First Workshop on Multi-agent Based Applications for Sustainable Energy Systems (MASSES)

as part of

11th Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (PAAMS)

Salamanca (Spain), 22nd-24th May, 2013

Important dates

Submission date               7 January

Notification date              28 January

Paper ready deadline      25 February

Conference dates            22-24 May, 2013

Workshop motivation and topics

After the explicit commitment of many countries to support the installation and management of often small renewable energy production sources the old energy grids need to be upgraded to a much more intelligent and flexible grid, not only for electricity but also for gas and heat. Such so called smart grids most likely need to rely on decentralized control and a highly efficient, fast, flexible and reliable management. This requires smart grids to be capable of autonomously and intelligently configuring themselves to make the most efficient use of available resources, to be robust to all kinds of failures and energy production deviations, and to be extendable and adaptable in the face of rapidly changing technologies and requirements. The distributed nature of these systems, and the autonomous behaviour expected of them, points towards multi-agent systems as a possible foundation for the realisation of the management software for such grids. While a lot has to happen on the energy production and provision level the house of the future as well as the transportation means of the future need to be smoothly integrated in such a smart grid concept as well which means that houses need to be smart as well. Thus, the focus of this workshop is on applications of multi-agent systems technology in smart grids and smart homes.

Examples of areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

•        Agent-based prediction, adaption and optimization of energy use within homes, buildings, organisations and micro-grids

•        Multi-agent based simulations of energy grids and markets

•        Coalition formation strategies for coordinated energy use across multiple consumers, forming virtual power stations, and performing intelligent demand management.

•        Experiences with MAS-based Smart Grid implementations

•        Applications of MAS-based Smart Grid technologies

•        MAS-based real time adaptation of energy networks

•        MAS-based self-configuration or self-healing of energy systems

•        MAS-based load modelling and control

•        MAS-based applications for electrical vehicles

•        MAS-based control and management of electrical car fleets

•        Interactions and exchange between networks for electricity, gas and heat

•        MAS-based smart home (building) applications and services

•        MAS-based control and management of smart homes

•        MAS-based control and management of appliances

•        MAS-based control and management of smart homes

•        MAS-based commercial and industrial applications for smart homes

Structure of MASSES

MASSE will be a full-day workshop and will include several presentation sessions for the accepted paper as well as invited papers on topics of overall interest in order to kick off intense and lively discussions. It is intended to end the workshop with a panel/discussion round in which the relevant results of the workshop will be discussed.

Review Process

Submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 Program Committee members. Selection criteria will include: relevance, significance, impact, originality, technical soundness, quality of presentation, practical applicability. Some preference may also be given to papers which address emergent trends or important common themes. In general, papers to be acceptable, must be of substantial relevance for the multi-agent systems research community.

Journal publication of excellent papers

It is intended to invite authors of excellent papers to submit an extended version of their paper to either

the IOS Multiagent and Grid Systems journal (MAGS). This journal has a high reputation and is often classified as a B-class journal. If enough high quality papers will be submitted it is planned to publish them as a special issue, otherwise as regular papers;

or Springer's Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence. This new journal focuses on research in applications of the computer-based methods of Computational Collective Intelligence (CCI) and their applications in a wide range of fields such as semantic web, social networks and multi-agent systems.

Workshop organisers/PC Chairs

Giancarlo Fortino, University of Calabria, Italy

Ryszard Kowalczyk, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Rainer Unland (primary contact), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Rainer.Unland at icb.uni-due.de

Program Committee

Alexander Pokahr, University of Hamburg, Germany

Andreas Symeonidis, University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Anke Weidlich, Hochschule Offenburg, Germany

Bao Vo, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Benjamin Hirsch, EBTIC, UAE

Bernhard Bauer, Universität Augsburg, Germany

Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Instituttet, Denmark

Christian Derksen, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Christoph Weber, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Costin Bădică, University of Craiova,  Craiova, Romania

Cristina Baroglio, Universita' degli Studi di Torino, Italy

David Sislak, Gerstner Laboratory, Czech Republic

Dmitry Zhdanov, University of Connecticut, USA

Fabrice Saffre, Etisalat BT Innovation Centre, UAE

Frank Allgöwer, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

Georg Frey, Universität des Saarlandes, Germany

Hanno Hildmann, Khalifa University, UAE

Huaglory Tianfield, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

Huib Aldewereld, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

Ingo J. Timm, JW Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

Jan Sudeikat, Hamburg Energie GmbH, Germany

Javier Vazquez-Salceda, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

John Collins, University of Minnesota, USA

Lars Braubach, University of Hamburg, Germany

Lars Mönch, Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany

Marcin Paprzycki, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Maria Ganzha, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Martin Tröschel, OFFIS - Institut für Informatik, Germany

Mathijs de Weerdt, TU Delft, The Netherlands

Matthias Klusch, DFKI GmbH, Germany

Ori Marom, Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands

Peter Palensky, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria

Sascha Ossowski, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

Stamatis Karnouskos, SAP, Germany

Steven Guan, Xian Jiatong-Liverpool University, China

Sudip Bhattacharjee, University of Connecticut, USA

Wolfgang Ketter, Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands

Zakaria Maamar, Zayed University, UAE

Lau Hoong Chuin, Singapore Management University, Singapore (t.b.c.)

Zhiguo Gong, University of Macau, Macau (t.b.c.)

-- 

“Experience is this valuable asset which allows us to identify the 
mistake immediately when we are doing it again and again!” 

“Erfahrung ist jener kostbare Besitz, der uns befähigt, einen Fehler 
sofort zu erkennen, wenn wir ihn immer wieder machen.” 


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Prof. Dr. Rainer Unland 
University of Duisburg-Essen 
Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems (ICB) 
Practical Computer Science, especially Data Management Systems and 
Knowledge Representation 
Schuetzenbahn 70 
45117 Essen, Germany 
Tel.: (+49) 201-183 3421 
IP-Tel. Skype: unlandr Fax: (+49) 201-183 4460 
Email: Rainer.Unland at icb.uni-due.de 
WWW: http://www.dawis.wiwi.uni-due.de/ 
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