Upcoming Press-Relevant Seminars and Perspectives Workshops

Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Gregor Leander 18061 Evidence About Programmers for Programming Language Design Sunday, February 04 to Friday, February 09, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18061 Stefan Hanenberg (Universität Duisburg-Essen, DE) Brad A. Myers (Carnegie Mellon University – Pittsburgh, US) Bonita Sharif (Youngstown State University, US) Andreas Stefik (Univ. of Nevada – Las Vegas, US) Since its inception, computer science has had many competing programming languages and technologies. The technical aspects of these language products are well known in the literature (e.g., type soundness, other mathematical properties of languages), but almost no systematic evidence has been gathered on the impact of their designs on human users. Further, recent work has shown that even minor differences in language design can have a significant impact on programmers in practice, both in education and in industry. This Dagstuhl Seminar has the following objectives: 1. to form a community of scholars around collecting evidence about programmers’ performance for programming language design, 2. to create an organized set of priorities for new human studies in the area, 3. to define the evidence standard to be used in such studies, and 4. to discuss or create theories that can guide the community in understanding and framing the evidence gathered over time. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Andreas Stefik, Stefan Hanenberg, Brad Myers, and Bonita Sharif 18072 Formal methods for the synthesis of biomolecular circuits Sunday, February 11 to Friday, February 16, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18072 Yaakov Benenson (ETH Zürich – Basel, CH) Neil Dalchau (Microsoft Research UK – Cambridge, GB) Heinz Koeppl (TU Darmstadt, DE) Oded Maler (VERIMAG – Grenoble, FR) Synthetic biology aims for the rational bottom-up engineering of new biological functionalities. Recent years have witnessed an increase in the degree of "rationality" in the design of synthetic biomolecular circuits. With it, fewer design-build-test cycles were necessary to achieve a desired circuit performance. Most of these success stories reported the realization of logic circuits, typically operating via regulation of gene expression and/or direct manipulation of DNA sequences with recombinases, executing combinatorial and sometimes sequential logic. This was often achieved with the help of two ingredients, a library of previously well-characterized parts and some computational modeling. Hence, although circuits in synthetic biology are still by far less understood and characterized than electronic circuits, the opportunity for the formal synthesis of circuit designs with respect to a behavioral specification starts to emerge in synthetic biology. This Dagstuhl Seminar will bring together experts in formal methods for the verification and synthesis of hardware and software with wet-lab and dry-lab synthetic biologists to (1) achieve a common understanding of the current state of design methodology in synthetic biology; (2) to identify the limitations of current approaches and (3) to investigate dedicated solutions to the synthesis problem in synthetic biology. Some of these methods will be based on leveraging experience and methods from electronic design automation (EDA) and from program synthesis and verification. In addition, ideas for entirely new methodologies specifically tailored for synthetic biology are likely to emerge. For example, features that are not apparent in electronic circuits such as heterogeneity and variability between the cells and between the circuits embedded in different cells, will be addressed. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Heinz Koeppl, Kobi Benenson, Oded Maler, and Neil Dalchau 18081 Designing and Implementing Algorithms for Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Optimization Sunday, February 18 to Friday, February 23, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18081 Pierre Bonami (IBM Spain – Barcelona, ES) Ambros M. Gleixner (Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum – Berlin, DE) Jeff Linderoth (University of Wisconsin – Madison, US) Ruth Misener (Imperial College London, GB) Mathematical models for optimal decisions often require both nonlinear and discrete components. These mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MINLP) form an important class of optimization problems of pressing societal need. For example, MINLP is necessary for optimizing the energy use of large industrial plants, for integrating renewable sources into energy networks, for biological and biomedical design, and for countless other applications. The first MINLP algorithms and software were designed by application engineers. While these efforts initially proved very useful, scientists, engineers, and practitioners have realized that a transformational shift in technology will be required for MINLP to achieve its full potential. Realizing this opportunity, in the last decade, MINLP has transitioned to a forefront position in computer science, with researchers actively developing MINLP theory, algorithms, and implementations. Even with this concerted effort, algorithms and available software are often unable to solve practically-sized instances of these important models. Current obstacles include characterizing the computability boundary and effectively exploiting known optimization technologies for specialized classes of MINLP. This Dagstuhl Seminar aims to address this mismatch between natural optimization models for important scientific problems and practical optimization solvers for their solution, facilitating an accelerated development of powerful new solver technology for mixed-integer nonlinear programs. