• CALL FOR PAPERS - CALL FOR PAPERS -

              EIGHTH ANNUAL WORKSHOP ON
    Evolutionary Computation and Multi-Agent Systems
         and Simulation Workshop (ECoMASS-2014)
  
               to be held as part of the
  

2014 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2014)
July 12-16, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Organized by ACM SIGEVO
http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2014

PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR WORKSHOP: March 28, 2014

Workshop URL: https://sites.google.com/site/ecomassworkshop/

Evolutionary computation (EC) and multi-agent systems and simulation
(MASS) both involve populations of agents. EC is a learning technique
by which a population of individual agents adapt according to the
selection pressures exerted by an environment; MASS seeks to
understand how to coordinate the actions of a population of (possibly
selfish) autonomous agents that share an environment so that some
outcome is achieved. Both EC and MASS have top-down and bottom-up
features. For example, some aspects of multi-agent system engineering
(e.g., mechanism design) are concerned with how top-down structure can
constrain or influence individual decisions. Similarly, most work in
EC is concerned with how to engineer selective pressures to drive the
evolution of individual behavior towards some desired goal. Multi-agent
simulation (also called agent-based modeling) addresses the bottom-up
issue of how collective behavior emerges from individual action.
Likewise, the study of evolutionary dynamics within EC (for example in
coevolution) often considers how population-level phenomena emerge from
individual-level interactions. Thus, at a high level, we may view EC and
MASS as examining and utilizing analogous processes. It is therefore
natural to consider how knowledge gained within EC may be relevant to
MASS, and vice versa; indeed, applications and techniques from one field
have often made use of technologies and algorithms from the other field.

The goal of this workshop is to facilitate the examination and
development of techniques at the intersection of evolutionary
computation and multi-agent systems and simulation.

The ECoMASS workshop welcomes original submissions in the theory and
practice of all aspects of Evolutionary Computation and Multi-Agent
Systems and Simulation, which include (but are not limited to) the
following topics and themes:

• Multi-agent systems and agent-based models utilizing evolutionary
  computation
• Optimization of multi-agent systems and agent-based models using
  evolutionary computation
• Evolutionary computation models which rely not on explicit fitness
  functions but rather implicit fitness functions defined by the
  relationship to other individuals / agents
• Applications utilizing MASS and EC in combination
• Biological agent-based models (usually called individual-based
  models) involving evolution
• Evolution of cooperation and altruism
• Genotypic representation of the complex phenotypic strategies of MASS
• Evolutionary learning within MASS (including Baldwinian learning and
  phenotypic plasticity)
• Emergence and feedbacks
• Open-ended strategy spaces and evolution
• Adaptive individuals within evolving populations
• Calibration and validation of models using evolutionary computation
• Use of evolutionary methods to understand the growth of and
  processes on social networks

*Paper Submission
Each accepted paper will be presented orally at the workshop and
distributed in workshop proceedings to all GECCO attendees. In addition
to the actual paper, authors can submit supplementary material such as
source code and videos. Authors are encouraged to submit source code that
enables reproduction of the results described in the paper. These materials
should be properly anonymized at the time of submission. The proceedings will
also be indexed in the ACM digital library. Authors should follow the
format of the GECCO manuscript style; refer to
http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2014/ for details. Manuscripts should not
exceed 8 pages. Papers should be submitted by 28 March, 2014, in PDF
format to: forrest.stonedahl@centre.edu with “ECoMASS paper submission”
in the subject line.

*Demos
For those authors who have their papers accepted into the workshop
we will also provide some time to demo the software that was created
for the research, or relevant software that the research was based upon.
If the authors, wish to demo during the workshop, please note that on
your submission so that time can be allocated.

*Main Conference Research Slam
For those authors who have a paper or poster accepted to the main
GECCO conference on topics relevant to the workshop, we encourage
them to present two slides during the ECoMASS workshop as a teaser
for their main conference presentations. If you wish to participate
in this research slam please contact the workshop chairs.

*Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: 28 March, 2014
Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2014
Camera-Ready Accepted Papers Due: April 25, 2014

*Workshop Chairs
Bill Rand, University of Maryland
Forrest Stonedahl, Centre College

*2014 Workshop Program Committee
Mitchell Colby, Oregon State University
Sherri Goings, Carleton College
Matt Knudson, NASA Ames Research Center
Rinde van Lon, KU Leuven (Belgium)
Michael North, Argonne National Laboratory
Jim Reggia, University of Maryland
Robert G. Reynolds, Wayne State University
Rick Riolo, University of Michigan
Logan Yliniemi, Oregon State University
Tina Yu, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Emily Berglund, NC State University

GECCO is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery Special
Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (SIGEVO). SIG
Services: 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY, 10121, USA,
1-800-342-6626 (USA and Canada) or +212-626-0500 (Global).