Schedule

Schedule: 01 Feb, 2021 (Monday) at 1300 IST.

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Abstract

Molecular communication is an emerging research area offering many interesting and challenging new research problems for communication engineers, biologists, chemists, and physicists. Molecular communication is widely considered as an attractive option for communication between nanodevices such as (possibly artificial) cells and nanosensors. Possible applications of the resulting nanonetworks include targeted drug delivery, health monitoring, and environmental monitoring. In this talk, we will give first a general introduction to molecular communication. Components of molecular communication networks, possible applications, and the evolution of the field will be reviewed. Thereby, we will focus particularly on diffusion based molecular communication, identify the relevant basic laws of physics and discuss their implications for communication system design. One particular challenge in the design of diffusive molecular communication systems is intersymbol interference. We will discuss corresponding mitigation techniques used by Nature. Furthermore, we will present two testbeds developed at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg. In the last part of the talk, we will discuss some research challenges and directions in molecular communication.

About Speaker

Robert Schober (S'98, M'01, SM'08, F'10) received the Diploma (Univ.) and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, in 1997 and 2000, respectively. From 2002 to 2011, he was a Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. Since January 2012 he is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor and the Chair for Digital Communication at FAU. His research interests fall into the broad areas of Communication Theory, Wireless Communications, and Statistical Signal Processing. Robert received several awards for his work including the 2002 Heinz Maier­ Leibnitz Award of the German Science Foundation (DFG), the 2004 Innovations Award of the Vodafone Foundation for Research in Mobile Communications, a 2006 UBC Killam Research Prize, a 2007 Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the 2008 Charles McDowell Award for Excellence in Research from UBC, a 2011 Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, a 2012 NSERC E.W.R. Stacie Fellowship, and a 2017 Wireless Communications Recognition Award by the IEEE Wireless Communications Technical Committee. Since 2017, he has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Web of Science. Robert is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. From 2012 to 2015, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Communications. Currently, he serves as Member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE and as VP Publications for the IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc).

 Schedule: 01 Feb, 2021 (Monday) at 1500 IST.

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Abstract

Nano-molecular communication represents, in terms of its scale and energy consumption, a very powerful future communication system. Though nano communication can also be realized with electromagnetic waves, as in traditional communication systems, such means still pose several problems, such as the development of nano-scale actuator, antennas, or body absorption of tera-Hertz band frequency. Nano-molecular, or molecular communication, however, can utilize intra-body biomolecules that enable a great deal of various applications. As research into this field has been underway for less than a decade, it calls for fundamental intellectual challenges through preliminary studies. In my talk, I will introduce the contributions of Einstein and Reynolds and explain how they contribute for communications, especially for a biological layer of 6G/B6G.

About Speaker

Chan-Byoung Chae is an Underwood Distinguished Professor in the School of Integrated Technology, Yonsei University, Korea. He was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA as a Visiting Associate Professor in 2017. He was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, Murray Hill, NJ, USA from June 2009 to Feb 2011. Before joining Bell Laboratories, he was with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Texas (UT), Austin, TX, USA in 2008. Prior to joining UT, he was a Research Engineer at the Advanced Research Lab., the Telecommunications R&D Center, Samsung Electronics, Suwon, Korea, from 2001 to 2005. He is now an Editor-in-Chief of the the IEEE Trans. on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-scale Communications. He has served/serves as an Editor for the IEEE Communications Magazine (2016-present), the IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications (2012-2017), the IEEE Trans. on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-scale Comm. (2015-present), the IEEE Wireless Communications Letters (2016-present), the IEEE Trans. on Smart Grid (2010-2011), the IEEE ComSoc Technology News (2014), and the IEEE/KICS Jour. of Comm. Networks (2012-present). He has been a Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (special issue on molecular, biological, and multi-scale communications) 2014-2015 and the IEEE Access (special section on molecular communication networks). He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer (ComSoc) and an IEEE Fellow. Dr. Chae was the recipient/co-recipient of the IEEE WCNC Best Demo Award in 2020, the Best Young Engineer Award from the National Academy of Engineering of Korea (NAEK) in 2019, the IEEE DySPAN Best Demo Award in 2018, the IEEE/KICS Journal of Communications Networks Best Paper Award in 2018, the Award of Excellence in Leadership of 100 Leading Core Technologies for Korea 2025 from NAEK in 2017, the IEEE INFOCOM Best Demo Award in 2015, the IEIE/IEEE Joint Award for Young IT Engineer of the Year in 2014, the KICS Haedong Young Scholar Award in 2013, the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award in 2013, the IEEE ComSoc AP Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2012, the IEEE VTS Dan. E. Noble Fellowship Award in 2008.

