Coordination and Cooperation in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (CoCoMARL)

Workshop Events and Features 

• ☕ Topical Coffee Breaks - We will allocate multiple coffee break tables each marked with a sign denoting a particular topical focus relevant to the previous two talks. This gives participants an opportunity to discuss the previous talks,  network with each other,  and vote on questions to be asked during the panel discussion, as will be further explored in the next bullet point.
  
  
  

• 🗒️ "Wait Hold that Thought!" Sticky Notes - We will include ``Wait, Hold That Thought!" sticky notes as a method for attendees to write down their questions before they're forgotten. Attendees can then stick these questions to a wall section or poster board marked for each speaker or topic of focus. This open and physical system will allow attendees to see each other's questions, spark conversation between each other, and additionally vote on which questions they find most interesting. The most voted-for and or interesting questions will be addressed during the panel at the end of the day and discussed by both panelists and attendees.
  
  
  

• 🎤 Poster Elevator Pitches - We will give each presenter a brief opportunity (1-2 minutes depending on the number of posters) to pitch their work to everyone at the workshop. This will allow attendees to make more informed decisions about which posters to visit, give each accepted work a small yet well-deserved spotlight, and serve as a form of natural ice-breaker between presenting and non-presenting attendees.
  
  
  

• 🌈 Poster Passports - While the aforementioned elevator pitches will allow attendees to better determine which posters are most relevant or interesting to them, we still want to encourage broader and more interdisciplinary discussion. Therefore we will introduce a system of poster passports wherein each attendee will be rewarded for visiting posters from different areas of research being presented at the workshop.
  
  
  

• 🤔 Unsolved Problems in Collaborative MARL - We will kindly ask each speaker to dedicate some portion of their talk towards identifying some unsolved problem in collaborative MARL that they would like to see solved within the next 5-10 years. This will more effectively spark discussion during the topical coffee breaks panel discussion. We believe this will be a great opportunity for open discussion on the potential avenues of research as well as a great exercise to understand the different perspectives of the panelists on the topic.
  
  
  

• ❓Online Question and Polling Software - In the days leading up to the workshop, we will advertise a link on our workshop page to PollEverywhere, a software that allows users to anonymously ask questions and upvote other's questions. We will use this software to both drive engagement and enthusiasm for our workshop, and to help collect a set of questions for the speakers. One of the unique advantages of using PollEverywhere is that the collective question and voting results can be preserved for up to a year after their initial creation. This will allow attendees to revisit discussion points after the workshop for future use. 

Call For Sponsors

We are actively looking for sponsors for the CoCoMARL workshop. Support us to gain valuable networking and exposure opportunities. See our prospectus document for sponsorship packages and benefits.