[BNC-all] Seminar: Dr. Wojciech Szpankowski, CS, Purdue (LWSN 3102A/B, 9/18/06 1-2 PM)"What is Information?" sent per Sabre Kais request

[Annie Cheever]

>From: "Sabre Kais" <kais at purdue.edu>
>To: "Annie Cheever" <acheever at ecn.purdue.edu>
>Cc: "'Wojciech Szpankowski'" <spa at cs.purdue.edu>
>Subject:  talk "What is Information?'
>Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 21:16:16 -0400
>
>Annie,
>Could you please distribute the following announcement
>Thanks,
>
>Sabre Kais
>Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science
>The Birck Nanotechnology Center
>Purdue University
>West Lafayette, IN 47907
>(765)494-5965 (Office)
>(765)494-0239 (Fax)
>http://www.chem.purdue.edu/kais/
>
>>>>>>
>>Department of Computer Science
>>Science Lecture Series on Information
>>Fall 2006
>>
>>"What is Information?"
>>
>>Prof. Wojciech Szpankowski
>>Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
>>
>>Monday, September 18, 2006
>>1:00-2:00 pm
>>LWSN 3102A/B
>>
>>Abstract:
>>Information permeates every corner of our lives and shapes our universe.
>>Understanding and harnessing information holds the potential for significant
>>advances. The breadth and depth of underlying concepts of the science of
>>information transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries of scientific and
>>commercial endeavors. Information can be manifested in various forms:
>>business information is measured in dollars; chemical information is
>>contained in shapes of molecules; biological information stored and processed
>>in our cells prolongs life. So what is information?
>>In this talk we first attempt to identify the most
>>important features of information and define it in the broadest possible
>>sense. We subsequently turn to the notion and theory of information
>>introduced by Claude Shannon in 1948 that served as the backbone for digital
>>communication. We go on to bridge Shannon information with Boltzmann's
>>entropy, Maxwell's demon, Landauer's principle and Bennett's irreversible
>>computations. We point out, however, that while Shannon created a successful
>>and beautiful theory of information for communication, a wide spread
>>application of information theory to economics, biology, life science and
>>complex networks seems to be still awaiting us. We shall discuss some
>>examples that recently crop up in biology, chemistry, computer science, and
>>quantum physics. We conclude with a list of challenges for future research.
>>We hope to put forward some educated questions, rather than answers, to the
>>issues and tools that lay before researchers interested in information.
>>
>>Bio:
>>Wojciech Szpankowski received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
>>and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Gdansk in
>>1976 and 1980, respectively.  Currently, he is Professor of Computer
>>Science (and by courtesy Electrical and Computer Engineering) at Purdue
>>University.  In 1992 he was Professeur Invite at INRIA-Rocquencourt,
>>France, in 1999 he was Visiting Professor at Stanford University, and
>>in 2006 the Erskine Fellow at University of Canterbury, Christchurch,
>>New Zealand.  Szpankowski's research interests cover mainly analysis of
>>algorithms and information theory, and also bioinformatics, analytic
>>combinatorics, and stability problems of distributed systems. He
>>published the book "Average Case Analysis of Algorithms on Sequences",
>>John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
>>Dr. Szpankowski has been a guest editor and an editor of technical
>>journals, including the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory,
>>Foundation and Trends in Communications and Information Theory,
>>Theoretical Computer Science, Combinatorics, Probability & Computing.
>>the ACM Transaction on Algorithms, and Int. J. Bioinformatics Research
>>and Applications. He co-chaired the Information Theory and Networking
>>Workshop, Metsovo, Greece, the "NSF Workshop on Information Theory
>>and Computer Science Interface", Chicago, and the workshop
>>"Information Beyond Shannon", Orlando.  In June 2004 he directed
>>the MSRI Graduate Program on the "Analysis of Algorithms and
>>Information Theory".  He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
>>
>>
>>-Refreshments will be served before the talk in LWSN3102A/B.


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Annie Cheever, Area Secretary                      
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering 
	                                                                 
 
acheever at purdue.edu
			  
Purdue University
Birck Nanotechnology Center, Room 2027
1205 West State Street
West Lafayette, IN  47907-1205

Phone: 765-496-8327     Fax: 765-496-6443
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