Workshop on Collective Behaviours and Social Dynamics ECAL 2013, the 12th European Conference on Artificial Life

Workshop on Collective Behaviours and Social DynamicsECAL 2013, the 12th European Conference on Artificial LifeTaormina, Italy, September 2-6, 2013
http://laral.istc.cnr.it/collective-and-swarm-robotics.html

=== About the Workshop ===
This workshop is at the intersection of several disciplines, from ethology to swarm intelligence, from collective robotics to evolutionary linguistics. Despite very heterogeneous, these disciplines share a common ground when they refer to the mechanisms and the dynamics of social interaction. Despite the similar scientific questions, the study of collective behaviour and social dynamics is characterised by very different approaches, and few places for discussion and comparison are available. Therefore, the workshop represents a unique occasion in which such a juxtaposition of diverse disciplines can take place. The goal of the workshop is to confront the current trends and advancements in the study of collective behaviour and social dynamics, and to promote cross-fertilisation and contamination between disciplines and approaches that rarely meet together.
We solicit presentation proposals about both published (e.g., to a top-ranking journal) and unpublished work. Selected presentations of unpublished work will be invited to submit a full-length paper to the Swarm Intelligence journal, and will benefit of a fast-track reviewing process.
The workshop will feature two outstanding invited speakers covering the collective behaviours and social dynamics: Dr. Simon Garnier from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University (http://www.theswarmlab.com) will give a talk titled "Ant wuz here! Following the trail of recent ant network research". Dr. Andrea Baronchelli from the Northeastern University (https://sites.google.com/site/andreabaronchelli), will give a talk on "Modeling interaction networks of mobile individuals: from artificial agents to human gatherings".
The workshop is supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF) under the EUROCORES program EuroBioSAS.
http://www.esf.org/coordinating-research/eurocores/running-programmes/eurobiosas.html

=== Submission Instructions ===

Applicants are asked to submit an abstract or short paper (up to 2 pages) of the planned presentation. Specify whether the work has been already published elsewhere.

Important Dates:        

Submission due: July 5, 2013.        
Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2013        
Workshop: September 2, 2013
Applications should be submitted via e-mail to: Workshop.Collective.Robotics@gmail.com
For additional information, see http://laral.istc.cnr.it/collective-and-swarm-robotics.html

Travel grants available
A limited number of travel grants are available for graduate and undergraduate students giving a presentation at the workshop. The grant can cover travel and accommodation for two nights. The registration to the workshop/ECAL conference should be provided by the participant.To apply for a travel grant, please submit your request to Workshop.Collective.Robotics@gmail.com, attaching a cover letter and a copy of the student  card (or equivalent documentation about the student status).