Dear colleagues,
This may be of interest to some of you.
Glenn

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                         CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

             agentcitiesUK.net Challenge Day 3: e-Transportation

                          4th - 5th April 2006

                      University of Bath, Bath, UK

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This is a call for participants for the third agentcitiesUK.net
Challenge Day on e-Transportation, to be held on 4th-5th April 2006 at
the University of Bath.

Aims and Scope
--------------

This is the third meeting in a series that has previously investigated
issues in e-Health provision (CD1) and e-Government/e-Democracy (CD2).
The purpose of this ``Challenge Day'' is both to explore and
extrapolate from current research and to brainstorm on completely new
possibilities for the use of agent technologies, as well as introduce
non-specialists to the possibilities agents can offer. The focus will
be on how agents can help us with tasks that we are unable to do now --
not just automating existing practices. The aims are to identify real
agent added-value and develop sustainable arguments that autonomy is
an opportunity, not a threat.

The goal of the third agentcitiesUK Challenge Day is to investigate the
appropriateness for and application of agent technologies to the area
of e-Transportation and intelligent transport in the UK. Some possible
discussion topics include:

- Intelligent transportation systems
- Traffic simulation
- Journey planning
- Agent-based modelling/simulations for ground-based transportation
- Urban planning
- Environmental interaction/planning

The meeting participants will include researchers and postgraduate
students from the agents community, along with stakeholders from
the industrial and public sectors, such as local government transport
practitioners.

Structure
---------

The meeting will take place over two days, starting in the morning of
day one and finishing after lunch on day two. Dinner will be provided
on the evening of day one.

The discussion leaders will outline particular problems for which
agent technology might offer solutions: this will be interactive -- a
mixture of brainstorming and requirements elicitation. The remainder
of the first day will be spent alternating between working in groups
and reporting back to the workshop as a whole. The dinner in the
evening will provide a context for further exploration of the ideas
generated earlier.

The second day will begin with a chance for the groups to incorporate
ideas that developed overnight before another report back. We will
then move into the closing phase, where a range of use cases are
developed for each problem (in groups), followed by a plenary session
in which the solutions and the scenarios are evaluated and plans for
further development are discussed.

Networking and network access facilities will be provided throughout
the meeting.

Application Procedure
---------------------

We invite applications for participation from UK-based researchers,
including postgraduate students with interests in the applications
developments in fields relating to multi-agent systems to electronic
transportation provision.

All places will include funded accommodation at the University of Bath
on the night of the 4th April, along with subsistence and travel support.
FUNDING IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO UK PARTICIPANTS AND UK-BASED RESEARCHERS.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN: To apply for a place please visit
http://agentcitiesuk.net/ and fill out the CD3 event registration form.

Important Dates
---------------

10th March 2006: Registration deadline
14th March 2006: Notification of places and grants
4th/5th April 2006: Challenge Day

For further information, visit the agentcitiesUK.net website or contact
[log in to unmask]

CD3 steering committee: Julian Padget ([log in to unmask]) and John
Shaddock ([log in to unmask])

About AgentcitiesUK.net
-----------------------

AgentcitiesUK.net is an EPSRC-funded project which exists to continue
and extend the lines of research and development initiated by the
EU-funded agentcities projects within the United Kingdom. Specifically, the
project goals include:

- Establish a support network for UK agents research - diffusion of EU
   agentcities outputs
- Create and maintain a body of experience in agent-based services
- Provide a national/European context for masters and doctoral
   research in agent-based services
- Develop infrastructure and framework for a distributed laboratory
   for agent experiments
- Liaison with AgentLink and other EU agent activities
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Professor Glenn Lyons
Centre for Transport & Society
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
BRISTOL BS16 1QY
Tel 0117 32 83219
Mobile 07748 768404
Fax 0117 32 83899
Email [log in to unmask]
Web www.transport.uwe.ac.uk
Office location - 3Q32
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