conference | Chris Aldrich

Twitter List for #DtMH2016 Participants | Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving Online News

Live Tweeting and Twitter Lists

While attending the upcoming conference Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving Online News later this week, I’ll make an attempt to live Tweet as much as possible. (If you’re following me on Twitter on Thursday and Friday and find me too noisy, try using QuietTime.xyz to mute me on Twitter temporarily.) I’ll be using Kevin Marks‘ excellent Noter Live web app to both send out the tweets as well as to store and archive them here on this site thereafter (kind of like my own version of Storify.)

In getting ramped up to live Tweet it, it helps significantly to have a pre-existing list of attendees (and remote participants) talking about #DtMH2016 on Twitter, so I started creating a Twitter list by hand. I realized that it would be nice to have a little bot to catch others as the week progresses. Ever lazy, I turned to IFTTT.com to see if something already existed, and sure enough there’s a Twitter search with a trigger that will allow one to add people who mention a particular hashtag to a Twitter list automatically.

Here’s the resultant list, which should grow as the event unfolds throughout the week:
🔖 People on Twitter talking about #DtMH2016

Feel free to follow or subscribe to the list as necessary. Hopefully this will make attending the conference more fruitful for those there live as well as remote.

Not on the list? Just tweet a (non-private) message with the conference hashtag: #DTMH2016 and you should be added to the list shortly.

Lazy like me? Click the bird to tweet: “I’m attending #DtMH2016 @rji | Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving Online News http://ctt.ec/5RKt2+”

IFTTT Recipe for Creating Twitter Lists of Conference Attendees

For those interested in creating their own Twitter lists for future conferences (and honestly the hosts of all conferences should do this as they set up their conference hashtag and announce the conference), below is a link to the ifttt.com recipe I created for this, but which can be modified for use by others.

Naturally, it would also be nice if, as people registered for conferences, they were asked for their Twitter handles and websites so that the information could be used to create such online lists to help create longer lasting relationships both during the event and afterwards as well. (Naturally providing these details should be optional so that people who wish to maintain their privacy could do so.)

2016 North-American School of Information Theory, June 21-23

Bookmarked 2016 North-American School of Information Theory, June 21-23, 2016 (itsoc.org)

The 2016 School of information will be hosted at Duke University, June 21-23. It is sponsored by the IEEE Information Theory Society, Duke University, the Center for Science of Information, and the National Science Foundation. The school provides a venue where doctoral and postdoctoral students can learn from distinguished professors in information theory, meet with fellow researchers, and form collaborations.

Program and Lectures

The daily schedule will consist of morning and afternoon lectures separated by a lunch break with poster sessions. Students from all research areas are welcome to attend and present their own research via a poster during the school. The school will host lectures on core areas of information theory and interdisciplinary topics. The following lecturers are confirmed:

Helmut Bölcskei (ETH Zurich): The Mathematics of Deep Learning

Natasha Devroye (University of Illinois, Chicago): The Interference Channel

René Vidal (Johns Hopkins University): Global Optimality in Deep Learning and Beyond

Tsachy Weissman (Stanford University): Information Processing under Logarithmic Loss

Aylin Yener (Pennsylvania State University): Information-Theoretic Security

Logistics

Applications will be available on March 15 and will be evaluated starting April 1. Accepted students must register by May 15, 2016. The registration fee of $200 will include food and 3 nights accommodation in a single-occupancy room. We suggest that attendees fly into the Raleigh-Durham (RDU) airport located about 30 minutes from the Duke campus. Housing will be available for check-in on the afternoon of June 20th. The main part of the program will conclude after lunch on June 23rd so that attendees can fly home that evening.

