[Swarm-Modelling] Annoucing: SwarmFest 2006

[Steve Railsback]

SwarmFest 2006: The Tenth Annual Agent-based Modeling Conference
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana USA, June 22-25, 2006

See below for:
* Call for papers and special sessions
* Requesting training classes
* Tentative schedule
* Deadlines

SwarmFest is the Swarm Development Group's annual agent-based modeling 
conference. At SwarmFest, scientists, modelers, and programmers from 
many fields share their research, ideas, and experience in agent-based 
modeling. SwarmFest is highly inter-disciplinary, fun, and informal. 
This is a unique opportunity to make contacts, get feedback, find 
collaborators, learn techniques, and discuss topics of general interest 
to modelers. Users of Swarm, Repast, NetLogo, Mason, and other software 
platforms are strongly encouraged to participate.

SwarmFest 2006 will be hosted by the Department of Computer Science & 
Engineering and the Center for the Study of Biocomplexity at the 
University of Notre Dame, who hosted our very successful SwarmFest 2003. 
This year's meeting will be in partial conjunction with the annual 
conference of the North American Association for Computational Social & 
Organizational Sciences (NAACSOS; see: 
http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/events/conferences/2006).

Two kinds of presentations are solicited: oral presentations (20-30 
minutes) and posters. Appropriate topics include research conducted with 
agent-based models, development of theory for/with ABMs, demonstrations 
of interesting models and modeling techniques, software platforms, and 
programming techniques. We encourage presentation of work that is new or 
unusual enough to make publication in traditional outlets difficult. To 
request an oral or poster presentation, submit an abstract via email to 
address@hidden Acceptable formats are PDF, plain text, and 
Word. The submittal should include the authors and their affiliations, 
contact information (address, telephone, and email), the title, 
preferred format (oral vs. poster), and the abstract text.

We are also soliciting suggestions for special sessions on topics of 
broad interest. These sessions could include groups of related 
presentations, panel discussions, etc. One such session will be on 
techniques for teaching agent-based modeling. To propose a special 
session, submit a short proposal describing the topic, format, 
organizer, and potential participants, to address@hidden

Past SwarmFests have included, as pre- or post-conference events, 
classes in the Swarm simulation software. These classes are taught by 
volunteers and require substantial preparation. This year we will 
attempt to provide one or more classes if there is sufficient interest 
and if instructors volunteer. Classes could be in Swarm, or another 
platform such as Repast or NetLogo. If you want to attend a class, 
please email us at address@hidden as soon as possible and tell 
us what kind of class you are most interested in.

There will not be a formal proceedings publication of SwarmFest, but we 
will post abstracts, presentation slides, or other materials provided by 
authors on the Swarm wiki (www.swarm.org).

The tentative schedule is:
* June 22: Evening social.
* June 23: Joint sessions with NAACSOS, including keynote speakers and 
contributed papers of interest to both groups
* June 24: Contributed papers
* June 25: (possibly: classes in Swarm, Repast, etc.)

Deadlines:
* Lodging reservations: May 20, 2006
* Abstract submission: June 1, 2006
* Registration: Not yet determined.

For additional information and up-to-date information on registration, 
see the SwarmFest web site: http://www.nd.edu/~swarm06/index.html

The Swarm Development Group Board of Directors