Distributed Intelligent Systems

Our Goal

The Technical Committee on Distributed Intelligent Systems is an international special interest group of specialists active in the research and applications of collaborative multi-agent systems. Key application areas include manufacturing, supply chains, infrastructures for services, energy, transportation, and emergency management. The core research topics for these applications include agent architectures, agent intelligence, agent collaboration, agent simulation, optimization, human-machine interaction, role-based collaboration, E-CARGO model, and adaptive collaboration.

Join Us

The Distributed Intelligent Systems Technical Committee provides opportunities to continue professional and personal development by:

Networking with peers and experts in the field
Keeping current with research and applications
Exchanging your results with peers prior to publication or commercialization
Collaborating with experts in the field on significant challenges
Gaining peer recognition by presenting workshops and tutorials, and contributing articles to publications of the SMC Society
Demonstrating leadership by organizing tracks and special sessions at conferences sponsored by the SMC Society

Keynote Speeches

“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Keynote Speech, The 2nd
International Conference on Communication, Information and Digital Technologies (CIDT),
Singapore, Sept. 26-28, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” IEEE SMCS Distinguished
Lecture, Xidian University, Xi’an, China, Sept. 20, 2025.
“Robot Team Establishment using E-CARGO/RBC,” Keynote Speech, The International
Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems, Xi’an, China, Sept. 19-22, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Keynote Speech, The 10th
International Conference on Computer and Information Processing Technology (ISCIPT),
Fushun, China, Sept. 12-14, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Keynote Speech, The
International Symposium on Machine Learning and Media Computing, Harbin, China, July 26-
28, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Plenary Speech, The 5th
International Conference on Applied Mathematics, Computational Science and Systems
Engineering, Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris, France, April 14-16, 2025.

Invited Talks

“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Invited Talk, Shandong
University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China, July 29, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Invited Talk, Chaohu University,
Heifei, China, July 27, 2025.
“E-CARGO/RBC: Enabling Research Innovation in the Era of AI,” Invited Talk, Hunan Normal
University, Changsha, China, July 25, 2025.

BECOME A MEMBER

About This TC

2025
• Organizing IEEE Int’l Conf. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (IEEE SMC 2025), Vienna, Austria, Oct. 5-8, 2025: Honorary Co-Chairs, General Chair, Program Chair, Special Session Co-Chair, Workshop Co-Chair…
• Organizing Special Issue on E-CARGO and Applications for IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine.
• Organizing 1st IEEE Int’l Symp. and the 3rd Summer School on E-CARGO and Applications (E-CARGO 2025), July 21-23, 2025, Guangzhou, China. Reported in IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine, vol. 11, no. 4, Oct. 2025.
• Help Organizing as Special Session Chair, the 28th IEEE Int’l Conf. on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, Compiègne, France, May 2025.
2024
Help organizing as Program (Co-)Chairs, Special Session Chair, Award Chair, and Exhibition & Donation Chair, IEEE Int’l Conf. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Kuching, Malaysia, Oct. 6-10, 2024. Organizing an SMCS-only event: The 2nd IEEE International Summer School on E-CARGO and Applications, Guangzhou, China (Hybrid), July 22-26, 2024, reported in IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4, Oct. 2024. Organizing the 4th IEEE International Conference on Human-Machine Systems and International Defence Excellence and Security Symposium in Toronto, 15-17 May 2024. Help Organizing as Special Session Chair, the 28th IEEE Int’l Conf. on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, Tianjin, China, May 8-10, 2024. Technical support to 10th International Summer School on Industrial Agents (ISSIA 2024), June 24 – 28, Bilbao, Spain, 2024 (https://www.ehu.eus/en/web/isa/issia-2024) Tutorial “Approaches, Methods, and Tools for the Engineering and Validation of Cyber-Physical Energy Systems” accepted by IEEE SMC’24 (http://ieeesmc2024.org/) -Keynote/Plenary Speeches: 1) “Data Mining and Machine Learning for Analysis of Network Traffic,” The 9th International Conference on Cyber Security and Information Engineering (ICCSIE 2024), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Hybrid), Sept. 14, 2024. 2) “E-CARGO/RBC: A High-Level Computational Model/Methodology for the Complex World in Era of AI,” The 9th International Conference on Cyber Security and Information Engineering (ICCSIE 2024), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Hybrid), Sept. 14, 2024.
3) “Robot Team Establishment using E-CARGO and Role-Based Collaboration,” Plenary Speech, IEEE Intelligent Systems IS’24, 12th International Conference, Varna, Bulgaria, August 29-31, 2024. A hybrid event.

