The findings of the research project “Fragmentation and Exclusion: Understanding and Overcoming the Multiple Impacts of the Crisis (FRAGMEX)” will be presented on Wednesday, the 25^th of November, 2015 (11:00-19:00) at Impact Hub (28 Karaiskaki str., Psirri, 105 54, Athens, near “Monastiraki” metro station).

The conference will present findings with respect to developments in poverty, unemployment and food insecurity in Greece during the years of the crisis, as well as policy responses. Furthermore, research findings will be presented, regarding the role of civil society during the crisis. Finally, the research team will present empirical research on the evolution of attitudes and public discourses in Greece regarding the role of Germany and the EU during the crisis.

The Crisis Observatory participates in the research project FRAGMEX (Greek partners’ coordinator) along with the Hellenic Open University, the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University of Bonn. In Greece, the project is funded by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology in the context of the programme “Bilateral Research and Technology Cooperation between Greece and Germany, 2013 – 2015”. The objective of the project is to study fragmentation phenomena within and between European Societies. More information can be found on the project website: www.fragmex.eu/

A certificate of attendance will be provided to those who will request it via email. The conference will be held in Greek with simultaneous interpretation in English.

Registration forms can be sent until 23.11.2015 at crisisobservatory@gmail.com. Registrations operate on a first come, first served basis. For more information, please call: 210-7257110.

You can find conference programme here  and the registration form form here.

University of Sevilla (Spain)

1st-3rd June, 2016

www.paams.net

SCOPE

Research on Agents and Multi-Agent Systems has matured during the last decade and many effective applications of this technology are now deployed. PAAMS provides an international forum to present and discuss the latest scientific developments and their effective applications, to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer. PAAMS started as a local initiative, but has since grown to become THE international yearly platform to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the   development and deployment of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

PAAMS intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry and the academic world to report on the latest scientific and technical advances on the application of multi-agent systems, to discuss and debate the major issues, and to showcase the latest systems using agent based technology. It will promote a forum for discussion on how agent-based techniques, methods, and tools help system designers to accomplish the mapping between available agent technology and application needs. Other stakeholders should be rewarded with a better understanding of the potential and challenges of the agent-oriented approach.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Yves Demazeau (Co-Chair) – Centre National de la Recherche  Scientifique (France)

Takayuki Ito (Co-Chair) – Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan)

INVITED SPEAKERS

PAAMS 2016 invited speakers:

• Witold Pedrycz – University of Alberta (Canada).
• Paul Scerri – Carnegie Mellon University (USA).
• Omer Rana – Cardiff University (UK).

SPECIAL ISSUES

• Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2016 and Collocated Events will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a special issue published in Neurocomputing (JCR Impact Factor: 2.005).
• The best papers from PAAMS 2016 and Collocated Events will be expanded and revised for inclusion in “Knowledge and Information Systems: An International Journal” (http://www.cs.uvm.edu/~kais/) by Springer. (JCR Impact Factor: 1.782)
• Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2016 and Collocated Events will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a special issue published in Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering (JCR Impact Factor: 0.415)
• Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2016 will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a special issue published in Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management.

DEMO AWARDS

The best demo in PAAMS 2016 will be awarded with a 2000€ price.

WORKSHOPS

• A-Health. Agents and multi-agent Systems for AAL and e-HEALTH.
• 1st International Workshop on Agents Living in Augmented Worlds.
• Agent-based solutions for Manufacturing and Supply Chain.
• The First International Workshop on Computational Models of Social Creativity.
• MAS for Complex Networks and Social Computation.
• Decision Making in Dynamic Information Environments.
• Workshop Games and Multi-Agent Systems.
• Intelligent Systems and Context Information Fusion.
• Multi-agent based Applications for Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy Systems.
• MultiAgent System Based Learning Environments.
• Workshop on Smart Cities and Intelligent Agents.

