Current Research Projects

CONTRACT
CONTRACT is a research project funded by the European Commission in the context of the 6th Framework Program. The aim of the project is develop frameworks, components and tools which make it possible to model, build, verify and monitor distributed electronic business systems on the basis of dynamically generated, cross-organisational contracts which underpin formal descriptions of the expected behaviours of individual services and the system as a whole. The project covers both theoretical and practical aspects and the resulting systems will make it possible to: specify electronic business-to-business interactions in terms of contracts; dynamically establish and manage contracts at runtime in a digital business environment; apply formal verification techniques to collections of contracts in a digital business environment; and apply monitoring techniques to contract implementation in order to help provide the basis for business confidence in e-Business infrastructures.

Project results will include publicly available theoretical models, a reusable contracting language specification, open source software components compatible with leading e-Business environments and tools implementing innovative verification techniques which make it possible to check the properties of contract based business systems both at design time and runtime.

AgentLink III: A Coordination Network for Agent-Based Computing
Funded by the IST programme of the European Commission.

Coalition Formation for Virtual Organisations (CONOISE and CONOISE-G)
This research will develop techniques and algorithms for coalition formation in virtual enterprises. Particular attention will be focused on the mechanisms by which coalitions can be formed, maintained and disbanded when they are no longer effective. Funded by DTI and BTexaCT.


Previous Research Projects

AgentLink II: Continuation of a Network of Excellence for Agent-Based Computing
The long term objective of AgentLink II is to put Europe at the leading edge of international competitiveness in the area of agent-based computing. The medium term goals of AgentLink II are: to gain competitive advantage for European industry by promoting and raising awareness of agent systems technology; to facilitate improvement in the standard, profile, and industrial relevance of European research in the area of agent-based computer systems; to promote excellence of teaching and training in the area of agent-based systems; and to provide a widely known, high quality European forum in which current issues, problems, and solutions in the research and development of agent-based computer systems may be debated and resolved. Funded by the IST programme of the European Commission.

Non-intrusive services to support focused, efficient and enjoyable local activities (FEEL)
This project is concerned with the process of managing intrusiveness in pervasive computing environments. In particular, we intend to investigate the use of argumentation-based negotiation as mechanism for managing intrusivess in a context sensitive fashion. Funded by the IST program under the Disappearing Computer initiative.

Combechem
The Combechem project is one of the UK's national e-science projects. The project is working on Grid-enabled combinatorial chemistry, concentrating on crystallography and laser and surface chemistry. Another major component of the project is the development of an e-Lab, using pervasive computing technology to record detailed information on all aspects of laboratory work. Funded by EPSRC.

myGRID
myGrid is a research project that will extend the Grid framework of distributed computing, producing a virtual laboratory workbench that will serve the life sciences community. The integration environment will support patterns of scientific investigation that include: accumulating evidence; assimilating results; accessing community information sources; collaborating with disparately located researchers via electronic forums. Funded by EPSRC.

The SMART Framework for Agency and Autonomy
The richness of the agent metaphor that leads to many different uses of the term has also caused a situation where there is no commonly accepted notion of what it is that constitutes an agent. In response, we have developed a framework that precisely and unambiguously provides meanings for common concepts and terms, enables alternative models of particular classes of system to be described within it, and provides a foundation for subsequent development of increasingly more refined concepts. Our concern has been to develop well-defined formal concepts that can be used both as the basis of implementation, and also as a general framework for further research.

Agent Systems Specification
Complementing other strands of research, this work aims to start with implemented systems and formalise their architectures and operation in specifications that may then be used to inform more conceptual work. The benefits include better understanding and description of these systems, and the closer integration of agent theory and practice.

GeneWeaver
Agents are autonomous problem-solving entities that can interact with others and respond to changing circumstances. The agent paradigm lends itself very well to the problems of effectively managing and improving the processes involved in genome analysis and protein structure prediction. This project aims to develop a multi-agent system for exactly this task. Funded by BBSRC.

Paradigma: Agent Implementation through Jini
Paradigma is the implementation, in Java, of the formal agent framework developed within the group. It uses Jini connectivity technology to enable the dynamic discovery, communication and cooperation of agents and other resources on a network. By placing the formal framework at the heart of Paradigma, we provide it with powerful and well understood concepts, enabling us to transfer the theoretical work directly to practical implementations. The result is a framework that facilitates rapid development of multi-agent systems whose operation can be clearly understood at both theoretical and practical levels, with each informing the other.