4) “E-CARGO and Role-Based Collaboration,” Plenary Speech, IEEE 18th Int’l Symp. on Applied Computational Intelligence, Timisoara, Romania, May 23, 2024.

– Offered Invited Talks:

1) “Computational Social Simulation using E-CARGO,” Tsinghua University, Beijing China, May 16, 2024.

2) “Computational Social Simulation using E-CARGO,” Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China, May 16, 2024.

3) “E-CARGO/Role-Based Collaboration (RBC),” Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, May 15, 2024.

4) “Establish Robot Teams using E-CARGO,” University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China, May 14, 2024.

5) “E-CARGO, RBC, and Applications,” Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China, May 7, 2024.

6) “Robot Team Establishment using E-CARGO/RBC,” Tongji University, Shanghai, China, May 6, 2024.
Keynote Speech “Group Role Assignment with Constraints (GRA+),” The Int’l Conf. on Electronics, Information and Industrial Engineering (EIIE 2024), Mar. 17, 2024.
Program Chair, The 16th IEEE Int’l Conf. on Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE), Melbourne, Australia, March 14-16, 2024
2023
Scheduling Chair, Publicity Chair, Special Session Chair, The IEEE Int’l Conf. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC’23), Maui, USA, Oct. 1-4, 2023.
General Chair, The 23rd IEEE Int’l Conf. on Scalable Computing and Communications (ScalCom 2023), Portsmouth, UK, 25th-28th August, 2023.
General Chair, Program (Co-)Chairs, The 1st IEEE Int’l Summer School on E-CARGO and Applications, online, July 17-21, 2023.
Special Session Chair, The 27th IEEE Int’l Conf. on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 24-26, 2023.
Special session on “Distributed Adaptive Systems” for IEEE SMC 2023.
“E-CARGO and Role-Based Collaboration”, Tutorial for IEEE SMC 2023.
Associate Editors, IEEE SMC 2023.
>10 keynote speeches for Int’l Conf. by L. Trojkovic and H. Zhu.
Editor-in-Chief: T. Human Machine Systems.
Associate Editors: T. SMC: Systems, T. Comp. Soc. Systems, SMC Mag.
PC members, IEEE SMC 2023.
Update TC memberships.
Over tens of IEEE Transactions Journal papers (including Accepted).
2022
(Co-)General Chairs, Program (Co-)Chair, Publicity Chair, Workshop Chair, IEEE SMC 2022
Special session on Adaptive Collaboration Systems for IEEE SMC 2022
Special session on “New Frontiers of Intelligent Pervasive Healthcare Systems” for IEEE SMC 2022
“E-CARGO and Role-Based Collaboration”, Tutorial for IEEE SMC 2022 (Accepted)
Associate Editors, IEEE SMC 2022
3 Keynotes for Int’l Conf., Symposium, Workshop, by M. Hou.
7 Online Invited Talks by L. Trajkovic and H. Zhu
8 Keynote speeches for Int’l Conf. by H. Zhu
H. Zhu, “Computational Social Simulations using E-CARGO”, Tutorial, the 17th IEEE System of Systems Engineering Conf., June 5-9, 2022, Rochester, USA.
IEEE Smart City Study Group Meetings
Editor-in-Chiefs: T. Human Machine Systems, IEEE/CAA J. of Automatica Sinica, IEEE SMC Magazine,
Associate Editors: T. SMC: Systems, T. Comp. Soc. Systems, SMC Mag.
PC members, IEEE SMC 2022.
>10 IEEE Transactions Journal papers (including Accepted)
2019
Organize the 9th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, August 26-28, 2019, Linz, Austria
Organize the 16th IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (IEEE ICNSC 2019), May 9-11, 2019, Banff, Canada. There are 3 keynote speeches, 3 plenary speeches, 70 oral presentations, and over 80 participants from Canada, USA, China, Korea, France, Turkey, Japan, and Italy.
Organize the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (IEEE CSCWD 2019), May 6-8, 2019, Porto, Portugal.
Organize “Tech session 6A: Living Labs and Hardware test facilities” at IEEE SG4SC 2018, Genk, Belgium (SG4SC is an activity from IEEE Smart Grids which is supported by SMCS)
Organize Discussion – Past, Presence and Future of MAS in Industry on September 27, 2019.
Help organize 1st International conference on Social Automation (SAC 2019)
Involvement in IEEE P2660.1 standardization WG (SMCS technical sponsor)
Organize Special Session on Distributed Adaptive Systems for SMC 2019, received 6 submissions.
2018
Co-organize the 29th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications – DEXA 2018, Regensburg, Germany, Sept. 3 – 6, 2018.
Organize the special session on “Distributed Adaptive Systems” at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Miyazaki, Japan, Oct. 2018 (SMC 2018) with 4 papers.
Organize SMC 2018 Special Session on Intelligent Industrial Systems, with 2 papers.
Organize SMC 2018 BMI Workshop with 92 accepted papers 8. Organize SMC 2018 Tutorial “Methods and Tools for Validating Cyber-Physical Energy Systems”.
Organize the following special events for SMC 2018
a. MoAM-R01 : BMI H12+H30: Human-Machine Systems and Cognitive Cybernetics, 7 papers
b. MoEV-R01 : BMI H28+H30: Brain-Inspired Systems and Unconventional BCI Applications, 6 papers
c. TuAM-R02 : IEEE SMC 2018 Best Paper Finalists, 5 papers
d. TuPM-R02 : IEEE SMC 2018 Best Student Paper Finalists, 5 papers
e. Tu-Fuko : IEEE SMC2018 Women in Engineering and Young Professionals Luncheon and Tea Ceremony, around 30 attendees
