Published on the 24/04/2018 | Written by Jonathan Cotton
Auckland has won the bid to host a top international artificial intelligence get-together in 2020…
Auckland will be host to 500 delegates from around the world when the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) comes to New Zealand for the first time in 2020.
The conference will bring together researchers and practitioners in all areas of agent technology and provide a single, high-profile forum for research in theory and practice, and likely deliver more than 2,400 visitor nights and nearly $900,000 in economic value to the region.
The New Zealand bid team was led by Dr Quan Bai at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), and Professor Michael Winikoff from the University of Otago – with support from ATEED’s Auckland Convention Bureau (ACB) and Tourism New Zealand’s Conference Assistance Programme. AAMAS is the largest and most influential global conference focused on agents and multi-agent systems – key elements of artificial intelligence which are widely applied in robotics, smart mobile systems and decision support systems.
Dr Bai, Senior Lecturer at AUT’s School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, says it will be just the second time in 20 years that AAMAS will be held in Oceania: “That is fantastic recognition of New Zealand’s emergence in the highly specialised world of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems,” he says.
“It wasn’t easy to win the bid against strong competition, and the hard work isn’t over. In fact, it starts all over again now as we aim to deliver a fantastic, highly successful AAMAS.”
“It wasn’t easy to win the bid against strong competition, and the hard work isn’t over. In fact, it starts all over again now.”
Not many further details of the conference are available yet, but head of ACB, Anna Hayward says that the opportunities provided by hosting the conference here will be enormous.
“Securing another significant international conference brings great opportunities for Auckland and New Zealand’s scientists to showcase their world-class expertise to an influential international audience, and to build important global relationships.
“Following hot on the heels of a series of major recent international business event wins that ACB has assisted with, this is further great news for Auckland and New Zealand’s visitor economy.”
