Recent Advances in Agent-Based Negotiation: Applications and Competition Challenges

Dr. Rafik Hadfi is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Informatics at Kyoto University. He received his Ph.D. from Nagoya Institute of Technology in 2015 and has worked in Japan and Australia before joining Kyoto University in 2020. His research interests lie in the design, development, and application of multi-agent systems for social simulation and collective decision making. He is currently using conversational AI to study deliberation, polarization, and fairness in social networks. Rafik is also working on multi-agent automated negotiation with the focus on social domains. Rafik served as a program committee member of leading AI conferences such as IJCAI, AAMAS, SNPD, and IEEE ICA and a reviewer for Group Decision and Negotiation; Artificial Intelligence Review; Neural Computation; Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics; and Networked and Distributed Computing. Rafik has been the publication chair, the workshops chair, the tutorials chair, the volunteers chair, and the web chair for international AI conferences such as IJCAI, PRICAI, PRIMA, and IEEE ICA. In 2022, he will serve as the program chair of IEEE ICA. Rafik received the annual conference award from Japan Society for Artificial Intelligence (2020), IBM Award of Scientific Excellence (2020), Best Paper Award from Information Processing Society of Japan (2016), IEEE Young Researcher Award (2014), AAAI Student Scholarship Award (2014), and Best Presentation Award at the International Workshop on Agent Complex Automated Negotiations (2011).

Dr. Reyhan Aydogan is an assistant professor at Ozyegin University, Istanbul, and at the same time affiliated as a guest researcher in the Interactive Intelligence Group at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. As a guest researcher, she visited the Center of Collective Intelligence at MIT in 2013, the Intelligence Systems Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2015, and theFrontier Research Institute for Information Science at Nagoya Institute of Technology in 2017. Her research focuses on the modeling, development, and analysis of agent technologies that integrate different aspects of intelligence such as reasoning, decision making, and learning. She applies artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning and semantic reasoning in designing and developing agent-based decision support systems, particularly negotiation support systems and automated negotiation tools. Dr. Aydogan is one of the main organizers of the International Automated Negotiating Agents Competition (ANAC). She co-organized the following workshops: Conflict Resolution in Decision Making Workshop (COREDEMA) and International Workshop on Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations (ACAN). She is serving as a program committee member in reputable conferences such as AAAI, AAMAS, IJCAI, and ECAI. She served as a guest editor for the Special Issue on Artificial IntelligenceTechniques for Conflict Resolution in Group Decision and Negotiation. Furthermore, she co-organized the 24th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-agent Systems in 2022.

Dr. Takayuki Ito is a professor of Kyoto University. He received the B.E., M.E, and Doctor of Engineering from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1995, 1997, and 2000, respectively. From 1999 to 2001, he was a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting researcher at University of Southern California/Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI). From April 2001 to March 2003, he was an associate professor of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). From April 2004 to March 2013, he was an associate professor of Nagoya Institute of Technology. From April 2014 to September 2020, he was a professor of Nagoya Institute of Technology. In October 2020, he joined Kyoto University. From 2005 to 2006, he was avisiting researcher at the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, and a visiting researcher at the Center for Coordination Science, MIT Sloan School of Management. From 2008 to 2010, he was a visiting researcher at the Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT Sloan School of Management. From 2017 to 2018, he is an invited researcher of the Artificial Intelligence Center of AIST, Japan. From March 5, 2019, he is the CTO of AgreeBit, Inc. He is a board member of IFAAMAS, an executive committee member of IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Intelligent Informatics, the PC-chair of AAMAS2013, PRIMA2009, the local arrangements chair of IJCAI-PRICAI2020, the general chair of PRIMA2014, and was a SPC/PC member in many top-level conferences (IJCAI, AAMAS, ECAI, AAAI, etc.). He received the Japan Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) Contribution Award, the JSAI Achievement Award, the JSPS Prize, 2014, the Prize for Science and Technology (Research Category), the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2013, the Young Scientists' Prize, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2007, the Nagao Special Research Award of the Information Processing Society of Japan, 2007, the Best Paper Award of AAMAS 2006, the 2005 Best Paper Award from Japan Society for Software Science and Technology, the Best Paper Award in the 66th annual conference of 66th Information Processing Society of Japan, and the Super Creator Award of 2004 IPA Exploratory Software Creation Projects. He is the principal investigator of the Japan Cabinet Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers (NEXT Program). Further, he has several companies, which are handling web-based systems and enterprise distributed systems. His main research interests include multi-agent systems, intelligent agents, collective intelligence, group decision support system, etc.

Dr. Ryuta Arisaka is an assistant professor at Kyoto University. His interests cover mathematical and philosophical logic, formal and informal argumentation, and formal methods in program analysis. He obtained B.Sc. Computer Science (1st Hons, 83% average in final year's exams) and M.Phil. Computer Science from the University of Manchester, UK, and subsequently Ph.D. Computer Science also in the UK. He conducted research on mathematical logic and formal argumentation at INRIA-Saclay (Palaiseau, France), National Institute of Informatics (Tokyo, Japan), Perugia University (Perugia, Italy), and Nagoya Institute of Technology (Nagoya, Japan), before joining Kyoto University. He was awarded Best Paper Award for his research on formal argumentation semantics at PRICAI 2019 and argumentation-based multi-agent concurrent negotiations at ACAN 2019. He was a program co-chair of IEEE ICA2021. He has served as a program committee memberof AAAI, IJCAI, PRIMA, and other international workshops.