Workshop on
Agent-Based Systems for Human Learning and Entertainment (ABSHLE)

call for papers

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overview
Interest in the role of artificial intelligence in interactive systems has grown rapidly in recent years, in part because increasingly powerful consumer hardware makes research-level AI usable in real-world games and/or immersive learning environments. Accompanying this, there has been a sharp escalation in the number of research questions related to the use of agent technologies to shape human experiences in complex environments. A number of tensions accompany the use of agents in these contexts, since the goal is not to simulate autonomous agents for their own sake, but to use them to create an interactive experience with a pre-defined goal for the human user: either to learn a curriculum or to experience an engaging and rich world (or both, in the case of "edutainment"). Unlike fully author-controlled experiences such as such as films and plays, or fully scripted computer-aided instructional systems, dynamic interactive experiences require a world that can appropriately and meaningfully respond to the user---a natural fit for intelligent and believable agents. At the same time, however, system designers want to shape users' experiences, presenting new research challenges to address the interplay between player autonomy and designer intent. Thus, within this area of research, there is a design space that ranges from complete autonomy for agents to complete control for an agent coordinator. One of the goals of this workshop is to foster a dialog among researchers who are exploring the complex tradeoffs that must be made in designing agent systems for education and interactive entertainment, and especially to bring together researchers focusing on autonomous multi-agent systems with those focusing on more centralized agent coordination for this problem.

The aim of the Agent-Based Systems for Human Learning and Entertainment (ABSHLE) workshop is to bring together researchers who are working on agent-based systems to support a variety of interactive applications for human learning and/or entertainment. Within the "learning" realm, these are typically split into two areas: "training", which generally refers to adult learning of job-related skills, frequently but not exclusively in military settings; and "education", which generally refers to child and (young) adult learning in academic settings, including primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities. Overlapping with the "entertainment" realm, interactive applications built for learning can either by scripted (i.e., designer-controlled) or user-controlled, reacting in real-time based on a user's interactions. This latter category of "intelligent" interfaces is the primary interest of the ABSHLE workshop. The goal of the workshop is to foster a dialogue among researchers who are exploring the complex tradeoffs that must be made in designing agent systems for interactive learning and/or entertainment.

Expanding on two earlier Agent-Based Systems for Human Learning (ABSHL) workshops, held at AAMAS-2005 and AAMAS-2006, the 2007 ABSHLE workshop will doubly focus on entertainment environments. Although the specific application areas of the participants may be varied, the major issues faced are shared. The plan for the full-day workshop is to interleave 25-minute full talks with 15-minute short talks, as well as panel and general discussions.

topics of interest
We invite submissions that describe and/or demonstrate any of the following, in relation to the design, development, implementation, testing and/or evaluation of human learning or entertainment applications:

• innovative applications of MAS
• new agent technologies
• cognitive, social and emotion models
• believable and engaging agents/environments
• novel approaches to drama management and/or comparisons of existing approaches
• evaluation methodologies
• pilot/user/formative studies
• virtual reality environments
• models of agency and control, levels of agent autonomy
• models of user autonomy and control
• relationships between agents and story

• Knowledge Acquisition
• Knowledge Based Reasoning
• Human Computer Interaction
• Case-Based Reasoning
• User Modelling
• Storytelling/Narrative Engines
• Scenario Analysis
• Game Development
• (immersive) Virtual Reality/Environment
• Cognitive, Emotion and Personality Modelling
• Embodied Agents
• Language Technology including Speech, Linguistics, Dialogue
• Multiagent Environments and Social Systems

submission requirements
All submissions must be written in English and must include: title, author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), mailing and electronic addresses, and telephone and fax numbers. Papers should be no longer than 8 pages.

All accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings to be handed out at the workshop.

Selected papers will be invited for publication in a special issue for the Journal "International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications" (http://itssa.xiaglow-research.org.uk/index.htm).
To facilitate publication of the special issue, please format your papers according to the instructions at:
http://itssa.xiaglow-research.org.uk/ita/ita.htm
Don't worry about the Author Bios at this time.

Prospective authors should email a PDF version of their paper to:

• Debbie Richards (richards at ics.mq.edu.au)

important dates

Feb 11	Deadline for paper submission (extended!)
Mar 05	Notification of Acceptance
Mar 19	Submission of Camera-ready papers
Mar 19	Notification of intent to run a demo
May 15	ABSHLE Workshop

workshop organizers

• Brian Blake, Georgetown University, USA, mb7 at georgetown.edu
• Charles Isbell, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA isbell at cc.gatech.edu
• Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA michaelm at cs.ucsc.edu
• Debbie Richards, Macquarie University, Australia richards at ics.mq.edu.au
• Elizabeth Sklar, City University of New York, USA sklar at sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu

program committee

• Cristina Conati, Univ of British Columbia, Canada
• Maria Fasli, Univ of Essex, UK
• Art Graesser, Univ of Memphis, USA
• Dirk Heylen, Univ of Twente, The Netherlands
• Manolya Kavakli, Macquarie University, Australia
• Yanghee Kim, Utah State Univ, USA
• James Lester, North Carolina State Univ, USA
• Susan Lowes, Teachers College, Columbia Univ, USA
• Brian Magerko, Michigan State University, USA
• Eleni Mangina Phelan, University College Dublin, Ireland
• Stacy Marsella, ISI, Univ of Southern California, USA
• Gregory O'Hare, University College Dublin, Ireland
• Yusuf Pisan, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
• Agostino Poggi, Univ degli Studi di Parma, Italy
• Mark Riedl, ICT, Univ of Southern California, USA
• William Schuler, University of Minnesota, USA
• Nicolas Szilas, LINC, Universite Paris 8, France
• Julita Vasileva, Univ of Saskatchewan, Canada
• Peter Weyhrauch, Mad Doc Software, USA
• Uri Wilensky, Northwestern University, USA
• R. Michael Young, North Carolina State University, USA

questions?
For further information, please contact Elizabeth Sklar sklar at sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu.