[alife] 2nd CFP - NISPADE 2006

[Enda Ridge]

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

Nature-Inspired Systems for Parallel, Asynchronous and Decentralised 
Environments
NISPADE 2006

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New:
- selected researchers will be invited to submit a significantly 
extended version of their work to a special issue of the international 
journal, Multiagent and Grid Systems
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April 3rd-4th 2006, Bristol, UK

www.cs.york.ac.uk/aig/nispade2006

A 2-day symposium to be held as part of: AISB'06: Adaptation in 
Artificial and Biological Systems

Nature-inspired algorithms such as genetic algorithms, particle swarm 
optimisation and ant colony algorithms are the state-of-the-art solution 
technique for some problems. Furthermore, their population-based 
stochastic search approach promises desirable algorithm features such as 
anytime decentralised solution and robustness to problem change. 
However, the efficient pursuit of more accurate solutions leads 
researchers to appeal to centralised, highly tuned and sequential 
implementations that are only loosely related to their successful 
natural counterparts. This renders them brittle in the face of the 
dynamism of changing problem specifications and operating conditions and 
limits their usefulness to industry’s direction of increasing 
distribution, decentralisation and adaptability.

Emerging computing environments such as autonomic computing, ubiquitous 
computing, Peer-to-Peer systems, the Grid and the Semantic Web demand 
the interaction of large numbers of decentralised, parallel, 
asynchronous, and distributed software entities in a standardised fashion.

If nature-inspired algorithms are to make an impact on these emerging 
computing environments, disciplined scientific and engineering 
investigations must be undertaken into the successful transfer of these 
algorithms, techniques and infrastructures into such environments.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

METHODOLOGIES:
- Searching the vast parameter spaces of parallel, asynchronous and 
decentralised nature-inspired systems.
- Empirical performance evaluation and benchmarking procedures for these 
systems.
- Design and programming abstractions to manage the complexity of these 
systems
- Software engineering techniques, e.g., design patterns, component 
frameworks and software architectures

MIDDLEWARE FOR IMPLEMENTING ALGORITHMS IN MASs:
- Supporting nature-inspired algorithms in a decentralised, asynchronous 
and parallel context (e.g. pheromone infrastructures).
- Integrating implementations within existing middleware technologies.
- Ontologies and protocols for nature-inspired system functionality 
(e.g. pheromone deposition, aggregation and dispersion).

APPLICATIONS:
- Applications of nature-inspired techniques in novel areas, such as 
mobile, pervasive and grid computing
- Scalability and performance optimisation of applications
- Tool support for nature-inspired techniques

EXPERIENCES AND RESULTS
- New issues in the emerging computing environments context (e.g. 
asynchronicity, self-organisation, hyperactivity, agent redundancy, 
messaging costs).
- Measures of the above.
- Efficiency, robustness, population diversity, adaptiveness and other 
qualities.



SUBMISSIONS AND PUBLICATION
Papers should be 4 pages in length, formatted according to the AISB 
formatting guidelines. The final proceedings will contain both short 
papers (4 pages) and long papers (up to 8 pages). See website 
(www.cs.york.ac.uk/aig/nispade2006) for further details. Selected 
researchers taking part in NISPADE 2006 will be invited to submit a 
significantly extended version of their symposium contribution for 
consideration for a special issue of the international journal 
Multiagent and Grid Systems.



PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:
- Fabio Bellifemine, Telecom Italia
- Sven Brueckner, Altarum Institute, USA.
- David Cornforth, Charles Stuart University, Australia.
- Angelo Corsaro, Alenia Marconi Systems, Italy
- Giovanna Di Marzo Serugendo, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
- Tom Holvoet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
- Dimitar Kazakov, The University of York, UK
- Graham Kirby, University of St Andrews, Scotland
- Daniel Kudenko, The University of York, UK
- Michael Madden, National University of Ireland, Galway
- Colm O' Riordan, National University of Ireland, Galway
- Ana Sendova-Franks, The University of the West of England, UK.
- Thomas Stützle, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
- Katja Verbeeck, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
- Danny Weyns, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

IMPORTANT DATES
- Paper submission: January 13th
- Notification of acceptance: February 3rd
- Camera ready copies: February 20th



CONTACT:
Enda Ridge, Department of Computer Science, The University of York, YO10 
5DD, UK.
Email: ERidge at cs.york.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 43 4731
Fax: +44 (0)1904 43 2767

Edward Curry, Department of Information Technology, National University 
of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Email: EdCurry at acm.org