Applying Agent Technology

Tutors

Michael Wooldridge and Nicholas Jennings (Queen Mary & Westfield College, London)

Summary

Agent technology is an exciting and fast moving field of IT which is just starting to migrate from universities and research labs into industrial and commercial applications. Given this state of transition, this tutorial presents a practioner's view of the problems and promises which face those who wish to apply agents. Assuming no prior no knowledge of the field, the tutorial will explain the concepts behind agent-based computing and clearly differentiate it from related fields of endeavour. It will identify the types of applications for which agents are suited (and the types for which they are not!), will present case studies from a number of leading edge agent applications, and it will identify the common pitfalls which those new to the field should avoid.

The tutorial will be at an introductory level, and will assume no prior knowledge of agents or AI. A basic understanding of software development would be helpful, but is not essential.

Tutor information

Dr Nicholas Jennings is a reader in the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary and Westfield (QMW) College (University of London). He has been active in the area of multi-agent systems for ten years, and now heads the Distributed AI unit at QMW. The Unit carries out applied and basic research into a broad range of issues related to the deployment of agent technology in real-world applications. He has published one research monograph, edited five books on agent technology, and is editor-in-chief of the journal "Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems", published by Kluwer.

Dr Michael Wooldridge is a lecturer in the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. He has been active in the research and development of multi-agent systems for nine years. Dr Wooldridge has published many articles in the theory and practice of agent-based systems, and has edited five books in the area. He has served on many program committees for conferences and workshops in the area, and is an associate editor of the journal "Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems".