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A workshop of the 24th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA 2013)

August 26-30, 2013

Prague, Czech Republic

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From the times of Leibniz and Babbage until the late 1950s, computation was understood as calculation, or the manipulation of numbers. Throughout the next decade (and still perhaps for many people), computation came to be understood as information processing, or the manipulation of data. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and expert systems, the idea arose of computation as cognition, or the manipulation of concepts. With the growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web, a new metaphor is appropriate: computation as interaction, or the joint manipulation of concepts and actions by discrete entities, called software agents.

Multi-agent systems (MAS) are systems composed of software agents that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capabilities of each agent. MAS represent a relatively new and rapidly expanding area of research and development. The major motivations for the increasing interest in MAS research include the ability to solve problems in which data, expertise, or control is distributed, the ability to allow inter-operation of existing legacy systems, and the ability to enhance performance along the dimensions of computational efficiency, reliability, and robustness. Agent technology has been used to solve real-world problems in a range of industrial and commercial applications.

The electrical power industry provides the production and delivery of electricity to consumers through a power grid. Electricity is most often produced at power stations, transmitted at high-voltages to multiple substations near populated areas, and distributed at medium and low-voltages to consumers. Clearly, the complexity of the power grid and the potential cascading events combining natural and human causes can lead to catastrophic failures (e.g., the 4 October 2006 quasi-blackout that affected nine European countries).

Furthermore, the deregulation of the electricity industry has basically separated the contestable functions of electricity generation and retail from the natural monopoly functions of transmission and distribution. This, in turn, has led to the establishment of a wholesale market for electricity generation, when competing generators can offer their electricity output to retailers, and a retail market for electricity retailing, when end-use customers can choose their supplier from competing electricity retailers. These competitive markets and new renewable energy sources have further complicated the already complex power industry.

Intelligent software agents are a potentially powerful computational tool to provide new solutions to practical power systems engineering and energy market problems. This tool (and the associated technologies) creates an opportunity for cross-fertilization between power systems and energy markets. Accordingly, the purpose of this event as a workshop of DEXA 2012 is to provide a high-profile, internationally respected discussion forum on the most recent and innovative scientific research in the areas of power systems and energy markets that can benefit most from AI and software agents (now and in the future). The unifying focus of the workshop will be on methodological aspects. Both theoretical and practical research should be situated in the context of existing or new methodologies for agent-oriented software engineering. This will not preclude any specific topic, but preference will be given both to research work that establishes some connection with methodological aspects and to successful applications built upon some existing or developing methodology.

Power Systems

Energy Markets

Software Agents

Full Paper Submission: March 30th

Notification of Acceptance: April 26th

Camera-ready Papers: May 23rd

Authors are invited to submit original, unpublished research papers in English, which are not being considered in another forum. Papers should be no longer than 5 pages (two-columns, A4), including figures and references, and should be formatted according to the IEEE format, following the instructions on the IEEE's site.

Submission of papers (in PDF format) is made electronically through the main conference management system ConfDriver. Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 reviewers. Papers will be carefully evaluated based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of exposition. 

All accepted papers will be published by IEEE Computer Society's Conference Publishing Services (CPS) as proceedings of the DEXA'13 workshops (indexed by the Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge). At least one author is required to attend the workshop and present the paper.

Fernando Lopes 

LNEG - National Research Institute 

Estrada do Paço do Lumiar 22 

1649-038 Lisbon, Portugal. 

Email: fernando.lopes@lneg.pt

Zita Vale 

ISEP/IPP - Polytechnic of Porto 

Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431 

4200-072 Porto, Portugal. 

Email: zav@isep.ipp.pt

Jorge Sousa 

ISEL - Institute Superior of Engineering of Lisbon 

Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro 1 

1950-062 Lisbon, Portugal. 

Email: jsousa@deea.isel.ipl.pt

Helder Coelho 

University of Lisbon, Computer Science Department 

Bloco C6, Piso 3, Campo Grande 

1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal. 

Email: hcoelho@di.fc.ul.pt

For more information, please contact Dr. Fernando Lopes at the contact details below:

Fernando Lopes 

LNEG - National Research Institute 

Estrada do Paço do Lumiar 22 

1649-038 Lisbon, Portugal. 

Email: fernando.lopes@lneg.pt