Served as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. 11. Served as Associate Editors of IEEE Transactions on SMC: Systems.
Served as Associate Editors of IEEE SMC Magazine. 13. Served as IEEE SMC BoG members.
Published papers in IEEE SMC Transactions and Magazine.
[1] H. Zhu, “Avoiding Critical Members in a Team by Redundant Assignment,” IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 2018 (In Press), DOI: 10.1109/TSMC.2018.2827391.
[2] H. Zhu, “Maximizing Group Performance while Minimizing Budget,” IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 2018 (In Press), DOI: 10.1109/TSMC.2017.2735300.
[3] H. Zhu, Y. Sheng, X.-Z. Zhou, Y. Zhu, “Group Role Assignment with Cooperation and Conflict Factors”, IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 48, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 851 – 863.
[4] D. Liu, Y. Yuan, H. Zhu, S. Teng, and C. Huang, “Balance Preferences with Performance in Group Role Assignment”, IEEE Trans. on Cybernetics, vol. 48, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 1800 – 1813.
[5] H. Zhu, “Big Data and Collaboration Research: Creating Real Data”, IEEE Systems, Man, & Cybernetics Magazine, vol. 4, no. 1, January 2018, pp. 16-19.
2017
Webinar on Role-Based Collaboration and the E-CARGO model, offered by Dr. Haibin Zhu, Dec. 6, 2017.
2016
14th IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control, Calabria, Southern Italy, May 16-18, 2017.
Special Issue on “Resilient Networks: Modeling, Design, and Applications”, Digital Communications and Networks, to be published in 2017.
Special sessions on Distributed Adaptive Systems at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 2016.
Special sessions on Behavior Modeling for Intelligent Human-Agent Interactions at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 2016.
Fifth International Workshop on Lightweight Cryptography for Security & Privacy, Cappadocia, Turkey, Sept. 2016.
2nd Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems at ICAC 2016, Würzburg, Germany, July 2016.
The 11th IEEE International Workshop on E-Health Systems and Semantic Web, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, June 2016.
The 9th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, July 2016.
2015
Special sessions on Distributed Adaptive Systems at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Hong Kong, Oct. 2015.
Special sessions on Interaction-Centered Analytics and Design for Human-Centric Systems at the annual IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Hong Kong, Oct. 2015.
7th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, Valencia, Spain, September 2014.
Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems at ICAC 2015, Grenoble, France, July 2015.
10th IEEE International Workshop on E-Health Systems and Semantic Web, Taichung, Taiwan, July 2015.
8th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks, Sochi, Russia, Sept. 2015.
2014
Special sessions on Distributed Adaptive Systems at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, San Diego, USA, Oct. 2014.
Tutorial on Adaptive Collaboration Systems at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, San Diego, USA, Oct. 2014.
Tutorials on Agent-Based Software Engineering at the International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, San Diego, CA, USA October 2014.
IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Energy Systems, San Diego, CA, USA, October 2014.
Special Issue on “Industrial Applications of Distributed Intelligent Systems, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 44, no. 3, 2014.
9th IEEE International Workshop on E-Health Systems and Semantic Web, Vasteras, Sweden, July 2014.
7th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks, Glasgow, UK, Sept. 2014.
2013
Special session on Distributed Adaptive Systems at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Manchester, UK, Oct. 2013.
17th IEEE International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, Whistler, BC, Canada, June 2013.
IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Energy Systems, Vienna, Austria, Nov. 2013.
6th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, Prague, Czech Republic, August 2013.
8th IEEE International Workshop on E-Health Systems and Semantic Web, Kyoto, Japan, July 2013.
6th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks, Aksaray, Turkey, Sept. 2013.
Other Activities
PC members for the annual IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.
Articles on professional activities of our members for submission to the SMC eNewsletter.
Technical papers published in the annual IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.
Technical papers published in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems.
Technical papers published in IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics.
Technical papers published in IEEE Transactions on Human Machine Systems.
Technical papers published in IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine.
Reviewing of articles submitted to IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, and IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems.