SPECIAL SESSIONS

• Agents Behaviours and Artificial Markets (ABAM).
• Advances on Demand Response and Renewable Energy Sources in Agent Based Smart Grids (ADRESS).
• Agents and Mobile Devices (AM).
• Agent Methodologies for Intelligent Robotics Applications (AMIRA).
• COoperative go-GREEN agents for the management of sustainable systems (Co-Green).
• Learning, Agents and Formal Languages (LAFL).
• Multi-Agent Systems and Ambient Intelligence (MASAI).
• Persuasive Technologies (PT).
• Web Mining and Recommender systems (WebMiReS).

CALL FOR GRANTS/AWARDS

PAAMS 2016 in collaboration with the IWT2 research group (http://iwt2.org/) of the University of Sevilla, offer 40 grants/awards to facilitate the attendance to doctoral and young doctors both to the event itself (including Workshops and Special Sessions) and to the parallel collocated events. More information: http://www.paams.net/open-calls/call-for-grants-awards

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission date:  11th January, 2016

Notification date:  22nd February, 2016

Camera-ready deadline: 07th March, 2016

Conference dates:  1st-3rd June, 2016

SUBMISSION

Review process

PAAMS welcomes the submission of application papers with preference to the topics listed in the call for papers. All submitted papers will undergo a thorough review process; each paper will be refereed by at least three experts in the field based on relevance, originality, significance, quality and clarity.

The papers must consist of original, relevant and previously unpublished sound research results related to any of the topics of the conference.

Submitting papers

All papers must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS Template, with a maximum length of 12 pages in length, including figures and references. All proposed papers must be submitted in electronic form (PDF format) using the Paper Submission Page.

Publication

Accepted papers will be included in PAAMS 2016 Proceedings, published by LNCS/LNAI of Springer Verlag.

At least one of the authors will be required to register and attend the symposium to present the paper in order to include the paper in the conference proceedings.

TOPICS

Special Topic of the 2016 edition: “Scalable Multi-Agent Systems”

Problems

• Agent-based simulation and prediction
• Distributed problem solving
• Agent cooperation and negotiation
• Agent societies and social networks
• Real-time multi-agent systems
• Human agent interaction, user interfaces
• Adaptation, learning and personalization
• Reputation, trust, privacy and security
• Agent engineering and development tools
• Evaluation, ethical and legal issues

Domains

• Information recovery and information systems
• Knowledge management and data intensive systems
• Intelligent control and manufacturing systems
• Embodied agents and autonomous systems
• Multi-robot systems and real world robotics
• Internet softbots and web intelligence
• Virtual agents, animation and games
• Pervasive agents and ambient intelligence
• E-learning and educational systems
• User-centered applications and assisting agents

CONTACT
Chairs of the PAAMS 2016 Organizing Committee

Javier Bajo. Technical University of Madrid, Spain.

María José Escalona. University of Sevilla, Spain.

Web: http://www.paams.net

Email: info@paams.net

This is the First call for papers for the 10th European Conference on Games Based Learning( ECGBL 2016) hosted by University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland on 6-7 October 2016.

This call will close on 17^th of March 2016.

Over the last ten years, the way in which education and training is delivered has changed considerably with the advent of new technologies. One such new technology that holds considerable promise for helping to engage learners is Games-Based Learning (GBL). The Conference offers an opportunity for scholars and practitioners interested in the issues related to GBL to share their thinking and research findings. Papers can cover various issues and aspects of GBL in education and training: technology and implementation issues associated with the development of GBL; use of mobile and MMOGs for learning; pedagogical issues associated with GBL; social and ethical issues in GBL; GBL best cases and practices, and other related aspects. We are particularly interested in empirical research that addresses whether GBL enhances learning. This Conference provides a forum for discussion, collaboration and intellectual exchange for all those interested in any of these fields of research or practice.

The conference committee welcomes contributions on a wide range of topics using a range of scholarly approaches including theoretical and empirical papers employing qualitative, quantitative and critical methods. Action research, case studies and work-in-progress/posters are welcomed approaches. PhD Research, proposals for roundtable discussions, non-academic contributions and product demonstrations based on the main themes are also invited. You can find full details in the submission types document (pdf format).

In the first instance all submission types require an abstract. For more information please go to: http://academic-conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2016/ecgbl16-call-papers.htm

Publication opportunities

Papers accepted for the conference will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration and payment. Papers that have been presented at the conference will also be considered for further development and publication in the

Electronic Journal of e-Learning (ISSN 1479-4403) – now indexed by SCOPUS.

