Simon Parsons
Professor
Computer and Information Science
Location: 0119 Ingersoll Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x2059
Fax: 718.951.4842
Email:
Simon Parsons's Web site
Simon Parsons, a native of the United Kingdom, is a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science. Following postdoctoral work, Parsons was a Lecturer (assistant professor) at the University of London (1995-2000), and a Reader (research associate professor) at the University of Liverpool (2000-02). In 2002, he moved to the United States, and in September he joined Brooklyn College as an associate professor. He was promoted to full professor in January 2007. His general area of research is artificial intelligence, specifically interaction between the components of a multiagent system, and he has published more than 200 papers on topics relating to this area.
Education:
Ph.D., University of London - 1993 (Computer Science)
M.Sc., University of London - 1989 (Computer Science)
B.A. (honors), University of Cambridge - 1988 (Engineering)
Areas of Expertise:
As computing power becomes more distributed across autonomous components, a key challenge is to understand the interactions between them. Simon Parsons' research views these components as "intelligent agents" and investigates:
(1) models for decision making by agents in complex environments, (2) languages and protocols for communication between agents, (3) techniques for creating and evaluating electronic markets in which agents can interact, and (4) physically embodied agents (robots).
Books and Publications
Dunne, P.E., A. Hunter, P. McBurney, S. Parsons and M. Wooldrige. "Weighted Argument Systems: Basic Definitions, Algorithms, and Complexity Results." Artificial Intelligence 175.2: 457-86. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
NSF Grant, for "MetroBotics: Undergraduate Robot Research at an Urban Public College." E. Sklar and S. Parsons, co-principal investigators. $345,000; September 2009-August 2012. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009
12th International Workshop on Computational Logic in Multi-agent Systems. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
Emele, C., T.J. Norman, F. Guerin and S. Parsons. "Argumentation Strategies for Plan Resourcing." Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Taipei, Taiwan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Emele, C., T.J. Norman, F. Guerin and S. Parsons. "Exploiting Domain Knowledge in Collaborative Missions." Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the International Technology Alliance, College Park. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Emele, C.D., T.J. Norman, M. Sensoy and S. Parsons. "Exploiting Domain Knowledge in Making Delegation Decisions." Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Agents and Data Mining Interaction, Taipei, Taiwan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Parsons, S., E. Sklar and P. McBurney. "A Simple Logical Approach to Reasoning With and About Trust." Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning, Stanford. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Parsons, S., E. Sklar and P. McBurney. "Using Argumentation to Reason With and About Trust." Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems, Taipei, Taiwan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Parsons, S., J.A. Rodriguez-Aguilar and M. Klein. "Auctions and Bidding: A Guide for Computer Scientists." ACM Computing Surveys 43.2. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Parsons, S., Y. Tang, E. Sklar, P. McBurney and K. Cai. "Argumentation-based Reasoning in Agents With Varying Degrees of Trust." Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Taipei, Taiwan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Parsons, S., Y. Tang, K. Cai, E. Sklar and P. McBurney. "Some Thoughts on Using Argumentation to Handle Trust." Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems, Barcelona. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Sklar, E., S. Epstein, S. Parsons, A.T. Ozgelen, J.P. Munoz and J. Gonzalez. "Toward an Architecture for Shared Decision-making in Human/multi-robot Teams." Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Bridging the Gaps in Human-Agent Collaboration, Stanford. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Sklar. E., A.T. Ozgelen, J.P. Munoz, J. Gonzalez, M. Manashirov, S.L. Epstein and S. Parsons. "Designing the HRTeam Framework: Lessons Learned From a Rough-'n-ready Human/multi-robot Team." Proceedings of the Workshop on Autonomous Robots and Multirobot Systems, Taipei, Taiwan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Cai, K., J. Niu and S. Parsons. "Network Effects in Double Auction Markets With Automated Traders." Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce, Toronto. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Emele, C., T.J. Norman, F. Guerin and S. Parsons. "On the Benefits of Argumentation-derived Evidence in Learning Policies." Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems, Toronto. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
McBurney, P., I. Rahwan, S. Parsons and N. Maudet. Argumentation in Multi-agent Systems: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 6057. Springer Verlag. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2010
