Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2015)

Final Program Available. Check the Program page.
Proceedings Available. Check the Proceedings page.
Student Scholarships Available. Check the Bi Ci page.
Invited Speakers Announced. Check the Keynotes page.

Bertinoro

Agent-based Computing addresses the challenges in managing distributed computing systems and networks through monitoring, communication, consensus-based decision-making and coordinated actuation. As a result, intelligent agents and multi-agent systems have demonstrated the capability to use intelligence, knowledge representation and reasoning, and other social metaphors like 'trust', 'game' and 'institution', not only to address real-world problems in a human-like way but also to transcend human performance.

This has had a transformative impact in many application domains, particularly in e-commerce, and also in planning, logistics, manufacturing, robotics, decision support, transportation, entertainment, emergency relief & disaster management, and data mining & analytics. As one of the largest and still growing research fields of Computer Science, agent-based computing today remains a unique enabler of inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary research.

The PRIMA 2015 Program Committee invites submissions of original, unpublished, theoretical and applied work on any such topic, and encourages reports on the development of prototype and deployed agent systems, and of experiments that demonstrate novel agent system capabilities.


Following the last events in Australia (PRIMA 2014), New Zealand (PRIMA 2013), and Malaysia (PRIMA 2012), the 18th Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2015) will take place in Bertinoro, FC, Italy from 26 to 30 October 2015.


Bertinoro



Program

To download the program below in PDF format, click here

Program-pag01 Program-pag02 Program-pag03



Proceedings

The PRIMA 2015 proceedings are published by Springer as:

Chen, Q., Torroni, P., Villata, S., Hsu, J., Omicini, A. (Eds.): PRIMA 2015: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, 18th International Conference, Bertinoro, Italy, October 26-30, 2015, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 9387. Springer 2015, ISBN 978-3-319-25523-1. [order volume] [online version]


List of Accepted papers

Regular Papers

  • Julia Radoszycki, Nathalie Peyrard and Régis Sabbadin. "Solving F3MDPs: Collaborative Multiagent Markov Decision Processes with Factored Transitions, Rewards and Stochastic Policies"
  • Wen Shen and Cristina Lopes. "Managing Autonomous Mobility on Demand Systems for Better Passenger Experience"
  • Vinay Katiyar and David Clarance. "Norm Establishment in a Single Dimension Axelrod Model"
  • Mirko Viroli, Danilo Pianini, Alessandro Ricci, Pietro Brunetti and Angelo Croatti. "Engineering multi-agent systems with aggregate computing"
  • Alan White, Austin Tate and Michael Rovatsos. "CAMP-BDI: A Pre-emptive Approach for Plan Execution Robustness in Multiagent Systems"
  • Christopher Ewin, Adrian Pearce and Stavros Vassos. "Optimizing Long-running Action Histories in the Situation Calculus through Search"
  • Erica Calardo, Guido Governatori and Antonino Rotolo. "Semantics for Modelling Reason-based Preferences"
  • Takamasa Ihara, Shunsuke Tsuruta, Taiki Todo, Yuko Sakurai and Makoto Yokoo. "Strategy-proof Cake Cutting Mechanisms for the All-or-nothing Utility"
  • Toshihiro Matsui, Marius Silaghi, Tenda Okimoto, Katsutoshi Hirayama, Makoto Yokoo and Hiroshi Matsuo. "Leximin Asymmetric Multiple Objective DCOP on Factor Graph"
  • Muhammad Yasir, Martin Purvis, Maryam Purvis and Bastin Tony Roy Savarimuthu. "Dynamic Coalition Formation in Micro-grids"
  • Luigi Sauro. "On the Hierarchical Nature of Partial Preferences"
  • Sasha Rubin, Florian Zuleger, Aniello Murano and Benjamin Aminof. "Verification of Asynchronous Mobile-Robots in Partially-Known Environments"
  • Daniela Kengyel, Heiko Hamann, Payam Zahadat, Gerald Radspieler, Franz Wotawa and Thomas Schmickl. "Potential of Heterogeneity in Collective Behaviors: A Case Study on Heterogeneous Swarms"
  • Aniello Murano, Giuseppe Perelli and Sasha Rubin. "Multi-Agent Path Planning in Known Dynamic Environments"
  • Wojtek Jamroga and Aniello Murano. "Module Checking for Uncertain Agents"
  • Rinde R.S. van Lon and Tom Holvoet. "Towards systematic evaluation of multi-agent systems in large scale and dynamic logistics"
  • Barbara Dunin-Keplicz and Alina Strachocka. "Paraconsistent Multi-party Persuasion in TalkLog"
  • Simone Gabbriellini and Francesco Santini. "A Micro Study on the Evolution of Arguments in Amazon.com’s Reviews
  • Emiliano Lorini and Roland Mühlenbernd. "The long-term benefits of following fairness norms: a game-theoretic analysis"
  • Terry Payne and Valentina Tamma. "Using Preferences in Negotiations over Ontological Correspondences"
  • Vincent Koeman and Koen Hindriks. "Designing a Source-Level Debugger for Cognitive Agent Programs"
  • Rem Collier, Sean Russell and David Lillis. "Reflecting on Agent Programming with AgentSpeak(L)"
  • Kamilia Ahmadi and Vicki Allan. "Checking The Reliability of Information Sources in Recommendation Based Trust Decision Making"
  • Tibor Bosse, Jurriaan van Diggelen, Mark Neerincx and Nanja Smets. "Supporting Human-Robot Teams in Space Missions using ePartners and Formal Abstraction Hierarchies"
  • Yuko Sakurai, Masato Shinoda, Satoshi Oyama and Makoto Yokoo. "Flexible reward plans for crowdsourced tasks"
  • Daniele Porello. "Majoritarian Group Actions"
  • Sam Leask and Brian Logan. "Programming Deliberation Strategies in Meta-APL"
  • Tiep Le, Tran Cao Son and Enrico Pontelli. "Multi-context Systems with Preferences"
  • Chanjuan Liu, Fenrong Liu and Kaile Su. "A Dynamic-logical Characterization of Solutions in Sight-limited Extensive Games"

