Agent-Based Trust Management for Trust Re-Evaluation in Online Auctions

(NSF Award Number: CNS-0715648)


PI: Haiping Xu
Concurrent Software Engineering Laboratory (CSEL)
Computer and Information Science Department
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

August 1, 2007


Abstract


Electronic commerce plays an important role in the US economy. However, current electronic commerce applications such as online auction systems are not trustworthy due to a lack of effective trust management mechanisms. A trustworthy online auction system requires a dynamic trust management system that can detect abnormal bidding activities in real-time, notify the involved users, and cancel the corresponding auction immediately.

This project investigates an agent-based approach for dynamic trust management in online auctions. The approach supports real-time monitoring, analyzing, and detection of abnormal bidding behaviors in online auction systems so the trustworthiness of such systems can be ensured. Specific problems to be addressed in this project include 1) investigating efficient formal methods, such as model checking techniques, for analysis of real-time auction data; 2) defining a real-time trust model that supports trust re-evaluation; and 3) formulating intelligent agents that support reasoning with uncertainty and incomplete information. The research activities will result in a loosely coupled agent-based trust management (ATM) module in online auction systems. The project will have favorable broader impacts on trustworthy computing research, education, as well as industrial applications. The results from this project can help to develop trustworthy systems in electronic commerce, and will contribute to boost the US economy by providing a safe and trusted environment for Internet-based trading.

 

Collaborators (UIC)

(NSF Award Number: CNS-0715657)

  • PI: Sol M. Shatz, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
  • PhD Student (UIC): Fei Dong

 

Graduate Students (UMassD)


Current Students
  • Benjamin J. Ford: Prototyping a trustworthy agent-based online auction system
  • Christopher K. Bates: Agent-based shill detection in electronic auctions
  • Ankit Goel: Reasoning under uncertainty in agent-based online auctions
Former Students
  • Christopher K. Bates (2007): Rule-based specification of flexible bidding strategies in agent-based online auctions
  • Rinkesh Patel (2006): Real-time trust management in online auctions
  • Yi-Tsung Cheng (2005): Detection of shilling behaviors in online auctions
  • Jose Manuel Valladares (2004): multi-agent system for electronic auctions

 

Publications

  1. Fei Dong, Sol M. Shatz, and Haiping Xu, "Combating Online In-Auction Fraud: A Survey," To be submitted to journal, June 2008.
  2. Haiping Xu, Sol M. Shatz, and Christopher K. Bates, "A Framework for Agent-Based Trust Management in Online Auctions," In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2008), April 7-9, 2008, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, pp. 149-155.
  3. Haiping Xu and Yi-Tsung Cheng, "Model Checking Bidding Behaviors in Internet Concurrent Auctions," International Journal of Computer Systems Science & Engineering (IJCSSE), July 2007, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 179-191.
  4. Rinkesh Patel, Haiping Xu, and Ankit Goel, "Real-Time Trust Management in Agent Based Online Auction Systems," In Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE'07), Boston, USA, July 9-11, 2007, pp. 244-250.
  5. Yi-Tsung Cheng and Haiping Xu, "A Formal Approach to Detecting Shilling Behaviors in Concurrent Online Auctions," In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2006), May 23-27, 2006, Paphos, Cyprus, pp. 375-381.

Trustworthy Agent-Based Online Auction Systems - A Brief Introduction
Poster for Cyber Trust 2008

 

Software and Information Resources

  1. Prototype Agent-based Trust Management module (Download) (Readme.txt)
  2. Sample auction data collected from eBay (DataSet-1, DataSet-2)

 

Related Professional Activities

  • Track Committee: 6th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2009), E-Commerce Track, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, April 2009.
  • Talk: A Framework for Agent-Based Trust Management in Online Auctions, 5th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2008), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, April 7, 2008 (Slides).
  • Session Chair: 5th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2008), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, April 2008.
  • NSF Cyber Trust PI meeting (Cyber Trust 2008), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, March 16-18, 2008 (Poster). (CT 2007)
  • NSF Project meeting, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA, January 14-16, 2008.
  • Talk: Trustworthy Agent-Based Online Auction Systems, Computer Science Industrial Advisory Committee (CSIAC) Meeting, UMass Dartmouth, USA, November 9, 2007.
  • Track Committee: 5th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2008), E-Commerce Track, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, April 2008.
  • Talk: Real-Time Trust Management in Agent Based Online Auction Systems, 19th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE'07), Boston, USA, July 9, 2007.
  • PhD Thesis Commitee: Privacy and Security in Online Auctions, by Jarrod Trevathan, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, James Cook University, Australia, 2007. Thesis Advisor: Professor Wayne Read.

 

Acknowledgment and Disclaimer

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-0715648 and CNS-0715657. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

 


© Copyright 2007, CIS Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Send Email To: hxu@umassd.edu