Plenary Lecture

The software agent paradigm as a powerful simulation tools to support modelling of complex systems. The cases of consumer markets and telecom architectures.

Professor Filippo Neri
Marie Curie Fellow
University of Piemonte Orientale
Italy
E-mail: neri@mfn.unipmn.it

Abstract: In the talk we will describe how the software agent paradigm can be a powerful and versatile simulation tool to model and study complex systems, allowing to fast prototype approximate solutions to difficult problems and to easily select which ones to take forward at the deployment stage.
To support our position, we will introduce two different domains: consumer decisions in fast moving consumers goods and mobile telecom network management applications. Then we will shows two interesting research problems faced today the expert in those fields. And we will show how a software agent modeling approach could be used to increase the understanding of the problems, their modelization, and the proposal of alternative solutions.
In particular, in the talk, we will show how an agent based tool for analysing markets behaviour under several rate of information diffusion can be developed. This methodology has allowed for the study of tradeoffs among several variables of information like product advertisement efforts, consumers’ memory span, and passing word among friends in determining market shares.
Concerning the mobile telecom domain, we will propose how to study the impact of moving from a centralized network management architecture toward a distributed one, where each network management application consists of a controller part and a set of distributed parts running on the individual network elements.
 

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Prof. Neri has wide experience in the area of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and software agent simulation. He had occasion to work both in academic and industrial environments including Ericsson and Unlever R&D centers and across three countries in the European Union (Italy, Ireland and UK). He is currently setting up a spin-off company providing consulting services for information technology strategy and management while at the same time advancing his academic career.

He has studied and visited at several important academic institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, Imperial College London, University of Milano, University of Torino.

He is a Marie Curie Fellow and an ADI associate (the Italian PhD association). He is a founding member of initiatives aiming to close the gap between academia and the business application of research results.

Finally he has served in the program committees and as reviewer at several international conferences and he is author of more than 50 internationally reviewed publications.