Engineering agent-based software systems
Sajjan G. Shiva, Linda B. Sherrell, Sarah B. Lee, Andrew McGregor Olney · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2005
Building software systems with using modules has been a popular trend. The concept of the 'module' has changed from a subroutine, to object, to component (DCOM, JavaBean) and now to an 'agent'. Various definitions of the agent have been used over the past few years. In general, a software agent is a component that can exhibit both proactive and reactive behaviors. It works in an autonomous mode and possibly has a capability to learn to improve its performance. Several agent-based systems have been built. Several methodologies and tools exist to aid the development of such systems. Several conferences dealing with the software engineering of agent-based systems have been held. But, the software engineering aspects seem to have taken a back seat, although some recent efforts have addressed this issue. The panel will concentrate on looking at the state-of-the-art in software engineering of agent-based systems and the directions needed. The panel will also address the issues involved in teaching this paradigm in computer science curricula. In particular, we will address the question: Do we need to do anything different in software engineering courses to accommodate this paradigm?