Short Papers

  • Stefania Monica and Federico Bergenti. "Kinetic Description of Opinion Evolution in Multi-Agent Systems: Analytic Model and Simulations"
  • Alexei Sharpanskykh and Rob Haest. "An Agent-based Model to Study Effects of Team Processes on Compliance to Safety Regulations at an Airline Ground Service Organization"
  • Sean Russell, Rem Collier and Gregory O'Hare. "Agent-Oriented Programming Languages as a High-Level Abstraction for the Development of Intelligent Behaviours for Wireless Sensor Network Applications"
  • Tânia Marques. "Towards a taxonomy of task-oriented domains of dialogue"
  • Xiuyi Fan and Francesca Toni. "Mechanism Design for Argumentation-based Information-seeking and Inquiry"
  • Yumemo Shiba, Haruka Umegaki and Toshiharu Sugawara. "Fair Assessment of GroupWork by Mutual Evaluation with Irresponsible and Collusive Students Using Trust Networks"
  • Mehdi Farhangian, Martin Purvis, Maryam Purvis and Bastin Tony Roy Savarimuthu. "Modeling the Effects of Personality on Team Formation in Self-assembly Teams"
  • Warda El Kholy, Mohamed El Menshawy, Amine Laarej, Jamal Bentahar, Faisal Al-Saqqar and Rachida Dssouli. "Real-Time Conditional Commitment Logic"
  • Malcolm Egan, Martin Schaefer, Michal Jakob and Nir Oren. "A Double Auction Mechanism for On-Demand Transport Networks"
  • Matteo Baldoni, Cristina Baroglio, Federico Capuzzimati and Roberto Micalizio. "Exploiting Social Commitments in Programming Agent Interaction"
  • Matteo Baldoni, Cristina Baroglio and Roberto Micalizio. "Social Continual Planning in Open Multiagent Systems"
  • Giuseppe De Giacomo, Yves Lespérance and Adrian Pearce. "Situation Calculus Game Structures and GDL"
  • Hossein Khani and Mohsen Afsharchi. "Security Games with Ambiguous Belifs of Agents"
  • Madalina Croitoru, Rallou Thomopoulos and Srdjan Vesic. "Introducing Preference-Based Argumentation to Inconsistent Ontological Knowledge Bases"
  • Francesco Olivieri, Matteo Cristani and Guido Governatori. "Compliant business processes with exclusive choices from agent specification"
  • Francisco Coelho and Vitor Nogueira. "Probabilistic Perception Revision in AgentSpeak(L)"
  • Christopher-Eyk Hrabia, Tobias Küster, Marcus Voß and Francisco Denis Pozo Pardo. "Adaptive Multi-Stage Optimisation for EV Charging Integration into Smart Grid Control"
  • Ewa Andrejczuk, Juan Antonio Rodriguez-Aguilar and Carles Sierra. "Collaborative Judgement"
  • Nils Bulling and Hoang Nga Nguyen. "Model Checking Resource Bounded Systems with Shared Resources via Alternating Büchi Pushdown Systems"
  • Tibor Bosse and Simon Provoost. "Integrating Conversation Trees and Cognitive Models within an ECA for Aggression De-escalation Training"
  • Agnieszka Zbrzezny and Andrzej Zbrzezny. "Checking WELTLK Properties of Weighted Interpreted Systems via SMT-based Bounded Model Checking"
  • Guillaume Aucher, Bastien Maubert, Sophie Pinchinat and Francois Schwarzentruber. "Games with communication: from belief to preference change"
  • Philippe Mathieu, Sebastien Picault and Yann Secq. "Design patterns for environments in multi-agent simulations"
  • Giovanni Sileno, Alexander Boer and Tom Van Engers. "Commitments, Expectations, Affordances and Susceptibilities: Towards Positional Agent Programming"
  • Joao Mario Lopes Brezolin, Sandro Rama Fiorini, Marcia De Borba Campos and Rafael H. Bordini. "Using Conceptual Spaces for Object Recognition in Multi-Agent Systems"


