Can Intelligent Agents Proficiently Negotiate with Humans? Design Architecture, System Prototype and Empirical Findings 

Dr. Yang Yinping, Scientist & Independent Investigator, IHPC, A*STAR (Singapore) 

Time: Monday, Dec 5, 2011, 2 PM 
Venue: SEIEE-03-414 

Abstract 
With the growth of the global online marketplace, both leading IT practitioners (e.g., IBM, HP, Alibaba) and academic communities in artificial intelligence and e-commerce have started to pay growing attention to the market potential of agent-based negotiation service. In Singapore, innovative web services have been identified by IDA as one of the five Infocomm clusters that offers high growth potential for the nation. My research program aims to design and develop a type of innovative services that can be deployed in the web that potentially benefits small and medium sized enterprises to reap the values of an intelligent agent-based negotiation service to automate the process of procurement/sales over multiple business attributes. Software agents offer measurable potential benefits, including lower opportunity cost, more efficient outcomes, and the elimination of social-emotional barriers of human decision-making in handling routine, repetitive transactions. 
In this 45-minute talk, I will first introduce the multidisciplinary theoretical models on the topic of computerized negotiation for online business. An US-patent pending system prototype will be demonstrated to illustrate the design of agent-based negotiation strategies with an end-to-end scenario where a software agent interacts with a human counterpart in negotiation. Findings of three recent experiments will be presented alongside a discussion on future research directions. I will also discuss the potential industrial applications and explore collaboration opportunities with the academic community and industry in China, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.

Biography 
Dr. Yang Yinping is a scientist and independent investigator in the Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. She receives her Ph.D. in Information Systems and Bachelor of Computing (Hons) from National University of Singapore in 2008 and 2003. Dr. Yang’s research interests are agent-based negotiation, intelligent systems, social networking sites, and economic considerations in cloud computing. Her research has been published in Journal of Behavior & Information Technology, Journal of Global Information Management, International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS), Workshop in Information Technologies and Systems (WITS), International Conference of Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN), International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (ICHCI), and Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) and so on. She has also taught a broad range of business IT subjects such as E-Commerce Technologies, Human-Computer Interaction, Computing and Society and Introduction to Information Technologies at School of Computing, National University of Singapore during 2003-2007. 
Dr. Yang’s research has received a number of prestigious international awards. Her recent work in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, entitled “Negotiation as a Service: An Agent-Based Negotiation Engine for Online Business”, has won Best Prototype Award at WITS09. Her other research achievements include a Best Paper Award (with Ms. Cheng Zengyan and Assoc. Prof. John Lim) at the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in January 2009, and a Best Paper Award (with Assoc Prof. John Lim and Ms. Chen Yao) at the 16th International Workshop in Information Technologies and Systems, Wisconsin, USA in December 2006. She has received Dean's Graduate Awards from School of Computing, National University of Singapore in years 2004 and 2007. 
Web Profile and Publication List：http://www.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/yangyp.php?display=1