DIMACS Tutorial and Workshop on Bioconsensus II
October 2, 2001 (Tutorial)
October 3 - 5, 2001 (Workshop)
DIMACS Center, CoRE Building, Rutgers University,
Piscataway, NJ
Tutorial Organizers:
Fred McMorris, Illinois Institute of Technology, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
William H.E. Day, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Workshop Organizers:
Mel Janowitz, Rutgers University, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Francois Lapointe, Universite de Montreal, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fred McMorris, Illinois Institute of Technology, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Boris Mirkin, University of London, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fred Roberts, Rutgers University, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Presented under the auspices of the Special Focus on Computational
Molecular Biology.
Sponsored by DIMACS, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National
Science Foundation.
This workshop is a followup to a working group meeting on
Bioconsensus that was held October 25-26, 2000 at DIMACS.
A one day tutorial on consensus theory is planned, followed
by a series of public lectures in workshop format.
Scope of the Workshop:
Consensus methods developed in the context of voting, decision making,
and other areas of the social and behavioral sciences have begun to
have a variety of applications in the biological sciences, originally
in taxonomy and evolutionary biology, and more recently in molecular
biology. Typically, several alternatives (such as possible
taxonomies, alternative phylogenetic trees, alternative molecular
sequences, or alternative alignments) are produced using different
methods or under different models and then one needs to find a
consensus solution. There are, already, several hundred papers in
this developing field of "Bioconsensus." In this workshop, we will
explore ways to make use of the consensus methods of social choice
theory in solving problems of biology, with emphasis on molecular
biology.
Here are several of the major themes of the workshop. How have
consensus methods of social choice theory already found use in
biology? In turn, how have some of the specific problems of the
biological sciences given rise to new concepts of consensus?
Algorithms for some of the well-known consensus methods of social
choice theory have the potential for application to biology, with
appropriate modification, but many of these consensus problems are
NP-complete in their most general setting and call for approximate
algorithms or heuristic methods. What would be involved in applying
traditional consensus methods to molecular biology problems? To what
extent are consensus methods in molecular biology chosen because they
seem mathematically interesting rather than on the basis of some
reasonable biological model. What then is a reasonable basis for
choosing a consensus method? Are there reasonable axioms having
biological meaning that characterize different consensus methods?
The workshop will bring together mathematicians, computer scientists,
and biological scientists to discuss these and other issues. The
meeting should be viewed as forming a basis for a continuing dialog
that will lead to future collaborations. Though the basic format is
that of a workshop, ample time will be left for questions, discussions,
and informal interactions among the participants.
The tutorial will include a discussion of how
an axiomatic approach can help either characterize or establish
the nonexistence of families of consensus methods. Included will be
median proceedures, majority and plurality rules, and rules based
on comcepts of center and mean. The objects on which the consensus rules
operated will include weak orderings of preferences, hierarchies,
undirected phylogenetic trees, and molecular sequences.
Though most of the papers will be by invitation only, we can still
consider submitted presentations provided they are of high quality
and relate directly to the scope of the workshop. Any such
submission should include a title and short abstract, and should
be sent to Mel Janowitz ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). The deadline
for submissions is September 1, 2001.
Invited speakers include:
Bernard Baum, Eastern Cereal & Oilseed Research Centre
David Bryant, McGill University
Douglas Cork, Illinois Institute of Technology
Guy Cucumel, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Alan de Querioz, University of Colorado - Boulder
Oliver Eulenstein, Iowa State
Joe Felsenstein, University of Washington
Sorin Istrail, Celera Genomics
Junhyong Kim, Yale University
Francois Lapointe, Universite de Montreal
Claudine Levasseur, Universite de Montreal
Boris Mirkin, University of London
Robert Powers, University of Louisville
Tommy Ratliff, Wheaton College
Fred Roberts, Rutgers University
Li-San Wang, University of Texas at Austin
John J. Wiens, Carnegie Museums
Mark Wilkinson, The Natural History Museum of London
Preregistration deadline: September 25, 2001.
After
Preregister Preregister
before deadline Deadline
Tutorial Only
(October 2, 2001)
Regular Rate $100 $120
Reduced Rate $ 50 $ 60
Workshop Only:
(October 3-5, 2001)
Regular Rate $300 $360
Reduced Rate $150 $180
Tutorial & Workshop:
(October 2-5, 2001)
Regular Rate $350 $430
Reduced Rate $175 $215
Postdocs $ 10/day $ 15/day
DIMACS Postdocs $ 0 $ 0
Non-Local Graduate
& Undergraduate
Students $ 5/day $ 10/day
Local Graduate &
Undergraduate Students
(Rutgers & Princeton $ 0 $ 0
DIMACS Members** $ 0 $ 0
DIMACS Long-Term
Visitors*** $ 0 $ 0
Our funding agencies require that we charge a registration fee
during the course of the workshop. Registration fees include
participation in the workshop, all workshop materials, breakfast,
lunch, breaks and any scheduled social events (if applicable).
*College/University faculty and employees of non-profit organizations
will automatically receive the reduced rate. Other participants may
apply for a reduction of fees. They should email their request for the
reduced fee to the Workshop Coordinator at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Include your name, the Institution you work for, your job title
and a brief explanation of your situation. All requests for
reduced rates must be received before the preregistration deadline.
You will promptly be notified via as to the decision about it.
**Fees for all DIMACS Members are covered through their institution's
membership in DIMACS and therefore no DIMACS Memeber needs to pay
the registration fee. If you work for a DIMACS institution and
would like to become a member, please contact your unit's DIMACS
representative for information on how to join.
(See http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/People/Unitlist.html for unit
representatives) or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***DIMACS long-term visitors who are in residence at DIMACS for
two or more weeks inclusive of dates of workshop.
For complete information on registration, travel
and accommodations see:
http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/BioconII