Keynotes

Speakers

Michael Mäs

Michael Mäs

What can social-influence models teach us about the design of personalized recommender systems?

ECCAI talk

Personalization dramatically changed the Internet. Search engines provide results tailored to the interests of each individual user. Online markets recommend products based on the purchases of other customers who bought similar products in the past. Social networks rank incoming messages according to users’ interests. Personalization is of great help for users and is a multibillion-dollar business area. However, pundits warn that personalization creates cocoons of like-minded users, which makes the Internet boring and uninspiring. More worryingly, however, it has been warned that exposing users to ideas, news, and information that support their views will reinforce their opinions and, thus, foster the polarization of political opinions. These warnings received increasing attention, as opinion polarization might endanger societal cohesion and pose a challenge for political decision-making, as it impedes political consensus formation also on non-controversial issues. Reviewing the literature on social influence in networks and the conditions of opinion polarization, I will demonstrate in this talk that state-of-the art theory leaves us with great uncertainty about the consequences of personalization. In fact, two highly accepted models of opinion dynamics make opposing predictions about the consequences of personalization: Persuasion models, on the one hand, predict that personalization will increase polarization. Rejection models, on the other hand, imply that personalization will foster consensus rather than polarization. There is, thus, a pressing need to clarify which model better captures the effects of personalization. Second, I will describe the design of controlled experiments conducted on online social networks that allow calibrating the agents of existing influence models, which will make it possible to derive reliable predictions about the consequences of web personalization. Third, I will discuss implications of social-influence models for the development of personalized recommender systems. I will sketch different approaches to developing systems that generate personalized outcomes without fostering opinion polarization. I will show that such systems cannot be developed without an accurate model of social influence. On a more general level, I will conclude that the development of technologies on the Internet that have the potential to affect societal dynamics should be guided by theoretical and empirical research. In models of complex systems, even small and seemingly innocent differences in the assumptions about the underlying micro-mechanisms can have critical effects on macro-outcomes. As information technology affects micro-mechanisms, it crucial to understand possible consequences before it is too late to intervene.

Franco Zambonelli

Franco Zambonelli

Coordination in Urban-scale Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems

Most of the emerging scenarios in the area of software-intensive systems and smart cities involve a very large number of interacting autonomous components (i.e., agents). In my talk, I argue that the peculiar features of such emerging multiagent systems (up to millions of interacting components, geographically-distributed over vast areas, mixing humans and artificial components, and lacking any form of central control) call for radically novel approaches to coordinate their overall activities and functionalities. In particular, during the talk, I will overview some representative scenarios of emerging large-scale multiagent systems in the area of urban computing, discuss the key challenges to be faced by research in coordination models and technologies, and eventually sketch some promising research directions.


Marc Cavazza

Marc Cavazza

Brain-Computer Interfacing to Agents

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) have attracted significant interest as an interaction technique, beyond their original potential for assistive technologies. While BCI are often seen as a low bandwidth input mechanism to control devices, they can also open a window on some high-level cognitive functions such as executive decision-making, risk taking and affective regulation. This is a consequence of the ability of BCI techniques to acquire signals from various areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex. In this talk, I will present recent and ongoing research exploring Brain-Computer Interfacing to agents, considering both virtual agents and rational agents. We have used several BCI techniques (EEG, fNIRS) to capture the activity of the prefrontal cortex in real-time, with a specific emphasis on measuring prefrontal cortex asymmetry. I will discuss how this type of BCI can be used in various agents systems, from communicating with Embodied Conversational Agents to influencing the behaviour of a heuristic search algorithm. Finally, I will discuss the new perspectives that BCI research could bring to some popular topics in Agents research.



