CFP: SELMAS'05 Workshop @ ICSE'05

["Huhns, Michael" <huhns@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

                   4th International Workshop on
       Software Engineering for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems
                              SELMAS'05

          "Software Everywhere -- Context-Aware Agents"

                           May 15-16, 2005
                     St. Louis, Missouri - USA
                    In conjunction with ICSE'05


      http://www.teccomm.les.inf.puc-rio.br/selmas2005/

THEME

Software is becoming present in every aspect of our lives, pushing us
inevitably towards a world of distributed, context-aware computing =
systems.
Multi-agent systems are a prominent technology to model and develop
context-aware computing systems, as MAS intrinsically consist of large
numbers of cooperating entities that consider their context in =
performing
their task. Thus, the role of context has recently gained great =
importance
in the field of agent-based computing. Context is any information about
the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which an agent is =
surrounded
that is considered relevant to the interaction between the agent and the
computing environment. Agents can follow contextually-appropriate =
behavior,
if they are able to sense and reason about the context in which they
are operating.

As a result, the development of such context-aware multi-agent systems
poses increasing challenges for software engineering teams. Multi-agent
systems may comprise a large number of software agents, which
operate in heterogeneous contexts. Agents may have varied skills and may
also be self-interested, unpredictable, and mobile. Thus, the challenges
posed by the agent paradigm require the development and refinement of
new techniques, practices, and tools that build upon sound engineering
principles.


GOALS

The goal of the 4th edition of SELMAS is to bring together researchers =
and
practitioners to discuss the current state and future direction of =
research in
software engineering for MASs. This workshop is also a forum to learn =
about
the latest research, and to discuss and exchange ideas concerning =
ongoing
work. Given the SELMAS'05 theme, other particular goals of this workshop =
are:

* Understand those issues in the agent technology that difficult and/or =
improve
the production of context-aware software systems;
* Provide a comprehensive overview of existing software engineering =
techniques
that may successfully cope with the complexity of context-aware =
multi-agent
software.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

The submitted papers should have a special emphasis on the impact of the =
agent technology in the development of large context-aware systems. =
However, the  workshop is intended to cover wide ranges of topics of =
software engineering for large-scale multiagent systems, from =
theoretical foundations to empirical studies. We also welcome the =
submission of papers in all aspects of agent-based software engineering, =
including the following (but are not limited to):
- Frameworks and software architectures
- Design patterns, design principles, and architectural styles
- Aspect-oriented techniques to MAS development
- Modeling languages
- Methodologies for agent-oriented analysis and design
- Pitfalls and learned lessons in the construction of large MAS
- Experiments and case studies
- Reflective software architectures
- Coordination architectures, infrastructures, and tools
- Domain-specific languages
- Requirements engineering
- Software reliability engineering
- Exception handling and fault-tolerance techniques
- Mobility and security issues
- Trustability issues
- Software engineering techniques for resource-bounded MAS
- Verification and validation techniques
- Testing and metrics
- Software development environments
- Comparative studies between the agent-oriented paradigm and other =
paradigms

FORMAT AND SUBMISSIONS

The format of the workshop will combine short presentations, panels and =
focused discussion groups. The number of participants will be between 30 =
and 40, and it will be restricted to authors of accepted papers and to a =
few invited guests. We encourage authors to present novel ideas, =
critique of existing work, and practical studies and experiments, which =
demonstrate how software engineering techniques can assist the =
development of large-scale multi-agent systems.

Prospective participants should submit electronically a position paper =
(between 4 and 7 pages) in PDF format via the workshop web site by =
February 21, 2005. More detailed guidelines for successful submissions =
can be found at: =
http://www.teccomm.les.inf.puc-rio.br/selmas2005/cfp.htm

It is the aim of the organizers to publish a post-workshop book as part =
of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series of Springer-Verlag, =
following the tradition established for the previous SELMAS editions.


IMPORTANT DATES
Paper Submission: 21 February 2005
Acceptance Notification: 21 March 2005
Camera-Ready Due: 4 April 2005

ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

Alessandro Garcia, PUC-Rio - Brazil
Ricardo Choren, IME - Brazil
Carlos Lucena, PUC-Rio - Brazil
Alexander Romanovsky, University of Newcastle upon Tyne - UK
Tom Holvoet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium
Paolo Giorgini, University of Trento - Italy

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Natasha Alechina, University of Nottingham (UK)
Eduardo Alonso, City University London (UK)
Ronald Ashri, University of Southampton (UK)
Bernhard Bauer, Universit=E4t Augsburg (Germany)
Carole Bernon, IRIT (France)
M. Brian Blake, Georgetown University (USA)
Paolo Bresciani, IRST (Italy)
Jean-Pierre Briot, LIP 6 - Universit=E9 Paris VI (France)
Giacomo Cabri, Universit=E0 di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy)
Jaelson Castro, UFPE (Brazil)
Massimo Cossentino, Universit=E9 di Palermo (Italy)
Scott Cost, U. of Maryland Baltimore County (USA)
John Debenham, U. of Technology, Sydney (Australia)
Juergen Dix, The University of Manchester (UK)
Carlos =C1ngel Fern=E1ndez, U. Polit=E9cnica de Madrid (Spain)
Martin Fredriksson, Blekinge Institute of Tech. (Sweden)
Chiara Ghidini, ITC-irst (Italy)
Marie-Pierre Gleizes, IRIT (France)
Zahia Guessoum, LIP 6 - Universit=E9 Paris VI (France)
Brian Henderson-Sellers, University of Technology, Sydney (Australia)
Karen Henricksen, University of Queensland (Australia)
Jadwiga Indulska - The University of Queensland (Australia)
Catholijn Jonker, Vrije U. Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Manuel Kolp, ISYS - University of Louvain (Belgium)
Jos=E9 Carlos Maldonado, USP - S=E3o Carlos (Brazil)
Viviana Mascardi, Universit=E0 degli Studi di Genova (Italy)
Haralambos Mouratidis - University of East London (UK)
James Odell, OMG (USA)
Eugenio Oliveira, Universidade do Porto (Portugal)
Andrea Omicini, Universit=E0 di Bologna (Italy)
Sascha Ossowski, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain)
Loris Penserini - ITC-IRST (Italy)
Gustavo Rossi, U. Nacional de La Plata (Argentina)
Ana Garcia Serrano, Technical University of Madrid (Spain)
Juan Manuel Serrano, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain)
Onn Shehory, IBM - Research Center in Haifa (Israel)
John Shepherdson, British Telecommunications (UK)
Arndt von Staa, PUC-Rio (Brazil)
Michael Stal, Siemens AG (Germany)
Walt Truszkowski, NASA (USA)
Danny Weyns, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
Michael Winikoff, RMIT University (Australia)
Franco Zambonelli, U. di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy)
Andrea Zisman, City University London (UK)