The First IK(Prof. Jeremy Pitt Group, Imperial college and Prof. Amamiya Group, Kyushu university) Mini-Workshop

10:00-18:00 on September 16 (Thu), 2004
At Room I204, ISEE building, Kyushu University Chikushi Campus
6-1 Kasuga-koen, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580

• 10:00-10:10 Opening by Prof. Amamiya

• 10:10-10:40 Research Programme in Multi-Agent Systems, Intelligent Agents and Telecommunications by Jeremy Pitt
  • Abstract: This general talk provides a brief overview of the motivation and aspects of our group’s research programme in multi-agent systems, intelligent agents, and socially-aware agents, and their applications in telecommunications and other intelligent systems for ecommerce, e-government and e-learning. The primary aim is to provide a general context and motivation for the more focused talks which follow.

• 10:40-11:10 Resource Sharing in Norm-Governed Ad Hoc Networks by Alexander Artikis to be presented by Jeremy Pitt
  • Abstract: Ad hoc networks may be viewed as computational systems including members that may fail to, or choose not to, comply with the systems' rules. It has been argued that, to cater for the possibility that the members' behaviour may deviate from what is prescribed, their interactions can usefully be described in terms of permissions, obligations and other more complex normative relations that may exist between them. We have been developing a framework for specifying computational systems that addresses the aforementioned requirement. More precisely, this framework respects the standard, long established distinction between physical capability, institutional power and permission, and employs temporal reasoning formalisms, with clear routes to implementation, to provide a declarative representation of the concepts mentioned above. We propose to use this framework for the management of, and self-organization in, ad hoc networks. We demonstrate the utility of our framework by specifying a protocol, in the Event Calculus, for addressing one of the problems arising during the life-time of an ad hoc network, that of resource sharing.

• Coffee Break

• 11:30-12:00 Simulating Agent Societies: Trust enabled Trading Agents by Brendan Neville
  • Abstract: We present an experimental evaluation of a (computational) socio-cognitive and economic framework (CSCEF) for agent decision making in distributed e-commerce markets. The framework formalises social theories of trust, reputation, recommendation and learning from direct experience and integrates these socio-cognitive formalisms with the agent's economic reasoning. Together the socio-cognitive and economic elements are designed to enable agents to cope with malicious or incompetent behaviour in an ecommerce environment. To evaluate the performance of our framework we have developed a multi-agent simulation environment. The results of our simulations show that the integration of social behaviour into the trading agent architecture can not only act as an effective mechanism for regulation of distributed agent-mediated market places, but also improve the agents ability to maximise its owners utility.

• 12:00-12:30 Emergent structures of social exchange in socio-cognitive grids by Daniel Ramirez-Cano ( to be presented by Jeremy Pitt)
  • Abstract: Several different forms of peer-to-peer interactions, associations and interpersonal relations between human and artificial intelligences are described. We build upon a new form of grid computing which integrates human and artificial ‘processes’ in electronically saturated physical spaces, called socio-cognitive grids. We start from the analysis of three scenarios in P2P applications: digital rights management, mass user support and customer-to-customer interaction. These enable us to identify those factors that motivate the computing components in the socio-cognitive grids to form social structures, individually incorporating socio-cognitive intelligence and social awareness. In order to study the emergent properties of these social structures, such as reciprocity, social exchange and social networking, we need a theory that will help us understand the dynamics of social integration and support. We explore the use of a classical sociological theory of social structures and interpersonal relations. Subsequently we outline the components of a software simulation built on this theory and designed to formalize and evaluate this socio-computational intelligence. Ultimately our main aim is to analyse and understand those emergent properties that lead to the formation of stable and scalable social structures in socio-cognitive grids.

• 12:30-14:30 lunch time

• 14:30-15:00 Testing of Multi-Agent-based System in Ubiquitous Computing Environment by Ken'ichi Takahashi
  • Abstract: Agent technology is ready to shift from the stage in which agent architectures are proposed to the stage in which applications working in the real world are developed. Accordingly, we have developed an agent-based application integrating VPC and KODAMA, as an example of a system where agents can behave effectively in the real world. VPC on KODAMA is a framework for actualizing a ubiquitous computing environment. VPC on KODAMA has a mechanism that assigns services to user agents according to their profiles. Using VPC on KODAMA, we developed an information notification system. This system sends advertisement e-mail tailored to user profiles, including user location, to the user's cellular phone. We have conducted a large-scale experiment in shopping malls. The results of this experiment show that agent technology is effective for applications in ubiquitous computing environments.

• 15:00-15:30 Private Zone and Public Zone Security Model (preliminary title) by Satoshi Amamiya

• 15:30-16:00 A Semantic "Myportal" by Haibo Yu
  • Abstract: Web portals are information-rich sites trying to provide a single ``one stop'' for end-users to their necessary Web information. Due to the problem of information overload, locating relevant Web portals precisely based on user requirements has become an essential task. As the need for application-to-application communication and interoperability grows, providing Web portal services that satisfy human as well as machine requirements is becoming a new challenge for Web portals. As ``no one size can fit all'', personalization functionality is strongly required. However, current Web portals have had limited success on satisfying all these requirements. In this presentation, we incorporate Semantic Web technology with Web service technologies to present our basic ideas on constructing a fully personalized Semantic ``Myportal''. We also propose a mechanism for describing Web portal capabilities to enable precise and automatic location of relevant Web portals and the use of their services.

• 16:00-16:20 coffee break

• 16:20-16:50 Design and Implementation of Agent Community based Peer-to-Peer Information Retrieval Method by Tsunenori Mine
  • Abstract: We present an agent community based peer-to-peer information retrieval method called ACP2P method and discuss the experimental results of the method. The ACP2P method uses agent communities to manage and look up information related to users. An agent works as a delegate of its user and searches for information that the user wants by communicating with other agents. The communication between agents is carried out in a peer-to-peer computing architecture. In order to retrieve information relevant to a user query, an agent uses a content file, which consists of retrieved documents and two histories : a query/retrieved document history(Q/RDH) and a query/sender agent history(Q/SAH). The former is a list of pairs of a query and the address of an agent that returned documents relevant to the query. The latter is a list of pairs of a query and the address of a sender agent and shows ``who sent what query to the agent''. This is useful for finding a new information source. Making use of Q/SAH is expected to have a collaborative filtering effect, which gradually creates virtual agent communities, where agents with the same interests stay together. Our hypothesis is that a virtual agent community reduces communication loads necessary to perform a search. As an agent receives more queries, then more links to new knowledge are acquired. From this behavior, a ``give and take''(or positive feedback) effect for agents seems to emerge. We implemented this method with Multi-Agent Kodama, and conducted experiments to test the hypothesis. The experimental results showed that the method employing two histories was much more efficient than a naive method employing 'multicast' techniques only to look up a target agent. Further, making use of Q/SAH facilitates bidirectional communications between agents and thus creates virtual agent communities.

• 16:50-17:30 Short Presentations by Jeremy Pitt
  • DigitalBlush on an emotional layer:Designing towards a self-conscious community by Asimina Vasalou ( to be presented by Jeremy Pitt)
  • Norm-Aware Agents for Ad Hoc Networks by Lloyd Kamara (to be presented by Jeremy Pitt)
  • A Voting Protocol for Norm-Governed Ad Hoc Networks by Jeremy Pitt

• 17:30-17:35 Closing by Tsunenori Mine by deputy (Due to Prof. Amamiya's absence for his faculty meeting)
• 18:00- moving to and enjoying Dinner at elsewhere, e.g. Yakitori Restaurant