This page is under construction!!

I am currently working with Maja, my advisor, on Software Agents.

Click here to go to the Interaction Lab.

About my work

I am interested in software agents and their role in building intelligent systems.

"An agent is a system that tries to fulfil a set of goals in a complex environment and in some instances, could be used to enhance the productivity of a user."

As part of a project last semester I built the "MASC" (as in Multi-Agent-based Schedule Calculator) system which is an agent-based software assistant that helps users in scheduling their meetings. Each user has a "copy" of MASC - for each user, there are two agents, namely (a) the Administrative Agent that reads the user's mail looking for meeting messages and negotiates with other agents for conflicting times, and (b) the Scheduler Agent that maintains the actual schedule in a database. Together the 2 agents assist the user in managing the user's schedule. Such a system plays an important role in today's daily routine because, the user need not spend time in scheduling meetings with various people, instead can let her agents to do this job for her.

This problem interests me so much that I am now trying to build an intelligent Multi-Agent-based Schedule Calculator for my thesis. I am still trying to decide as to how to implement the intelligent part. If people have any suggestions regarding this feel free to contact me.

I am currently exploring the use of Java in Multi-agent systems. Java is very interesting and applicable since if a software agent is written in Java, it can be downloaded on different machines without making any changes to it. These agents can then exchange any information or even code if necessary. Having portable software agents is very useful, since these agents can migrate if necessary. Agents could also be helper applications in Java that aid a user in processing information that is downloaded.

Any comments or questions ?

aruna@cs.brandeis.edu

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