[alife] Deadline Extension: 6TH MORPHOGENETIC ENGINEERING WORKSHOP (MEW 2016) at ALIFE XV, July 2016, Cancun, Mexico

Hiroki Sayama sayama at binghamton.edu
Sun May 1 14:28:53 PDT 2016


(Apologies for cross-posting)

*Deadline Extended to May 7, 2016*

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THE SIXTH MORPHOGENETIC ENGINEERING WORKSHOP (MEW 2016)

At ALIFE XV, July 4-8, 2016, Cancun, Mexico

** http://doursat.free.fr/mew2016.html **
==================================================

Following the success of three previous workshop editions (at the
Complex Systems Institute Paris 2009, ECAL’11, and ALife XIV) and two
special sessions (at ANTS’10 and ECAL’15), the **6th Morphogenetic
Engineering Workshop** will take place at ALife XV, the 15th
International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living
Systems, in Cancun, Mexico, July 4-8, 2016 (http://xva.life).

This workshop aims to promote and expand Morphogenetic Engineering, a
new field of research exploring 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 selfassemble 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 biology,
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):
* 5th MEW, 2015 at ECAL’15, York: http://iscpif.fr/MEW2015
* 4th MEW, 2014 at Alife XIV, New York: http://archives.iscpif.fr/MEW2014
* 3rd MEW, 2011 at ECAL’11, Paris: http://archives.iscpif.fr/MEW2011
* 2nd MEW, 2010 at ANTS’10, Brussels: http://doursat.free.fr/MEW2010.html
* 1st MEW, 2009 at ISC-PIF, Paris: http://archives.iscpif.fr/MEW2009

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Authors are invited to submit an abstract (up to 2 pages) prepared
following the ALIFE XV paper format
(http://xva.life/?page_id=349). Accepted abstracts will be compiled
into the Workshop Proceedings and will be published online on the
Workshop website for free downloads.

Please submit your abstract in PDF by email to:

Rene Doursat <R.Doursat at mmu.ac.uk>
Hiroki Sayama <sayama at binghamton.edu>

IMPORTANT DATES

* Abstract submission deadline : May 7, 2016 **EXTENDED**
* Notification of acceptance: May 15, 2016
* Camera-ready abstract due: May 31, 2016
* Workshop date: TBA (one day during the week of July 4-8, 2016)

** http://doursat.free.fr/mew2016.html **


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