[alife] CALL FOR PAPERS: ECAL 2011

[ecal2011 cfp]

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C A L L   F O R   P A P E R S :   E C A L   2 0 1 1

<< Back to the origins of Alife >>

ECAL 2011, European Conference on Artificial Life,
an international conference on the simulation and synthesis of living
systems

8-12 August 2011, Paris, France
www.ecal11.org

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Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary undertaking that investigates the
fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and
synthesis of biological entities and processes. It also attempts to design
and build artificial systems that display properties of organisms, or
societies of organisms, out of abiotic or virtual parts.

ECAL, the European Conference on Artificial Life, is a biennial event that
alternates with the US-based Alife conference series.

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Welcome to ECAL 2011! Back then, in the early 1990's, the first two ECAL
conferences in Paris and Brussels were mainly centered on theoretical
biology and the physics of complex systems. Today, we feel that Alife can
look back on these origins and take more inspiration from new developments
at the intersection between computer science and theoretical biology — thus
it is our wish to refocus the conference on *complex biological systems*.
Closing a loop, this ECAL will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1st ECAL and
will be framed as a tribute to the late Francisco Varela, co-organizer in
1991 with two of this year's committee members (Paul Bourgine, CREA, and
Hugues Bersini, IRIDIA). We look forward to seeing you in Paris.

** You are invited to submit papers (full and abstract) to this exciting
event! **


IMPORTANT DATES
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o Early registration: April 6, 2011
o Paper & abstract submission: April 6, 2011
o Paper & abstract notification: May 20, 2011
o Camera-ready versions: June 10, 2011
o Late registration: June 10, 2011
o End of registration: July 31, 2011
o Conference: August 8-12, 2011


THEMES
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"A new body of disciplines": Over the past two decades, biological knowledge
has grown at an unprecedented rate, giving rise to new disciplines such as
systems biology —- testimony of the striking progress of modeling and
quantitative methods across the field. During the same period, highly
speculative ideas have matured, and entire conferences and journals are now
devoted to them. Synthesizing artificial cells, simulating large-scale
biological networks, storing and making intelligent use of an exponentially
growing amount of data (e.g., microarrays), exploiting biological substrates
for computation and control, and deploying bio-inspired engineering are all
cutting-edge topics today.

"Life itself": ECAL 2011 will leverage the remarkable development of
biological modeling and extend the topics of Artificial Life to the
fundamental properties of living organisms: their multiscale pattern-forming
morphodynamics, their autopoiesis, robustness, capacity to self-repair,
cognitive capacities, and co-adaptation at all levels, including ecological
ones. ECAL 2011 will bring together a large interdisciplinary community of
biologists, computer scientists, physicists, and mathematicians. It will
invite them to reflect on how traditional boundaries between disciplines
have become blurred, and to revisit in depth what constitutes “life”.

Papers are welcome in all areas of Artificial Life, including, but not
limited to:

- Artificial Chemistries
- Biological & Chemical Information Processing and Production
- Complex Networks
- Emergent Engineering
- Evolutionary & Learning Dynamics
- Minimal Cognition & Physical Intelligence
- Minimal (Bottom up) Synthetic Cells
- Mixed Living (Technology) Systems
- Modular Robotics
- Morphogenesis, Generative & Developmental Systems
- Multilevel Ecologies
- Organizations & Collective Intelligence
- Origins of Life
- Protocellular Energetics & Metabolic Networks
- Philosophy of Artificial Life & Living Technology
- Robotic Energy Autonomy
- Robotic Self-Assembly
- (Chemical) Self-Assembly & Complexity
- Socio-Technical Systems
- Systems Biology
- Swarm Intelligence
- Theoretical & Computational Frameworks
- Top-Down Artificial Cells

Authors are encouraged to explain how their work sheds light on the
fundamental properties of living systems and makes progress on the important
open questions identified during previous meetings.


PAPER/ABSTRACT FORMAT
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Detailed information concerning the submission dates, the online submission
process, manuscript formats and proceedings publisher will be made available
(http://www.ecal11.org/call-for-papers) as we know it.

There are two options for submission: either full paper format or abstract
format.

1. Full papers have an 8-page maximum length and should report on new,
unpublished work

2. Abstracts are limited to 2 pages and should discuss work previously
published in a journal. It is therefore essential that a reference to the
previous article is clearly cited in the abstract.

All submissions will be subject to peer review, and all accepted submissions
will be allocated either an oral presentation slot or a poster slot with no
distinction being made between the two submission formats (full or
abstract).

All formatting guidelines (including Word and LaTeX style files) and
step-by-step submission instructions will be available on the conference
website within the next few weeks at http://www.ecal11.org/call-for-papers


PUBLICATION
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Every accepted full-paper and abstract submission will be published by MIT
Press in a single online open-access proceedings volume.

The top 10 accepted publications will have the opportunity to publish a
revised and expanded version of their conference paper in the Artificial
Life journal.


LOCATION
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The conference will be held at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de
Paris (CIUP), located on a wooded park at the southern edge of the French
capital. See more information at http://www.ecal11.org/venue

Registration information will be posted soon at
http://www.ecal11.org/registration


ORGANIZATION
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* René Doursat (chair)
 Complex Systems Institute/CREA, Ecole Polytechnique & CNRS, Paris

* Hugues Bersini
 IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles

* Paul Bourgine
 Complex Systems Institute/CREA, Ecole Polytechnique & CNRS, Paris

* Mario Giacobini (program chair)
 Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Torino

* Tom Lenaerts (program chair)
 Department of Computer Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles

* Marco Dorigo
 IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles


CONTACT
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For further information about the conference program and travel
arrangements, please see the website, http://www.ecal11.org. For questions
about the submission, reviewing process and other issues, email to:
contact at ecal11.org.