 Schedule: 02 Feb, 2021 (Tuesday) at 1100 IST.

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Abstract

Over the past decades, wireless communication networks have been recognised as one of the most innovations that drive our society towards a better future. Despite so, the information transmission over electromagnetic waves may not be appropriate in many biological and medical environments, since electromagnetic signals quickly decay in such environments. In nature, molecular signals are used for many cell, tissues, and organisms to signal each other and share information, e.g., molecular signaling between neuromuscular junction and molecular signaling in quorum sensing. Inspired by this, molecular communications (MolCom) has recent attracted increasing research efforts worldwide. In this new communications paradigm, the information transmission between devices is achieved through the exchange of molecules. To advance this paradigm, various communications theory and signal processing algorithms have been investigated to study and design MolCom systems, aiming at bridging the gap between biological signaling and information conveying at the micro- and nano-scale. In this talk, I will present my research team’s contributions to the field of cooperative MolCom, including: 1) Improvement of the reliability of nano-scale communications via the concept of cooperative MolCom, 2) Development of new methods to comprehend and utilise practical molecular propagation environment, and 3) Establishment of the fundamental understanding of noisy molecular signaling among population of bacteria. The system model, methodologies, and important insights in these contributions will be presented. The future work and research challenges will be discussed.

About Speaker

Nan Yang received the B.S. degree in electronics from China Agricultural University in 2005, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the Beijing Institute of Technology in 2007 and 2011, respectively. He has been with the School of Engineering at the Australian National University since July 2014, where he currently works as an Associate Professor. He received the IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2014 and the Best Paper Awards from the IEEE GlobeCOM 2016 and the IEEE VTC 2013-Spring. He also received the Top Editor Award from the Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, the Exemplary Reviewer Awards from the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, and IEEE Communications Letters, and the Top Reviewer Award from the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology from 2012 to 2019. He is currently serving in the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. His research interests include millimeter wave and terahertz communications, ultra-reliable low latency communications, cyber-physical security, massive multi-antenna systems, and molecular communications.

 Schedule: 02 Feb, 2021 (Tuesday) at 1400 IST.

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 Abstract 

A fundamental aspect of molecular communication is the motion of colloidal information-carrying molecules. To capture interactions between these molecules and other comprising the fluid, stochastic models play a key role. While the simplest family of these models—namely the Wiener process—-is well known, it is also possible to account for inhomogeneous diffusion, external forces, and general chemical reactions. In this talk, I will begin by overviewing this general family of models (including Langevin diffusions and the reaction-diffusion master equation) and present a recently proposed approach for developing near-optimal detection rules, called equilibrium signaling. I will then turn to other applications of stochastic reaction-diffusion systems in molecular communication related to molecular circuits for inference and modeling interactions with external biological systems to support coexistence, in the process identifying open challenges. 

About Speaker

 Malcolm Egan received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2014 from the University of Sydney, Australia. He is currently a Chargé de Recherche (Permanent Research Staff) in Inria hosted by CITI, a joint laboratory between Inria, INSA Lyon and Université de Lyon, France. Previously he was an Assistant Professor in INSA Lyon, and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Laboratoire de Mathématiques, Université Blaise Pascal, France and the Department of Computer Science, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. He is currently an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and previously a guest editor for IEEE Access. His research interests are in the areas of information theory and statistical signal processing with applications in wireless and molecular communications.   

 Schedule: 03 Feb, 2021 (Wednesday) at 1430 IST.

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Abstract

One can view a living cell simply as a soup of chemical molecules, but a living cell can sense the environment, make decisions,  communicate with other cells and do many other amazing things. From an information processing perspective, cells realize these functions by using networks of chemical reactions (which are also known as molecular circuits) as the substrate to execute algorithms for computation and communication. This perspective has inspired us to consider the problem of designing a molecular circuit-based demodulator for diffusion-based molecular communication. We will present a two-step approach to this problem. In our first step, we model the transmitter, medium and the front-end of the demodulator using a continuous-time Markov chain, and then we use statistical detection theory to derive the optimal demodulator. In the second step, we specialized to the case of concentration modulated symbols and consider how the optimal demodulator can be approximately implemented by a molecular circuit. Our framework can also be applied to design molecular circuits for signal processing. We will present an example on designing molecular circuits that can distinguish persistent signals from transient ones.  