To Apply: click “register” here (fee will accepted later after acceptance)

Administrative Contact: Kathy Peterson, itschool2016@gmail.com

Organizing Committee

Henry Pfister (chair) (Duke University), Dror Baron (North Carolina State University), Matthieu Bloch (Georgia Tech), Rob Calderbank (Duke University), Galen Reeves (Duke University). Advisors: Gerhard Kramer (Technical University of Munich) and Andrea Goldsmith (Stanford)

Sponsors

IEEE Information Theory Society

Duke University

Center for Science of Information

National Science Foundation

Winter Q-BIO Quantitative Biology Meeting February 15-18, 2016

Bookmarked Winter Q-BIO Quantitative Biology Meeting February 15-18, 2016 (w-qbio.org)

The Winter Q-BIO Quantitative Biology Meeting is coming up at the Sheraton Waikiki in Oahu, HI, USA

A predictive understanding of living systems is a prerequisite for designed manipulation in bioengineering and informed intervention in medicine. Such an understanding requires quantitative measurements, mathematical analysis, and theoretical abstraction. The advent of powerful measurement technologies and computing capacity has positioned biology to drive the next scientific revolution. A defining goal of Quantitative Biology (qBIO) is the development of general principles that arise from networks of interacting elements that initially defy conceptual reasoning. The use of model organisms for the discovery of general principles has a rich tradition in biology, and at a fundamental level the philosophy of qBIO resonates with most molecular and cell biologists. New challenges arise from the complexity inherent in networks, which require mathematical modeling and computational simulation to develop conceptual “guideposts” that can be used to generate testable hypotheses, guide analyses, and organize “big data.”

The Winter q-bio meeting welcomes scientists and engineers who are interested in all areas of q-bio. For 2016, the meeting will be hosted at the Sheraton Waikiki, which is located in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. The resort is known for its breathtaking oceanfront views, a first-of-its-kind recently opened “Superpool” and many award-winning dining venues. Registration and accommodation information can be found via the links at the top of the page.

Source: Winter Q-BIO Quantitative Biology Meeting

8th Annual North American School of Information Theory (NASIT)

Bookmarked 8th Annual North American School of Information Theory (NASIT) (nasit15.ucsd.edu)

August 10-13, 2015 – UC San Diego, La Jolla, California
Application deadline: June 7, 2015

The School of Information Theory will bring together over 100 graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and leading researchers for four action-packed days of learning, stimulating discussions, professional networking and fun activities, all on the beautiful campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and in the nearby beach town of La Jolla.

Tutorials by some of the best known researchers in information theory and related fields

Poster presentations by student participants with feedback and discussion

Panel discussion on “IT: Academia vs. Industry Perspectives”

Social events and fun activities

The Information Universe Conference

Yesterday, via a notification from Lanyard, I came across a notice for the upcoming conference “The Information Universe” which hits several of the sweet spots for areas involving information theory, physics, the origin of life, complexity, computer science, and microbiology. It is scheduled to occur from October 7-9, 2015 at the Infoversum Theater in Groningen, The Netherlands.

I’ll let their site speak for itself below, but they already have an interesting line up of speakers including:

Keynote speakers

Erik Verlinde, Professor Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Alex Szalay, Alumni Centennial Professor of Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
Gerard ‘t Hooft, Professor Theoretical Physics, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Gregory Chaitin, Professor Mathematics and Computer Science, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Charley Lineweaver, Professor Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australia
Lude Franke, Professor System Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands

Conference synopsis from their homepage:

The main ambition of this conference is to explore the question “What is the role of information in the physics of our Universe?”. This intellectual pursuit may have a key role in improving our understanding of the Universe at a time when we “build technology to acquire and manage Big Data”, “discover highly organized information systems in nature” and “attempt to solve outstanding issues on the role of information in physics”. The conference intends to address the “in vivo” (role of information in nature) and “in vitro” (theory and models) aspects of the Information Universe.

The discussions about the role of information will include the views and thoughts of several disciplines: astronomy, physics, computer science, mathematics, life sciences, quantum computing, and neuroscience. Different scientific communities hold various and sometimes distinct formulations of the role of information in the Universe indicating we still lack understanding of its intrinsic nature. During this conference we will try to identify the right questions, which may lead us towards an answer.

Is the universe one big information processing machine?

Is there a deeper layer in quantum mechanics?

Is the universe a hologram?

Is there a deeper physical description of the world based on information?