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Pierre Bonami, Ambros Gleixner, Jeff Linderoth, and Ruth Misener 18102 Dynamic Traffic Models in Transportation Science Sunday, March 04 to Friday, March 09, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18102 Roberto Cominetti (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez – Santiago, CL) Tobias Harks (Universität Augsburg, DE) Carolina Osorio (MIT – Cambridge, US) Britta Peis (RWTH Aachen, DE) Traffic assignment models are crucial for traffic planners to be able to predict traffic distributions, especially, in light of possible changes of the infrastructure, e.g., road constructions, traffic light controls, etc. This Dagstuhl Seminar will address questions arising from the observation that there is a trend in the transportation community (science as well as industry) to base such predictions on complex computer-based simulations that are capable of resolving many elements of a real transportation system. On the other hand, the theory of dynamic traffic assignments in terms of equilibrium existence, computability and efficiency, has not matured to the point matching the model complexity inherent in simulations. The seminar aims at bringing together leading scientists in the areas traffic simulations, algorithmic game theory and dynamic traffic assignment. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Roberto Cominetti, Tobias Harks, Caroline Osorio, and Britta Peis 18171 Normative Multi-Agent Systems Sunday, April 22 to Friday, April 27, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18171 Mehdi Dastani (Utrecht University, NL) Jürgen Dix (TU Clausthal, DE) Harko Verhagen (Stockholm University, SE) Serena Villata (Laboratoire I3S – Sophia Antipolis, FR) The aim of this Dagstuhl Seminar is to bring together researchers from various scientific disciplines such as computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, law, cognitive science and social sciences to discuss the emerging topic concerning the responsibility of autonomous systems. Autonomous software systems and multi-agent systems in open environments require methodologies, models and tools to analyse and develop flexible control and coordination mechanism — without them, it is not possible to steer the behaviour and interaction of such systems and to ensure important overall properties. Normative multi-agent systems is an established area focussing on how norms can be used to control and coordinate autonomous systems and multi-agents systems without restricting the autonomy of the involved systems. Such control and coordination systems allow autonomous systems to violate norms, but respond to norm violations by means of various sanctioning mechanisms. Therefore it is crucial to determine which agents or agent groups are accountable for norm violations. This seminar focuses on how the responsibility of autonomous systems can be defined, modelled, analysed and computed. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Mehdi Dastani, Jurgen Dix, Harko Verhagen, and Serena Villata 18181 Towards Accountable Systems Sunday, April 29 to Friday, May 04, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18181 David Eyers (University of Otago, NZ) Christopher Millard (Queen Mary University of London, GB) Margo Seltzer (Harvard University – Cambridge, US) Jatinder Singh (University of Cambridge, GB) Technology is putting our everyday lives under continuous scrutiny, such as through monitoring and surveillance by our phones or sensors in smart cities. At the same time, the actuation capabilities of the emerging Internet of Things add a new dimension, by allowing systems to directly affect the physical world. This, coupled with the integration of data analytics/machine learning techniques into system workflows is moving us into an increasingly automated world – driverless cars are just an early example. It follows that the legal and policy concerns regarding technology are increasing in salience and prominence; there are real issues regarding privacy, transparency, agency and safety as they relate to the systems underpinning society, and the data that drives them. Accountability, however, is hindered by the nature of the technology. Systems tend to be ‘black boxes’, that operate in a manner ‘invisible’ to those who are affected by them. Data can easily move across both administrative and geo-political boundaries, often without a trace. The structure and composition of the systems-of-systems involved can be dynamic and complex, and the internals of data analytics techniques are often opaque. This means that even where regulations are fit-forpurpose, ascertaining compliance is difficult, although accountability is still essential. This seminar will bring together computer scientists, and lawyers from academia and industry. We will explore technical means for improving accountability, in light of legal/social requirements and conversely, interrogate and shape the legal, social and political frameworks regarding new and emerging technology. The goal of this seminar is to set new directions towards better aligning systems technologies; developing legal and regulatory requirements; and evolving user expectations. Abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Margo Seltzer, Jatinder Singh, Christopher Millard, and David Eyers Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Margo Seltzer, Jatinder Singh, Christopher Millard, and David Eyers 18202 Inter-Vehicular Communication Towards Cooperative Driving Sunday, May 13 to Wednesday, May 16, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18202 Onur Altintas (TOYOTA InfoTechnology Center USA – Mountain V, US) Suman Banerjee (University of Wisconsin – Madison, US) Falko Dressler (Universität Paderborn, DE) Geert Heijenk (University of Twente, NL) Katrin Sjöberg (Volvo Car Corporation – Göteborg, SE) Looking back at the last decade, one can observe enormous progress in the domain of vehicular networking. In this growing community, many ongoing activities focus on the design of communication protocols to support safety applications, intelligent navigation, multi-player gaming and others. Very large projects have been initiated to validate the theoretic work in field tests and protocols are being standardized. With the increasing interest from industry, security and privacy have also become crucial aspects in the stage of protocol design in order to support a smooth and carefully planned roll-out. We are now entering an era that might change the game in road traffic management. This is supported by the U.S. federal government announcement in December 2016 that National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to make V2V devices in new vehicles mandatory. The vehicular networking research also complements the ongoing activities towards automated driving. Very successful activities started with the Google car and lead to first projects on the road such as the Singapore driverless taxi service or the platooning experiments in Scandinavia and now Germany. The focus of this Dagstuhl Seminar will be networked control applications for the emerging “cooperative automated driving” domain. It is of utmost importance to bring together expertise from classical computer science (computer networking, simulation and modeling, operating system design), from electrical engineering (digital signal processing, communication networks), as well as from automated driving (mechanical engineering, image processing, control theory). The seminar aims to bring together experts from all these fields from both academia and industry. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Onur Altintas, Suman Banerjee, Falko Dressler, Geert Heijenk, and Katrin Sjoberg 18242 Secure Routing for the Internet and beyond Sunday, June 10 to Wednesday, June 13, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18242 Phillipa Gill (University of Massachusetts – Amherst, US) Amir Herzberg (Bar-Ilan University – Ramat Gan, IL) Adrian Perrig (ETH Zürich, CH) Matthias Wählisch (FU Berlin, DE) The goals of this seminar are (i) to facilitate brainstorming and exchange of ideas among experts working in different areas and types of secure-networking, hopefully leading to improved understanding and progress in different aspect of secure routing, and (ii) to identify the most important research challenges and to devise a roadmap towards addressing this urgent issue. To this end, the seminar aims at bringing together leading scientist in the area of secure routing, including scientists working on security of inter-AS routing, intra-AS routing, routing for future Internet designs, and on (secure) routing for highly-mobile scenarios including ad-hoc networks, sensor networks, robotic (swarm) networks, delay-tolerant networks and vehicular networks. Abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Phillipa Gill, Amir Herzberg, Adrian Perrig, and Matthias Wählisch Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Phillipa Gill, Amir Herzberg, Adrian Perrig, and Matthias Wählisch 18252 Ubiquitous Gaze Sensing and Interaction Monday, June 18 to Thursday, June 21, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18252 Lewis Chuang (MPI für biologische Kybernetik – Tübingen, DE) Andrew Duchowski (Clemson University, US) Pernilla Qvarfordt (FX Palo Alto Laboratory, US) Daniel Weiskopf (Universität Stuttgart, DE) The miniaturization of optical devices and advances in computer vision have led to an increasing integration of gaze sensing capabilities in computing systems, from desktop computing to virtual reality to wearables. Everyday scenarios include computer games that select the camera viewpoint given the user’s gaze (e.g., Assassin’s Creed 3) and robotic agents that infer user engagement from gaze behavior. Ubiquitous gaze sensing and interaction presents many computational challenges. This demands a framework that can accommodate compatible solutions from data acquisition to signal processing to pattern classification to visualization and analytics. By bringing together computer scientists and gaze researchers, the seminar will answer the following questions: (1) What can computing systems reliably sense from user gaze information? (2) What innovations in human-computing interaction can result from gaze information? From computer science, we invite experts from computer graphics, signal processing, visualization, human-computer interaction, data analytics, pattern analysis and classification. Also, we invite experts that employ gaze tracking across diverse disciplines: geoinformation systems, medicine, aviation, psychology, neuroscience, etc. By involving experts in gaze interpretation, this seminar will provide a roadmap to develop solutions that will deliver meaningful inputs for computing systems as well as advance existing gaze research. The seminar will conduct workshops to identify high-impact scenarios and challenges. Subsequently, participants with complementary expertise will propose solutions that target identified challenges and write book sections for a handbook, which will help computer scientists appreciate the challenges of interpreting gaze information and inform gaze researchers on the modern techniques that underlie gaze acquisition and processing. Modified by Michael Gerke, based on the seminar abstract: Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) c © Lewis L. Chuang, Andrew T. Duchowski, Pernilla Qvarfordt, and Daniel Weiskopf