AGENTLINK UPDATE # 22 --- 17 November 1999 This is the email newsletter of AgentLink -- Europe's Network of Excellence for Agent-based Computing. The AgentLink WWW site is http://www.AgentLink.org/ IMPORTANT: Please take the time to ensure that every member of your group receives a copy of the AgentLink update. If you have a group mail alias, why not get this alias to be added to the mailing list? To subscribe/unsubscribe to this mailing list simply send a request to mailto:coordinator@agentlink.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * IATA SIG Meeting - 29th to 30th November, Heidelberg, Germany * AMEC & ABSS SIG Meetings - 21-23 February 2000, Saarbruecken, Germany * AgentLink Travel Fellowships Available ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * IATA SIG Meeting - 29th to 30th November, Heidelberg, Germany 3rd Meeting of the AgentLink Special Interest Group on Intelligent Agents for Telecomms Applications (IATA) Location: EURESCOM, Heidelberg, Germany Date: 29th to 30th November 1999 Travel and Hotels: http://www.eurescom.de/Public/Events/Travel/starttravel.HTM SIG Purpose and Goals The main purpose of this SIG is to provide a forum for discussion and collaboration between telecommunications service and network providers, universities and other research institutions as well as European research projects (ACTS, EURESCOM, ...), on the topic of intelligent agents for telecommunications applications and telematics services (IATA). The overall aim of the IATA SIG is to support the rapid and timely development of new telecommunications applications and telematics services in the telco industry based on agent technology, and the long-term establishment of agent technology in the telco industry. The IATA SIG promotes synergetic efforts on applying agent technology to telecommunications. It is expected to establish new co-operation between both researchers and telcos in the area mentioned above, but also to tighten contacts and focus dispersed research and development efforts. Agent technology is to be investigated as to how it can be usefully applied to the area of telecommunications applications and telematics services. Specifically, the following goals are to be pursued: * Identification and analysis of telecommunications applications and telematics services where agent technology can add substantial value as opposed to other, more conventional technologies. These applications and services include service and network management; wireless supporting services; electronic commerce. * Identification and analysis of requirements for an infrastructure for agent-based applications and services * Identify shortcomings in existing agent research and development and attempt to address these issues. * To produce working documents that capture telecommunications related agent technology and their shortcomings, advantages, disadvantages, etc. Three areas will be looked at: network management, wireless telecommunications and personalization/profiling in the context of e-commerce. * To maintain an industry watch on current agent activities (i.e. FIPA). * To discuss, and possible propose, either existing or new agent related projects (i.e. Fifth Framework). * To provide input to current agent related activities, such as EURESCOM P907 or FACTS. SIG Activities The IATA SIG activities will include: * a SIG mailing list and a SIG web site covering information on IATA-related research and development activities, especially in Europe. Also, SIG member activities will be documented; * provide regular information on IATA and IATA SIG activities to related EU-funded research projects, e.g. ACTS-CLIMATE; * regular meetings of SIG members for discussions on the problems of establishing agent technology in telco industry, as well as potential solution paths for reaching this aim. Such meetings can serve as a central point where telco industry can present current problems and researchers can present solutions, and feedback in both directions can flow easily; * co-operation with and support of groups and all events with topics related to the R&D of IATA, such as interdisciplinary workshops, conferences, meetings in the research areas mentioned above (IATA workshop series, PAAM, IJCAI, ICMAS, ...). Meeting Objectives The main objective of the Heidelberg meeting will be to consolidate what we have achieved in the current working groups and to plan the future activities of the SIG. Funding The Heidelberg meeting will be funded by AgentLink. The funding is limited to one person per AgentLink affiliation (node). Please read the guidance for claiming expenses carefully (http://www.agentlink.org/admin/expenses.html) BEFORE you make any travel arrangements. Contact For all enquiries concerning the IATA SIG meeting please contact: T. J. Wilke DAI-Lab Technical University of Berlin Sekr. FR6-7 Franklinstr. 28/29 10587 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 30 314 73612 Fax: +49 30 314 21799 Email: tjw@dailab.cs.tu-berlin.de or Stephen Corley BT Laboratories Adastral Park Martlesham Heath Ipswich IP5 3RE UK Phone: +44 1473 648248 Fax: +44 1473 640897 Email: steve.corley@bt.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * AMEC & ABSS SIG Meetings - 21-23 February 2000, Saarbruecken, Germany The Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce SIG and Agent-based Social Simulation SIGs have decided to colocate their meetings with those of the other SIG meetings being held at DFKI Saarbrucken, Germany, between 21 and 23 February 2000. The meetings being held there are: * AmEC: Agent-mediated electronic commerce SIG co-ordinator, Carles Sierra (sierra@iiia.csic.es) * MSEAS: Methodologies and software engineering for agent systems SIG co-ordinator, Jan Treur (treur@cs.vu.nl) * I2A: Intelligent information agents SIG co-ordinator, Matthias Klusch (klusch@dfki.de) * MACC: Multi-Agent Coordination & control SIG co-ordinator, John Perram (jperram@mip.sdu.dk) * AbSS: Agent-based social simulation SIG co-ordinator, Rosaria Conte (rosaria@pscs2.irmkant.rm.cnr.it) The meetings are being hosted by Matthias Klusch. As usual, travel support will be available from AgentLink for meeting participants; please contact SIG coordinators ASAP to express interest! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * AgentLink Travel Fellowships Available We are delighted to announce a series of AgentLink Travel Fellowships. These fellowships take the form of travel grants, enabling members of AgentLink nodes to visit European sites for the purposes of agent R&D activities. The fellowships are intended to support visits of no less than one week and no more than two months. Fellowships are available immediately. To apply for a fellowship, send by email to coordinator@AgentLink.org a short statement explaining: * who you are, what you do, which AgentLink node you are affiliated to, who you wish to visit, and the location of the group you wish to visit; * a short (one paragraph) statement of the purpose of the visit; * the dates of travel; * an informal summary of expected costs (travel + accommodation + subsistence); * a statement to the effect that approval for the visit has been given both by your own institution, *and* by the group you wish to visit. Before you apply for a fellowship, please ensure you have read and understood the following information (if you have any questions, please send them to coordinator@agentlink.org *before* you apply): * support is *only* available for *full* AgentLink members to travel *within* Europe (this means *no* travel to the USA, for example); * support is only available for R&D activities that fall within the interest of AgentLink, as the management committee judges them; * AgentLink will *only* cover costs of travel, accommodation, and subsistence; * the maximum available in a fellowship is expected to be 3000 Euro; * fellowships are not available to students registered for degrees lower than a PhD; * applications for fellowships will be considered at the beginning of every month, starting 10 December 1999, and so on, with the last applications considered in early March 2000 (funds permitting) -- no applications received after end Feb 2000 will be considered; * we hope to notify applicants soon after their applications are considered; * upon completion of the visit, applicants should submit a short (2 page or so) report on the work carried out, for inclusion in the AgentLink annual report; * all fellowship visits must be completed by Friday 2 June 2000, and claims for support submitted by 16 June 2000 at the latest (this is so that we can process claims in AgentLink-1!) * fellowships will be considered on a first-come-first-served basis - we recommend that if you wish to apply for a fellowship, you do so as soon as possible, as we cannot guarantee funds will be available later. **The first batch of applications will be considered on 10 December 1999.** ----------------------------------------------------------------------