Topics include:

Design, Modelling and Evaluation of IVAs

• design criteria and design methodologies
• evaluation methodologies and user studies
• ethical considerations and social impact
• applicable lessons from other fields (e.g. robotics)
• improvisational or dramatic interaction
• dimensions of intelligence, cognition and behaviour
• models of multimodal perception and action
• models of emotionally communicative behaviour
• models of conversational behaviour
• design of virtual actors
• Other (non cognition-inspired) conceptual frameworks and models for IVAs

Implementation and Applications of IVAs

• software engineering issues
• real-time integrated systems
• portability and reuse
• standards / measures to support interoperability
• specialized tools, toolkits and tool chains
• specialized modelling and animation technologies
• applications in games, education, art, etc.
• delivery platforms: desktop, single vs. multi-user, virtual or augmented or mixed reality, robots
• future or current experience in various fields, e.g.: Interactive narrative and story-telling, computer games, art and entertainment, education and training, simulation and visualization

Special Topic: IVAs and Cognition: Conceptual Frameworks and Models

• selecting a 'good' cognitive model for agents
(theoretical foundations, formal models for virtual agents and proofs of concept)
• stages of autonomy (from avatars to agents)
• cognitive models for perception and/or behaviour generation
• simulations of groups and crowds
(crowd behaviours, action-perception loops in crowds)
• learning and adapting IVAs
(learned, evolved or emergent knowledge and/or behaviour)
• long-term management of IVA goals
• drives, motivations, action selection systems for IVAs
• socially and culturally competent IVAs
• personality and emotion models for IVAs
• Theory of Mind models for IVAs
• evaluation approaches for IVAs with embedded cognitive models