About Speaker

Chun Tung Chou is an Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, the University of New South Wales, Australia. He received the BA degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford, UK and the PhD degree in Control Engineering from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is/was on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; IEEE Wireless Communications Letters; Nano Communication Networks; and, Frontiers in Communications and Networks. His research interests are in molecular communications, molecular computing and pervasive computing. 

 Schedule: 03 Feb, 2021 (Wednesday) at 1830 IST.

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Abstract

 Molecular communication is a very promising field for applying communications engineering concepts to biological problems. However, working in this area requires familiarity with topics from several distinct disciplines. Thus, there is a relatively high barrier for a communications researcher to enter and innovate in the field. This talk presents fundamentals for studying molecular communication systems that are based on diffusion, flow, and chemical reactions. First, we present how to mathematically describe such systems with differential equations and boundary conditions. We discuss how these deterministic models inform a stochastic representation, which drives most communications-based analysis in the existing literature. Then, we cover simulation methodologies and demonstrate how to implement common reaction-diffusion algorithms. These algorithms are sufficient to construct a basic molecular communication simulator. Finally, we provide insight on future research directions to tackle existing open problems in modeling and simulation. 

About Speaker

 Adam Noel (S'09-M'16) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. He received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering in 2009 from Memorial University in St. John’s, Canada. He received the M.A.Sc. degree in electrical engineering in 2011 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2015, both from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In 2013, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Digital Communication at Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen, Germany. He has also been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa and the University of Montreal. His research interests are in the prediction and control of biophysical systems at a microscopic level. Dr. Noel is currently an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications. He is also serving as Secretary for the IEEE ComSoc's Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications Technical Committee (2020-2021). He has received awards including a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and a Best Paper Award at the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Communications.  

 Schedule: 04 Feb, 2021 (Thursday) at 1300 IST.

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Abstract

This talk introduces the emerging field of communications and networking in droplet-based microfluidic systems,  where tiny volumes of fluids, so-called droplets, are used for communication and addressing purposes in microfluidic chips.  This research is an important step towards the next generation of Lab-on-Chip devices that are aimed to be  programmable,  flexible, and biocompatible. Moreover, it provides the basis for various future healthcare applications such as fast and  flexible drug and pathogen screening. The talk starts with an accessible introduction to droplet-based microfluidics.  Then, various communications aspects, such as modulation and channel modeling are discussed. Microfluidic switches are  introduced as the key building block for microfluidic networks and various addressing schemes for microfluidic networks are presented.  Moreover, different possibilities for the simulation of microfluidic networks are discussed. Finally, a fast prototyping method for  microfluidic chips is introduced, which enables fast and low-cost fabrication of microfluidic chips. The talk concludes by discussing the  most important open problems. You can’t wait until the talk to find out more about this exciting field? Please visit our  webpage (https://is.gd/ZEHMn7) and our YouTube channel (https://is.gd/tmGC81).

About Speaker

Werner Haselmayr is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Communications Engineering and RF-Systems, Johannes Kepler University  (JKU) Linz, Austria. He received the Ph.D. and Habilitation degree from JKU Linz in 2013 and 2020, respectively. His research  interests include the design and analysis of synthetic molecular communication systems and communications and networking in droplet-based microfluidic systems. He has given several invited talks and tutorials on various aspects of droplet-based communications and networking. 

He has authored 2 book chapters and more than 60 paper, appeared in top-level international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Moreover, he co-organized the 4th Workshop on Molecular Communications 2019, which was held at JKU Linz. Currently, he serves as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications.

 Schedule: 04 Feb, 2021 (Thursday) at 1830 IST.

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Abstract

This talk will introduce the emerging field of molecular communication wherein

chemical signals are used to connect “tiny” machines such as living cells, synthetic

biological devices and swarms of microscale robots. It begins with an overview of

molecular communication systems and how they are modeled; each has a

Transmitter, the Propagation Channel, and the Receiver, just as in a conventional

communication system.  She will describe the modelling and simulation of a diffusive molecular communication system with a reversible adsorption receiver in a fluid environment. She will explain how to analytically model the time-varying spatial distribution of information molecules and present a simulation framework for the proposed model that accounts for the diffusion and reversible reaction. She will also cover her talk on signal processing via chemical circuits-based microfluidic design.

