CIS 563 - MultiAgent Systems

  General Info Syllabus
 Other Resources
 Announcement


Instructor Information

  • Instructor: Dr. Xiaoqin Zhang (Shelley)
  • Office: 302C Dion
  • Office Hours: Mon. & Wed.: 12:30 PM - 2 PM, Friday: 1 PM - 2 PM
  • Phone: (508) 999-8294
  • Email: x2zhang@umassd.edu

    • Prerequisites

    CIS 412 (Artificial Intelligence), or equivalent.

    Course Description

    This course is an introduction to the fields of MultiAgent systems and distributed artificial intelligence. This course deals with the issues that arise when groups or societies of autonomous agents interact to solve interrelated problems. The topics include: what are intelligent agents and multiagent systems, their characteristics, reasoning about agents' knowledge and beliefs, multiagent interactions, distributed problem solving and planning, coordination and negotiation, the organization and control of complex, and applications in the following domains: internet information gathering, electronic commerce and virtual markets, workflow management, distributed sensing network, distributed planning and resource allocation, etc.

    Course Objectives

    By the end of this course, students will know the new ideas and opportunities provided by intelligent agents and multiagent systems. Students will understand  how to use multiagent systems to solve real-world problems with consideration of distributed tasks, resource sharing, coordination and cooperation among individual computational entities.  Students will be conscious of the theory foundation and the state of the art of multiagent systems, and be capable to practice the technologies of intelligent agent in the applications of internet information gathering, electronic commerce and virtual markets, workflow management, distributed sensing network , distributed planning and resource allocation, etc.



    Course Resources and Information

  • Textbook: An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems by Michael Wooldridge. Published by John Wiley and Sons in March 2002.
  • Reference book: MultiAgent Systems: A Modern Approach to Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Gerhard Weiss (Ed.), MIT Press, 1999. 
  • Course Homepage: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS563/
  • Syllabus, updated weekly, contains links to assignments, projects, additional reading material, and lecture notes: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS563/syllabus.html
  • Other links, provides number of links to other useful and interesting resource on web: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS563/links.html

    • Course Requirements and Grading

    You are expected to take an active role in your learning in this course. This includes regular attendance, paying attention in class, reading the textbook, and completing all course requirements. You are encouraged to study with your classmates outside of class.
    There will be 1 midterm exam, and 1 final exam, homework, programming projects and class presentations. The material of all exams will come from either a material covered in class, homework, projects and/or assignment readings. Complete all required work on time. In the event that an exam must be missed, or required work cannot be completed on time, due to illness or other serious and unavoidable circumstance, notify the professor as far in advance as possible by phone or e-mail. Make-up exams will not be given for any reason.

    The evaluation will be based on:
  • 20% Midterm
  • 20% Class Presentations
  • 20% Final Exam
  • 40% Homework and Projects

    • Academic Honesty

    You are encouraged to discuss assigned problems with other people but you must individually design and write your own solutions / code for all assignments. Furthermore, you should explicitly acknowledge any sources of ideas used that are not your own; this includes other people, books, web pages, etc. "Sharing" of solutions to homework problems and lab exercises is strictly prohibited. Submitting modified versions of other people's work as your own is considered cheating. Academic dishonesty will be "rewarded" with a grade of "F".