---

The Semantic web has greatly motivated the development of ontologies and multi-agent systems separately. This book is the first to provide an integrated treatment of the modeling, design and implementation of combined ontology/multi-agent systems.

---

During the last two decades, the idea of Semantic Web has received a great deal of attention. An extensive body of knowledge has emerged to describe technologies that seek to help us create and use aspects of the Semantic Web. Ontology and agent-based technologies are understood to be the two important technologies here. A large number of articles and a number of books exist to describe the use individually of the two technologies and the design of systems that use each of these technologies individually, but little focus has been given on how one can - sign systems that carryout integrated use of the two different technologies. In this book we describe ontology and agent-based systems individually, and highlight advantages of integration of the two different and complementary te- nologies. We also present a methodology that will guide us in the design of the - tegrated ontology-based multi-agent systems and illustrate this methodology on two use cases from the health and software engineering domain. This book is organized as follows: - Chapter I, Current issues and the need for ontologies and agents, describes existing problems associated with uncontrollable information overload and explains how ontologies and agent-based systems can help address these - sues. - Chapter II, Introduction to multi-agent systems, defines agents and their main characteristics and features including mobility, communications and collaboration between different agents. It also presents different types of agents on the basis of classifications done by different authors.

---

Current Issues and the Need for Ontologies and Agents.- to Multi-Agent Systems.- to Ontology.- Design Approaches for Multi-Agent-Based Systems.- Ontology Design Approaches.- Significance of Ontologies, Agents and Their Integration.- Design Methodology for Integrated Systems - Part I (Ontology Design).- Design Methodology for Integrated Systems - Part II (Multi-Agent System Design).- Notations for the Integrated Ontology and Multi-Agent System Design.- Architecture of the Integrated Ontology and Multi-Agent System.- Case Study I: Ontology-Based Multi-Agent System for Human Disease Studies.- CASE STUDY II: Ontology-Based Multi-Agent System for Software Engineering Studies.- Potential Applications of Ontology-Based Multi-Agent Systems.

---

Dr Maja Hadzic received PhD from Curtin University of Technology in 2006. Her PhD thesis is entitled: "Ontology-based multi-agent systems for human disease studies". She is currently Research Fellow at the Digital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence Institute of the Curtin University of Technology. She has a multi-disciplinary background and her current research interests include ontologies, multi-agent systems, data mining, digital ecosystems and mental health.

---