WASP -- Web Agent Support Program

12. Plans for implementation

Participants of the project are

a. Activities

The first year of the project we plan to have two OIO's working at a number of the technical issues concerning the software architecture needed for realizing Web-aware agents for assisting a Web user in finding and maintaining information. One OIO, working in the SE/VU group, will concentrate on the agent and communication techniques, while another OIO, working in the IS/TUE group, will concentrate on the information retrieval and discovery aspects. In the second year and third year, we plan to have a post-doc stationed at the AI/VU group to coordinate the two OIO's and to work on the theoretical issues involved in modeling the behavior of agents and intelligent information retrieval. The remainder of the time, after the end of the post-doc's contract, is devoted to publications and writing and defending the doctoral theses. The activities planned over four years, as divided between the participating groups, are summarized below.

SE/VU

Year 1: Year 2: Year 3: Year 4:

AI/VU


Year 2 and 3:

IS/TUE

Year 1: Year 2: Year 3: Year 4:

Joint work on

b. Personel

Funding is requested for two OIO's for four years, who will be placed at the SE/VU group and the IS/TUE group, and one post-doc (for two years) who will be placed in the the Artificial Intelligence section of the VU (AI/VU).

c. Environment.

SE/VU

The software engineering group of the VU involved in the DejaVu project consists of one coordinator (A. Eliëns) two AIOs, that are working in the area of time-based hypermedia systems (J.R. van Ossenbruggen) and the integration of simulation and hypermedia (S.P.C. Sch\"onhage, who is paid by the USF funded SINS project), and one programmer (C.T. Visser) who is responsible for the implementation of DLP and the technical aspects of distributed object systems.

AI/VU

In the AI Section at the VU the research of a number of members of the group focusses on multi-agent systems: Dr. F.M.T. Brazier, drs. P.A.T. van Eck, dr. C.M. Jonker, prof. dr. J. Treur, dr. L.C. Verbrugge. The topics are: compositional formal modeling of multi-agent systems, models for specific types of intelligent agents, cooperation models, information retrieval, human-computer interaction, reflective agents, applications of multi-agent systems (e.g., coordination of design projects), formal semantics of multi-agent systems, verification and validation, defeasible reasoning, task analysis. Some of these topics are addressed in cooperation with researchers from other institutes, with whom joint papers have been and are being prepared; for example, dr. N.R. Jennings (Queen Mary & Westfield), dr H. Johnson, prof dr P. Johnson (Queen Mary & Westfield), prof. dr V.W. Marek and dr. M. Truszczynski (University of Kentucky), prof. dr. H. Herre (University of Leipzig), dr. B.M. Dunin-Keplicz (University of Warsaw).

IS/TUE

The database and hypermedia research group within the Information Systems section of the TUE consists of one associate professor (dr.P. De Bra), also the head of the entire Information Systems section, three UDs (dr. A. Aerts, dr. F. Dignum and dr.ir. G.J. Houben), one part-time professor (dr. J. Paredaens), drs. R. Post, ir. J. Hidders, ir. C. Hoskens (NWO) and two part-time aio's (drs. R. Selj\'ee and drs. L. Matthijssen). A full-time programmer (P. Lemmens) is available to aid in the implementation aspects of Pamela. Dr. De Bra also holds a part-time position at CWI, initiating research efforts on Databases and Internet.

d. Finances

The ASZ GAK group, Object+ and Rabofacet have expressed interest in taking part in the project. So they may be regarded as potential co-financers. (See the appendix for a brief description.) >document>

e. Output

We plan to produce the deliverables concerning the following subjects:

mailto:eliens@cs.vu.nl ( Thu Sep 26 14:04:25 MET DST 1996 )