Adaptation and Teaching in Distributed Environments

Application- and Personal-Agents

We propose goal-based agents attached to networked applications and learning environments to support user's work and learning. Users, learners, applications and learning environments are represented by autonomous goal-based social agents which communicate, cooperate, and compete in a multi-system and multi-user distributed environment. This approach allows to consider in a uniform way working, adaptation to the user's goals and preferences, level of experience and available resources, as well as teaching the user using various teaching paradigms (consrtuctivist or instructivist). In addition it allows taking into account of user's /learner's motivation and affect; as well as a coherent discussion of teaching strategies.

Publications

• Agent Negotiation, Coalition Formation, Electronic Commerce
• User Persuasion, Motivating Participation in Online Communities, Emotional Agents
• Distributed User Modelling
• Multi-Agent Based Learning Environment and Peer-Help Systems; The I-Help System
• Multi-Agent Applications Supporting Adaptation to the User and Teaching

Presentations

• "Distributed and United" , Invited talk at ICCE'2001, Seoul, 12-15 Nov. 2001. (Zipped PPT presentation)
• Evaluation results (2001) – PPT presentation in HTML format
• The concept of I-Help, problem areas,  screen-shots from implementation for workplace training (fall of 1999):
• In HTML format (with detailed notes)
• MS - PPT version (3.9 MB)
• a WinZip-ed PPT presentation (2.9 MB)

Publications:

Agent Negotiation, Coalition Formation, Electronic Commerce

• Wang Y., Vassileva J. (2004) Trust-Based Community Formation in Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Networks, Proc. of IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI 2004),September 20-24, 2004, Beijing, China (full paper, acceptance rate: 23%).
• Winoto P., McCalla G. and Vassileva J. (2004) Non-Monotonic-Offers Bargaining Protocol, to appear in Proceedings of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS'04) Conference, New York, July 21-25, 2004. (full paper, 24.6% acceptance rate ** BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD **).
• Wang Y., Vassileva J. (2003) Bayesian Network-Based Trust Model, Proc. of IEEE/WIC International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI 2003), October 13-17, 2003, Halifax, Canada. (full paper,17% acceptance rate ; the paper was one of three *best paper award nominees*)
• Wang Y. Vassileva J. (2003) Trust and Reputation Model in Peer-to-Peer Networks, Proc. of IEEE Conference on P2P Computing, Linkoeping, Sweden, September 2003, IEEE Press, 150-157.
• Vassileva, J. Breban, S. Horsch M. (2002) Agent Reasoning Mechanism for Long-Term Coalitions Based on Decision Making and Trust, Computational Intelligence, Special Issue on Agent Mediated Electronic Commerce, vol. 18, no. 4, 2002.
• Breban S., J.Vassileva (2002b) A Coalition Formation Mechanism Based on Inter-Agent Trust Relationships. To appear in L. Johnson & C. Castelfranchi (eds.) Proceedings of the First Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Bologna, 17-19 July 2002, ACM Press.
• Breban S., J. Vassileva (2002a) Using Inter-Agent Trust Relationships for Efficient Coalition Formation, to appear in R. Cohen and B.Spencer (eds.) Proceedings of the 13th Canadian Conference on AI, Calgary, 28-30 May, 2002, Springer Verlag.
• Winoto P., McCalla G., Vassileva J. (2002) An Extended Alternating-Offers Bargaining Protocol for Automated Negotiation in Multi-agent Systems, in R. Meersman, Z. Tari, et al. (Eds.): On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2002: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE : Confederated International Conferences CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE 2002 Proceedings, Irvine, 29 Oct - 1 Nov., 2002, LNCS 2519, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, 179-194, (acceptance rate 25%).
• S. Breban, J. Vassileva (2001) Long-term Coalitions for the Electronic Marketplace, in B. Spencer (ed.) Proceedings of the E-Commerce Applications Workshop, Canadian AI Conference, Ottawa, June 7-10 2001.
• J. Vassileva, C. Mudgal, (accepted June 11, 2001) Negotiation with Incomplete and Uncertain Information: Trading Help in a Distributed Peer Help Environment, to appear in Parsons S. and Gmytrasiewicz P. (eds.) Game-Theoretic and Decision-Theoretic Agents, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• C. Mudgal, J. Vassileva (2000) Bilateral Negotiation with Incomplete and Uncertain Information, in CIA'2000, in Klusch & Kershberg (eds.) Proceedings of the Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, Springer LNAI 1860, 107-118.
• C. Mudgal, J. Vassileva (2000) An influence diagram model for multi-agent negotiation, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems ICMAS'2000. Boston, July 2000.
• C. Mudgal, J. Vassileva (2000) Multi-agent negotiation to support an economy for online help and tutoring, in Proceedings of ITS'2000, Springer LNCS 1839, 83-92.
• K.Kostuik, J. Vassileva (1999) Free Market Control for a Multi-Agent Based Peer Help Environment, in Proceedings of the Workshop on Agents for Electronic Commerce and Managing the Internet-Enabled Supply Chain, held in association with the 3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents '99), Seattle, May 1-5, 1999.
• Mudgal, C., Vassileva, J. (1999) Negotiation among Agents in a Multi-Agent Environment Supporting Peer-Help: a Decision-Theoretic Approach. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Agents for Electronic Commerce and Managing the Internet-Enabled Supply Chain, held in association with the 3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents '99), Seattle, May 1-5, 1999.
• Winter, M.(1999) The Role of Trust and Security Mechanisms in an Agent-Based Peer-Help Environment, Autonomous Agents '99, Workshop on Deception, Trust, and Fraud in Agent Societies, Seattle WA, 139-149.

