DM: IAT'99 - 1st CFP

[IAT99 Conference]

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                       FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
              
                The 1st Asia-Pacific Conference on 
              Intelligent Agent Technology  (IAT'99)  

                 Hong Kong    December 15-17, 1999

                 http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/IAT99

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INTRODUCTION


Intelligent Agents is one of the most exciting, active areas of 
research and development in computer science and information 
technology today.  It is concerned with the study of intelligent 
systems capable of perceiving, reasoning about, and adapting to 
different task constraints, learning task-specific behaviors, and 
delegating tasks in either physical or computational environments.  
In real-world applications, the notion of agents should be taken 
in its broadest sense, encompassing a wide spectrum of computational 
systems. Some of them may be physically embodied, such as robotic 
systems that efficiently handle manipulation tasks in the CARTŪ esian 
workspace, whereas others may be computationally coded, such as 
Internet search agents that proactively search, filter, and analyze 
useful information from a highly connected web of Internet servers. 

Regardless of their domains of application, autonomous agents often 
inhabit in and interact with dynamic, unpredictable environments in 
the course of problem-solving. The agents may dynamically acquire 
their reactive behaviors based on their experience and hence improve 
their problem-solving skills in dealing with similar or even more 
complex tasks. They may utilize certain sophisticated mechanisms in 
order to cope with the problems of lacking resources and knowledge. 
Responding to different local constraints received from their task 
environments, the agents can select and exhibit different behavioral 
patterns. For instance, in the case of robotic manipulation, the 
behavioral patterns of the robots may be directly related to their 
coordinated/cooperative local motions in the workspace. Similarly, 
in the case of search, the behavioral patterns of the agents may be 
reflected in their decisions on in what direction and how much 
localized search would become necessary. 


ABOUT THE CONFERENCE


The Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT) is 
a high-quality, high-impact biannual agent conference series.  As the 
first meeting in this new series, IAT'99 will primarily focus on (i) 
the state-of-the-art in the development of intelligent agents and 
(ii) 
the theoretical and computational foundations of intelligent agent 
technology. The aim of IAT'99 is to bring together researchers and 
practitioners from diverse fields such as computer science, 
information systems, psychology, business, education, human factors,  
and/or industrial engineering to (i) examine the design principles 
and performance characteristics of various approaches in intelligent 
agent technology, and (ii) increase the cross-fertilization of ideas 
on the development of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems among 
different domains.  By encouraging idea-sharing and discussions on 
the underlying logical, cognitive, physical, and biological 
foundations as well as the enabling technologies of intelligent 
agents, IAT'99 is expected to stimulate the future development of 
new models, new methodologies, and new tools for building a variety 
of embodiments of agent-based systems.

IAT'99 welcomes submissions of original papers. All submitted papers 
will go through a careful review process.  In addition to technical 
paper sessions, IAT'99 will also include a collection of invited 
talks 
from internationally respected speakers, presentation of videos, and 
system demonstrations.


TOPICS


The technical issues to be addressed include, but not limited to:


A. Applications: 

*  data and knowledge intensive domains (e.g., large databases, 
   Internet, digital libraries, distributed decision making, 
financial 
   modeling and engineering, business information systems and process 
  
   automation)

*  software and interface agents (e.g., personal assistant, 
translator,
   scheduler, information filter, tutor)

*  computational intelligence (e.g., pattern analysis and 
recognition, 
   imaging, optimization, resource allocation, constraint 
satisfaction, 
   planning)

*  physically embodied systems (e.g., autonomous robots and groups)

*  very-large, complex, integrated intelligent systems


B. Computational Architecture and Infrastructure:

*  computational architectures
*  ontology models
*  agent-level and multi-agent-level infrastructure
*  communication languages
*  multi-modal systems and interfaces
*  protocols
*  tools and standards
*  heterogeneity and interoperability
*  scalability


C. Learning and Adaptation: 

*  uncertainty management in multi-agent systems
*  integrated exploration and exploitation
*  long-term reliability
*  neural networks
*  artificial life
*  behavioral selection
*  coordinating perception, thought, and action
*  behavioral self-organization
*  believable lifelike quality
*  classifier systems 
*  evolution and learning in dynamic environments
*  adaptation and self-adaptation
*  emergent behavior
*  evolutionary computation


D. Data and Knowledge Engineering/Communication:

*  information filtering
*  data mining
*  heterogeneous data integration and management
*  human-agent interaction
*  knowledge discovery
*  knowledge sharing
*  knowledge aggregation 
*  reasoning and planning
*  adaptation and evolution of knowledge networks
*  distributed knowledge systems


E. Distributed Intelligence: 

*  dynamics of groups and populations
*  swarms
*  population evolution
*  coevolution
*  collective group behavior
*  coordination and cooperation
*  distributed intelligence
*  social integration
*  market-based computing


