CH558 Software Agent
(Software Agent Technology and Multi-agent
Systems)
Spring Semester, 2005
Dept. of Computer Science
Yonsei University
Multi-agent Systems
 have emerged as one of the most important areas of research and
development in information technology in the 1990s.
 are composed of multiple interacting software components known as
agents, which are typically capable of cooperating to solve problems
that are beyond the abilities of any individual member.
 are important primarily because they have been found to have very
wide applicability, in areas as diverse as industrial process control
and electronic commerce.
Course Objectives
 to introduce the student to the concept of an agent and multi-agent
system, and the main applications for which they are appropriate;
 to introduce the main issues surrounding the design of intelligent
agents;
 to introduce the main issues surrounding the design of a multi-agent
society;
 to introduce a contemporary platform for implementing agents and
multi-agent systems.
Learning Outcomes
 Upon completing this course, a student will:
– understand the notion of an agent, how agents are distinct from
other software paradigms (e.g., objects), and understand the
characteristics of applications that lend themselves to an agentoriented solution;
– understand the key issues associated with constructing agents
capable of intelligent autonomous action, and the main
approaches taken to developing such agents;
– understand the key issues in designing societies of agents that
can effectively cooperate in order to solve problems, including an
understanding of the key types of multi-agent interactions
possible in such systems;
– understand the main application areas of agent-based solutions,
and be able to develop a meaningful agent-based system using a
contemporary agent development platform.
Contact
 Instructor
– Prof. Sung-Bae Cho (Eng. C515;  2123-2720;
sbcho@cs.yonsei.ac.kr)
 Web-page : http://sclab.yonsei.ac.kr/Courses/05Agent
 Class hours
– Mon 10:00 ~ 10:50, Wed 10:00~11:50 (Eng. C520)
 Office hour
– Thu 1:00 ~ 3:00 pm
 TA
– Mr. Jin-Hyuk Hong (hjinh@sclab.yonsei.ac.kr)
Course Materials
 Textbook
– [Woo] M. Wooldridge, An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems. John
Wiley & Sons, 2002. ISBN 0 47149691X.
– [SAT] http://www.cs.uta.fi/sat/materials
 References
– Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Ed), Software Agents, MIT Press, 1997
– Michael N. Huhns, Munindar P. Singh, Readings in Agents, Morgan
Kaufmann, 1998
– Jacques Ferber, Multi-Agent Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1999
– Akira Namatame (Ed), Agent-based Approaches in Economic and
Social Complex Systems, 2002
– Related Conference Proceedings (IJCAI, AAAI, PRICAI, IAT, etc)
– UMBC site : http://agents.umbc.edu/
– MIT site : http://ttt.media.mit.edu/research/research.html
Course Schedule
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
3/2 : Course Introduction
3/7, 9 : Visions of Agents (SAT, Ch1), Intro. Multiagent Systems (Woo, Ch1)
3/14, 16 : Classes of Agents (SAT, Ch2), Intelligent Agents (Woo, Ch2)
3/21, 23 : Technical Issues (SAT, Ch3), Deductive Reasoning Agents (Woo,
Ch3)
3/28, 30 : Agent Architecture (SAT, Ch4), Practical Reasoning (Woo, Ch4)
4/4, 6 : No Lecture (Project Proposal)
4/11, 13 : User Interface Agents (SAT, Ch5), Reactive & Hybrid (Woo, Ch5)
4/18 : 중간시험
4/25, 27 : FIPA (SAT, Ch6), Multiagent Interactions (Woo, Ch6)
5/2, 4 : Agent Communications (SAT, Ch7), Reaching Agreements (Woo, Ch7)
5/9, 11 : Ontologies (SAT, Ch8), Agent Communication (Woo, Ch8)
5/16, 18 : BDI (SAT, Ch9), Working Together (Woo, Ch9)
5/23, 25 : Profiles (SAT, Ch10), Methodologies (Woo, Ch10)
5/30, 6/1 : Agents in Mobile Devices (SAT, Ch11), Applications (Woo, Ch11)
6/8 : Project Presentation
6/13 : 기말시험
Evaluation Criteria
 Evaluation Criteria
– Term Project (written report and an oral presentation)
– Mid and Final Exams
– Homeworks and Class Participation
: 40%
: 30%
: 30%
 Term Project (Oral presentation is required) :
– Theoretical Issue (Analysis, Experiment, Simulation) : Originality
– Interesting Programming (Game, Demo, etc) : Performance
– Survey : Completeness
List of Possible Projects
 Conversational agents
 Artificial-life agents
 Intelligent agents for mobile devices
 Inference and prediction for agents
 Service discovery agents
 Game agents
 Semantic modeling for agents
 Distributed information agents (Amalthae, Anarchid)
 Personalized information agents
 Avatar
 …
Questions & Answers