CM30174: E-commerce & agents Department of Computer Science UNIT HOME PAGE

• Syllabus
• Reading list for e-commerce and agents.
• Some links to useful/relevant material on the WWW.
• Lecturers: Julian Padget and Marina De Vos.
• Tutor: Tristan Caulfield.
• Lectures take place in a 2 hour slot, 09:15-11:05 on Thursdays in 8W2.30.
• The lab class is also a 2 hour slot, 16:15-18:05 on Fridays 2E1.14.
• The lecture content of this course is taken partly from the textbook An introduction to Multiagent Systems", by Mike Wooldridge, including all the slides he makes available. Additional material has been collected from various sources and references for directed reading are included in the .pdf files of the lecture slides. The schedule for the unit by week is as follows:
  1. Introduction to intelligent agents (MDV+JAP).
     Publication of first assignment: the trading agent competition, due 20051107.
  2. Reasoning I (MDV).
  3. Reasoning II (MDV).
  4. Communications and ontologies (JAP).
  5. Negotiation, argumentation, auctions, combinatorial auctions, contract net protocol (JAP).
  6. Game theory I (MDV).
     Publication of second assignment: widget supply chain, due 20051212.
  7. Game theory II (MDV).
  8. Coalition formation and virtual organizations (JAP).
  9. Institutions and norms (JAP).
  10. Logics for multiagent systems (MDV).
  11. Agent-oriented software engineering (JAP).
  12. Revision class (MDV+JAP).
• There are two items of assessed coursework for this unit:
  1. Writing an agent for the Trading Agent Competition:
     • The course work description is available for download.
     • The coursework is to be carried out in pairs (see pairprogramming.com) and is based on the Trading Agent Competition software. The instructions on how to set up your BUCS environment to use the TAC agentware and how to get an account to use the practice server will be discussed during lab classes.
     • The personal report form is available for download.
  2. Writing a multi-agent system to model a supply chain:
     • The second course work description is available for download
     • The second is to be carried out individually and requires the use of the JADE platform.
     • The starter pack is available for download
     • The Jade tutorial and other local info is available for download

• Exam guidance. For sample examination material you may look at:
  1. The exam questions from Liverpool, provided by Mike Wooldridge.
  2. The Level 1 and Level 2 questions at the ends of the chapters of the recommended textbook.
  3. A set of question components based on the lecture material presented in Bath. Note: these were prepared for the benefit of the first cohort of students to take this course in 2002.
  4. (Part of) The examination from S1 2002-2003 and the corresponding answers.
  5. The examination from S1 2003-2004 and the corresponding answers.
  6. And an html version of a collected set of questions from the past three years, some of which have answers.
  7. And a different collection questions from the past three years, adapted directly from the exam papers, with outline answers.

If you have any comments or there is something that you think should be added to this page or any of its descendants, please send me mail.