The AAMAS 2008 program will include a session dedicated to the future of software engineering and multi-agent systems (FOSE-MAS). The goal of the session is to reflect on the state of the art in software engineering and multi-agent systems and explore key directions for future research in the field. The session will run as an interactive panel discussion. Input for the discussion will be provided by four panelists that are invited by the advisory board and a selection of position statements from the community. Guiding questions for the discussion are:

• What are the main aspects that hamper progress in software engineering and multi-agent systems?
• Why is state-of-the-art in multi-agent systems research and engineering insufficiently reflected in state-of-the-practice in complex distributed systems?
• What is the future for agent-oriented methodologies?
• What are the strong and weak points of state-of-the-art agent programming languages?
• What makes software engineering of multi-agent systems different from mainstream software engineering?
• What are the key research challenges for software engineering and multi-agent systems?
• What is it that we have to do to promote industrial adoption of agent-oriented software engineering? Can we do that, and how?
• What actions are required to advance research in software engineering and multi-agent systems?

Panel

• Van Parunak: Chair (introduction)
• Scott DeLoach: Moving Multi-Agent Systems from Research to Practice (abstract, presentation)
• Monique Calisti: Opportunities to Support Wide-spread Adoption of Software Agents (abstract)
• Danny Weyns: How to Get Multi-Agent Systems Accepted in Industry? (abstract, presentation)
• Michael Georgeff: The MAS – SE Gap: Bridging the Divide (abstract, presentation)
• Onn Shehory: Wrap up (presentation)

• Selected position statements from the community

Call for position statements

We solicit position statements from the community. Two types of postition statement are invited:

• Type 1: the authors take a position against a statement put forward by one or more invited panelists
• Type 2: the authors put forward a position for discussion related to software engineering and multi-agent systems that is not considered by the position statements of the invited panelists

Authors should clearly state the type of their position statement. Each position statement must be provided with a title that summarizes the authors position. Position statements are limited to 500 words and should be send in pdf format to fose-mas [at] cs.kuleuven.be. The submission deadline is April 4th. All submissions will be evaluated by members of the advisory board and additional reviewers. Authors of a limited number of position statements will be invited to present their position during the FOSE-MAS session. In addition, a selection of position statements will be made available online and serve as input for the discussion. Criteria for invitations and selection are relevance and clarity of the position statement.

Important Dates

• Submission Position Statements: April 15 (extended)
• Notification: May 2 (delayed)
• FOSE-MAS session: May 15

Organization

• Coordination: Danny Weyns
• Advisory board: Michael Luck, Onn Shehory, Michael Winikoff, Alessandro Ricci, John Thangarajah, Mehdi Dastani

Contact

fose-mas [at] cs.kuleuven.be