[alife] Call for Participation DECOI2009

[cdd500 at few.vu.nl]

*Apologies for cross posting. Please help forward to interested people*

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Third International School on Collective Intelligence and Evolution
February 23-27 2009
Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
http://decoi2009.collectivae.net/
decoi at collectivae.net

The Third International School on the Design Of Collective
Intelligence (DECOI2009) will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands
during February 23-27 2009. The school follows on two highly
successful predecessors, attracting many participants and high profile
keynote speakers. The DECOI aims to provide master/graduate students
and researchers with the opportunity to learn techniques and methods
for designing collective intelligence. The school will cover a
spectrum of topics within this field to provide students with
knowledge about methods and techniques (evolutionary computing,
artificial life models, self organising systems) as well as related
research domains (sociology, economics, biology). The school is set up
as a lecture/workshop environment where students learn about theories
and tools for modeling and analyzing complex systems and get hand on
experience with the implementation of several models.  Participants
are also encouraged to present their own work/projects.

===== KEYNOTE SPEAKERS =====
  * Prof. Dr. D. Helbing (Zuerich, Switzerland) - Multi-Agent
Simulation of Socio-Economic Systems
  * Prof. Dr. F. Zambonelli (Modena, Italy) - Pervasive Computing
  * Dr. G. Di Marzo Serugendo (London, United Kingdom) -
Self-Organising and Multi-Agent Systems
  * Prof. Dr. M. Middendorf (Leipzig, Germany) - Parallel Computing
and Complex Systems
  * Ir. J. Coenders (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - Computational Design
and Structural Engineering

===== TARGET AUDIENCE =====
Master/graduate students, (postdoctoral) researchers in computer science,
artificial intelligence, business informatics, bioinformatics and
related fields. We aim for a balance between academic and industrial
participants.

===== SETUP =====
The format of the school is as follows. Participants of the school will
be in-house at the Lorentz Center Leiden for a week. During 5 days,
there will be lectures each morning. In the afternoon, the attendees
will work in groups on simulation studies on collective
intelligence. There will be two social events: on Monday evening an
openings drink; on Wednesday evening a
workshop dinner will be organised.

===== POSTERS =====
All participants are kindly invited to bring a poster with them, with
a general overview of their research (interests) or a previously
presented conference poster. There will be plenty of time for the
participants to disccuss their posters during the school.

===== PARTICIPATION =====
Note that participation is limited. When you are interested in
attending the school, you have to register (see below). After the
registration deadline, we notify you within a week about your
participation. We aim for as many participants as possible to attend
for whom the school is directly relevant to their area of research
and/or practice.

===== IMPORTANT DATES =====
  * 30 November:      Registration deadline
  *  7 December:      Notification of acceptance
  * 23-27 February:   DECOI2009 school

===== REGISTRATION FEE =====
The registration is free, including welcome reception, workshop dinner
and daily refreshments. You have to pay for lunches and dinners
yourself. We are able to offer a limited number of participants
accommodation as well (at no extra cost). This decision is based on
the motivation and reason to attend, which is information that you
provide when registering.

===== REGISTRATION =====
You can register for the school on the DECOI2009 website by following
the link 'Registration'. You will be directed to the website of the
Lorentz center, which takes care of your registration.

===== VENUE =====
DECOI2009 is hosted by the Lorentz International Center for workshops
in the Sciences at the University of Leiden in Leiden, The
Netherlands. More information can be found at
http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/. Leiden is about 20 minutes by train from
Amsterdam and Schiphol International Airport. Travel information can
be found on the website of the Lorentz Center (Visitor's Information).

===== ACCOMMODATION =====
Prices of hotel rooms start at 70 euros per room per night (exclusive
of breakfast and taxes). It is possible to share a room with max. 2
persons. We will arrange accommodation for you if you want to (which
we strongly encourage), you have to state this during registration.

===== ORGANISING COMMITTEE =====
  * Martijn Schut, VU University Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  * William Veerbeek, UNESCO and VU University Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  * Konrad Diwold, University of Leipzig (Germany)
  * Virginia Dignum, University of Utrecht (Netherlands)

For more information please contact Martijn Schut (decoi at collectivae.net).

Kind regards,
DECOI2009 organising committee.