PRIMA 2015 Workshops

ALL WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS WILL TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 26th

6th International Workshop on Empathic Computing (IWEC-15)

  • Information on the workshop
  • External link: http://www.ai.sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp/iwec2015/index.html
  • Organisers
    • Masayuki Numao - Department of Architecture for Intelligence, Osaka University (Japan)
    • Merlin Teodosia Suarez - Center for Empathic Human-Computer Interactions, De La Salle University (Philippines)
    • The Duy Bui - Human Machine Interaction Laboratory, Vietnam National University Hanoi (Vietnam)
    • Ma. Mercedes Rodrigo - Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)
  • Contacts

15th Workshop on Computational Models of Natural Argument (CMNA15)



PRIMA 2015 Tutorials

ALL WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS WILL TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 26th

Normative MAS and the Law: Norm Languages, Mining and Reasoning with Legal Texts

Slides available here

Engineering Agent Applications in QuLog

Slides available here



PRIMA 2015 Demos

Demos that will be displayed on Tuesday and Wednesday:

  • Vincent J. Koeman: Debugging GOAL Agents at the Source Level in the Eclipse IDE (download)
  • Angelo Croatti: Pervasive Multi-Agent Programming in JaCaMo (download)
Demos that will be displayed on Thursday and Friday:
  • Francois Schwartzentruber: Computing the subjective possible locations of an object (download)
  • Danilo Pianini: Engineering multi-agent systems with aggregate computing (download)


Important Dates

All dates are relative to the "Anywhere-on-Earth" time zone:

  • Abstract: 17th June 2015
  • Submission: 19th June 2015
  • Notification: 24th July 2015
  • Camera-ready: 7th August 2015
  • Early registration: 21st September 2015
  • Conference: 26th-30th October 2015


Organisation

General Chairs

Program Chairs

  • Qingliang Chen (Jinan University, Guangzhou, China)
  • Paolo Torroni (Università di Bologna, Italy)
  • Serena Villata (INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France)

Workshop Chairs

  • Matteo Baldoni (Università di Torino, Italy)
  • Mohammad Namazi (University of Wollongong, Australia)

Tutorial Chair

  • Cristina Baroglio (Università di Torino, Italy)

Organisation / Administration Chairs

  • Enrico Denti (Università di Bologna, Italy)
  • Marco Prandini (Università di Bologna, Italy)

Web Chair

Programme Committees

Senior Programme Committee

  • Bo An (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
  • Tina Balke (Dassault Systèmes/Quintiq, The Netherlands)
  • Rafael Bordini (Pontifica Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
  • Hoa Khanh Dam (University of Wollongong, Australia)
  • Mehdi Dastani (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
  • Paul Davidsson (Malmö University, Sweden)
  • Yves Demazeau (Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble, CNRS, France)
  • Frank Dignum (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
  • Rino Falcone (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Italy)
  • Guido Governatori (NICTA, Australia)
  • Katsutoshi Hirayama (Kobe University, Japan)
  • Takayuki Ito (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
  • Nicolas Maudet (Université Paris 6, France)
  • Zhi Jin (Peking University, China)
  • Julian Padget (University of Bath, United Kingdom)
  • David Pynadath (University of Southern California, United States)
  • Bastin Tony Roy Savarimuthu (University of Otago, New Zealand)
  • Karl Tuyls (University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)
  • Harko Verhagen (Stockholm University/KTH, Sweden)
  • Bo Yang (Jilin University, China)
  • Makoto Yokoo (Kyushu University, Japan)
  • Jie Zhang (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Programme Committee

