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.

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 and Hugues Bersini).

You are invited to submit papers to this exciting event! (Please forward this call responsibly.)


IMPORTANT DATES
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o Paper and abstract submission: 6 April 2011
o Paper and abstract notification: 10 June 2011
o Camera ready papers: 1 July 2011

o Early registration: 10 June 2011
o End of registration: 31 July 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.

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 the field, including:

- Artificial Chemistries
- Biological & Chemical Information Processing and Production
- Complex Networks
- Emergent Engineering
- Evolutionary and Learning Dynamics
- Minimal Cognition and Physical Intelligence
- Minimal (Bottom up) Synthetic Cells
- Mixed Living (Technology) Systems
- Modular Robotics
- 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 and Computational Frameworks
- Top Down Artificial Cells

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

1. Full papers have an 8-page maximum length, which 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 previously published article is cited.

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.

All formatting guidelines (including Word and LaTeX style files) and 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
* Hugues Bersini
* Paul Bourgine
* Mario Giacobini & Tom Lenaerts, Program Chairs
* Marco Dorigo


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@ecal11.org.