Hello everybody,

I would like to inform you about the following upcoming event. Sorry for
cross-posting.

CALL FOR PAPERS
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ISCRAM 06 Special Session
“Multiagent Systems for Disaster Management and Response”

ISCRAM 2006
May 15-17, 2006
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ USA

Scope
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Multiagent Systems (MAS) are computional systems where software agents (e.g.
independent software programs) cooperate or compete with each other to
achieve an individual or collective task. These systems are currently
receiving increasing attention in diverse applications for complex and
dynamic environments. The management of and the response to natural and
technological disasters is an emergent research area and the complexity of
these devastating events suggests the use of such adaptive realtime
technologies.

This special session will focus on the potential of agent technology for
disaster management and response. The session will address the following
questions:

(1) What is the potential of MAS for emergency and disaster management and
what are the IS requirements for the use of agent technology at various
domain levels?
(2) What kind of architectures, frameworks and models do support this approach?
(3) Which formal models can be used for agent-based realtime planning and
automatic information retrieval?
(4) How can agent-based simulation systems be used to simulate the
consequences of response activities and how can the results be validated?
(5) How can agents be linked to human decision makers in order to be accepted?

Although the main focus of this session explores the potential of MAS, the
session also welcomes contributions focusing on potential problems and risks
associated with the use of this technology.

Topics of Interest
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We seek original and high-quality contributions on the general theme of
Multiagent Systems for Disaster Management and Response. The following is a
non-exhaustive list with topics of special interest:

- Unique frameworks and architectures for agent-based decision support
systems for natural and man-made disasters
- Models for agent-based realtime operations planning and resource allocation
- Dynamic goal and plan creation with uncertain and conflicting information
- Co-ordination, communication and collaborative planning in large-scale
multiagent systems
- Information retrieval agents for disaster related real time information
systems
- Agent-based modeling of self organizing systems and emergent organizations
for disaster response
- Security issues in agent-based systems for timecritical missions
- Human-Agent interfaces
- Ontologies and communication standards
- Agent-based simulation systems

Submission
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All submitted papers must contribute to the topic of the special session.
Full Papers should be emailed to [log in to unmask] Further instructions on
formatting and submitting papers as well as a complete list of all special
sessions will be provided through the conference web site (www.iscram.org).
All papers will be blind reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers.

Important Deadlines
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Paper Submissions: January 12, 2006
Review Notifications: March 3, 2006
Final Camera-ready Paper: March 17, 2006
(Full papers 5,000 words; Research in progress or Case Study 2,500 words)

Additional information
----------------------
For further information on this special session and for questions on
appropriateness of your paper please contact the chair or the co-chair of
the session:

Chair:
Name: Dr. Frank Fiedrich
Email: [log in to unmask]
Affiliation: Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
The George Washington University
Washington, D.C., USA
Homepage: http://www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/People/fiedrich.htm

Co-chair:
---------
Name: Drs. Paul Burghardt
Email: [log in to unmask]
Affiliation: Decis Lab
Delft, The Netherlands
Homepage: http://www.decis.nl/html/paul_burghardt.htm

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Dr. Frank Fiedrich, Ph.D.
Assistant Prof. of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
1776 G Street, NW, Suite 101
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: +1 (202) 994 2379
Fax: +1 (202) 994 0245
Email: [log in to unmask]
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