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International Journal of Modeling, Simulation, and Scientific Computing
http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/ijmssc

Call for Papers
Special Issue on Agent-Directed Simulation

Extended Deadline: 01/15/2016
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Agent-directed simulation considers full synergistic relations of the 
modeling and simulation discipline with software agents. It consists of 
three distinct, yet related areas that can be grouped under two categories 
as follows:

* Contribution of simulation to agents (or agent simulation). This is 
simulation of agent systems in engineering, human and social dynamics, 
military applications etc. (It is commonly called "agent-based simulation" 
when the other aspects of the synergy are not taken into account.)

* Contribution of agents to simulation which has two aspects.

    1. Agent-supported simulation which deals with the use of agents as a 
support facility in front-end and/or in back-end interfaces of modeling 
and simulation environments to enable computer assistance in problem 
formulation as well as in selection, explanation, and/or visualisation of 
the results; and

    2. Agent-based simulation (or agent-monitored or agent mediated 
simulation) that focuses on the use of agents for and/or during the 
generation of model behavior in a simulation study.

Topics for this Special Issue include but are not limited to the 
following:

Theory/methodology

     * High-level (declarative and customizable) agent specification languages for modeling and simulation.
     * Distributed simulation for multi-agent systems.
     * Formal models of agents and agent societies.
     * Advanced agent features for agent-directed simulation: e.g.:
         1. Holonic agents for cooperation and coopetition modeling and 
simulation.
         2. Agents with personality, agents with dynamic personality, 
agents with emotions, agents having different types of intelligence such as 
emotional intelligence, agents with multi-intelligence.
         3. Influence of cultural backgrounds in agent-directed simulation.
         4. Agents with several types of understanding abilities such as 
multi-vision and switchable understanding abilities, trustworthy agents, 
and moral agents in simulation.
         5. Agent-based simulation to monitor multi-simulation studies.
         6. Agents in design and monitoring of simulation experiments and 
analysis of results.
         7. Verification, validation, testing; quality assurance; as well 
as failure avoidance in agent-directed simulations.

Technology, tools, toolkits, and environments

     * Agent infrastructures and supporting technologies (e.g., 
interoperability, agent-oriented software engineering environments).
     * Modeling, design, and simulation of agent systems based on 
service-oriented technologies, pervasive computing, web-services, grid 
computing, cloud computing, autonomic computing, ambient intelligence.
     * Agent architectures, platforms, and frameworks.
     * Standard APIs for agent simulation programming.

Applications

     * Simulation modeling of agent technologies at the organization, 
interaction (e.g., communication, negotiation, coordination, 
collaboration) and agent level (e.g., deliberation, social agents, 
computational autonomy).
     * Application of agent simulations in various areas such as biology, 
business, commerce, economy, engineering, environment, individual, group, 
and organizational behavior, management, simulation gaming/training, 
social systems.
     * Conflict management simulation with holonic agents.
     * Modeling and simulation of emergence.
     * Simulation-based anticipatory displays for socio-economic systems.

The theme of this Special Issue is based on the observation of the 
following premises:

     * The use of emergent agent technologies at the organization, 
interaction (e.g., coordination, negotiation, communication) and agent 
levels (i.e. reasoning, autonomy) are expected to advance the state of the 
art in various application domains. However, modeling and testing complex 
agent systems that are based on such technologies is difficult. Using 
agent-supported simulation techniques for testing complex agent systems is 
up and a coming field.
     * The growth of new advanced computing and communication possibilities 
along with the rapid rise of e-commerce, cloud computing, Internet of 
things are providing a new context that acts as a critical driver for the 
development of next generation systems. These standards revolve around 
service-oriented technologies, pervasive computing, web-services, Grid, 
autonomic computing, ambient intelligence etc. The supporting role that 
intelligent agents play in the development of such systems is becoming 
pervasive, and simulation plays a critical role in the analysis and design 
of such systems.
     * To facilitate bridging the gap between research and application, 
there is a need for high-level agent specification languages, 
methodologies, and  tools for all three categories of agent-directed 
simulation. Existing agent-based simulation tools are still not mature 
enough to enable developing agents with varying degrees of cognitive 
capabilities and helping users in problem solving and providing advanced 
help in monitoring and mediating simulation studies.

Extended Deadlines:
2016 January 15: Submission of full-length original articles (articles not 
submitted to other journals)
2016 February 29: Notification of acceptance
2016 March 30: Final version submission
Summer 2016: Publication of the Special Issue

Guest Editors:
Tuncer Ören ([log in to unmask]) — University of Ottawa, Ottawa, 
Ontario, Canada
Levent Yilmaz ([log in to unmask]) — Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, 
USA
Yu Zhang ([log in to unmask]) — Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, 
USA