  • Thomas Agotnes
  • Stéphane Airiau
  • Huib Aldewereld
  • Natasha Alechina
  • Leila Amgoud
  • Giulia Andrighetto
  • Grigoris Antoniou
  • Alexander Artikis
  • Guillaume Aucher
  • Fatma Basak Aydemir
  • Ana L.C. Bazzan
  • Francesco Belardinelli
  • Salem Benferhat
  • Jamal Bentahar
  • Floris Bex
  • Pierre Bisquert
  • Olivier Boissier
  • Elise Bonzon
  • Vicent Botti
  • Felix Brandt
  • Daniela Briola
  • Nils Bulling
  • Dídac Busquets
  • Elena Cabrio
  • Patrice Caire
  • Cristiano Castelfranchi
  • Marc Cavazza
  • Marcello Ceci
  • Federico Cerutti
  • Yin Chen
  • Shih-Fen Cheng
  • Amit Chopra
  • Paolo Ciccarese
  • Marco Comerio
  • Massimo Cossentino
  • Stefania Costantini
  • Mathieu D'Aquin
  • Nirmit Desai
  • Marina De Vos
  • Mathijs De Weerdt
  • Isabella Distinto
  • Juergen Dix
  • Sylvie Doutre
  • Jérome Euzenat
  • Xiuyi Fan
  • Catherine Faron-Zuker
  • Michael Fisher
  • Nicoletta Fornara
  • Katsuhide Fujita
  • Naoki Fukuta
  • Simone Gabbriellini
  • Yang Gao
  • Guglielmo Gemignani
  • Vladimir Gorodetsky
  • Davide Grossi
  • Nicola Guarino
  • Akin Gunay
  • James Harland
  • Koen Hindriks
  • Reiko Hishiyama
  • Xiaowei Huang
  • Anthony Hunter
  • Wojciech Jamroga
  • Yichuan Jiang
  • Ozgur Kafali
  • Tony Kakas
  • Shohei Kato
  • Sabrina Kirrane
  • Yasuhiko Kitamura
  • Sebastién Konieczny
  • Bob Kowalski
  • Kazuhiro Kuwabara
  • Jerome Lang
  • Kate Larson
  • Joao Leite
  • Ho-Fung Leung
  • Beishui Liao
  • Churn-Jung Liau
  • Marco Lippi
  • Chanjuan Liu
  • Fenrong Liu
  • Rey-Long Liu
  • Brian Logan
  • Alessio Lomuscio
  • Maite Lopez-Sanchez
  • Emiliano Lorini
  • Marco Luetzenberger
  • Xudong Luo
  • Patrick MacAlpine
  • Samhar Mahmoud
  • Xinjun Mao
  • Elisa Marengo
  • Viviana Mascardi
  • Shigeo Matsubara
  • Toshihiro Matsui
  • Artur Meski
  • John-Jules Meyer
  • Roberto Micalizio
  • Tim Miller
  • Tsunenori Mine
  • Luis Moniz Pereira
  • Marco Montali
  • Pavlos Moraitis
  • Yohei Murakami
  • Yuu Nakajima
  • Hideyuki Nakanishi
  • Timothy Norman
  • Ann Nowé
  • Eugénio Oliveira
  • Nir Oren
  • Sascha Ossowski
  • Fabio Paglieri
  • Maurice Pagnucco
  • Odile Papini
  • Simon Parsons
  • Duy Hoang Pham
  • Axel Polleres
  • Enrico Pontelli
  • Henry Prakken
  • Weronika Radziszewska
  • Franco Raimondi
  • Gopal Ramchurn
  • Alessandro Ricci
  • Regis Riveret
  • Sergi Robles
  • Juan Rodriguez
  • Victor Rodriguez-Doncel
  • Francesca Rossi
  • Antonino Rotolo
  • Ji Ruan
  • Yuko Sakurai
  • Francesco Santini
  • Ken Satoh
  • Luigi Sauro
  • Claudia Schulz
  • Francois Schwarzentruber
  • Sandip Sen
  • Luciano Serafini
  • Yuping Shen
  • Zhongzhi Shi
  • Carles Sierra
  • Marija Slavkovik
  • Leon Sterling
  • Alina Strachocka
  • Kaile Su
  • Valentina Tamma
  • Yuqing Tang
  • Michael Thielscher
  • Matthias Thimm
  • Michael Thomazo
  • Xiangrong Tong
  • Francesca Toni
  • Fujio Toriumi
  • Nicolas Troquard
  • Kagan Tumer
  • Luca Tummolini
  • Paolo Turrini
  • Andreea Urzica
  • Leon van der Torre
  • Wiebe Van Der Hoek
  • Wamberto Vasconcelos
  • Matteo Venanzi
  • Maria Esther Vidal
  • Mirko Viroli
  • Toby Walsh
  • Can Wang
  • Chongjun Wang
  • Kewen Wang
  • Wanyuan Wang
  • Zhe Wang
  • Michael Winikoff
  • Brendon J. Woodford
  • Feng Wu
  • Lijun Wu
  • Adam Wyner
  • Pinar Yolum
  • Neil Yorke-Smith
  • Yifeng Zeng
  • Zhiqiang Zhuang


Registration

PRIMA 2015 offers convenient EARLY registration fees including full board accommodation, the social events and the conference proceedings as well.

Early registration deadline is 21st September.

The registration page with additional information is available at this external link.


