Socially Inspired Computing
Joint Symposium

12-14th April 2005 @ AISB


The Socially Inspired Computing Symposium forms part of the

AISB convention on:  Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots And Agents

which takes place from 12-15 April 2005, at

University of Hertfordshire, de Havilland Campus, Hatfield, England.


What is the Symposium about?

Many social scientists are thinking about social phenomena as emergent  properties of complex adaptive processes. Neither determined by the  individual behaviour nor social level structures, social phenomena are seen as emerging from the interaction of the two over time. One way to understand such phenomena is with the use of computer simulation and experimentation (often using agent-based modelling).

In tandem with these developments computer scientists are required to  understand and engineer ever more complex, distributed and loosely coupled systems (often running over the internet). In these types of systems (such as multi-agent and peer-to-peer systems) the individual sub-systems interact to form an artificial social system with all the concomitant benefits and problems.

The Socially Inspired Computing Symposium brings together those working in these areas to explore algorithms producing novel emergent social phenomena. Such  work can benefit both the understanding and engineering of artificial and human social systems.

Progamme Overview

The Symposium comprises three one-day themes (click the titles to go to the associated theme web page)


12th April (day 1)
Memetic Theory in Artificial Systems and Societies
On novel computational models of culture using memes

10:30 Introduction to METAS by Natalio Krasnogor
10:45 Invited talk by Mark Bedau
12:00 Langdon with "Pfeiffer - A Distributed Open-ended Evolutionary system"
12:30 Lunch
13:45 Chielens and Heylighen with "Operationalization of Meme Selection Criteria: Methodologies to Empirically Test Memetic Predictions"
14:15 Fog with "Simulation Models for Biological and Cultural Evolution"
14:45 Breznay with "A Dynamic Network Flow Theoretical Model of Information Diffussion"
15:15 Priesterjahn, Goebels and Weimers with "Sigmergetic Communication for Cooperative Agent Routing in Virtual Environments"
15:45 Tea/Coffee
16:15 Weimer, Priesterjahn and Goebels with "Towards the Emergent Memetic Control of a Module Robot"
16:45 Round table discussion
17:30 Closing


13th April (day 2)
Emerging Artificial Societies
On the role of emergence in artificial social systems

10:30 Nigel Gilbert 'Welcome'
10:45 A.E. Eiben 'Introduction to the NewTies project'
11:00 Nigel Gilbert, Stephan Schuster, Matthijs den Besten and Lu Yang 'Environment design for emerging artificial societies'
11:30 B.G.W. Craenen and B. Paechter scalable grid landscapes in social agent simulations'
12:00 A.R. Griffioen, M.C. Schut, A.E. Eiben, Á. Bontovics, Gy. Hévízi and A. Lorincz 'New Ties Agent'
12:30 Lunch
13:45 Paul Vogt and Federico Divina 'Language evolution in large populations of autonomous agents: issues in scaling'
14:15 Peter Andras, John Lazarus, Gilbert Roberts and Steven J Lynden 'Environmental risk'
14:45 Bruce Edmonds 'The Emergence of Symbiotic Groups Resulting From Skill Differentiation and Tags'
15:15 Stephen M. Younger 'Behavioural Norms and the Evolution of Societies'
15:45 Tea
16:15 David Hales 'Finding Cooperative (tag-based) Stereotypes with Semi-Automated Searching'
16:45 Round table discussion
17:45 End


14th April (day 3)
Engineering with Social Metaphors
On applying socially inspired methods to engineering next generation information systems

10.30 David Hales, `Introduction to Theme: Engineering with Social Metaphors'
10.40 Márk Jelasity, `Engineering Emergence through Gossip' (Invited talk)
11.30 Bruce Edmonds, `Using Localised `Gossip' to Structure Distributed Learning'
12:00 A.E. Eiben, G.S. Nitschke, M.C. Schut, `Comparison of Reproduction Schemes in an Artificial Society for Cooperative Gathering'
12.30 Lunch & Posters (in parallel SSAISB AGM meeting)
14.55 Giovanna Di Marzo Serugendo, Michel Deriaz, `A Social Semantic Infrastructure for Decentralised Systems Based on Specification-Carrying Code and Trust' (Invited talk)
15.45 Virginia Dignum, Frank Dignum, Vasco Futado, Adriano Melo, `Towards a Simulation Tool for Evaluating Dynamic Reorganization of Agent Societies'
16.25 Coffee
16:45 Paul Guyot, Alexis Drogoul, `Two-Sides of Emergence in Participatory Simulations'
17:15 Stefano Cacciaguerra, Matteo Roffilli, `Agent-based participatory simulation activities for the emergence of complex social behaviours'
17:45 David Hales, `Engineering with Sociological Metaphors: Examples and Prospects'
18:00 Round table discussion
18:45 End


Organising Committee:

Bruce Edmonds (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey, UK)
Steven Gustafson (Nottingham University, UK)
David Hales (Bologna University, Italy)
Natalio Krasnogor (Nottingham University, UK)