34,266 research outputs found
Towards Flexible Teamwork
Many AI researchers are today striving to build agent teams for complex,
dynamic multi-agent domains, with intended applications in arenas such as
education, training, entertainment, information integration, and collective
robotics. Unfortunately, uncertainties in these complex, dynamic domains
obstruct coherent teamwork. In particular, team members often encounter
differing, incomplete, and possibly inconsistent views of their environment.
Furthermore, team members can unexpectedly fail in fulfilling responsibilities
or discover unexpected opportunities. Highly flexible coordination and
communication is key in addressing such uncertainties. Simply fitting
individual agents with precomputed coordination plans will not do, for their
inflexibility can cause severe failures in teamwork, and their
domain-specificity hinders reusability. Our central hypothesis is that the key
to such flexibility and reusability is providing agents with general models of
teamwork. Agents exploit such models to autonomously reason about coordination
and communication, providing requisite flexibility. Furthermore, the models
enable reuse across domains, both saving implementation effort and enforcing
consistency. This article presents one general, implemented model of teamwork,
called STEAM. The basic building block of teamwork in STEAM is joint intentions
(Cohen & Levesque, 1991b); teamwork in STEAM is based on agents' building up a
(partial) hierarchy of joint intentions (this hierarchy is seen to parallel
Grosz & Kraus's partial SharedPlans, 1996). Furthermore, in STEAM, team members
monitor the team's and individual members' performance, reorganizing the team
as necessary. Finally, decision-theoretic communication selectivity in STEAM
ensures reduction in communication overheads of teamwork, with appropriate
sensitivity to the environmental conditions. This article describes STEAM's
application in three different complex domains, and presents detailed empirical
results.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for an online appendix and other files
accompanying this articl
Agents for educational games and simulations
This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications
Succeeding Through Collaborative Conflict: The Paradoxical Lessons of Shared Leadership
Facing serious challenges that may dictate the complete overhaul of business mindset and industry must be directed by sound leadership. But is it possible to lead alone or is collaboration necessary to confront these challenges? These authors tackle the well-known idiom âtwo heads are better than oneâ and extract from its meaning the inherent dichotomy in shared leadership, mediating differences of direction, and preserving the integrity of individual perspective in this new age
Heads, I Win. Tails, You Lose
To develop and deliver desirable and viable products, services, processes, and policy, government organizations rely on teamwork. Yet, most forms of organization cannot help but engender conflict in such areas as strategy, organization, people, business processes, and rewards and recognition. Organizational conflict, fuelled daily by such perennials as corporate silos, must be accepted then actively managed. Yet, most individuals and organizations are disappointingly poor at resolving problems, preferring instead to avoid or satisficeâthe strategy for decision making whereby alternatives are considered until an acceptable option is found, not necessarily the optimal one. Promoting effective cross-functional collaboration demands that an enabling environment be built for that very purpose
Inside a cultural agency: team ethnography and knowledge exchange
This article undertakes an auto-critical analysis of the research team's ethnographic study of Cultural Enterprise Office (CEO), a Scottish creative business support agency. We discuss the team's composition and how this relates to other analyses of ethnographic teamwork. Our research is situated in the wider policy context of the âcreative-economicâ turn in the UK's research funding. This has been accompanied by increased emphasis on âknowledge exchangeâ and âimpactâ in the drive for greater accountability in higher education. The team's evolution in the course of undertaking research is illustrated by reference to four âpivotal moments,â which illustrate how we âperformedâ knowledge exchange
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Team to Market (T2M): Creating High Performance Teams in the Digital Age
1. Teams are the essential means of product or service delivery and the fundamental building blocks of modern organisations. An effective team can produce results far outperforming a collection of even the most talented individuals when team members coalesce and jell into a single, well-functioning, fully-aligned organism. This report advances the notion of âTeam to Marketâ (T2M) to help business leaders and knowledge workers understand, create and lead high performance teams in the digital age
The knowledge society and high performance workplace systems: Enhancing worker voice
This paper focuses on an aspect of the âFuture of Workâ. The introduction of high performance workplace systems (hpws) is, in general terms, consistent with the broad thrust of the âknowledge societyâ debate. The central thesis holds that the introduction of hpws has the potential to enhance âworker voice,â especially in the context of a âthird wayâ political environment that fosters a more tripartite approach to industrial relations. The paper draws on several pieces of research, each of which has its own methodological approach. The discussion of the âknowledge societyâ debate and the âthird wayâ political context draws on policy analyses undertaken by Law and Piercy. The body of the paper is based on a survey by Law of union members engaged in a hpws in a large NZ dairy factory. That research involved focus groups and a postal survey. Qualitative (write-in) responses were further analysed using a dynamic coding system developed by Law. The findings are consistent with the (US) work of Black and Lynch. With some qualifications, the introduction of hpws has enhanced worker participation. Active union involvement was a positive factor. For a proportion of union members, the introduction of hpws has had positive off-site effects
Curriculum renewal for interprofessional education in health
In this preface we comment on four matters that we think bode well for the future of interprofessional education in Australia. First, there is a growing articulation, nationally and globally, as to the importance of interprofessional education and its contribution to the development of interprofessional and collaborative health practices. These practices are increasingly recognised as central to delivering effective, efficient, safe and sustainable health services. Second, there is a rapidly growing interest and institutional engagement with interprofessional education as part of pre-registration health professional education. This has changed substantially in recent years. Whilst beyond the scope of our current studies, the need for similar developments in continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals was a consistent topic in our stakeholder consultations. Third, we observe what might be termed a threshold effect occurring in the area of interprofessional education. Projects that address matters relating to IPE are now far more numerous, visible and discussed in terms of their aggregate outcomes. The impact of this momentum is visible across the higher education sector. Finally, we believe that effective collaboration is a critical mediating process through which the rich resources of disciplinary knowledge and capability are joined to add value to existing health service provision. We trust the conceptual and practical contributions and resources presented and discussed in this report contribute to these developments.Office of Learning and Teaching Australi
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