Multiagent decision techniques for electronic commerce and environmental management problems

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The principal aim of the proposed research program is to develop multiagent decision making methodologies with application to electronic commerce and environmental management problems. Agents can be human decision makers or autonomous software agents. In particular, formal multiagent decision techniques will be investigated and computerized systems to support these techniques will be developed. The proposed research program is composed of three components: further development of the graph model for conflict resolution methodology; design of methods for allocating fairly and efficiently limited resources among competing uses and stakeholders in common-pool resource management problems arising in various areas, such as basin-wide water resources management systems and telecommunication networks; and study of roles of electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) in supply chains in the new economy and two particular aspects of e-marketplaces: online auction and negotiations among agents. The decision making techniques studied will be applied to practical decision problems in electronic commerce, environmental management, and other areas. The techniques and tools developed in the proposed research can be used to assist decision makers who are involved in multiagent decision problems and can be utilized by practitioners, researchers, and decision makers for designing e-marketplaces, improving negotiation performance of firms in e-marketplaces, and allocating scarce resources fairly and efficiently among competing uses and stakeholders. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained for conducting research on developing multiagent decision techniques, designing and implementing decision support systems, and applying the new and improved techniques to challenging engineering problems.