Call for Workshops

AAMAS2017 invites proposals for the Workshop Program, to be held on May 8-9, 2017, immediately prior to the technical AAMAS conference.
The objective of the AAMAS2017 workshop program is to stimulate and facilitate discussion, interaction, and comparison of approaches, methods, and ideas related to specific topics, both theoretical and applied, in the general area of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. The AAMAS2017 workshops will provide an informal setting where participants will have the opportunity to discuss specific technical topics in an atmosphere that fosters the active exchange of ideas.
All members of the AAMAS community are invited to submit workshop proposals for review. We encourage workshops that focus on emerging topics and applications, on open research questions and challenges, and on broader topics that are of interest to a wider community.
Workshops can vary in length from half a day to two days, though we expect most to be one full day in duration. As attendance will be limited to registered participants, workshop organisers and attendees must register for their workshop, whose fee will be separate from the main conference fee. Workshop attendees do not need to register for the main AAMAS conference, but are encouraged to do so.
AAMAS2017 reserves the right to cancel workshops whose attendance does not support their running costs.

Important Dates

STRICT DATES

When submitting workshop proposals, the organisers commit to respect the following deadlines.

September 26, 2016	(optional) Email workshop chairs (aamasworkshops2017@gmail.com) declaration of intent to submit a workshop. The email should contain the proposed workshop title and a short description of the topic.
October 17, 2016	Deadline for full workshop proposal submission
November 7, 2016	Acceptance notification
March 10, 2017	Deadline for sending two nominated “visionary papers” and two nominated “best papers” to the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs. (Note: half day workshops are only required to nominate one paper.)
April 10, 2017	Deadline for sending the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs: (1) the LATEX files of the agreed upon “visionary paper” and the agreed upon “best paper”; and (2) the PDF of the workshop proceedings, together with a list of audiovisual requirements and any special room requirements.
May 8-9, 2017	AAMAS2017 Workshop days

SUGGESTED DATES

Although we do not require all workshops to follow the same timeline for issuing their call for papers, paper submission, acceptance notification, and camera ready submission, we strongly suggest the following dates to ensure workshop organisers meet the strict deadlines above, especially those on March 17 and April 10, 2017.

November 30, 2016	Deadline to post, disseminate, and publicise the workshop’s 1 st call for papers
December 19, 2016	Deadline to post, disseminate, and publicise the workshop’s 2 nd call for papers
January 11, 2017	Deadline to post, disseminate, and publicise the workshop’s 3 rd call for papers
January 24, 2017	Acceptance notification for the AAMAS2017 conference papers
February 7, 2017	Deadline for paper submissions to the workshop
March 2, 2017	Deadline for announcing accepted papers by the workshop
March 17, 2017	Deadline for collecting cameraready papers (including latex files) from authors

REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION

The workshop proposals should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file through the Easychair system.
The submission website is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aamasworkshops2017

Proposals for workshops should be a maximum of five pages in length, and should contain the following information:

1. Title and acronym of the workshop.
2. A brief technical description of the workshop, specifying the workshop’s goals, the technical issues that it will address, the relevance of the workshop to the main conference, together with a brief discussion of why and to whom the workshop is of interest.
3. A preliminary workshop format and a proposed schedule for organising the workshop, including the desired length for the workshop (usually 1 full day). Please include a brief description of how the organisers intend to encourage an atmosphere appropriate for a workshop, and indicate whether you intend to have any activities other than contributed talks (e.g., invited talks, panels, or posters).
4. A list of related workshops held within the last three years, if any, and their relation to the proposed workshop. Please include, when information is available: when and where they have been offered in the past (i.e., with AAMAS or another conference), organisers’ names and affiliations, number of submitted/accepted papers, approximate attendance numbers, and followup publications (e.g., journal special issues).

For workshops that have had previous editions (even if they had different titles and were not held with AAMAS), include a list of URLs of the websites of the previous editions.

