Welcome to the IWNC 2009 Official Website

Registration desk open on Sept. 22

Due to the limited time for registration in the morning of Sept. 23, we will accept registrations on the late afternoon of Sept. 22 (16:00-18:00). The registration desk on Sept. 22 is in rooms 4-5-6 at the 4th Floor, where drinks and snacks will be available.

Travel Information

How to get to Himeji

> From Narita Airport near Tokyo:
Easiest way is by JR railway.
First take the JR Narita Express (takes 63 min.) to Tokyo station, and from Tokyo station take a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Himeji (takes 190 min). Reserved seats are available on the Shinkansen at the JR ticket office in Narita airport.

> From Kansai Airport near Osaka:
Fastest way is by JR railway.
First take JR Tokyu Haruka (takes 48 min.) to Shin-Osaka station, and from there take a Shinkansen to Himeji (takes 30 min.). The shinkansen often leaves from nearby platform where the Tokyu Haruka arrives, but it is best to confirm this with the JR ticket office in Kansai airport.
Expected travel time (including waiting and changing trains) is less than 2 hours.

> From Kansai Airport near Osaka:
Most convenient way is by airport bus:
Frequency of service is not high (1 time per hour) and it takes about 2 hours 10 min. Time table is here: http://www.kate.co.jp/pc/e_time_table/e_himeji_tt.html Bus terminal is at North side of Himeji station, which is the side from which the castle is visible.

Note that for bus service from Himeji back to Kansai airport a reservation is needed in advance!

How to get to the conference site

When you get out of the north side of Himeji station, you will see a wide road, which leads to Himeji castle. You should be able to see the castle far away if you are aligned with the center of the road.

Walk at the right side of this road, into the direction of the castle. Along the way, you will pass the Yamato Yashiki Department store at your right side about 500 m from the station. You are then beyond half way. Continue along the wide road, until you see a big empty square in from of you. Then turn to the right, and follow the road for 50m, until you see the building in the following link: www.iwnc2009.org/iwnc_egret_himeji.jpg Here IWNC is held. The registration desk is on the 3rd floor.

More useful information can be found at the web site of the (unrelated) LEEM/PEEM conference: http://leem-peem-v.spring8.or.jp/travel.html

Please send registration form

We kindly request participants who did not register yet to do so as soon as possible, to enable us to better estimate the number of attendants for the banquet. Even if you will pay the registration fee on-site, please, send your registration form by Sept. 14 (Mon), if possible.

Date:

September 23-25, 2009.

Location:

Himeji International Exchange Center, HIMEJI, JAPAN.

Scope of the Workshop:

The complex behavior of systems in nature is rooted in intricate mechanisms of interactions that not only have much in common with human made systems of computation, but actually supersede those in terms of reliability, power efficiency, and computational capacity. It is thus no surprise that natural systems have become the inspiration of novel algorithms that are based on non-standard computational mechanisms. The goal of IWNC 2009 is to offer computer scientists, biologists, mathematicians, electronic engineers, physicists, and social scientists a platform to critically assess present findings in the field, and to outline future developments in nature-inspired computing.

Special Session on Unconventional Models of Communication
K. Leibnitz and N. Wakamiya (Osaka University, Japan)

A fundamental research challenge is the design of robust decentralized communication systems capable of operating under changing environments and noisy input. In the special session on Unconventional Models of Communication, we encourage authors to submit papers on models, protocols, and architectures for the management and control of information and communication networks inspired by concepts from biology, physics, nanotechnology, or social sciences.

Topics of the Workshop:

Topics of either theoretical or applied interest include, but are not limited to:

DNA computation,
Physics of Computation,
Cellular automata,
Neural Networks,
Swarm Systems,
Computation in Living Cells,
P-systems,
Chaotic Systems,
Evolutionary Computing,
Artificial Chemistry,
Nanocomputing,
Noise-driven Computation

Invited Speakers:

Invited Speakers (Confirmed to date)

Anirban Bandyopadhyay, National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
Laszlo Kish, Texas A&M University, USA
Bruce J. MacLennan, University of Tennessee, USA
Masayuki Murata, Osaka University, Japan
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hokkaido University, Japan
Milan N. Stojanovic, Columbia University, USA

Titles and abstracts for Invited Talks and Invited Papers are available at here.

Proceedings and Publications:

Pre-Proceedings of accepted papers will be distributed at the workshop.
Official Proceedings of accepted and presented papers will be published by Springer-Japan after the workshop.
Special Issue of the International Journal of Unconventional Computing (IJUC) will be published containing extended versions of selected papers.

Important Dates:

Paper submission deadline:	~~May 31, 2009~~ ~~June 19, 2009~~ closed
Notification of acceptance:	~~July 15, 2009~~ July 23, 2009
Camera ready version:	~~August 15, 2009~~ August 18, 2009
Early registration deadline:	~~August 15, 2009~~ August 18, 2009
Workshop:	September 23-25, 2009

IWNC History:

The International Workshop on Natural Computing (IWNC) is organized annually. The past three IWNC meetings were held in :

Dec 14-15, 2006 : University of West-England, Bristol, UK
Dec 10-13, 2007 : Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Sept. 23, 2008 : Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan

IWNC 2009 is supported by:

IWNC 2009 Conference Secretariat
588-2 Iwaoka, Iwaoka-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2492 JAPAN
Phone: +81-78-969-2161, Fax: +81-78-969-2259
email: office@iwnc2009.org