How close/far are we from solving the black hole information paradox?

What is the role of information in highly organized complex life systems?

The Big Data Universe and the Universe : are our numerical simulations and Big Data repositories (in vitro) different from real natural system (in vivo)?

Is this the road to understanding dark matter, dark energy?

The conference will be held in the new 260 seats planetarium theatre in Groningen, which provides an inspiring immersive 3D full dome display, e.g. numerical simulations of the formation of our Universe, and anything else our presenters wish to bring in. The digital planetarium setting will be used to visualize the theme with modern media.

The Information Universe Website

Additional details about the conference including the participants, program, venue, and registration can also be found at their website.

Workshop Announcement: Entropy and Information in Biological Systems

I rarely, if ever, reblog anything here, but this particular post from John Baez’s blog Azimuth is so on-topic, that attempting to embellish it seems silly.

Entropy and Information in Biological Systems (Part 2)

John Harte, Marc Harper and I are running a workshop! Now you can apply here to attend:

• Information and entropy in biological systems, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, Knoxville Tennesee, Wednesday-Friday, 8-10 April 2015.

Click the link, read the stuff and scroll down to “CLICK HERE” to apply. The deadline is 12 November 2014.

Financial support for travel, meals, and lodging is available for workshop attendees who need it. We will choose among the applicants and invite 10-15 of them.

The idea
Information theory and entropy methods are becoming powerful tools in biology, from the level of individual cells, to whole ecosystems, to experimental design, model-building, and the measurement of biodiversity. The aim of this investigative workshop is to synthesize different ways of applying these concepts to help systematize and unify work in biological systems. Early attempts at “grand syntheses” often misfired, but applications of information theory and entropy to specific highly focused topics in biology have been increasingly successful. In ecology, entropy maximization methods have proven successful in predicting the distribution and abundance of species. Entropy is also widely used as a measure of biodiversity. Work on the role of information in game theory has shed new light on evolution. As a population evolves, it can be seen as gaining information about its environment. The principle of maximum entropy production has emerged as a fascinating yet controversial approach to predicting the behavior of biological systems, from individual organisms to whole ecosystems. This investigative workshop will bring together top researchers from these diverse fields to share insights and methods and address some long-standing conceptual problems.

So, here are the goals of our workshop:

To study the validity of the principle of Maximum Entropy Production (MEP), which states that biological systems – and indeed all open, non-equilibrium systems – act to produce entropy at the maximum rate.

To familiarize all the participants with applications to ecology of the MaxEnt method: choosing the probabilistic hypothesis with the highest entropy subject to the constraints of our data. We will compare MaxEnt with competing approaches and examine whether MaxEnt provides a sufficient justification for the principle of MEP.

To clarify relations between known characterizations of entropy, the use of entropy as a measure of biodiversity, and the use of MaxEnt methods in ecology.

To develop the concept of evolutionary games as “learning” processes in which information is gained over time.

To study the interplay between information theory and the thermodynamics of individual cells and organelles.

For more details, go here.

If you’ve got colleagues who might be interested in this, please let them know. You can download a PDF suitable for printing and putting on a bulletin board by clicking on this:

“Living in Cybernetics” – 50th Anniversary Conference of the American Society for Cybernetics

The American Society for Cybernetics is currently planning their 50th Anniversary Conference. Entitled “Living in Cybernetics”, it will be held between August 3 and August 9, 2014, at George Washington University in Washington D.C. For more registration and additional details please visit the conference website.

📅 18th International C. elegans Meeting, 22nd-26th June 2011

RSVPed Attending 18th International C. elegans Meeting

The Organizing Committee invites you to attend the 18th International C. elegans Meeting, sponsored by the Genetics Society of America. The meeting will be held June 22 – 26, 2011 at the University of California, Los Angeles campus. The meeting will begin on Wednesday evening, June 22 at 7:00 pm and will end on Sunday, June 26 at 12:00 noon. On Friday, June 24 at 5:00 pm there will be a Keynote Address by Joseph Culotti, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto, Canada