F. Formal Theories of Agents: 

*  formal/computational modeling
*  chaotic and fractal dynamics
*  computational complexity
*  efficiency in distributed systems
*  taxonomy of agent environments
*  classification and characterization of complex behaviors
*  theories of perception, rationality, intention, emotion, 
   coordination, action, and social behaviors


PAPER SUBMISSION


Four (4) hard copies of the completed paper should be submitted to the
IAT'99 Program Committee Chair by the submission deadline, May 31, 
1999.
Each submitted paper must include a title, a 200-300 word abstract, a 
list
of keywords, the names, mailing addresses, and Email addresses of the
authors, and the main body. The length of submitted paper should not
exceed ten (10) single-spaced, single-column pages including all 
figures,
tables, and bibliography.

Papers should be submitted to:

    Prof. Ning Zhong
    Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering
    Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University
    Tokiwa-Dai, 2557, Ube 755, Japan
    Phone&Fax:  +81-836-35-9949
    Email:  zhong@ai.csse.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

The submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical 
soundness, relevance, originality, significance, and clarity. 
Accepted 
papers are expected to be published in the conference proceedings by 
Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series
(LNCS/LNAI).  A selected number of IAT'99 accepted papers will be 
expanded and revised for inclusion in "Knowledge and Information 
Systems: An International Journal" by Springer-Verlag. IAT best paper
award will be conferred on the author(s) of the best papers at the
conference.


VIDEO SUBMISSION


Videos for presentation at IAT'99 should be submitted directly to the 
IAT'99 Video and Demo Chair:

    Dr. Jianchang Mao
    IBM Almaden Research Center
    Image and Multimedia Systems, DPE/B3A
    650 Harry Road
    San Jose, CA 95120, USA

by August 2, 1999. The submissions will be evaluated on the basis of 
relevance, significance, and clarity.

Each submitted video should be no longer than 10 minutes and 
accompanied by a title page containing a title, a 200-300 word 
abstract, 
a list of keywords, the names, mailing addresses, and Email addresses 
of 
the authors, and a two-page summary of the video contents. 


DEMO SESSION


IAT'99 welcomes submissions of research projects, research 
prototypes, 
experimental systems, and potential commercial products for 
demonstrations at the conference. Each submission should include a 
title page containing a title, a 200-300 word abstract, a list of 
keywords, the names, mailing addresses, and Email addresses of the 
presenters, and a two-page description of the demo system. 
Submissions 
should reach the IAT'99 Video and Demo Chair:

    Dr. Jianchang Mao
    IBM Almaden Research Center
    Image and Multimedia Systems, DPE/B3A
    650 Harry Road
    San Jose, CA 95120, USA

by August 2, 1999.

Authors of accepted IAT'99 papers and videos will be invited to 
demonstrate their systems at the conference. 

It is understood that once a submission is selected for demonstration 
at the conference, the presenter(s) of the demo will be responsible 
for 
bringing necessary software/hardware equipment.


IMPORTANT DATES


May 31, 1999           Paper submission deadline
July 31, 1999          Notification of paper acceptance mailed
August 2, 1999         Video and demo submission deadline
September 3, 1999      Notification of video and demo acceptance 
mailed
September 11, 1999     Camera-ready copies of accepted papers due
November 1, 1999       Cutoff date for early registration
December 15-17, 1999   Conference technical sessions


CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS


The IAT'99 Conference Organizing Committee and International Advisory 
Board are as follows:


* Conference Organizing Committee:

  Honorary Chair:
    Benjamin Wah, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.

  General Chairs: 
    Setsuo Ohsuga, Waseda University, Japan
    Ernest C. M. Lam, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

  Program Chairs:
    Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 
    Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan

  Organizing and Local Chair:
    P. C. Yuen, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

  Publicity Chair:
    C. S. Tong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

  Finance Chair:
    C. S. Huang, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

  Registration Chair:
    Kelvin Wong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 

  Video and Demo Chair:
    Jianchang Mao, IBM Almaden Research Center, U.S.A.


* International Advisory Board:

    Jeffrey Bradshow, The Boeing Company, U.S.A.
    Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 
    Jianchang Mao, IBM Almaden Research Center, U.S.A.
    Setsuo Ohsuga, Waseda University, Japan
    Tieniu Tan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
    Patrick S. P. Wang, Northeastern University, U.S.A.
    Xin Yao, Australian Defence Force Academy, Australia
    Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan


* Program Committee

    ( to be announced )


FURTHER INFORMATION

Please send suggestions and inquiries regarding IAT'99 to:

    Dr. Jiming Liu
    Department of Computer Science
    Hong Kong Baptist University
    Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
    Phone: (852) 2339-7088   
    Fax:   (852) 2339-7892
    Email: jiming@comp.hkbu.edu.hk