International Journal of Game-Based Learning Published by the Information Resource Management Association (DOI: 10.4018/IJGBL, ISSN: 2155-6849, EISSN: 2155-6857)

Serious Games published by the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) Endorsed Transactions

Game competition

The 4^th International Educational game Competition will be held at ECGBL 2016. In the first instance we will be asking for abstracts describing the game and further information will be sent to applicants thereafter. http://academic-conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2016/ecgbl16-call-games.htm

We invite applications from students and staff who wish to attend the next ESERA summer school, which will be held in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, 22 – 26 August 2016.
Are you PhD. student in the science education? Don’t forget to send your proposal to the ESERA Summer School 2016! Are you researcher in the science education? Come to the ESERA Summer School 2016 as a coach! Call for applications is now open!

Come to the beautiful town of Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic in summer time and meet other PhD students and coaches from different countries. The historical city of Ceske Budejovice, founded in 1265, is located on the confluence of the Vltava and Malse rivers in South Bohemia close to the borders with Austria. You can come by train, by bus or by plane (from the Prague International Airport (approx. 150 km, connection every hour).

Notes on applying can be downloaded here. Applications should be submitted via website https://esera2016.jcu.cz, where forms for students and staff are provided.

Deadline for applications is 31 January 2016.

We look forward to receiving your applications.

Iva Stuchlíková
Lukáš Rokos
Jan Petr

Pedagogická fakulta, Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích
(Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice)

Scope

WorldCIST’16 – 4th World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, to be held at Recife, Brazil, 22 – 24 March 2016, is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences and concerns in the several perspectives of Information Systems and Technologies.

Pervasive Information Systems (PIS) extend the Information System paradigm by introducing a set of novel characteristics into the society. This workshop aims to discuss topics related to PIS, evaluate the importance for the society and the creation of new knowledge overcoming temporal and local barriers. This workshop is focused on demonstrating how to take advantages from this new sort of information systems and which kind of solutions can be developed in order to support the decision making process anywhere and anytime. PIS 2016 is the ideal place for bringing together the researchers who are working in this particular area of information systems in order to promote discussion and explore new scope of scientific contributions.

Having conscience of the most recent situation in Europe and the Horizon 2020 strategy, a deeper analysis should be made on this emerging topic. Authors are invited to submit unpublished work, contributing with research papers, case studies and demonstrations that present original scientific results, methodological aspects, concepts and approaches in the multidisciplinary field of PIS. Authors should present new trends, discuss future challenges and understand how information affects the way humans interact with the built environments occupied by them.

Topics

Workshop topics include, but are not limited to:

• Ubiquitous Data Mining;
• Pervasive Intelligent Systems;
• Pervasive Intelligent Decision Support Systems;
• Pervasive Systems Based on Cloud Computing;
• Decision Support Systems;
• Interoperability and Pervasiveness;
• Pervasive Business Intelligence;
• Sensor-based systems;
• Life-styling pervasive solutions;
• Pervasive environments

Submission and Paper Format

Submissions must be of one of two types:

Full paper: Finished and consolidated R&D works. These papers are assigned a 10-page limit; and Short paper: Ongoing works with relevant preliminary results open to discussion. These papers are assigned a 7-page limit.

Submitted papers must comply with the format of Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Series (see Instructions for Authors at Springer Website or download a DOC example) be written in English, must not have been published before, not be under review for any other conference, workshop or publication and not include any information leading to the authors’ identification. Therefore, the authors’ names, affiliations and bibliographic references should not be included in the version for evaluation by the Program Committee. This information should only be included in the camera-ready version, saved in Word or Latex format and also in PDF format. These files must be accompanied by the Publication form filled out, in a ZIP file, and uploaded at the conference management system.

All papers will be subjected to a “double-blind review” by at least two/three members of the Program Committee. Based on Program Committee evaluation, a paper can be rejected or accepted by the Conference Chairs. In the later case, it can be accepted as the type originally submitted or as another type. Thus, full papers can be accepted as short papers. The authors of accepted full papers will have 15 minutes to present their work in a Conference Work Session; approximately 5 minutes of discussion will follow each presentation. The authors of accepted short papers and company papers will have 11 minutes to present their work in a Conference Work Session; approximately 4 minutes of discussion will follow each presentation.