Meneguzzi, F., Y. Tang, S. Parsons and K. Sycara. "On Representing Planning Domains Under Uncertainty." Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the International Technology Alliance, London. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Niu, J., K. Cai and S. Parsons. "A Grey-box Approach to Automated Mechanism Design." Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce, Toronto. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Niu, J., K. Cai, S. Parsons, P. McBurney and E. Gerding. "What the 2007 TAC Market Design Game Tells Us About Effective Auction Mechanisms." Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems 21.2: 172-203. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Parsons, S., P. McBurney and E. Sklar. Reasoning About Trust Using Argumentation: A Position Paper." Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems, Toronto. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Phelps, S., P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "A Novel Method for Strategy Acquisition and Its Application to a Double-auction Market Game." IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics 40.3: 668-74. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Phelps, S., P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "Evolutionary Mechanism Design: A Review." Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems 21.2: 237-64. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Tang, Y., C. Emele, T.J. Norman and S. Parsons. "Learning to Communicate More Efficiently in Human-agent Teams." Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the International Technology Alliance, London. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Tang, Y., K. Cai, E. Sklar, P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "A System of Argumentation for Reasoning About Trust." Proceedings of the European Workshop on Multiagent Systems, Paris. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Tang, Y., T. Norman and S. Parsons. "Computing Argumentation in a Polynomial Number of BDD Operations: A Preliminary Report." Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems, Toronto. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Dunne, P.E., A. Hunter, P. McBurney, S. Parsons and M. Wooldridge. "Inconsistency Tolerance in Weighted Argument Systems." Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Budapest, Hungary. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Emele, C.D., T. Norman and S. Parsons. "Learning Policies Through Argumentation-based Learning." Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the International Technology Alliance, College Park, Md. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Marcinkiewicz, M., R. Kaushik, I. Labutov, S. Parsons and T. Raphan. "Learning to Stabilize the Head of a Walking Quadrupedal Robot Using a Bio-inspired Artificial Vestibular System." Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Tang, Y., T. Norman and S. Parsons. "A Model for Integrating Dialogue and the Execution of Joint Plans." Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Budapest, Hungary. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Tang, Y., T. Norman and S. Parsons. "Towards the Implementation of Multiagent Planning Dialogues." Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the International Technology Alliance, College Park, Md. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Atkinson, K., P. McBurney, R.A. Girle and S. Parsons. "Commad Dialogues." Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems, Estoril, Portugal. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Cai, K., J. Niu and S. Parsons. "On the Economic Effects of Competition Between Double Auction Markets." Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce, Estoril Portugal. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Collins, J., E. Sklar, O. Shehory, P. Faratin, N. Sadeh, S. Parsons and J.A. Rodriguez-Aguilar. Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce IX/Trading Agent Analysis and Design. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing 13. Springer Verlag. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2008
Kaisers, M. K. Tuyls, F. Thujsman and S. Parsons. "Discovering the Game in Auctions." Proceedings of the 20th Belgian/Netherlands Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Boekelo, the Netherlands. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Kaisers, M., K. Tuyls, F. Thuijsman and S. Parsons. "Auction Analysis by Normal Form Game Approximation." Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology, Sydney. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Labutov, I., R. Kaushik, M. Marcinkiewicz, J. Xiao, S. Parsons and T. Raphan. "Combining Linear Vestibular-ocular and Opto-kinetic Reflex in a Humanoid Robot." Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, Hanoi, Vietnam. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Niu, J., K. Cai, E. Gerding, P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "Characterizing Effective Auction Mechanisms: Insights From the 2007 TAC Market Design Competition." Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Estoril, Portugal. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Niu, J., K. Cai, P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "An Analysis of the Entries in the First TAC Market Design Game." Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC/ACM Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology, Sydney. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Parsons, S., S. Poltrock, H. Bowyer and Y. Tang. "Analysis of a Recorded Team Coordination Dialogue." Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference of the International Technology Alliance, London. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Rahwan, I., S. Parsons and C. Reed. Argumentation in Multi-agent Systems: Fourth International Workshop. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2008
Sklar, E., S. Parsons, S. Tejada, S. Lowes, M.Q. Azhar, S. Chopra, C. Jansen and I. Rudowsky. "Using Artificial Intelligence to Help Bridge Students From High School to College." Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Using AI to Motivate Greater Participation in Computer Science, Stanford. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Tang, Y. and S. Parsons. "A Dialogue Mechanism for Public Argumentation Using Conversation Policies." Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Estoril, Portugal. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Tang, Y., T. Norman and S. Parsons. "Agent-based Dialogues to Support Plan Execution by Human Teams." Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference of the International Technology Aliance, London. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Zhou, L., S. Parsons and G. Hripcsak. "The Evaluation of a Temporal Reasoning System in Processing Clinical Discharge Summaries." Journal of the Medical Informatics Association 15.1: 99-106. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Maudet, N., S. Parsons and I. Rahwan. Argumentation in Multi-agent Systems: Third International Workshop. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2007