Sponsors

The 18th Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2015) is sponsored by:

DISIUniBO

SpringerLNAI

AISB



BiCi Scholarships

The Bertinoro Center for Informatics (BiCi) is offering a limited number of FULL WAIVER student scholarships. Each scholarship includes everything once you are in Bertinoro: registration, accommodation from Sunday (check-in) to Friday (check-out), LNCS proceedings, meals, social events, WiFi connection, etc.

We welcome STUDENT APPLICATIONS. Please send your application, preferably by October 11, to Paolo Torroni (paolo.torroni@unibo.it) which should consist of a 1-page PDF document containing:

  • name, email, student status (e.g., undergraduate, masters, PhD, … and in which year) and affiliation (name of your University/Department/Institution)
  • a brief motivational statement of interest (why you wish to attend PRIMA 2015, what do you expect to gain from attending)
  • a short bio (e.g., topics of interest; school attended; if you’re working on a final project what is the topic; if you’re a research student, what is the topic of your research; if you have some publications: a link to your DBLP, Google Scholar, home page, ORCID, etc.)
We will evaluate the first batch of applications that reach us by this Sunday (October 11) and send out the first notifications on Monday (October 12). All applications received after Sunday, until the week before the event, will be evaluated later if there is any funding left.


Venue

Following the last events in Australia (PRIMA 2014), New Zealand (PRIMA 2013), and Malaysia (PRIMA 2012), the 18th Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2015) will take place in the University Residential Centre of Bertinoro (Ce.U.B.), FC, Italy from 26 to 30 October 2015.

Bertinoro

The Centre

Bertinoro


The University Residential Centre of Bertinoro (Ce.U.B.) is active since 1994 in the field of vocational training, conferences, congresses and lectures.


Ce.U.B. is a a vocational training centre of the University of Bologna and it is located in the ancient town of Bertinoro (Forlì-Cesena) — see map below.


Ce.U.B. provides Italian and foreign Universities, companies, conference agencies and individuals with extensive conference and lodging facilities:

  • 14 training rooms inside the Bishop’s Fortress, the Rivellino, St. Sylvester church and the Theatre
  • 2 computer labs, 20 and 50 seats
  • 86 bedrooms (single, twin, double), for a total amount of 130 beds
  • canteen with 200 seats for breakfast, lunch and gala dinners


The Location


Bertinoro is located on the hilltop of the Romagna area, between the cities of Forlì and Cesena.


Bertinoro, vigneti Bissoni


Even if many roman ruins were dug up, Bertinoro was founded by a group of Benedict monks coming from Britain who, at the beginning of the 7th century, built the Castrum Brittanorum, which is the ancient name of the city. Thanks to its strategic location, Bertinoro was sought-after by different feudal families living in the surrounding area, until it was progressively absorbed by the Papal.


Urbino


Beginning in the 13th century, the judge Guido del Duca wanted Bertinoro to be renowned for its hospitality, therefore he built the “Column of Hospitality”. The column has twelve rings, there are as many as the noble families living in Bertinoro: every time a pilgrim would arrive in Bertinoro, he would tie his horse at one of the rings and thus become the guest of that family. The value of hospitality is also underlined by Dante in canto XIV of the Purgatory and by Boccaccio in the novel with Lizio da Balbona: hospitality is an extremely important value inside the civil society, and the guests are warmly welcomed in the community. Nowadays, this value is pursued in Bertinoro also through the activities organized by the University Residential Centre and by the Interfaith Museum.


Urbino


For further information about what to see around Bertinoro, pease visit this link.




How to reach Bertinoro

General directions

The *University Residential Center* is located at *Via Frangipane, 6* in Bertinoro (Telephone: +39 0543 446500 Fax: +39 0543 446599).

Bertinoro lies approximately half-way between Bologna and the Adriatic coast town of Rimini. Here is a Google Street View mark to locate the BiCi complex in Bertinoro. If you are arriving by car, you can obtain driving instructions from most starting points using Google Maps.

For those flying in, the nearest major airport is the Bologna Guglielmo Marconi International Airport (BLQ) which has good connectivity to many major European locations. You may also want to check for flights to the Rimini (RMI) Federico Fellini Airport, reachable from several European cities via low cost companies.

Another possibility, especially for those arriving from North America, is to arrive at one of the two Milan airports (which have direct flights from a number North American cities) then proceed to the Milan Central Train Station, take a train to Forlì, and from there continue by taxi to Bertinoro. Train schedules can be found here.

If you arrive at Rimini Airport, you should take a train (direction Bologna or Milan), get off at Cesena (about a 20-minute trip), and then take a taxi to Bertinoro.

