FIRST CALL FOR TUTORIALS

The AAMAS 2016 Organizing Committee invites proposals for the Tutorial Program, to be held on 9-10, immediately before the technical conference.  AAMAS 2016 Tutorials should serve one or more of the following objectives:

• Introduce novices to major topics of AAMAS research.
• Provide instruction in established practices and methodologies.
• Survey a mature area of AAMAS research or practice.
• Motivate and explain an AAMAS topic of emerging importance.
• Introduce expert non-specialists to an AAMAS area.
• Survey an area of agent research especially relevant for people from industry
• Present a novel synthesis combining distinct lines of AAMAS work.
• Introduce AAMAS audiences to an external topic that can motivate or use AAMAS research.

Topic areas of interest include all of those listed in the call for the technical track (see http://sis.smu.edu.sg/aamas2016), including the special tracks on robotics, virtual agents, and innovative applications.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Those interested in presenting a tutorial should register their interest on an online form (see below) and submit a proposal to the AAMAS-16 Tutorial Co-chairs, David Pynadath and Sebastian Sardina. Proposals should be two to four pages in length, and should contain the following information:

1. A short title of the tutorial.
2. A one paragraph brief description of the tutorial, suitable for inclusion in the conference registration brochure.
3. Preferred length for the tutorial (half day or full day).
4. Characterization of the potential target audience for the tutorial, including prerequisite knowledge.
5. A description of why the tutorial topic would be of interest to a substantial part of the AAMAS audience.
6. A detailed outline of the tutorial.
7. A brief resume of the presenter(s), which should include:
   1. name, postal address, phone numbers, email address;
   2. background in the tutorial area, any available example of work in the area (ideally, a published tutorial-level article on the subject);
   3. evidence of teaching/presentation experience (including references that address the proposer's presentation skills as applicable); and
   4. evidence of scholarship in the area.
8. The name and e-mail address of the corresponding presenter. The corresponding presenter should be available for e-mail correspondence during the evaluation process, in the case clarifications and discussions on the scope and content of the proposal are needed.

The evaluation of the proposal will take into account the level of general interest for AAMAS attendees, the quality of the proposal, and the expertise and skills of the presenters. We emphasize that the primary criteria for evaluation will be whether a proposal is interesting, well-structured, and motivated, rather than the perceived experience/standing of the proposer.

Those submitting a proposal should keep in mind that tutorials are intended to provide an overview of the field; they should present reasonably well established information in a balanced way. Tutorials should not be used to advocate a single avenue of research, nor should they promote a product.

The selection of the tutorials to be included in the final AAMAS program will be based upon a number of factors, including: the scientific/technical interest of the topics, the quality of the proposal, the need to avoid strictly overlapping tutorials, and the unavoidable need to limit the overall number of selected tutorials.

RESPONSIBILITIES (with respect to accepted proposals)

AAMAS will be responsible for:

• Providing logistic support and a meeting place for the tutorial.
• Together with the organizers, determining the tutorial date and time.
• Duplicating tutorial material and distributing them to the participants.

Tutorial organizers will be responsible for:

• Providing AAMAS with a legible PDF copy of their tutorial notes by March, 4, 2016.
• Providing a web-site for the tutorial, which includes title and abstract of the tutorial, presenters’ details, outline, tutorial notes and related reading material.
• Presenting the tutorial at AAMAS 2016.

AAMAS reserves the right to cancel any tutorial if the above responsibilities are not fulfilled, if deadlines are missed, or if too few attendees register for the tutorial to support the costs of running the tutorial.

IMPORTANT DATES

December 1, 2016: Tutorial Proposal Submission Deadline

December 20, 2016: Tutorial Acceptance Notifications

March 4, 2016: Deadline for submitting tutorial notes

May 9-10, 2016: Tutorial Forum Presentations

SUBMISSIONS AND INQUIRIES

Those interested in presenting a tutorial should:

1. Register their interest and proposal at http://tinyurl.com/aamas16tutorials

2. Submit the full proposal to the AAMAS-16 Tutorial Co-chairs, David Pynadath and Sebastian Sardina by email (in ASCII or pdf).

Inquiries should be sent by email (in ASCII or pdf) to the tutorials chairs:

David V. Pynadath
Institute for Creative Technologies
University of Southern California
pynadath@usc.edu

Sebastian Sardina
School of Computer Science and Information Technology
RMIT University
sebastian.sardina@rmit.edu.au