Systems as different as the cellular cytoskeleton, microbial communities in soil, and savanna landscapes have in common the emergence of patterns: random yet organized spatial structures that form in an otherwise translationally invariant space. These structures emerge due to the local, individual-level interactions of agents – proteins, cells, trees – that, on a larger scale, result in nonlinear dynamics for the density field. Crucial phenomena hinge on the formation of these patterns: mitosis, embryo development, bacterial population survival, ecosystem’s robustness to aridification.

While broadly different in scale, these systems can be theoretically described by similar statistical physics frameworks, an approach pioneered by Alan Turing in 1952 and still the focus of very active development. The goal of this school is to bring together experts on these different systems using mathematical modeling, experimental approaches and modern data-driven techniques to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue about pattern formation in living systems.

There is no registration fee and limited funds are available for travel and local expenses.

More at: www.ictp-saifr.org

See Also: 3rd ICTP-SAIFR Symposium on Current Topics in Molecular Biophysics (CTMB3): October 7 – 9, 2024

IEEE SSCI is widely recognized for cultivating the interchange of state-of-the-art theories and sophisticated algorithms within the broad realm of Computational Intelligence Applications. The Symposia provide for cross-pollination of research concepts, fostering an environment that facilitates future inter and intra collaborations.

The 2025 event marks a significant milestone in the evolution of IEEE SSCI, launching the newly restructured biennial Symposia Series featuring ten dedicated Applied Computational Intelligence Symposia.

More at: ieee-ssci.org

​”Guided Self-Organization: Machine Learning in Embodied Agents”
The 11th International Conference on Guided Self-Organization takes place during 12-14 February 2025 in Tübingen, Germany. GSO-2025 is organized by The University of Tübingen, The Hamburg University of Technology, The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and The International Association for Guided Self-Organization (TIA-GSO).
Research Aims and Topics
The goal of Guided Self-Organization (GSO) is to leverage the strengths of self-organization (simplicity, parallelization, adaptability, robustness, scalability) while still being able to direct the outcome of the self-organizing process. GSO typically has the following features: (i) an increase in organization (structure and/or functionality) over some time; (ii) the local interactions are not explicitly guided by any external agent; (iii) task-independent objectives are combined with task-dependent constraints.

GSO “aims to regulate self-organization for specific purposes, so that a dynamical system may reach specific attractors or outcomes. The regulation constrains a self-organizing process within a complex system by restricting local interactions between the system components, rather than following an explicit control mechanism or a global design blueprint.” Information theory, nonlinear dynamics and network theory are core to many of these methods, and quantifying complexity, its sources and effects is a common theme.
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The GSO-2025 conference will bring together invited experts and researchers in machine learning, artificial life, self-organizing systems, and complex adaptive systems, with particular emphasis on autonomous agents, information theory, critical phenomena and emergent behaviour. Special topics of interest include: reinforcement learning, intrinsic motivations, origin of life, systems biology, physics of life, unconventional computation, swarm intelligence, measures of complexity, criticality, complex networks, information-driven self-organization (IDSO), etc.

The program includes three days, with five keynote talks, and a number of regular onsite presentations on each day. There are no registration fees for the conference.

More at: www.guided-self.org