If you arrive at Forlì airport, probably the easiest option for reaching Bertinoro is to hire a taxi. If you arrive at Bologna airport or train station, proceed as indicated below.

Bologna Airport or Train Station to Bertinoro by Taxi

This is going to cost you about 140 EURO, including highway tolls, but it becomes an affordable option if you share it with a group of 3-4 people. For more detailed information, consult or call CoTaBo Taxi.

Bologna Airport to Bologna Center and Train Station

Guglielmo Marconi International Airport, which serves Bologna, is about 10 km to the north-west of the city center. From the airport, you have two options for reaching the train station near the city center:

  • Special "Aerobus" service. The bus runs from 06.00 to 23.35 and makes only 5 stops in the city, the last one being the train station ("Stazione FS"). Tickets may be purchased on board (4,50 EURO). The trip takes around 25 minutes. Between the hours 08.00 and 20.00, the frequency of the bus is approximately once every 15 minutes.
  • Taxi. The trip takes around 15 minutes (barring traffic jams) and should cost less than 20 EURO.

Bologna Train Station to Forlì Train Station

Numerous trains run between Bologna and Forlì. The trip takes 30-45 minutes depending on the train type. Please make sure that you get off at Forlì station and not Forlimpopoli (which is indeed closer to Bertinoro but has no bus service for continuing your trip). For complete train departure times and further information, please consult the Italian Railways web site.

Forlì Train Station to Bertinoro

The simplest way to reach Bertinoro from Forlì is to take a bus. The bus station (located in "via Oriani") is about 200 mt. from the train station. Buses run from 07.10 (09.10 on Sundays) to 19.35 (19.10 on Sundays). The trip takes around 25 minutes. Another option for reaching Bertinoro from the Forlì train station is to take a taxi. The trip should cost around 20 EURO.

Detailed Directions

Bertinoro lies in between Forlì and Cesena. Bologna is northwest w.r.t. Forlì: scroll map northwest along the "A14" road (if the map isn't shown, refresh the page).

The easiest way to reach Bertinoro is to reach Bologna either by plane or by train (Bologna is well served in both cases) then catch a train to Forlì and finally ride a bus / taxi / rented car to Bertinoro.

If any other information regarding how to reach Ce.U.B. is needed, feel free to contact the PRIMA 2015 Web Chair.



Call for Papers

For the pdf version of this call for papers, click here.

Agent-based Computing addresses the challenges in managing distributed computing systems and networks through monitoring, communication, consensus-based decision-making and coordinated actuation. As a result, intelligent agents and multi-agent systems have demonstrated the capability to use intelligence, knowledge representation and reasoning, and other social metaphors like 'trust', 'game' and 'institution', not only to address real-world problems in a human-like way but also to transcend human performance. This has had a transformative impact in many application domains, particularly in e-commerce, and also in planning, logistics, manufacturing, robotics, decision support, transportation, entertainment, emergency relief & disaster management, and data mining & analytics. As one of the largest and still growing research fields of Computer Science, agent-based computing today remains a unique enabler of inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary research.

The PRIMA 2015 Program Committee invites submissions of original, unpublished, theoretical and applied work on any such topic, and encourages reports on the development of prototype and deployed agent systems, and of experiments that demonstrate novel agent system capabilities, which include the topics given below. As last year, there will be a special track (special focus area) on applications of multi-agent systems. The papers for this track would report experiences on using agents in an application domain and also discuss the challenges (resolved and unresolved issues) in deploying them. In general, papers discussing lessons learned and general directions of research using agents are solicited for this track.

All accepted papers will be published in Springer's LNAI series. There will be a best paper award sponsored by Springer-LNAI. Award winner(s) will also be invited to submit an extended version to a fast track of the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. There will be two special issues: one with Fundamenta Informaticae and one with the Knowledge Engineering Review.

Topics of Interest

Topics of interest (not limited to the following):

