Connectionists: Biological Distributed Algorithms 2018 --- generous travel support available!

[Saket Navlakha]

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The 6th Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA 2018)
July 23, 2018 in London, UK. Co-located with PODC 2018
http://www.snl.salk.edu/~navlakha/BDA2018/
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NOTE: Travel funding available for all presenters. Please submit by May 5th.


We are excited to announce the 6th workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA). The aim of the workshop is to foster collaborative research between biologists and distributed computing theory researchers, with the hope of producing better understanding of the behavior of distributed biological systems, as well as new ideas for design of algorithms for engineered or computational networks.


BDA 2018 will include presentations on distributed algorithms related to a variety of biological systems, with special attention to communication and coordination in insect colonies (e.g. foraging, navigation, task allocation, construction) and networks in the brain (e.g. learning, decision-making, attention).


This is a one-day workshop.


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SUBMISSIONS
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We solicit submissions of extended abstracts describing recent results relevant to biological distributed computing. We especially welcome extended abstracts describing new insights and / or case studies regarding the relationship between distributed computing and biological systems even if these are not fully formed. Since a major goal of the workshop is to explore new directions and approaches, we especially encourage the submission of ongoing work. Selected contributors would be asked to present, discuss and defend their work at the workshop. Submissions should be in PDF and include title, author information, and an extended abstract of at most 4 pages.


Please use the following EasyChair submission link:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bda20183


Note: The workshop will not include published proceedings. In particular, we welcome submissions of extended abstracts describing work that has appeared or is expected to appear in other venues.


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TRAVEL SUPPORT
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This year, we will provide financial support for all our presenters. Specifically, for each selected presentation, we will pay for an economy class return flight/train to London (up to 1,000 EUR) and reimburse the workshop registration fee of one author.


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IMPORTANT DATES
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May 5, 2018 – Extended abstract submission deadline
May 26, 2018 – Decision notifications
July 23, 2018 – Workshop


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INVITED (PRE-SELECTED) SPEAKERS
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Luca Cardelli, Microsoft Research
Roderich Gross, U Sheffield
Ana Sendova-Franks, UWE Bristol
Damien Woods, Inria
(more to come)


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PROGRAM COMMITTEE
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Ziv Bar-Joseph, CMU
Anna Dornhaus, University of Arizona
Yuval Emek, Technion
Amos Korman, CNRS and University of Paris Diderot
Nancy Lynch, MIT
Melanie Moses, University of New Mexico
Saket Navlakha, Salk Institute
Merav Parter, Weizmann
Andrea Richa, Arizona State University
Nir Shavit, MIT


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ORGANIZERS (and PC CHAIRS)
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Yuval Emek, Amos Korman, and Saket Navlakha