All papers should be submitted using the EasyChair system, available in the following link:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=worldcist-workshops2

Publication and Indexing

Workshop papers will be published in the Springer Conference Proceedings. To ensure that a paper is published in the Proceedings, at least one of the authors must be fully registered by 27th of December 2015, and the paper must comply with the suggested layout and page-limit. Additionally, all recommended changes must be addressed by the authors before they submit the camera-ready version. No more than one paper per registration will be published in the Conference Proceedings. An extra fee must be paid for publication of additional papers, with a maximum of one additional paper per registration.

Full and short papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings by Springer, in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Published full and short papers will be submitted for indexation by ISI, EI-Compendex, SCOPUS and DBLP, among others, and will be available in the SpringerLink Digital Library. Extended versions of the best papers accepted and presented at this workshop may be considered for publication in a Special Issue of a renowned international journal indexed by ISI, SCOPUS and DBLP.

Important Dates

• Deadline for paper submission: November 30th, 2015
• Notification of paper acceptance: December 20th, 2015
• Deadline for final versions and conference registration: December 31st, 2015
• Workshop / Conference dates: March 22nd -24th, 2016

Contacts

Carlos Filipe Portela – University of Minho, Portugal – cfp@dsi.uminho.pt

Manuel Filipe Santos – University of Minho, Portugal – mfs@dsi.uminho.pt

Download the Worshop’s Call here

PRESS RELEASE

SONET-BULL

Social Networking Against Bullying

New pedagogic approaches: 2^nd international conference in Dublin.

The Anti-Bullying Centre of Dublin City University will host the second international conference of Sonet-Bull, a project financed by the European Erasmus+ Programme to identify common strategies to prevent and counter school bullying phenomena. The appointment is for November 18 at 2 pm. The initial results obtained with the on-line platform for schools, families and all other actors involved in this phenomenon will be presented during the event.   

SONET-Bull is a two-year project implemented by the Greek National Agency as part of the Erasmus Plus Programme, Key Action 2 “Strategic Partnerships” to prevent and counter  school bullying. The programme, which is promoted by five partners from four European countries (Hellenic Open University, Greece – INFOREF, Belgium – Computer Technology Institute & Press Diophantus, Greece – Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Italy – Dublin City University, Anti-Bullying Centre, Ireland), is based on the concept that bullying cannot be countered  through isolated actions, but rather requires educational strategies and innovative tools that can lead to the creation of networks and educational communities.

The project is also based on the use of the www.sonetbull-platform.eu platform to share good practices and strategies to counter bullying. The international conference will be held on November 18, 2015, at 2 pm at the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre at Dublin City University.

“Partners involved in the EU Sonetbull Project are meeting in Dublin from 18-20 November at the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in Dublin City University. As part of the project a number of EU partners are working with DCU to develop an online space using ICT social networking tools with peer learning and crowd-sourcing to train school communities to counter student bullying. The three days of meeting will begin with the launch of a new national anti-bullying website by the Irish Minister for Education and Skills” explains James O’Higgins Norman, Director of the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in Ireland.

“The first version of SONETBULL Platform is ready.  The platform is a peer learning platform which integrates social networking tools (Blog; Forum; Wikis; Tag cloud) and allows register users to access accredited training material on school bullying, to publish their experiences and to comment and tag the experience of their peers. In particular, users can share their experience in school bullying in a form of learning objects that are available through the platform. Those Learning Objects are: anti-bullying policy; bullying episode; case study, discussions; educational activities; survey and wiki” points out Catherine Christodoulopoulou, spokesperson for Computer Technology Institute and Press Diophantus (CTI) in Greece.

The platform is a strategic tool to implement a dedicated educational course for all members of school communities to adequately prevent and counter school bullying phenomena, developing collaborations between schools and families and providing the necessary support both to victims and aggressors involved in bullying incidents.

