First Announcement
and
Call for Papers

 
 

Special Session

on

Agent-Based Simulation, Planning and Control


of the

16th IMACS World Congress 2000

on Scientific Computation, Applied Mathematics and Simulation

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

21-25 August 2000


 

With the support of the
Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Working Group ESPRIT #21955
 

IMACS IMS WG   Theme   Submission Organization Important Dates   Organizers & PC Venue Further Information

 

IMACS

The International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS) is an international association of professionals and scientists concerned with computers, computation and applied mathematics, in particular as they apply to the simulation of systems. This includes numerical analysis, mathematical modeling, approximation theory, computer hardware and software, programming languages and compilers. IMACS also involves general philosophy of scientific computation and applied mathematics, their impact on society as well as on disciplinary and interdisciplinary research.

IMACS is one of the five International Scientific Associations (with IFAC, IFORS, IFIP and IMEKO) represented in FIACC, the five international organizations in the area of computers, automation, instrumentation and the relevant branches of applied mathematics. Of the five, IMACS (which changed its name from AICA in 1976) is the oldest, having been founded in 1956.

IMACS organizes local and international scientific symposia and conferences, and sponsors publications which are in its fields of interest.

16th IMACS World Congress
The 16th IMACS World Congress 2000 will take place from 21st to 25th of August 2000 in Lausanne, Switzerland. It will present international contributions organized in several sessions about particular topics of applied mathematics. For more details about the IMACS World Congress 2000 itself and its sessions see: http://imacs2000.epfl.ch.

IMS WORKING GROUP

The IMS Working Group ESPRIT #21955 aims to develop strong co-operation links and initiate systematic information exchange amongst teams carrying out long term research on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, also known as IMS. The Working Group covers Europe but will actively pursue its extension into the different IMS regions (Europe, USA, Japan, Canada, Australia), thus aiming to cover the industrialized nations world-wide. It will complement the official IMS program of industrial R&D projects with a long term research backbone covering Europe and, through liaison activities, the industrialized nations across the world. Also, this Working Group will be a sensor observing the emergence and development of the next generation of manufacturing systems, including the surrounding business and logistic processes, within the IMS Initiative. The IMS Working Group provides a cost-effective source of information to guide actions from European industry, academia and administration in this respect. For more details about IMS Working Group clustering and projects:
http://www.mech.kuleuven.ac.be/pma/project/imswg/welcome.html

AGENT-BASED SIMULATION, PLANNING AND CONTROL

Organization, simulation, planning and control of complex systems have to be accomplished in larger and larger, more and more widely distributed, heterogeneous and dynamically changing environments.

For example, in manufacturing there is a growing need for novel organizational principles and structures so that the new challenges can be faced: the growing demand for complex and customized products, adaptation to volatile market environments, globalization, integration of human resources, and environment friendly production. Our decade has already seen a radical shift in the mind-set of manufacturing organizations. The changes point toward loose and temporal networks - or federations - of autonomous and co-operative production units, taking into account a larger number of aspects (economic, social, environmental, etc.). The new organizational paradigms need a joint effort of management science, system and communication theory, artificial intelligence, simulation and engineering.

The concept and technology of agents can provide an appropriate merger for all these ideas. Agents are individual problem-solvers with some measure of autonomy and capability to communicate and co-operate; they are supposed to operate asynchronously with incomplete information and limited reasoning power, though without centralized control and data.

Hence, papers are sought for a special session of the IMACS 2000 World Congress about agents-based paradigms in simulation, planning and control of complex systems. Organizational issues, simulation, planning and control methods are all of equal interest. Theoretical work just as case studies and results of empirical research are welcome.

SESSION TOPICS

The contributions to the session should be unpublished and original materials on the following topics and within the overall context of agenthood:

SUBMISSION

Authors are invited to submit extended abstracts of no more than 5 A4 pages written in 10pt size font and including figures and main references. The first page must contain all authors' contact information (name, institution, address, e-mail, telephone, and fax) and a short abstract. Submissions must reach the session organizers by 25th October 1999.

Submission can be done electronically (more suitably) to the following addresses:
 


francois.sprumont@epfl.ch OR vancza@sztaki.hu.


 


For electronic submission, the only accepted file formats are Postscript (.ps) and Portable Document Format (.pdf).

Printed submission can be done by sending 3 copies of the extended abstracts to:

                    IMACS 2000 - Agent Session
                    François Sprumont
                    Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
                    DGM-ICAP-LICP
                    CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)

ORGANIZATION AND PUBLICATION

The session is planned to provide a forum for presenting eight papers, including keynotes. In case of extensive interest the organizers will negotiate for an increase of the allotted time-slot.

Final publication, under IMACS responsibility, will be in two forms: (1) one CD ROM containing full papers and available from 30th June 2000 and (2) printed proceedings containing 1 page abstracts available for the Congress. Papers on the CD and abstracts in the printed volume will have to conform to given formats available in LATEX style files on the Congress web pages. Authors with accepted submissions will receive instructions for publication during January 2000.

IMPORTANT DATES
 
  Immediately Expression of interest
25th October 1999 Submission deadline for extended abstracts
20th December 1999 Communication of decisions to authors
1st March 2000 Submission deadline for full papers
21-25 August 2000 Congress

SESSION ORGANIZERS

          Sprumont, François, EPFL, (CH)
          Váncza, József, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, (H)

SESSION PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Findler, Nicholas, Arizona State University, (USA)
Kiritsis, Dimitris, EPFL, (CH)
Müller, Jean-Pierre, University of Neuchâtel, (CH)
Sprumont, François, EPFL, (CH)
Valckenaers, Paul, K.U. Leuven, (B)
Váncza, József, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, (H)

VENUE

Lausanne is a charming city and an important university center, centrally located in Europe, on the shores of the Lake Léman and conveniently connected by rail or highways to the surrounding countries. There are fast Intercity train connections with Geneva International Airport (45 min) and Zürich International Airport (2h 42 min), and TGV connections with Paris (3h 40 min).

The EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and its neighbour Lausanne University are two higher education establishments. With their 10000 students, they form a university level education and research center in French speaking Switzerland.

The EPFL campus is situated west of Lausanne (5 km from the city center and railway station) and can be reached by tramway (TSOL).

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information and/or expressing your interest, write to the session organizers at francois.sprumont@epfl.ch or vancza@sztaki.hu
 
 


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