  • Foundations of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
    • Logics of Agency
    • Logics of Multi-Agent Systems
    • Normative Systems
    • Computational Game Theory
    • Uncertainty in Agent Systems
    • Agent and Multi-Agent Learning
  • Agent and Multi-Agent System Architectures
    • Agent Programming Languages and Platforms
    • Multi-Agent System Languages and Platforms
    • BDI Architectures and Extensions
    • Normative Multi-Agent Systems
  • Agent-Oriented Software Engineering
    • AOSE Methodologies
    • Tools for Agent and Multi-Agent System Development
    • Formal Specification and Verification
    • Testing, debugging and evolution
    • Deployed System Case Studies
  • Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation
    • Simulation Languages and Platforms
    • Artificial Societies
    • Virtual Environments
    • Workflow Simulation
    • Emergent Behavior
    • Modeling System Dynamics
    • Application Case Studies
  • Cooperation/Collaboration, Coordination/Communication
    • Agent Communication Languages and Protocols
    • Distributed Problem Solving
    • Teamwork Models
    • Coalition Formation
    • Argumentation
    • Negotiation
    • Bargaining
    • Auctions and Mechanism Design
    • Trust and Reputation
    • Computational Voting Theory
  • Hybrid Technologies for Multi-Agent Systems
    • Agents in Planning
    • Agent-Based Scheduling and Optimization
    • Distributed Constraint Satisfaction
    • Agents and Data Mining
    • Semantic Web Agents
    • Agents and Grid Computing
    • Agents and Service Oriented Computing
    • Agents and Pervasive Computing
    • Robotics and Multi-Robot Systems
    • Ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence
  • Application Domains for Multi-Agent Systems
    • Healthcare
    • Transport/Logistics
    • Emergency/Disaster Management
    • Energy/Utility Management
    • Sustainability/Resource Management
    • Games/Entertainment
    • e-Business/e-Commerce/e-Government
    • e-Research/e-Learning
    • Security/Surveillance
    • Smart Cities
    • Financial markets
    • Legal applications
  • Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
    • Adaptive Personal Assistants
    • Embodied Conversational Agents
    • Virtual Characters
    • Multi-Modal User Interfaces
    • Autonomous Systems
    • Mobile Agents
    • Human-Robot Interaction
    • Social Recommender Systems
    • Algorithmic trading agents


Call for Demos

The PRIMA 2015 Demonstrations Track complements the Research Paper track of the conference and offers an opportunity for presenting late-breaking research results, on-going research projects, and speculative or innovative work in progress. The informal setting of the Demonstrations Track encourages presenters and participants to engage in discussions about the presented work. Such discussions can be invaluable inputs for the future work of the presenters, while offering participants an effective way to broaden their knowledge of the emerging research trends and to network with other researchers.

We invite submissions relevant to the area of multiagent systems and which address, but are not limited to, the topics of the Research Track. Reports on agent-based software systems, even if in progress, are welcome. Demonstrations are intended to showcase innovative agent-based related implementations and technologies. All submissions are intended to convey a scientific result or work in progress and should not be advertisements for commercial software packages.

Authors of full papers accepted for the Research Track are explicitly invited to submit a demonstration. The submission should be formatted as the other demonstrations but must cite the accepted full paper and needs to include an explanation of its added value with respect to the conference paper, i.e., a demonstration of a supporting prototype implementation.

Submission Information

Authors must submit a four-page extended abstract for evaluation. All submissions will undergo a review process, including those related to already accepted full papers. Decisions about acceptance will be based on relevance to multiagent systems, originality, potential significance, topicality and clarity. Authors are strongly encouraged to include in their submission a link where the demo (live or recorded video) can be found. They should also make clear what exactly will be demonstrated to the participants (e.g., what data sets will be used, which functionalities will be shown).

All demo papers have to be submitted electronically by sending an email with the paper in attachment to prima2015@easychair.org.

Submissions must use the PDF file format and must adopt the style of the Springer Publications format for Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Details are provided on Springer's Author Instructions page.

At least one of the authors must be a registered participant at the conference, and attend the Demo Session to present the work. The abstracts of accepted demonstrations will be given to all conference attendees and published on the conference web site, but will not be published by Springer in the printed conference proceedings. They will, however, be compiled into a CEUR-WS Proceedings for easy Web retrieval and archival.

Important Dates

  • Demo Submission: 15th September 2015
  • Notifications: 30th September 2015
  • Camera-Ready Versions: 15th October 2015


Submission Instructions

Two types of contributions are solicited:

  • Full papers, up to 16 pages in LNCS format, should present original theoretical and/or experimental research in any of the areas listed in the call for papers page (here) that has not been previously published, accepted for publication, or is not currently under review by another conference or journal. Note that some full papers may be accepted as short papers (see below).
  • Short papers (early innovation papers), up to 8 pages in LNCS format showcasing works-in-progress (will be reviewed with an emphasis on novelty/originality of the idea).
Papers are to be submitted through the Easychair Conference Management System: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=prima2015

Both full and short papers will be included in the conference proceedings by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series (LNCS/LNAI). Authors of both types of papers are required to present their work at the conference.

The authors of a selection of best papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their papers for publication consideration in special issues on international journals. Best paper award winners will be invited to submit an extended version to a fast publication track with JAAMAS. More details about the selected journals will be provided soon.