Fri, 13/11/2015

Contacts:

Italy:

Fondazione Mondo Digitale

Press office

Elisa Amorelli

tel. 06 42014109 – 338 3043021

e.amorelli@mondodigitale.org

Francesca Meini

Tel. 06 42014109

F.meini@mondodigitale.org

Greece:

Hellenic Open University (Coordinator)

Contact: Achilles Kameas

E-mail: kameas@eap.gr

Website: www.eap.gr

Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus” CTI

Contact: Catherine Christodoulopoulou

E-mail:  christod@westgate.gr

Website:  www.cti.gr, www.westgate.gr

Read the press release here

Euproma  presents eLearning job role profiles and training guidelines at the “World of Learning Conference”  on 29 & 30 September 2015 in Birmingham, UK

•  The e-Virtue project consortium will be part of the “World of Learning”, an international event where training organizations, practitioners and companies meet to exchange ideas and pave the way to modern learning environments.
•  In a project-specific session, the partnership will present the main e-learning job role profiles and guidelines on how to align curricula to the market needs.
•  e-Virtue started on the 1st October 2013 and is coming to end on 30 September 2015
•  EUPROMA is project coordinator and German project partner

Munich, July 2015: The EU Co-funded Project e-Virtue has run for almost two years and during this period, the partnership involved 7 partners from 5 EU countries (Poland, Germany, UK, Greece, France) and worked on identifying skills and competences necessary to take advantage of digital technologies for learning. The results are 5 consolidated profiles of job descriptions that will help to adjust curricula to market needs, and training guidelines for Vocational Education and Training (VET) organizations.

The World of Learning Conference will take place on the 29 & 30 September 2015, in Birmingham, UK. Within the conference programme, the e-Virtue Partnership will be part of the Fringe Seminars with the Keynote: Do you have the right skills for 2016 and beyond? Closing the digital learning skills gap

For more information on the session and on the event, please check the weblink:

https://www.learnevents.com/fringe-seminars.php

Website: www.euproma.com

Organized by Hellenic Open University

Funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) of the European Commission

• Purpose

The event is organized in the context of the eCult Skills project, which investigated the emergence of new job roles as a result of the latest ICT developments and their adoption by the museums, and aims to present project outcomes and discuss possible exploitation routes. It will provide to scholars, museum professionals, organizations and networks, and ICT researchers and engineers, a forum to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans on the interplay between Culture and Technology and the new professional prospects this can lead to.  

• Who should be attending?

The conference is addressed to cultural heritage institutions, especially museums, professionals of the Culture sector (staff, directors, board members, and policymakers), vocational training organizations (VET), ICT Industry and stakeholders from the Culture and ICT sectors.

• Structure

The conference contains sessions and workshops. The session part contains three sessions: in the first of them, the research results from the participant countries of the project will be presented, in the second, museums will portray their own perspective, through case studies, of the digital literacy of the museum professionals and ICT experts will testify their experience from collaborating with museums, while in the third session, VET institutions and universities will present the currently provided study programmes and qualifications regarding ICT and Culture. In addition to the sessions, two workshops will be organized, aiming at the dissemination and evaluation of the job role profiles produced by the project and the evaluation of the exploitation potential of project outcomes.

• Where and when

Athens Gate Hotel, 10 Syngrou avenue, Athens, Greece

22 September 2015

Main Topics:

• ICT and Culture: Trends, challenges, and technological developments
• ICT and Museums: Access, guides, documentation and services
• Developing digital strategies for the Culture sector

Organised by

• Policy, leadership, and everyday practice in museums
• Changes and upgrades in the museum organizational chart
• Improving Digital Literacy of Museum Professionals
• Digital Cultural Content Distribution
• New media and communication tools in Culture
• Human – computer interaction for cultural applications
• ICT guidance: skills and competencies
• Creative cultural enterprises
• Study and training programs in Cultural Informatics
• Emerging jobs in the Culture sector: knowledge – skills – competences

Website: http://ecultskills–conference.eap.gr/

Register for free: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international–conference–on–digitalchallenges–for–museum–experts–tickets–17479441480

Contact Details:  info@daissy.eap.gr