[alife] [3rd CFP] "Morphogenetic Engineering" Special Session at ECAL'15 -- deadline ext. to MARCH 16]

[C. Titus Brown]

[__Apologies for cross-posting__]

Call for Papers:

"MORPHOGENETIC ENGINEERING" SPECIAL SESSION AT ECAL'15

>>>   <http://www.iscpif.fr/MEW2015> http://www.iscpif.fr/MEW2015  <<<

** ACCEPTED PAPERS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE ECAL PROCEEDINGS BY MIT PRESS **

** EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR THE WHOLE CONFERENCE: MARCH 16 **

** Select "Morphogenetic Engineering" when submitting your paper to ECAL'15
**

Following the success of three workshops (2009, 2011, 2014) and a previous
special session (2010), the **5th Morphogenetic Engineering Event** will be
programmed as a special session of ECAL'15, the 13th European Conference on
Artificial Life, University of York, UK - 20-24 July 2015,
http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/nature/ecal2015 

This special session aims to promote and expand a recent field of research
called "Morphogenetic Engineering", which explores the artificial design and
implementation of autonomous systems capable of developing complex,
heterogeneous morphologies. Particular emphasis is set on the
programmability and controllability of self-organization, properties that
are often underappreciated in complex systems science--while, conversely,
the benefits of self-organization are often underappreciated in engineering
methodologies.

ORGANIZERS

* Rene Doursat, http://doursat.iscpif.fr 

* Hiroki Sayama, http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~sayama 

OVERVIEW 

Traditional engineered products are generally made of a number of unique,
heterogeneous components assembled in complicated but precise ways, and are
intended to work deterministically following specifications given by their
designers. By contrast, self-organization in natural complex systems
(physical, biological, ecological, social) often emerges from the repetition
of agents obeying identical rules under stochastic dynamics. These systems
produce relatively regular patterns (spots, stripes, waves, trails,
clusters, hubs, etc.) that can be characterized by a small number of
statistical variables. They are random and/or shaped by boundary conditions,
but do not exhibit an intrinsic architecture like engineered products do.

Salient exceptions, however, strikingly demonstrate the possibility of
combining pure self-organization and elaborate architectures: biological
development (the self-assembly of myriads of cells into the body plans and
appendages of organisms) and insect constructions (the stigmergic
collaboration of colonies of social insects toward large and complicated
nests). These structures are composed of segments and parts arranged in very
specific ways that resemble the products of human inventiveness. Yet, they
entirely self-assemble in a decentralized fashion, under the control of
genetic or behavioral rules stored in every agent.

How do these collectives (cells or insects) achieve such impressive
morphogenetic tasks so reliably? Can we export their precise self-formation
capabilities to engineered systems? What are principles and best practices
for the design and engineering of such morphogenetic systems?

TOPICS OF INTEREST

* New principles of morphogenesis in artificial systems 

* Bio-inspiration from plant vs. animal development 

* Programmability of self-organizing morphogenetic systems 

* Indirect, decentralized control of morphogenetic systems 

* Sensitivity to environmental/boundary conditions vs. endogenous drive 

* Evolvability, by variations and selection, of morphogenetic systems 

* Links with evolutionary computation, artificial embryogeny, "evo-devo"
approaches 

* Swarm-based approaches to morphogenetic systems 

* Design techniques for morphogenetic engineering 

* Causalities between micro and macro properties of morphogenetic systems 

* Physical implementations 

* Applications to real-world problems (swarm robots, synthetic biologie,
complex networks, etc.) 

* Philosophical questions about morphogenetic engineering

REFERENCES

* Doursat, Sayama & Michel (2013) A review of morphogenetic engineering.
Natural Computing 12(2): 517-535, http://doursat.free.fr/nacopub.html  

* Doursat, Sayama & Michel (2012) Morphogenetic Engineering.
Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-642-33901-1, http://doursat.free.fr/mebook.html


PAST EVENTS

Morphogenetic Engineering Workshops or Sessions (MEWs):

* 4th MEW, 2014 at Alife XIV, New York: http://iscpif.fr/MEW2014   

* 3rd MEW, 2011 at ECAL'11, Paris: http://iscpif.fr/MEW2011  

* 2nd MEW, 2010 at ANTS'10, Brussels: http://doursat.free.fr/MEW2010.html 

* 1st MEW, 2009 at ISC-PIF, Paris: http://iscpif.fr/MEW2009  

 

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Special sessions help shape the programme of ECAL'15. Each special session
showcases important, novel and/or emergent research directions in an area of
interest to ECAL participants. Special session themes are typically focused,
rather than broadly defined, and generally comprise 5 papers. All papers in
the session will be reviewed through the same review process as the regular
papers of the conference to ensure that the contributions are of high
scientific quality.

There are two options for submission: either full paper or abstract, using
the same text format. The only difference resides in the number of pages and
type of contents: (a) Full papers have an 8-page maximum length and should
report on new, unpublished work. (b) Abstracts are limited to a 1-page
length and can report on previously published work, but offer a new
perspective on that work. Papers and abstracts will be selected for oral or
poster presentation, with no distinction being made between full papers and
abstracts.

http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/nature/ecal2015/submissions.html  

* Paper submission deadline : 16th MARCH

* Notification of acceptance: 24th APRIL

* Paper CRC required: 18th May

* Session date: TBA between 20-24th July