McBurney, P. and S. Parsons. "Retraction and Revocation in Agent Deliberation Dialogues." Argumentation 21.3: 269-89. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
McBurney, P., D. Hitchcock and S. Parsons. "The Eightfold Way of Deliberation Dialogue." International Journal of Intelligent Systems 22.1: 95-132. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Nielsen, S. and S. Parsons. "An Application of Formal Argumentation: Fusing Bayesian Networks in Multi-agent Systems." Artificial Intelligence 171.10-15: 754-75. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Parsons, S., P. McBurney, E. Sklar and M. Wooldridge. "On the Relevance of Utterances in Formal Inter-agent Dialogues." Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Honolulu. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Tuyls, K. and S. Parsons. "What Evolutionary Game Theory Tells Us About Multiagent Learning." Artificial Intelligence 171.7: 406-16. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Hripcsak, G., L. Zhou, G. Melton and S. Parsons. "A Temporal Constraint Structure for Extracting Temporal Information From Clinical Narrative." Journal of Biomedical Informatics 39.4: 424-39. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Melton, G.B., S. Parsons, F.P. Morrison, A.S. Rothschild, M. Markatou and G. Hripcsak. "Inter-patient Distance Metrics Using SNOMED CT Defining Relationships." Journal of Biomedical Informatics 39.6: 697-705. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Niu, J., K. Cai, S. Parsons and E. Sklar. "Reducing Price Fluctuation in Continuous Double Auctions Through Pricing Policy and Shout Improvement." Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Hakodate, Japan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Parsons, S., N. Maudet, P. Moraitis and I. Rahwan. Argumentation in Multi-agent Systems. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2006
Phelps, S., M. Marcinkiewicz, S. Parsons and P. McBurney. "A Novel Method for Automated Strategy Acquisition in N-player Non-zero-sum Games." Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Hakodate, Japan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Simari, G. and S. Parsons. "On the Relationship Between MDPs and the BDI Architecture." Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Hakodate, Japan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Wooldridge, M., P.E. Dunne and S. Parsons. "On the Complexity of Linking Deductive and Abstract Argumentation Systems." Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI '06), Boston. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Wooldridge, M.J., M. Fisher, M.P. Huget and S. Parsons. "Model Checking for Multiagent Systems: The MABLE Language and Its Application." International Journal of AI Tools 15.2: 195-225. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
"Qualitative Approaches to Modelling Environmental Problems." Environmental Sciences and Environmental Computing, Volume II. Ed. P. Zanetti. The EnviroComp Institute. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2005
Cogan, E., S. Parsons and P. McBurney. "What Kind of Argument Are We Going to Have Today?" Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems. Utrecht, the Netherlands. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Johnson, M., P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "A Mathematical Model of Dialogue." Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 141.5: 33-48. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Parsons, S. and E. Sklar. "How Agents Alter Their Beliefs After an Argumentation-based Dialogue." Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems.. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Phelps, S., M. Marcinkiewicz, S. Parsons and P. McBurney. "Using Population-based Search and Evolutionary Game Theory to Acquire Better-response Strategies for the Double Auction Market." Proceedings of the Workshop on Trading Agent Analysis and Design. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Rehg, W., P. McBurney and S. Parsons. "Computer Decision-support Systems for Public Argumentation: Assessing Deliberatove Democracy." AI & Society 19.4. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Sklar, S., S. Parsons and P. Stone. "Using RoboCup in University-level Computer Science Education." Journal on Educational Resources in Computing 4.2., 2004 (appeared in 2005). (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Tang, Y. and S. Parsons. "Argumentation-based Dialogues for Deliberation." Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems. Utrecht, the Netherlands. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Wooldridge, M.J., S. Parsons and P. McBurney. "The Meta-logic of Arguments." Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems. Utrecht, the Netherlands. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
NSF grant, for "Mixed Reality Without Tears: Tools to Support Creativity in Mixed-reality Applications." S. Parsons, S. Tejada and J. Janone. $199,561; September 2008-August 2010. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
NSF grant, for "GK12: City as Lab." S. Parsons, W. Powell, L. Hainline and M. Tomkiewicz. $3,000,000; July 2007-June 2012. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
NSF grant, for "BPC: Building a Bridge in Brooklyn." S. Parsons, E. Sklar, I. Rudowsky, S. Chopra and L. Scarlatos. $500,000; March 2006-March 2009. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
NSF grant, for "Acquisition of a Bipedal Robot Facility." S. Parsons, F. Grasso and T. Raphan. $212,625; September 2005-August 2008. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
13th European Agent Systems Summer School. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
