Dr. Archie Chapman, University of Sydney
Dr Sebastian Stein, University of Southampton
Dr. Long Tran-Thanh, University of Southampton
Dr. William Yeoh, New Mexico State University
Dr. Roie Zivan, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev


Programme Committee
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Bo An, Nanyang Technological University
Ana Bazzan, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Filippo Bistaffa, University of Verona
Ferdinando Fioretto, University of Michigan
Tal Grinshpoun, Ariel University
Cedric Herpson, University Pierre and Marie Curie
Katsutoshi Hirayama, Kobe University
Christopher Kiekintveld, University of Texas, El Paso
Sven Koenig, University of Southern California
Kate Larson, University of Waterloo
Amnon Meisels, Ben-Gurion University
Hala Mostafa, United Technologies Research Center
Gauthier Picard, ENS Mines Saint-Etienne
Juan Antonio Rodriguez Aguillar, IIIA-CSIC
Onn Shehory, IBM Haifa Research Lab
Marius Silaghi, Florida Institute of Technology
Rinde van Lon, KU Leuven
Mihaela Verman, University of Zurich
Meritxell Vinyals, CEA-LIST
Mohamed Wahbi, University College Cork
Harel Yedidsion, Ben-Gurion University
Logan Yliniemi, Oregon State University
Makoto Yokoo, Kyushu University


___
Dr Archie Chapman
Research Fellow in Smart Grids
Centre for Future Energy Networks, School of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of Sydney
Room 416, Electrical Engineering Building, J03 | University of Sydney | NSW 2006
E: archie.chapman at sydney.edu.au | T: +61 2 8627 0386 | F: +61 2 9351 3847