Self-adaptive and self-organising systems

Prof. Giovanna Di Marzo Serugendo
Birkbeck (University of London), UK

20 hours, 5 credits (final test)

April 7 - April 12, 2008

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione: Elettronica, Informatica, Telecomunicazioni, via Diotisalvi, meeting room

Contacts: Prof. Cinzia Bernardeschi

Abstact

This series of lessons discusses self-adaptive and self-organising systems. Self-adaptive systems follow a top-down approach evaluating their own global behaviour, while self-organising systems work bottom-up with individual components interacting locally following simple rules. This seminar reviews for both cases: concepts and definitions, adaptation mechanisms, as well as models and algorithms. It also presents specific applications and provides an overview of existing simulation tools.

Syllabus

Motivation

Self-Adaptation

• Concepts and Definitions
• Control Theory
• Grid Computing
• Autonomic Computing
• Self-* Systems

Self-Organisation

• Concepts and Definitions
• Natural Systems
• Biological Systems (cells, immune systems)
• Social Collective Behaviour (ants, swarms)
• Social Networks
• Economic Systems
• Adaptation Mechanisms
• Stigmergy
• School of Fish
• Reinforcement Learning
• Models and Algorithms
• Amorphous Computing (Cellular Computing)
• Collective Intelligence (COIN)
• Swarm Intelligence (ant colony optimisation, ACO; particle swarm intelligence, PSO)
• Immune Systems
• Evolutionary Algorithms
• Complex Networks

Engineering Distributed Adaptive Systems

• Autonomous Agents
• Adaptation Mechanisms
• Middleware Infrastructures
• Methodologies and Tools

Application Domains

• Self-Generative Art
• P2P / Networks
• Robotics
• Data Clustering
• Simulations and Games

Simulation Tools