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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Call for Participation: Fifteenth Annual Trading Agent Competition (on 5 and
<span class="aqj">6 May 2014</span> in Paris, France)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">We invite you to participate in the Fifteenth Annual Trading Agent Competition (TAC-14), to be held in May of 2014, with the finals taking place during the AAMAS-14
conference in Paris, France, preceded by qualifying and seeding rounds in April. You may register for the competition starting
<span class="aqj">25 March 2014 through 15 April 2014</span> at <a href="http://tradingagents.org/registration" target="_blank">
http://tradingagents.org/registration</a>.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">The TAC-14 will include two games:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">1. Power TAC. Sustainable energy systems of the future will need more than efficient, clean, low-cost, renewable energy sources; they will also need
efficient price signals that motivate sustainable energy consumption as well as a better real-time alignment of energy demand and supply. In Power TAC, agents act as retail brokers in a local power distribution region, purchasing power from a wholesale market
as well as from local sources, such as homes and businesses with solar panels, and selling power to local customers and into the wholesale market. Retail brokers must solve a supply-chain problem in which the product is infinitely perishable, and supply and
demand must be exactly balanced at all times.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Power TAC Game Master is Wolf Ketter, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Full documentation and software are available at
<a href="http://www.powertac.org" target="_blank">http://www.powertac.org</a>.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">2. AdX (Ad Exchange). Brand advertising through web display ads, aimed at driving up brand awareness and purchase intentions, is the cornerstone of
the Internet economic ecosystem. The ever increasing penetration of the Internet and recent technological advances allow for cost effective targeting and gave rise to an array of new interconnected entities - e.g., the pivotal Ad Exchange (AdX) - offering
added value to publishers and advertisers. The new AdX game reflects the challenges faced by an Ad Network as it bids for display ads opportunities. The key challenge that Ad Networks face is to fulfill advertising contracts at minimum cost while sustaining
and attracting advertisers by achieving high quality targeting. Therefore, efficient marketing effectiveness is the main concern of an agent implementing the Ad Network strategy.
</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">AdX Game Master is Mariano Schain, Tel Aviv University. More information, documentation and software are available at
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/gameadx" target="_blank">https://sites.google.com/site/gameadx</a>.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">The qualifying and seeding rounds will be held in April, and the first day of the final rounds is scheduled to coincide with AMEC/TADA-14, the International Workshop
on Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce and Trading Agent Design and Analysis to be held at AAMAS-14 on 5 May.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">To register for TAC-14, please fill out the registration form before
<span class="aqj">15 April 2014</span> at: <a href="http://tradingagents.org/registration" target="_blank">
http://tradingagents.org/registration</a> (mirrored also at: <a href="http://tradingagents.eecs.umich.edu/registration" target="_blank">
http://tradingagents.eecs.umich.edu/registration</a>). The entry fee will be US$250 per team to enter one game, or $400 for both TAC games. The entry fee (for one game) is waived for teams who send a representative to the TAC finals at AAMAS 14, if that representative
registers for the AMEC/TADA-14 workshop (in case a team participates in both games, registration cost is reduced to US$150).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Note: Please send any questions regarding the fees to tac [at]
<a href="http://tradingagents.org" target="_blank">tradingagents.org</a>. Groups unable to afford the entry fee may also contact tac [at]
<a href="http://tradingagents.org" target="_blank">tradingagents.org</a> for special consideration.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">General information about TAC and information and links about all the TAC games can be found at the Trading Agents Research website:
<a href="http://tradingagents.org" target="_blank">http://tradingagents.org</a> (an older webpage for the competition is:
<a href="http://www.sics.se/tac" target="_blank">http://www.sics.se/tac</a>).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Exact dates for the qualifying and seeding rounds will soon be posted on the trading agents site (<a href="http://tradingagents.org" target="_blank">http://tradingagents.org</a>),
and sent to the tac-discuss mailing list. You may subscribe by sending an email to tac-discuss-request (at)
<a href="http://umich.edu" target="_blank">umich.edu</a>, subject “subscribe”.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Information about the International Workshop on Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce and Trading Agent Design and Analysis (AMEC/TADA-14) workshop can be found
at: <a href="http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/vr2/amectada2014" target="_blank">http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/vr2/amectada2014</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Information about the Association for Trading Agent Research, the organization responsible for TAC, can be found at:
<a href="http://tradingagents.org" target="_blank">http://tradingagents.org</a>.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Please circulate this announcement to anyone who may be interested in participating. Inquiries regarding the competition itself may be directed to TAC-14 General
Chair:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Assist. Prof. Vedran Podobnik (vedran [dot] podobnik [at] fer [dot] hr).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">Inquiries about the specific games should be directed to the corresponding Game Master:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">- PowerTAC: Wolf Ketter (wketter [at] rsm [dot] nl);</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB">- TAC AdX: Mariano Schain (schain [dot] mariano [at] gmail [dot] com).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Wolf<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Prof. Dr. Wolf Ketter<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Professor of Next Generation Information Systems<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Director, Erasmus Centre for Future Energy Business (<a href="http://www.rsm.nl/energy"><span style="color:blue">www.rsm.nl/energy</span></a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Director, Learning Agents Research Group at Erasmus (LARGE –
<a href="http://www.large.rsm.nl/"><span style="color:blue">www.large.rsm.nl</span></a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Twitter: @wolfketter <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Ingrid Waaijer, Secretary <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">+31(0)10-408 2032<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="mailto:iwaaijer@rsm.nl"><span style="color:blue">iwaaijer@rsm.nl</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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