Topics include:

• Design, Modeling 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 behaviorv
• models of multimodal perception and action
• models of emotionally communicative behavior
• models of conversational behavior
• models of narrative and storytelling used by agents
• design of virtual actors
• theoretical foundations and formal models for virtual agents
• learned, evolved or emergent behavior in agents
• 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 modeling 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 in Healthcare
• modeling the verbal and nonverbal behavior of health behavior change counselors
• modeling the verbal and nonverbal behavior of health educators
• agents in simulated worlds for therapy (e.g., desensitization, distraction)
• agents that demonstrate exercise or other physical health behaviors
• agents in mental health counseling and interventions
• virtual patients
• agents for training healthcare professionals
• longitudinal health interventions with virtual agents