Dates: Wednesday
& Thursday Feb. 20-21, 2008.
Location: Hilton Arlington, Arlington,
VA.
The workshop is
designed to provide a forum to discuss an emerging interdisciplinary field of
Biological Communications Technology (e.g., Molecular Communication). The
workshop brings together 37 leading researchers from Biology, Chemistry,
Physics, Mathematics, Nanotechnology, Computer Science, and Engineering to
discuss key research issues, the current state of the art, and future
directions of this important field and its related areas, and to identify grand
research challenges in the emerging area of Biological Communications
Technology through discussions and brainstorming. This workshop is expected to
provide suggestions to NSF on what directions to pursue to establish a new
integrated and transformative science in the above mentioned areas; Biology,
Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Nanotechnology, Computer Science, and
Engineering.
Day 1 starts with
the five presentations covering the state-of-the-art of the following five
selected areas; (1) Design and
Engineering of System Components by Dr. Aristides Requicha (University of
Southern California), (2) System Design
Methodology by Dr. Michael L. Simpson (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), (3) Coding Theory and Channel Capacity by
Dr. Thomas Schneider (National Institutes of Health), (4) Novel Computing Paradigms by Dr. Christof Teuscher (Los Alamos
National Laboratory), and (5) Potential
Applications by Dr. Lingchong You (Duke University), all concerned with the
central theme of the biology and computing/communications technology. The
workshop is then broken into five breakout sessions; the 37 invited
professionals are, according to their interest and expertise, divided into five
breakout groups to discuss key research challenges.
Day 2 in the
morning continues the breakout sessions. Participants in each breakout session
discuss grand research challenges while formulating into presentation slides that
illustrate identified grand research challenges. Day 2 in the afternoon, all
participants meet and each breakout group presents grand research challenges
identified over the 2 day breakout sessions. Day 2 ends with a group discussion
where participants are expected to provide comments and feedbacks on the
workshop and together to identify necessary actions that NSF to take to advance
this technology field.
After the
workshop, grand research challenges identified from the workshop are documented
in detail by the workshop organizers and breakout session chairs, and submitted
to NSF for consideration to future funding programs.