Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Using BDI-extended NetLogo Agents

in Undergraduate CS

Research and Teaching

Jonathan Wiens Dagmar Monett

Talk at the 9th International Conference on Frontiers in Education:

Computer Science and Computer Engineering, FECS 2013

WORLDCOMP 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 2 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

How could we change that future?

J. Wiens / D. Monett 3 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Topics The paper’s word cloud was created with Tagxedo

J. Wiens / D. Monett 4 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 5 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

BDI agents

Mental attitudes:

Beliefs = assumptions

about the world

Desires = goals, agent’s

purpose

Intentions = actions needed

to fulfill the goals

Focus: reasoning of

resource bounded agents in

(complex) environments Image © StuartMiles

J. Wiens / D. Monett 6 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 7 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

NetLogo, icons, images: © 1999-2013 by Uri Wilensky

Multi-agent programmable modeling environment

Simulation tool for concurrent, autonomous agents

Excellent for teaching: used as an educational tool

in numerous university courses worldwide

Used in our AI courses since 2006; topic of several

student research projects at the BSEL

J. Wiens / D. Monett 8 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 9 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Fractional reserve banking

J. Wiens / D. Monett 10 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Topic from:

Agent-based Computational Economics

Fractional reserve banking

J. Wiens / D. Monett 11 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Fractional reserve banking:

The bank keeps only a fraction of the received deposits

(or reserves) and lends the remaining to borrowers

Topic from:

Agent-based Computational Economics

Fractional reserve banking

J. Wiens / D. Monett 12 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 13 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

NetLogo model

J. Wiens / D. Monett 14 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Concurrent activities

within a tick cycle

NetLogo model

J. Wiens / D. Monett 15 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

The bank agent:

- mediates between depositor and debtor

- makes profit through interest rates

Image © jscreationzs

NetLogo model

J. Wiens / D. Monett 16 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

NetLogo model

The debtor and the depositor agents:

- similar deliberation processes (DP)

- DP depends on individual rationality

and algorithm for acting.

Image © sixninepixels

J. Wiens / D. Monett 17 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

NetLogo model

J. Wiens / D. Monett 18 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 19 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013 Deliberation process for the depositor

J. Wiens / D. Monett 20 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013 Deliberation process for the depositor

Evaluation of beliefs

J. Wiens / D. Monett 21 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Intentions

(future actions)

Deliberation process for the depositor

J. Wiens / D. Monett 22 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 23 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Goals (1)

BDI MAS

Simplified model for

fractional reserve banking

+ =

J. Wiens / D. Monett 24 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Goals (2)

Ilias Sakellariou

Petros Kefalas

Ioanna Stamatopoulou

BDI extension

by

Belief management

Intention management

[["coffee" "hot"]

["coffee" "strong"]]

Stack with intentions

J. Wiens / D. Monett 25 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Goals (2)

Which components cannot be modeled?

Extensions needed?

Ilias Sakellariou

Petros Kefalas

Ioanna Stamatopoulou

BDI extension

by

Belief management

Intention management

[["coffee" "hot"]

["coffee" "strong"]]

Stack with intentions

J. Wiens / D. Monett 26 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Goals (3)

Design, implement, test and evaluate in

Undergraduate Research Project

Extensions to the

BDI extension

(minor capstone project)

J. Wiens / D. Monett 27 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Goals (4)

Artificial Intelligence course

Course projects

Undergraduate teaching

Students support

J. Wiens / D. Monett 28 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 29 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Agent’s plans

Redefinition of intentions

Plans = sequence of intentions

Dynamic adding of intentions

Calls by reference

Deleting single or multiple intentions at a time

What is new?

J. Wiens / D. Monett 30 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

J. Wiens / D. Monett 31 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Accredited Artificial Intelligence course

Optional module in the 5th study semester (7-ECTS)

Sub-module: Autonomous agents and multi-agent

systems

Small-sized group ( 20 students )

Project-based learning

(ECTS: European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System,

1 credit point = 30 hours of study)

J. Wiens / D. Monett 32 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Schedule of a student’s talk

Motivation, Agenda 2

Video, Discussion 3 3

Theory: BDI and BDI logic 8

10

Practical part: exercises 12 15

Theory: BDI architectures 5

Practical part: BDI in NetLogo 5

Literature, advice for projects 3

Conclusions 2

Duration in

minutes

Sandwich =

passive +

active learning

units

Image © digitalart

70 min.

J. Wiens / D. Monett 33 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Course project in

J. Wiens / D. Monett 34 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Case study in the field of Agent-Based

Computational Economics: Fractional Reserve

Banking

Extension to the NetLogo BDI Library

Undergraduate research supports AI classroom

teaching

Conclusions

J. Wiens / D. Monett 35 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Further evaluation of the new BDI library: student

research project of two new undergraduate students

Dynamic prioritizing of competing plans

Simulation of real world scenarios using FRB and

BDI

- E.g. for modeling bank crises and their behavior

over time

Ongoing and Future Work

J. Wiens / D. Monett 36 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 22-25, 2013

Change your students’ future.

Let them be researches, developers and teachers at the same time!