1. Workshop Proposal Communications, Inference, and Computing in Molecular and Biological Systems December 3-4, 2015 University of Southern California Co-organizers: Urbashi Mitra USC Andrew Eckford York University

2. Why this workshop? Rapid increase of interest in the intersection between information theory and biology – Many prominent information theorists now work in this area – There is a large community of computational biologists and biophysicists who use IT, who don’t normally come to IT conferences – A forum to promote interaction between the two groups is needed

3. Why this workshop? Maintains momentum from other initiatives – Workshop on Biological and Bio-Inspired Information Theory, Oct 2014, Banff – IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications – Selected Areas tracks at IEEE Globecom (to be held 2 days later nearby in San Diego)

4. Advertising Save-the-date sent to TMBMC authors, submitters, ICC/Globecom authors/submitters as well as other potential TMBMC identified authors (200+ individuals) Additional e-mails to colleagues re poster session Once website is live (in a few days) – Posting on ITSoc website, e-mail blast via ComSoc lists, SP for COM lists

5. Format 12-16 invited talks – 11 confirmed 30 posters in two poster sessions Joint lunches and a reception/buffet

6. Invited Speakers Confirmed 1.Behnaam Aazhang Rice University – signal processing methods for neuroscience 2.Todd Coleman UCSD – neural inference/brain-machine interfaces 3.Elisa Franco UC Riverside – biomolecular feedback, biochemical oscillators 4.Scott Fraser USC – quantitative biology/compressed sensing for translational imaging 5.Andrea Goldsmith Stanford – directed information & neuroscience; DNA microarray analysis 6.Olgica Milenkovic UIUC – bioinformatics & coding theory 7.Andrew Mugler Purdue – biological networks, Quantitative systems biology 8.Richard Murray CalTech – biomolecular feedback systems 9.Robert Schober University of Erlangen-Nurnberg -- molecular communication 10.Haris Vikalo UT Austin – DNA sequencing/low-rank methods for bioinformatices 11.Mihaela van der Schaar UCLA – bacterial self-organization A few other invitations pending, more than 50% are from the IT community OR those using information theory for the understanding of biological systems

7. Budget Target 50-70 participants Costs – EVSP for registration fee collection $535 (50 participants) – Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner/reception, three coffee breaks (1 ½ day workshop) $12 K – TOTAL $12535 Revenue to date – $4500 USC Provost’s Fund – 35 x $100 registration fee (invited speakers are exempt from registration) = $3500 – TOTAL $8000

8. Current Proposals Request to IT Society $2K Follow up request to NSF – proposal in the works to CIF (John Cozzens) $2535 – Support from IT society instrumental here

9. The aim of this workshop is to bring together scientists and engineers conducting research at the interface of biology, physics, chemistry,neuroscience, information theory, control, communications, computing, and signal processing. As an example, we cite recent advances in MEMS/NEMS and systems biology coupled with the emergence of synthetic bacteria and lab/process-on-a-chip techniques, it is now possible to design chemical circuits, custom organisms, micro and nanoscale swarms of devices as well as a hsot of other new systems. These new results and technological advances speak to the need for an interdisciplinary forum where researchers from these diverse fields can interact with each and enable further technical innovation. Rapid increase of interest in the intersection between information theory and biology – Many prominent information theorists now work in this area – There is a large community of computational biologists and biophysicists who use IT, who don’t normally come to IT conferences – A forum to promote interaction between the two groups is needed