Companies like Amazon and easyJet have shown that e-commerce can be very successful. However, online retail is still limited to simple transactions that are closed manually. Enrico Gerding, Ph.D. student at CWI, has developed systems that can automatically perform more advanced interactions like negotiating and bidding.
In Gerding's systems customers and retailers are represented by agents, intelligent software components that can autonomously perform tasks like dealing with prices, making, and accepting offers. One of the test cases considered by Gerding is a news service that charges for individual items. A customer can order his agent to look for specific news categories. The user can then return to his work while the agent makes sure the news is purchased for a fair price.
Gerding conducted his research at CWI's Evolutionary Systems and Applied Algorithmics theme as a part the ASTA project (Autonomous System of Trade Agents in E-Commerce), funded by the Telematics Institute. He defends his thesis at the Eindhoven University of Technology on July 6, 2004.
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