User Persuasion, Motivating Participation in Peer-to-peer Communities, Emotional Agents

• Vassileva, J. (2004) Harnessing P2P Power in the Classroom, to appear in Proceedings of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS'2004), Maceio, Brazil, August 25-31, 2004. (full paper).
• Bretzke H., Vassileva J. (2003) Motivating Cooperation in Peer to Peer Networks, Proceedings User Modeling UM03, Johnstown, PA, June 22-26, Springer Verlag LNCS 2702, 2003, 218-227.
• Vassileva, J. (2002) Motivating Participation in Peer to Peer Communities, Proceedings of the Workshop on Emergent Societies in the Agent World, ESAW'02, Madrid, 16-17 September, 2002, Springer Verlag LNAI 2577, 141-155. (paper and presentation also available on line at http://www.ai.univie.ac.at/%7Epaolo/conf/esaw02/esaw02accpapers.html )
• Vassileva J. (2002) Supporting Peer-to-Peer User Communities, in R. Meersman, Z. Tari et al. (Eds.) "On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2002: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE" Coordinated International Conferences Proceedings, Irvine, 29 Oct - 1 Nov. 2002, LNCS 2519, Springer Verlag: Berlin-Heidelberg, 230-247 (acceptance rate 25%).
• Vassileva J. (2002) Motivating Participation in Virtual Communities, to appear in the Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of Women in Engineering and Science, ICWES'12, July 27-31, 2002, Ottawa, Canada, paper available on the conference CD.
• Okonkwo, C., Vassileva, J. (2001) Affective Pedagogical Agents and User Persuasion, in C. Stephanidis (ed.) Proc. "Universal Access in Human - Computer Interaction (UAHCI)", held jointly with the 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, New Orleans, USA, 397-401.

Distributed User Modelling

• X. Niu, G. I. McCalla, and J. Vassileva, (to appear) Purpose-based Expert Finding in a Portfolio Management System. Computational Intelligence, Vol. 20, No. 4 (accepted February, 2004).
• Niu X., McCalla G., Vassileva J. (2003) Purpose-based User Modelling in a Multi-agent Portfolio Management System. Proceedings User Modeling UM03, Johnstown, PA, June 22-26, 2003. Springer Verlag LNCS 2702, 398 - 402 (poster).
• Vassileva J., McCalla G., Greer J. (2003) Multi-Agent Multi-User Modeling, to appear in User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 13:(1), 1-31. Special Issue on User Modelling and Intelligent Agents; accepted 17 October 2001
• J. Vassileva (2001) Distributed User Modelling for Universal Information Access, C. Stephanidis (ed.) "Universal Access in Human - Computer Interaction (UAHCI)", Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, New Orleans, USA, vol.3, Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah, N.J., 122-126.
• McCalla G, Vassileva G., Greer J., Bull, S. (2000) Active Learner Modelling, in Gautier, Frasson & VanLehn (eds.) Proceedings of ITS’2000, Springer LNCS 1839, 53-62.
• Vassileva, J.I., Greer, J.E., McCalla, G.I. (1999) "Openness and Disclosure in Multi-agent Learner Models", in Proceedings of the Workshop on Open, Interactive, and Other Overt Approaches to Learner Modelling, International Conference on AI in Education, Lemans, France.