Adel M. Alimi University of Sfax, Tunisia
Zhuming Bi Purdue Univ. FortWayne, USA
Gautam Biswas Vanderbilt University, USA
Robert W. Brennan University of Calgary, Canada
Giacomo Cabri Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Nicola Capodieci University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Atilla Elci Aksaray University, Turkey
Simon Fan Penn State University, USA
Amro M. Farid Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi
Tarek M. Hamdani University of Sfax, Tunisia
Ming Hou Defence R&D Canada (DRDC), Canada
Ilhem Kallel University of Kairouan, Tunisia
Uzay Kaymak Erasmus University, Netherlands
Wenfeng Li Wuhan University of Technology, China
Dongning Liu Guangdong University of Technology, China
Malamati Louta University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Hua Ma Hunan Normal University, China
Goran Martinovic Univ. Osijek Kneza Trpimira, Croatia
Munir Merdan Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Jernej Polojnar Univ. of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Lianyong Qi Qufu Normal University, China
Srini Ramaswamy ABB, USA
Nasser Sadati University of BC, Canada
Weiming Shen National Research Council, Canada
Ludo Stellingwerff Almende BV, Netherlands
Thomas Strasser Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
Ljiljana Trajkovic Simon Fraser University, Canada
Lanier Watkins Johns Hopkins University, USA
Naixue (Neal) Xiong Northeastern State University, USA
Peiyun Zhang Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
Wenbing Zhao Cleveland State University, USA
Mengchu Zhou New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Alois Zoitl fortiss GmbH, Germany