BDA 2013 - The 1st Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms

Distributed systems are prevalent in computer science and biology. Both domains rely on networks of interacting entities to reach joint decisions, coordinate and respond to inputs. Both also share several other attributes including the use of randomization, the ability to successfully handle failures and attacks, and reusing certain components and ideas in multiple processes or algorithms.
These observations, some dating back to the 60s, have inspired the development of several computational methods including neural networks and genetic algorithms. However, until recently little thought has been given to the specific connections between information processing in biology and the field of distributed computing.
In this workshop we intend to focus on these connections. Specifically, our goal is to highlight that thinking computationally about the settings, requirements and goals of information processing in biological networks can both, improve our understanding of the underlying biology and lead to the development of novel computational methods providing solutions to specific distributed computing problems. Topics include but are not limited to:
Communication models inspired by biological systems
Coordination in cell fate determination
Interactions in ant colonies
The design and usage of networks in the brain
Adaptability of networks to changing environments
Robustness of networks to attacks and failures
Synchronization
While we anticipate a wide range of topics, both from the biological and from the computational point of view, we expect the submitted papers to identify a specific biological system or process and a corresponding computational problem on which they base their work.
Workshop structure: The one day meeting will consist of several invited talks and several contributed talks selected from the submitted abstracts.