Research on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) has a vigorous, exciting tradition and has led to important theories and systems. However, new trends and concerns are still emerging and form the basis of current and future research. The 11th thematic track on “MultiAgent Systems: Theory and Applications”, to take place at EPIA 2021, and will provide a discussion forum on the most recent and innovative work in all areas of MAS.

The unifying focus of the thematic track will be on methodological aspects. Both theoretical and practical research should be situated in the context of existing or new methodologies. This will not preclude any specific topic, but preference will be given to research work that establishes some connection with the methodological aspects or to successful applications built upon some methodology.

TOPICS OF INTERES

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Agent theories, architectures and models
- Agent-based systems Interoperability
- Agreement technologies
- Applications of agents and MAS (industrial and commercial)
- Artificial social systems
- Automated negotiation and computational argumentation
- Cognitive models, including emotions and philosophies
- Communication: languages, semantics, protocols, and conversations
- Cooperation, coordination and teamwork in MAS
- Ethical and legal issues raised by autonomous agents and MAS
- Formal methods for modelling agents and agent-based systems
- Human-agent interaction
- Learning in MAS
- Multiagent evolution, emergent behavior and adaptation
- Multiagent modelling and simulation
- Scalability and performance of MAS
- Societal and ethical issues: organizations, institutions, norms, socio-technical systems
- Trust, reputation, privacy and security

SUBMISSION AND REVIEWING

All papers should be submitted in PDF format through the EPIA 2021 EasyChair submission page. Prospective authors should select the thematic track to which their paper is to be submitted. The papers should be prepared according to the Springer LNCS format, with a maximum of 12 pages. Submitted papers will be subject to a double-blind review process and will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the Program Committee. It is the responsibility of the authors to remove names and affiliations from the submitted papers, and to take reasonable care to assure anonymity during the review process.

Authors should consult Springer’s authors’ guidelines and use their proceedings templates, either for LaTeX or for Word, for the preparation of their papers. Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. In addition, if the paper is accepted, the corresponding author, acting on behalf of all of the authors of that paper, must complete and sign a Consent-to-Publish form. The corresponding author signing the copyright form should match the corresponding author marked on the paper. Once the files have been sent to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the papers cannot be made.

PROCEEDINGS AND PRESENTATIONS

Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings (a volume of Springer’s LNAI-Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), provided that at least one author is registered in EPIA 2020 by the early registration deadline. EPIA 2021 proceedings are indexed in Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science, Scopus, DBLP and Google Scholar.

Each accepted paper must be presented by one of the authors in the track session.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Ana Paula Rocha (arocha@fe.up.pt), FEUP / LIACC, Portugal
João Balsa (jbalsa@ciencias.ulisboa.pt), DI / FCUL, Portugal
Graçaliz Pereira Dimuro (gracalizdimuro@furg.br), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil
Alberto Fernandez-Gil (alberto.fernandez@urjc.es), Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

STEERING COMMITTEE

Eugénio Oliveira (eco@fe.up.pt), FEUP / LIACC
Hélder Coelho (hcoelho@di.fc.ul.pt), FCUL
João Balsa (jbalsa@ciencias.ulisboa.pt), FCUL
Luís Paulo Reis (lpreis@fe.up.pt), FEUP / LIACC