Connectionists: [meetings] Living Machines IV: Final Call for Papers, Satellite Events and Sponsors

[Nathan Lepora]

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Final Call for Papers, Satellite Events and Sponsors

Living Machines IV: The 4th International Conference on Biomimetic and
Biohybrid Systems
28th to 31st July 2015

http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines

To be hosted at the
La Pedrera
Barcelona, Spain
In association with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Accepted papers will be published in
Springer Lecturer Notes in Artificial Intelligence
Submission deadline March 16th, 2015
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ABOUT LIVING MACHINES 2015

The development of future real-world technologies will depend strongly
on our understanding and harnessing of the principles underlying
living systems and the flow of communication signals between living
and artificial systems.

Biomimetics is the development of novel technologies through the
distillation of principles from the study of biological systems. The
investigation of biomimetic systems can serve two complementary goals.
First, a suitably designed and configured biomimetic artefact can be
used to test theories about the natural system of interest. Second,
biomimetic technologies can provide useful, elegant and efficient
solutions to unsolved challenges in science and engineering. Biohybrid
systems are formed by combining at least one biological component—an
existing living system—and at least one artificial, newly-engineered
component. By passing information in one or both directions, such a
system forms a new hybrid bio-artificial entity. The following are
some examples:

•      Biomimetic robots and their component technologies (sensors,
actuators, processors) that can intelligently interact with their
environments.
•      Active biomimetic materials and structures that self-organize
and self-repair.
•      Biomimetic computers—neuromimetic emulations of the
physiological basis for intelligent behaviour.
•      Biohybrid brain-machine interfaces and neural implants.
•      Artificial organs and body-parts including sensory organ-chip
hybrids and intelligent prostheses.
•      Organism-level biohybrids such as robot-animal or robot-human systems.

ACTIVITIES

The main conference will take the form of a three-day single-track
oral and poster presentation programme, 29th to 31st July 2015, hosted
at the La Pedrera, Barcelona, Spain.

The conference programme will include five plenary lectures from
leading international researchers in biomimetic and biohybrid systems,
and the demonstrations of state-of-the-art living machine
technologies. Agreed speakers are:

Roger Quinn, Robots Insect Locomotion (Case Western Reserve University)
Ryad Benosman, Neuromorphic. Event-based time oriented vision
(Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, France)
Barbara Mazzolai, Biomimetic Robots (IIT at SSSA, Italy)
Robert Richardson, Exploration Robotics (Leeds University, UK)
Jose Halloy, Collective intelligence in natural and artificial systems
(Université Paris Diderot LIED)

Also a special talk on Biomimetics in Design
Nimish Biloria, Bio-inspired performative design (TU Delf University
of Technology, The Netherlands)

The full conference will be preceded by a day of Satellite Events
hosted by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

SUBMITTING TO LIVING MACHINES 2015

We invite both full papers and short papers in areas related to the
conference themes.  All contributions will be refereed and accepted
papers will appear in the Living Machines 2015 proceedings which we
expect to be published in the Springer-Verlag LNAI Series.

Full papers (minimum 8 and up to 12 pages) are invited from
researchers at any stage in their career but should present
significant findings and advances in biomimetic or biohybid research;
more preliminary work would be better suited to shorter paper
submission (minimum 4 pages with a maximum of eight references and no
more than two self-citations)

Further details of submission formats will be circulated in an updated
CfP and will be posted on the conference web-site.
http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines/conf2015/submission

Full papers will be accepted for either oral presentation (single
track) or poster presentation. Extended abstracts will be accepted for
poster presentation only.

Authors of the best full papers will be invited to submitted extended
versions of their paper for publication in a special issue of
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Satellite events

Active researchers in biomimetic and biohybrid systems are invited to
propose topics for 1-day tutorials, symposia or workshops on related
themes to be held 27-28th July at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Attendance
at satellite events will attract a small fee intended to cover the
costs of the meeting.  There is a lot of flexibility about the
content, organisation, and budgeting for these events.  Please contact
us if you are interested in organising a satellite event!

EXPECTED DEADLINES

March 16th, 2015 Paper submission deadline
May 1st, 2015 Notification of acceptance
May 22nd, 2015 Camera ready copy
July 27-31 2015 Conference

SPONSORSHIP

Living Machines 2015 is sponsored by the Convergent Science Network
(CSN) for Biomimetics and Neurotechnology. CSN is an EU FP7 Future
Emerging Technologies Co-ordination Activity that also organises two
highly successful workshop series: the Barcelona Summer School on
Brain, Technology and Cognition (http://bcbt.upf.edu and the
Capocaccia Neuromorphic Cognitive Engineering Workshop.

The 2015 Living Machines conference will also be hosted and sponsored
by  the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Call for Sponsors.  Other organisations wishing to sponsor the
conference in any way and gain the corresponding benefits by promoting
themselves and their products to through conference publications, the
conference web-site, and conference publicity are encouraged to
contact the conference organisers to discuss the terms of sponsorship
and necessary arrangements. We offer a number of attractive and
good-value packages to potential sponsors.

ABOUT THE VENUE

Living Machines 2015 returns to the venue of our first conference at
the beautiful biomimetic building La Pedrera (Casa Mila)
(https://www.lapedrera.com/en/home) designed by renowned modernist
architect Antoni Gaudi. Attendees at the conference will get a free
ticket to visit this historic building in the centre the Barcelona.
Workshops will be held at the Poblenou Campus of Universitat Pompeu
Fabra, close to hotel and restaurant area of the Diagonal and Ramblas
de Poblenou and a short walk from Barcelona’s famous beaches.

Organising Committee:

Paul Verschure, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Co-chair)
Tony Prescott, University of Sheffield (Co-chair)
Stuart Wilson, University of Sheffield (Program Chair)
Anna Mura, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Communications, Local Organiser)
Nathan Lepora, University of Bristol (Communications)

Living Machines 2015 Program Committee:

Andrew Adamatzky,
Robert Allen,
Joseph Ayers,
Yoseph Bar-Cohen,
Lucia Beccai,
Frédéric Boyer,
Federico Carpi,
Hillel Chiel,
Anders Christensen,
Danilo De Rossi,
Angel del Pobil,
Stéphane Doncieux,
Marco Dorigo,
Armin Duff,
Volker Dürr
Wolfgang Eberle,
Benoît Girard,
Roderich Gross,
José Halloy,
Koh Hosoda,
Ioannis Ieropoulos,
Auke Ijspeert,
Holger Krapp,
Cecilia Laschi,
Nathan Lepora,
Ben Mitchinson,
Keisuke Morishima,
Anna Mura,
Jiro Okada,
Enrico Pagello,
Martin Pearson,
Andrew Philippides,
Tony Pipe,
Tony Prescott,
Roger Quinn,
Sylvain Saighi,
Thomas Schmickl,
Reiko Tanaka,
Eleni Vasilaki,
Stefano Vassanelli,
Paul Verschure,
Stuart Wilson (Chair),
Hartmut Witte