UG3/UG4 Agent-Based Systems 2012-13
A course about agents and multiagent systems for beginners
Multi-agent systems have emerged as one of the most important areas of
research and development in information technology. A multi-agent system is
one 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. Multi-agent systems are important
primarily because they have been found to have very wide applicability, in
areas as diverse as industrial process control and electronic commerce. This
module will begin by introducing the student to the notion of an agent,
and will lead them to an understanding of what an agent is, how they can
be constructed, how agents can be made to cooperate effectively with one-another to solve problems, and approaches to decision making in multiagent
contexts.
Announcements
- The first lecture will be on Monday 14th January.
Course information
- Course Lecturer: Michael Rovatsos, Informatics Forum 2.12, tel 6513263, email mrovatso@inf.ed.ac.uk (lectures, general course organisation, revision, exam setting)
- Teaching Assistant: Rasmus Dall, Informatics Forum 3.32, email r.dall@sms.ed.ac.uk (assignments, assignment marking & feedback, programming queries)
- Timetable & Slides:
10:00-10:50 on Mondays and Thursdays in Semester 2, Hugh Robson Building Lecture Theatre.
- Video Recordings: You can access video recordings of (most) 2007 ABS lectures by following this link.
- Reading Material:
- Textbook: "An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems Second Edition", Michael Wooldridge, John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
- Note that there will be no lecture notes for this course, but assigned reading from this book will be associated with each lecture.
- Some material on basic mathematical notation to refresh your memory.
- Additional Reading:
- "Multiagent Systems: Algorithmic, Game-Theoretic, and Logical Foundations", Y. Shoham and K. Leyton-Brown, Cambridge UP, 2008.
- "Multi-Agent Systems", G. Weiss, editor, The MIT Press, 1999.
- Tutorials:
Each student will be allocated to a tutorial group. Tutorials will be held once a
week throughout the semester, starting in week 2. Preparatory work for the tutorial will be assigned the following week and will be based on the previous week's work. Information on tutorial group allocation and tutorial times/venues is provided at this page
- Coursework:
- Level 9: There will be no assessed coursework. Students are expected to submit the coursework for the Level 10 version of the course for feedback.
- Level 10:
Two items of assessed coursework are associated with the course each weighing 12.5% of the total mark for the course. The tutorials will involve programming in Jason, a Prolog-like agent programming language, but no previous knowledge of the language is assumed. Both will be handed out on 17th January and will be due on 28th February and 14th March, respectively. Coursework feedback and marks will be returned within two weeks from the deadline.
Michael Rovatsos
