CALL FOR PAPERS The Third International Workshop on AGENT THEORIES, ARCHITECTURES, AND LANGUAGES (ATAL-96) To be held at ECAI-96, Budapest, Hungary, August 12--13, 1996 http://www.dfki.uni-sb.de/~jpm/atal96.html Introduction The emergence of intelligent agent technology is one of the most exciting and important events to occur in computer science during the 1990s. It is now widely accepted that this technology will play a central role in the development of complex distributed systems, networked information systems, and computer interfaces during the twenty-first century. The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers interested in the agent-level, micro aspects of this emerging technology. Specifically, the workshop will address such issues as the specification of agents via agent theories, agent architectures and decision-making, methodologies and languages for realising agents, and software tools for programming and experimenting with agents. In particular, the workshop will focus on the link between agent theories and the realisation of such theories using software architectures or languages. Issues such as agent communication languages also fall within the scope of the workshop. However, the submission of papers that address macro-level aspects of agent technology, (such as cooperative problem solving or cooperation protocols), is not encouraged. Such papers address mainstream multi-agent systems issues, and there are more appropriate forums for such work. The same holds true for papers that describe applications of agent-based technologies without clearly describing the underlying theory, architecture, or language. ATAL-96 will build on the success of two previous ATAL workshops. The first, ATAL-94, was held at the ECAI-94 conference; the second, ATAL-95, was held at IJCAI-95. The proceedings of both of these workshops have been formally published by Springer-Verlag, under the title `Intelligent Agents' (Volumes 1 and 2); the ATAL-94 proceedings were the best-selling LNAI volume of 1995. The proceedings of the 1996 workshop will be published in a similar way, soon after the workshop is held. As the title suggests, the workshop has three main themes: o Agent theories: How do the various components of an agent's cognitive makeup conspire to produce rational behaviour? What is the relationship between these components? What formalisms are appropriate for expressing aspects of agent theory? Do we need logic-based formalisms? If not, is another type of mathematical framework appropriate? How are we to model bounded rationality? What properties are desirable for an agent communication language? o Agent architectures: What structure should an agent have? Is reactive behaviour enough, or do we need deliberation as well? How can we integrate reactive and deliberative components cleanly? What is the relationship between an agent theory and architecture? How can we synthesise an agent from an agent specification? How are we to reason about reactive systems? o Agent languages: What are the right primitives for programming an intelligent agent? How are these primitives related to the theory of an agent, or its architecture? Papers that cross theme boundaries are of particular interest. Examples might include a paper that demonstrated how a particular architecture or language embodied some theory of agency, or a paper that gave the semantics for an implemented agent communication language. Topics of Interest Topics of interest include, but are by no means restricted to, the following: Agent Theories Agent Architectures intentions deliberative architectures time, desires, beliefs, and goals reactive architectures decision theory and agency hybrid architectures believable agents BDI architectures specification/verification of agents agent-based design methodologies executing logical agent specifications software agents models for reactive agents semantics of agent communication Agent Languages know-how, procedural knowledge, ability practical reasoning and rational choice the agent-oriented paradigm models for agent decision-making agent communication languages rationality & bounded rationality agent specification languages deliberation scheduling agent-based computing Submission Details Those wishing to participate in the workshop should submit an original paper of up to five thousand words (approximately thirteen pages maximum), to reach the organising committee chair no later than April 5, 1996. Electronic submission of papers in PostScript format is strongly encouraged. Alternatively, send *four* single-sided hard copies to reach the chair by April 5, 1996. The first page should include the full name and contact details (including email, full postal address, and telephone number if possible) of at least one author; detailed formatting instructions, (including a LaTeX style package), are available either from the workshop WWW site (see below) or on request from the organisers. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent no later than May 24, 1996, and will be delivered by email where possible. Pre-proceedings will be distributed at the workshop. As with ATAL-94 and ATAL-95, proceedings will be formally published soon after the workshop is held. Those wishing to attend without presenting a paper should send a brief summary of their reasons for interest in the workshop to the organising committee chair. Note that attendance will, of necessity, be limited. NOTE: EVERYONE ATTENDING THE WORKSHOP WILL BE REQUIRED TO REGISTER FOR THE MAIN CONFERENCE. Organising Committee Joerg P. Mueller (CHAIR) Email jpm@dfki.uni-sb.de DFKI GmbH Tel (+49 681) 302 5331 Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 Fax (+49 681) 302 5341 D-66123 Saarbruecken, Germany Michael Wooldridge Email M.Wooldridge@doc.mmu.ac.uk Department of Computing Tel (+44 161) 247 1531 Manchester Metropolitan University Fax (+44 161) 247 1483 Manchester M1 5GD, U.K. Nicholas Jennings Email N.R.Jennings@qmw.ac.uk Department of Electronic Engineering Tel (+44 171) 975 5349 Queen Mary & Westfield College Fax (+44 181) 981 0259 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, U.K. Program Committee Christiano Castelfranchi (Italy) Keith Clark (UK) Paul Cohen (USA) Phil Cohen (USA) Ed Durfee (USA) Tim Finin (USA) Klaus Fischer (D) Michael Fisher (UK) John Fox (UK) Fausto Giunchiglia (Italy) Piotr Gmytrasiewicz (USA) Hans Haugeneder (D) Sarit Kraus (Israel) John Jules Ch. Meyer (NL) Anand Rao (Australia) Jeff Rosenschein (Israel) Yoav Shoham (USA) Munindar Singh (USA) Aaron Sloman (UK) Donald Steiner (D) Kurt Sundermeyer (D) Milind Tambe (USA) Jan Treur (NL) Gerd Wagner (D) Further Details Either point your browser at: http://www.dfki.uni-sb.de/~jpm/atal96.html or contact any member of the organising committee. -- Michael Wooldridge | email M.Wooldridge@doc.mmu.ac.uk Department of Computing | http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/mikew.html Manchester Metropolitan University | tel (+44 161) 247 1531 Chester St., Manchester M1 5GD, UK | fax (+44 161) 247 1483