Connectionists: Call for contributions: Workshop on Collective Behaviours and Social Dynamics @ECAL 2013, Taormina, Italy, September 2-6, 2013

[Vito Trianni]

[apologies for multiple posting]

Call for Contributions: Workshop on Collective Behaviours and Social Dynamics
ECAL 2013, the 12th European Conference on Artificial Life
Taormina, Italy, September 2-6, 2013
http://laral.istc.cnr.it/collective-and-swarm-robotics.html


=== About the Workshop ===

This workshop is at the intersection of several disciplines, from ethology to swarm intelligence, from collective robotics to evolutionary linguistics. Despite very heterogeneous, these disciplines share a common ground when they refer to the mechanisms and the dynamics of social interaction, both at the ontogenetic and the phylogenetic level (e.g., referring to developmental or evolutionary factors).

Despite the similar scientific questions, the study of collective behaviour and social dynamics is characterised by very different approaches, and few places for discussion and comparison are available. Therefore, the workshop represents a unique occasion in which such a juxtaposition of diverse disciplines can take place. The goal of the workshop is to confront the current trends and advancements in the study of collective behaviour and social dynamics, and to promote cross-fertilisation and contamination between disciplines and approaches that rarely meet together.

The workshop will feature two sessions, the first dedicated to collective behaviours in biological and artificial systems, the second dedicated to social dynamics, ranging from opinion sharing to language evolution. Each session will feature a keynote speech (to be announced soon), as well as presentations selected among the submitted proposals (see also the submission instructions below). We solicit presentation proposals about both published (e.g., to a top-ranking journal) and unpublished work. Selected presentations of unpublished work will be invited to submit a full-length paper to the Swarm Intelligence journal, and will benefit of a fast-track reviewing process.



=== Topics of Interest ===

Generally speaking, the workshop embraces all those studies that shed some light on the mechanisms and dynamics of social interaction leading to well-organised spatio-temporal patterns and shared understanding.
Here is a non-exhaustive list:
	• swarm intelligence
	• population biology
	• multi-agent systems
	• collective and swarm robotics
	• evolutionary dynamics
	• cognitive ethology and sociobiology
	• distributed computation
	• cultural evolution
	• opinion dynamics
	• language evolution
	• collective intelligence
	• cognitive sociology



=== Submission Instructions ===

Applicants are asked to submit an abstract or short paper (up to 2 pages) of the planned presentation. Specify whether the work has been already published elsewhere.
Important Dates:
	• Submission due: June 30, 2013.
	• Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2013
	• Conference: September 2-6, 2013
Applications should be submitted via e-mail to: Workshop.Collective.Robotics at gmail.com


=== Organizing Committee ===
	• Stefano Nolfi, CNR-ISTC, Italy.
	• Vito Trianni, CNR-ISTC, Italy.
	• Marco Dorigo, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
	• Francesco Mondada, EPFL, Switzerland
	• Tom Wenseleers, University of Leuven, Belgium.
	• Luc Steels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
	• Michael Spranger , Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Paris, France.



=== Workshop Venue ===

The Workshop will be co-located with ECAL 2013, the 12th European Conference on Artificial Life, September 2-6 2013, Taormina, Italy. 



=== Registration ===

The registration can be done via the ECAL 2013 web site (http://www.dmi.unict.it/ecal2013). 
Early registration deadline is June 15, 2013. 
Late registration: June 16 - September 6, 2013



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Vito Trianni, Ph.D.					vito.trianni@(no_spam)istc.cnr.it
ISTC-CNR							http://www.istc.cnr.it - http://laral.istc.cnr.it/trianni
currently visiting at:					
IRIDIA-CoDE, CP 194/6				vtrianni@(no_spam)ulb.ac.be
Université Libre de Bruxelles			Tel: +32 (0)2 650 2712
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50			Fax: +32 (0)2 650 2715
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
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