1. Description of the paper review process and acceptance standards.
2. The names, affiliations, URLs, and email addresses of the proposed workshop organisers. This committee must consist of two to four people knowledgeable about the technical issues to be addressed. The organising committee should include individuals from multiple institutions, spreading across different regions. By submitting the workshop proposal, the organisers commit to fulfilling their responsibilities, outlined below in the “Responsibilities” section.
3. The name of the primary contact for the organising committee.
4. Mini CVs of the organising committee members, focusing on the qualifications of the individual committee members with respect to organising an AAMAS workshop, and including a list of key publications demonstrating scholarship in the field and a list of workshops previously arranged, if any. Note that strong proposals should include organisers who bring differing perspectives to the workshop topic and who are actively connected to the communities of potential participants.
5. A list of potential program committee members, including their titles and affiliations.
6. A tentative list of places (distribution lists, websites, journals, etc.) where the workshop is planned to be advertised.
7. If available, a list of tentatively confirmed attendees.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The selection of workshops for the final program will be based upon multiple factors, including the scientific/technical interest of the topics in relation to the AAMAS community, the clarity of the proposal in addressing the requested information, the innovative character of workshop topics, the crossdisciplinary nature of the workshop, the capacity of the organisers in leading a successful workshop, and the capacity of the conference workshop program. Please note that AAMAS may request proposers addressing similar or overlapping content areas to merge their proposals.

RESPONSIBILITIES

For all accepted proposals, AAMAS will be responsible for:

• Providing publicity for the workshop series as a whole.
• Providing logistic support and a meeting place for the workshop.
• Together with the organisers, determining the workshop date and time.
• AAMAS reserves the right to cancel workshops, for example in case of a low number of registrants.

Workshop Organisers will be responsible for:

• Replying promptly to email messages from the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs.
• Setting up a website for the workshop and providing its URL to the Workshop Cochairs.
• Adding the following text to the workshop’s call for papers, preferably under a section on “proceedings”:
  

  The most “visionary paper” will be published by Springer in a book under the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) Hot Topics series. The book will be a compilation of the most visionary papers of the AAMAS2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS2017 workshop.
  Additionally, the “best paper” will be published by Springer in a book under the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) series. The book will be a compilation of the best papers of the AAMAS2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS2017 workshop.
  Authors of the selected most visionary paper and the best paper are expected to provide their latex files promptly upon request.

• Advertising the workshop and issuing the call for papers and the call for participation promptly, as per the suggested dates above.
• Collecting and evaluating submissions, notifying authors of acceptance or rejection on a timely basis, and ensuring a transparent and fair selection process.
• All workshop organisers are strongly advised to adopt the suggested deadlines for paper submissions, notifications of acceptance, and camera ready submissions, as per the suggested dates above.
• Sending two nominated “visionary papers” and two nominated “best papers” to the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs by March 10, 2017 the latest. Please note this is a strict deadline. Workshop organisers shall also collaborate with the Workshop Cochairs in the selection process of their workshop’s “visionary paper” and “best paper”.
• Sending the latex files of the agreed upon “visionary paper” and the agreed upon “best paper” to the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs by April 10, 2017 the latest. Please note this is a strict deadline.
• Making the PDF of the workshop proceedings available to the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs by April 10, 2017, together with a list of audiovisual requirements and any special room requirements. Please note this is a strict deadline. For the proceedings, no shared latex format is required but \documentclass{proc} is encouraged.
• Ensuring that the workshop organisers and the participants register for the workshop and are invited to register to the main conference. Please note that at least one author must register for the workshop in order for a paper to appear in the workshop proceedings.
• Devising a schedule that meshes with shared breaks (coffee and lunch).
• Coordinating and moderating workshop participation and content.

AAMAS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CANCEL ANY WORKSHOP IF THE ABOVE RESPONSIBILITIES ARE NOT FULFILLED.

INQUIRIES

Please send any inquiries to the AAMAS2017 Workshop Cochairs (aamasworkshops2017@gmail.com).

Workshop CoChairs
Juan Antonio Rodriguez Aguilar
Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIACSIC), Spain

Gita Sukthankar
University of Central Florida