About Speaker

Yansha Deng is currently an Assistant Professor in department of Engineering, Kings College London, U. K. She pursued her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Queen Mary University of London, U.K. from 2012 to 2015. From 2015 to 2017, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with King’s College London, U.K.. Her research interests include Molecular Communication, and Machine Learning for 5G and Beyond Wireless Networks. She was a recipient of the Best Paper Awards from ICC 2016 and Globecom 2017 as the first author of MC papers. She is currently Associate Editors for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi- scale Communications, and Senior Editor for IEEE Communication Letters.

 Schedule: 05 Feb, 2021 (Friday) at 1300 IST.

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Abstract

Medical technology for early disease diagnosis advanced significantly over

the years helping to improve patient quality of life and potential treatment

possibilities. Empowering diagnostic systems with nanotechnology to

expand the limits of sensing has the potential to revolutionize the entire

health industry. The adoption of nanoscale structures for in vivo diagnosis is

expected to have a remarkable rise in the upcoming years.

At the same time, there are some major concerns regarding the

development of nanotechnology-based strategies. One of them is to build

an end-to-end solution that can gather the information in nano scale inside

the body and can transfer the information to outside the body. The

implanted and wearable sensors providing high accuracy and sensitivity,

simultaneous tracking, and easy usage, are proposed as a promising solution. Yet, the challenge is to build a conventional wireless link between a biocompatible in body sensing module that is sensitive enough to track the symptoms on a molecular scale, and an on-body reader antenna. The focus of this presentation will be to introduce a novel sensing mechanism based on a biological

component and a dynamic sensing system. The proposed design includes a traceable signal, a transducer, and an on-body tag antenna that can transmit the molecular signal to a smart monitoring device via a conventional wireless link.

About Speaker

Zeliha Cansu Canbek Ozdil received her B.Sc. degree in chemistry from Middle East Technical University and her M.Sc. degree from the University of Regensburg in the field of “Complex Condensed Materials and Soft Matter”. She perused a joint Ph.D. program in physical and theoretical chemistry at the University of Versailles-St-Quentin and The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). After 2 years of working as an R&D assistant manager in the automotive industry, she continued her post-doctoral research in CNRS Bordeaux in the field of meta-materials. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at Bogazici University in the field of Nanonetworking. Her specific area of research includes the production/characterization of functional nanomaterials for nano biosensing platforms and the development of microfluidics lab-on-chip (LOC) technologies. 

 Schedule: 05 Feb, 2021 (Friday) at 1630 IST.

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Abstract

Molecular communications is an interdisciplinary research area that promises significant achievements in strategic societal fields, such as education, medicine, and bio-related industry. In order to design biological nano-machines having the capabilities of communicating at the nanoscales by the use of biological mechanisms, it is necessary to identify and model the basic communication entities and their interconnection. This tutorial shows the main simulation techniques currently adopted in a specific type of molecular communications, those based on Brownian diffusion. This talks surveys most common models in diffusion-based molecular communications, and their implementation in some well-known open source simulation platform. In addition, the tutorial focuses on a specific simulator, BiNS2, developed at University of Perugia, and illustrates the capabilities of exploiting the high level of parallelism of modern multi-core computer architectures to speed up simulation times.

 About Speaker 

Mauro Femminella received the master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Electronic Engineering from the University of Perugia, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Since 2006, he has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Engineering, University of Perugia. He is also member of CNIT, a non-profit consortium, bringing together most Italian Universities and several institutes of the National Research Council to foster research activity in the field of telecommunications. Currently, he is leader for research unit (RU) of University of Perugia in CNIT, through which he actively participates to H2020 projects 5G-CARMEN and 5G-EVE. He is the CNIT representative in the 5G- PPP Automotive WG, in the 5G-PPP Trials WG, and in the 5G-PPP Vision-PSM WG. He has co-authored more than 100 papers in international journals and refereed international conferences. His current research interests focus on nanoscale networking and communications, big data systems, and network and service management architectures for 5G and beyond networks.