Multi-Agent Based Learning Environments and Peer-Help Systems; The I-Help System

• Greer J., McCalla G., Vassileva J., Deters R., Bull S., Kettel L. (2001) Lessons Learned in Deploying a Multi-Agent Learning Support System: The I-Help Experience, Proceedings of AIED'2001, San Antonio, 410-421.
• Vassileva, J. and Deters, R. (2001) Supporting Peer Help and Collaboration in a Mobile Environment, in M. Smith, G. Salvendy, (eds.) Systems, Social and Internationalization Design Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, New Orleans, USA, vol. 2, Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah, N.J., 730-734.
• J. Vassileva, J. Greer, G. McCalla, R. Deters, D. Zapata, C. Mudgal, S. Grant (1999) A Multi-Agent Approach to the Design of Peer-Help Environments, in Proceedings of AIED'99, Le Mans, France, July, 1999, 38-45. (also available is the presentation at the conference in pdf format (2.8 MB) or zipped pdf format (664 KB)).
• Vassileva, J.I., Greer, J.E., McCalla, G.I. (1999) "Openness and Disclosure in Multi-agent Learner Models", in Proceedings of the Workshop on Open, Interactive, and Other Overt Approaches to Learner Modelling, International Conference on AI in Education, Lemans, France.
• Vassileva J, Deters R, Greer J, McCalla G, Kumar V, Mudgal C (1998) A Multi-Agent Architecture for Peer-Help in a University Course, In Proceedings of the Workshop on Pedagogical Agents at ITS'98.
• Greer, J., McCalla, G., Cooke, J., Collins, J., Kumar, V., Bishop, A. and Vassileva, J. (1998) The Intelligent HelpDesk: Supporting Peer Help in a University Course, In Proceedings ITS'98, San Antonio, Texas, LNCS No1452, Springer Verlag: Berlin pp.494-503.
• J. Greer, G. McCalla, J. Cooke, J. Collins, V. Kumar, A. Bishop, J. Vassileva (2000) Integrating Cognitive Tools for Peer Help: the Intelligent IntraNet Peer Help-Desk Project, to appear in Computers as Cognitive Tools: The Next Generation, Susanne P.Lajoie (Ed.) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 69-96.
• J. Greer, G. McCalla, J. Collins, V. Kumar, P. Meagher, J. Vassileva (1998) Supporting Peer Help and Collaboration in Distributed Workplace Environments, International Journal of AI and Education. 9, 159-177, available on the WWW at: http://cbl.leeds.ac.uk/ijaied/ .
• Deters R. (1999) Achieving Dependability in a System Consisting of Autonomous Agents. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Autonomy Control Software, held in association with the 3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents '99), Seattle, May 1-5, 1999, pp. 18-24.

Multi-Agent Applications Supporting Adaptation to the User and Teaching

• Vassileva J. (1997) Goal-Based Autonomous Social Agents Supporting Adaptation and Teaching in a Distributed Environment, In Proceedings of ABIS'97 - Workshop Adaptivität und Benutzermodellierung in interaktiven Softwaresystemen, Saarbrücken 30.9.-02.10.1997.
• Vassileva, J. (1997) A New Veiw of Interactive Human-Computer Environments (summary). In Proceedings of UM'97, the 6-th International Conference on User Modeling, Chia Laguna, Sardinia, 433-455.
• Vassileva, J. (1997) A New Veiw of Interactive Human-Computer Environments (poster-handout). Presented at: The 6-th International Conference on User Modeling, Chia Laguna, Sardinia.
• Vassileva J. (1997) Goal-Based Pedagogical Agents, in Proceedings of AI-ED'97 (Workshop on Pedagogical Agents), Kobe, Japan, 18.08-24.08.1997, also available as Postscript A4 format (405 KB) and as Postscript US-letter (405 KB)

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