Design agency:prototyping multi-agent systems in architecture

This paper presents research on the prototyping of multi-agent systems for architectural design. It proposes a design exploration methodology at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and computer science. The motivation of the work includes exploring bottom up generative methods coupled with optimizing performance criteria including for geometric complexity and objective functions for environmental, structural and fabrication parameters. The paper presents the development of a research framework and initial experiments to provide design solutions, which simultaneously satisfy complexly coupled and often contradicting objectives. The prototypical experiments and initial algorithms are described through a set of different design cases and agents within this framework; for the generation of façade panels for light control; for emergent design of shell structures; for actual construction of reciprocal frames; and for robotic fabrication. Initial results include multi-agent derived efficiencies for environmental and fabrication criteria and discussion of future steps for inclusion of human and structural factors

An examination of the long-term business value of investments in information technology

In this paper, we examine the effects of investments in Information Technology (IT) on the long term business values of organizations. The regression discontinuity design is used in this research to examine eight hundred and ten IT investment announcements collected from the period 1982–2007. Our results found that press releases can affect the market value of a firm by possibly providing investors with a better idea of a firm’s current and future operations and strategy. On the other hand, these press releases also appear to attract more transient investors. The attraction of transient investors likely suggests the market believes the IT investing firm is serious about its potential for growth and expansion

international linkages value added trade and firm productivity in latin america and the caribbean

This chapter addresses the following research questions: (i) Are firms characterized by international linkages more productive than other firms? (ii) Are those belonging to industries more involved in GVCs even more productive? To this end, we combine the World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset with the new OECD-WTO TiVA dataset and present three main empirical exercises: (1) an analysis of productivity premia associated with participation in international trade and presence of inward FDI; (2) a Cobb–Douglas output function expanded to firms' international linkages; (3) a further expanded version of the above relationship including the TiVA-based indicators of value added trade and industry participation and position in the global value chain. Our empirical outcomes confirm the presence of a positive causal relationship between participation in international activities and firm performance in the LAC region. Focusing on four big Latin American countries we show that the actual level of involvement into GVCs matters as well

Multiparty Interactions for Coordination in a Mixed Human-Agent Teamwork

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