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SUMMARY:Biological Systems as Communication Networks - Prof. Urbashi Mitra
 \, University of Southern California
DTSTART:20170621T130000Z
DTEND:20170621T140000Z
UID:TALK72896@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof. Ramji Venkataramanan
DESCRIPTION:Significant progress has been made\, of late\, on fundamental 
 problems across many areas of biology – in particular\, biological inter
 action and signaling. Two important questions remain elusive. How do compl
 ex networks of simple organisms form in order to perform sophisticated tas
 ks? What are the underlying signaling mechanisms that enable the formation
  and operation of such networks? Concepts and methods from information the
 ory and communication theory offer some hope in providing abstractions and
  tools that can enable basic understanding of these two questions as well 
 as determine fundamental limitations. The definition of communication in t
 he biological context is vague and can be considered as "the transfer of i
 nformation from one cell or molecule to another via chemical\, mechanical\
 , or electrical signals\," or more broadly as "an activity by one organism
  that changes the behavior of another." Given the enormous diversity of or
 ganisms\, there is an equally large number of communication systems that c
 an be studied\, and not all systems yield to a communication- or informati
 on-theoretic lens. To this end\, we shall consider microbial ecosystems wh
 ich contain a number of communication/information theoretic architectures.
  Microbial communities play a significant role in infection\, bioremediati
 on\, plant growth promotion\, human and animal digestion\, the carbon cycl
 e\, cleaning water and microbial fuel cells. Two canonical multi-terminal 
 structures are of importance: multi-hopped networks motivated by bacterial
  cables\, and ad hoc multi-terminal networks as proxies for biofilms and q
 uorum sensing. In this talk\, we explore how a communication- and informat
 ion-theoretic framework can be used to understand — and possibly design 
 — biological systems.\n\n*BIO*:   Urbashi Mitra received the B.S. and th
 e M.S. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and her Ph.D.
  from Princeton University. She is currently a Dean’s Professor of Elect
 rical Engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Unive
 rsity of Southern California (USC)\, Los Angeles. She is the inaugural Edi
 tor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Molecular\, Biological and Multi
 -scale Communications. Dr. Mitra is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE 
 Communications Society for 2015-2017. She is a member of the IEEE Informat
 ion Theory Society's Board of Governors (2002-2007\, 2012-2017) and the IE
 EE Signal Processing Society’s Technical Committee on Signal Processing 
 for Communications and Networks (2012-2016). Dr. Mitra is a Fellow of the 
 IEEE. She is the recipient of: a 2016 United Kingdom Royal Academy of Engi
 neering\, Distinguished Visiting Fellowship\, a 2015 US Fulbright Scholar 
 Award\, a 2016-2017 Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship Fellowship\, a
  2015 Insight Magazine STEM Diversity Award\, 2012 Globecom Signal Process
 ing for Communications Symposium Best Paper Award\, 2012 US National Acade
 my of Engineering Lillian Gilbreth Lectureship\, USC Center for Excellence
  in Research Fellowship (2010-2013)\, the 2009 DCOSS Applications and Syst
 ems Best Paper Award\, Texas Instruments Visiting Professor (Fall 2002\, R
 ice University)\, 2001 Okawa Foundation Award\, 2000 OSU College of Engine
 ering Lumley Award for Research\, 1997 OSU College of Engineering MacQuigg
  Award for Teaching\, and a 1996 National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
  She has been an Associate Editor for the following IEEE publications: Tra
 nsactions on Signal Processing (2012--2015)\, Transactions on Information 
 Theory (2007-2011)\, Journal of Oceanic Engineering (2006-2011)\, and Tran
 sactions on Communications (1996-2001). She has co-chaired: (technical pro
 gram) 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory in Honolulu\
 , HI\, 2014 IEEE Information Theory Workshop in Hobart\, Tasmania\, IEEE 2
 012 International Conference on Signal Processing and Communications\, Ban
 galore India\, and the IEEE Communication Theory Symposium at ICC 2003 in 
 Anchorage\, AK\; and was the general co-chair for the first ACM Workshop o
 n Underwater Networks at Mobicom 2006\, Los Angeles\, CA. She served as co
 -Director of the Communication Sciences Institute at the University of Sou
 thern California from 2004-2007. Her research interests are in: wireless c
 ommunications\, communication and sensor networks\, biological communicati
 on systems\, detection and estimation and the interface of communication\,
  sensing and control.
LOCATION:Engineering Department - Lecture Room - LR6
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