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.
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".