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Nick Jennings is Professor of Computer Science in the top-rated School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University, where he carries out research in agent-based computing and intelligent systems. He is Associate Dean (Research & Enterprise) for the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Maths, Head of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group (which consists of some 120 research staff and postgraduate students), Director of the BAE Systems/ EPSRC Strategic Partnership on Decentralised Data and Information Systems, and the Chief Scientific Officer for aroxo. He was previously the Deputy Head of School for Research (01-08) and Chief Scientific Officer for lostwax (00-09).

Professor Jennings is an internationally-recognised authority in the area of multi-agent systems. His research covers both the theory and the application of agent-based techniques. Specifically, he has undertaken fundamental research on automated bargaining, auctions, markets, mechanism design, trust and reputation, coalition formation and decentralised control. He has also pioneered the application of multi-agent technology; developing some of the first real-world systems (in domains such as business process management, energy systems, sensor networks, disaster response, telecommunications, eDefence, and the Semantic Grid) and generally advocating the area of agent-oriented software engineering.  

In undertaking this research, he has attracted grant income of over £13M (mainly from EPSRC), published over 400 articles (with over 200 co-authors) and graduated 30 PhD students (two of whom have won the BCS/CPHC Distinguished Dissertation Award). With over 32,000 citations in Google Scholar, he is the most cited researcher in the area of artificial intelligence (acording to Libra), the 134th most cited computer scientist (according to CiteSeer) and has an h-index of 76  (the top non-American according to Palsberg). He has received a number of international awards for his research: the Computers and Thought Award (the premier award for a young AI scientist and the only European-based recipient in the Award's 40 year history), an IEE Achievement Medal, and the ACM Autonomous Agents Research Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the British Computer Society, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (formerly the IEE), the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB), and the European artificial intelligence association (ECCAI) and a member of Academia Europaea and the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC).

Nick was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, is a member of the scientific advisory board of the German AI Institute (DFKI) and a founding director of the International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. He frequently advises Government and international agencies on strategic research development and has recently acted as an expert witness in a number of patent disputes. He has also led teams that have won competitions in the areas of: the Iterated Prisoners' Dilemma (the 20th Anniversary competitions in 2004 and 2005), RoboCup Rescue (the Infrastructure competition in 2007), Agent Trust and Reputation (the ART competitions in 2006 and 2007) and Market Design (the TAC CAT competition in 2007).

Wordle from publications from 2005 onwards

Latest News

ECS researcher's computerised negotiating agents go commercial

Computerised agents developed by an ECS academic which will negotiate the best online deals for buyers and sellers will be fully operational by the end of the year.

Agents which haggle and resolve conflict

A new series of algorithms which enables computerised agents to haggle and to resolve conflict have been devised by a team led by Professor Nick Jennings.

Haggling on your mobile - BBC previews new ECS research

As UK consumers aim to resurrect the ancient art of haggling to get more for their money, researchers in ECS are developing a program that will take on the hard work of negotiating prices down.

(c) 2009 Nick Jennings | Contact me