Special Sessions









Important dates

Special session paper submission: Feburary 2, 2018
Author notification: TBD
Final Submission: TBD


Accepted Special Sessions:

  1. Special Session on State Conditioned Feature Acquisition

    Side effect machines, woven string kernels, recurrent neural nets, and infinite block matching features are examples of computational intelligence based, state-conditioned tools that can be used to induce features for the classification of biological data. This special session encourages researchers to submit high-quality papers on any state-conditioned CI technique for generating features. Initial publications have shown that state conditioned features provide a rich collection of novel features that can be used in high accuracy classification. Topics for the special session include but are not limited to:

    • Introduction of novel state conditioned feature acquisition techniques.
    • Introduction of novel applications of state conditioned CI technologies.
    • Comparison of state conditioned and other features correlation and applicability.
    • Classification of different types of state conditioned features or state conditioned features in the context of all features.
    • Applications to DNA and protein sequence classification and to pathway identification.
    • Applications to the processing of biological data into condensed or easily analyzed forms.


    Papers should be submitted to CIBCB 2018 through the conference web site and choose the special topic state conditioned features.
    https://cibcb.org/CIBCB2018/
    The organizers of this special session are:

    • Daniel Ashlock, University of Guelph
    • Joseph Alexander Brown, Innopolis University
    • Sheridan Houghten, Brock University

    If you have questions about the appropriateness of a paper for the special session, contact the corresponding organizer.


  2. Multiobjective Optimization in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering

    Scope and call for papers

    This special session invites papers discussing recent advances in the development and application of Multiobjective Optimization in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering.

    Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering (BCBBE) are interdisciplinary scientific fields involving many branches of computer science, engineering, mathematics, and statistics. Broadly speaking, we can define Bioinformatics as a field concerned with the creation/engineering of tools (e.g. algorithms, databases) that solve problems based on biological data, while Computational Biology is concerned with the (scientific) study of biology using computational techniques with the goal to learn new biology and knowledge about living systems (Russ Altman). Finally, Computational Biomedical Engineering is an emerging research field concerned with the development of software and hardware tools to ultimately enhance human health.

    Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering are fields in which challenges and issues can often be formulated as optimization problems subject to multiple conflicting objectives. Such multiobjective optimization problems span from traditional problems, such as the optimization of biochemical processes, construction of gene regulatory networks, protein structure alignment and prediction, to more modern problems, such as big data analysis of healthcare data, and medical imaging and pattern recognition.

    The main aim of this special session is to bring together both experts and new-comers working on Multiobjective Optimization in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering to discuss new and exciting issues in this area.

    We encourage submission of methodology papers describing new challenges and optimization techniques as well as application papers discussing the power and applicability of these novel methods to multiobjective problems in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering. You are invited to submit papers that are unpublished original work for this special session at IEEE CIBCB 2016. Topics include, but are not limited to,

    • Multiobjective optimization techniques for problems in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering (BCBBE)
      • Evolutionary algorithms
      • Swarm Intelligence
      • Metaheuristics
      • Fuzzy optimization
      • Surrogate-based methods
      • Hybrid optimization algorithms (combinations of heuristics and exact methods)
      • Preference-based methods

    • Tuning of multiobjective optimization and decision-making techniques for problems in BCBBE
      • Performance measures
      • Test and benchmark problems
      • Visualization techniques
      • Optimization and visualization software

    • Applications of multiobjective optimization techniques in BCBBE
      • Gene expression array analysis
      • Structure prediction and folding
      • MicroRNA analysis
      • Biological network reconstruction
      • Signal and image processing
      • Medical imaging and pattern recognition
      • Biomarker

    • Further prominent and emerging topics in multiobjective optimization in BCBBE
      • Scaling up from lab-based work to commerical manufacture
      • Challenging problem features (e.g. many decision variables, dynamic problems, uncertainty, expensive and limited evaluations, etc)
      • Closed-loop applications and challenges
      • Multiobjective data mining
      • Predictive fitness landscape design
      • Many-objective optimization
      • Side effect machines and other kernal representations for sequence analysis
      • Ecoinformatics
      • Visual analytics
      • Data modelling/mining, and Big Data analytics

    Submission instructions

    We welcome original contributions describing ongoing projects or completed work. The instructions for authors, and LaTeX and Word templates can be found at https://cibcb.org/CIBCB2018/index-4.html.

    Contact

    Please feel free to contact us
    Richard Allmendinger: richard.allmendinger@manchester.ac.uk
    Julia Handl: julia.handl@manchester.ac.uk
    Amarda Shehu: amarda@gmu.edu

    About the organizers

    Richard Allmendinger is a Lecturer at the Alliance Manchester Business School (Alliance MBS), The University of Manchester, UK. Richard has joined Alliance MBS after a 4-year long stint as Postdoc at the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies, University College London (UCL), UK. He received a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, UK, and a Diplom in Industrial Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of technology (KIT), Germany, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia. Richard was Chair of CIBCB 2017 in Manchester and is currently the Chair of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Optimization Methods in Bioinformatics and Bioengineering. His main research interest is the development and application of optimization and decision-making tools to real-world problems arising in areas such as bioprocessing, experimental optimization, economics, and product design.

    Webpage: https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/Richard.Allmendinger/default.htm

    Julia Handl is a Senior Lecturer in the Decision and Cognitive Sciences Group at the University of Manchester. Prior to this I was an MRC Special Training Fellow at the University of Manchester and the University of Washington. I hold a PhD from the University of Manchester, a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and a Bachelor (Hons) degree from Monash University.

    Webpage: https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/mbs/julia.handl/

    Amarda Shehu holds affiliated appointments in the School of Systems Biology and the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason University. Shehu's research contributions are in computational structural biology, biophysics, and bioinformatics with a focus on issues concerning the relationship between sequence, structure, dynamics, and function of biological molecules. Her research on probabilistic search and optimization algorithms for protein structure modeling is supported by various NSF programs, including Intelligent Information Systems, Computing Core Foundations, and Software Infrastructure.

    Webpage: https://volgenau.gmu.edu/profile/view/12065

  3. Special Session on Neuroinformatics

    Papers for IEEE CIBCB 2018 Special Session on Neuroinformatics should be submitted electronically through the Conference website at https://cibcb.org/CIBCB2018/, and will be refereed by experts in the fields and ranked based on the criteria of originality, significance, quality and clarity.

    Neuroinformatics is the important field of research focused on computational models and statistical analysis of a complex and poorly understood computer – the brain. This field is concerned with the creation of neuroscientific databases, engineering of computational models, and the development of tools for data analysis. This intersection of information sciences and neuroscience is a promising scientific exploration of the brain with applications in many theoretical and clinical domains.

    Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    • Applications
      • Brain Network Analysis
      • Intersubject Functional/Structural Brain Alignments
      • Brain-Computer Interfaces
      • Reverse Inference
      • Multimodal neuroimaging
      • Mental Health and Depression
      • Novel Data Processing Methods

    • Neuroimaging modalities of interest include, but are not limited to
      • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
      • Electroencephalography (EEG)
      • Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
      • Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
      • Computed Tomography (CT)
      • Single Neuron Recordings
      • Local Field Potentials (LFP)

    Reviewers:

    James Hughes: jhughe54@uwo.ca
    Ethan Jackson: ejacks42@uwo.ca
    Tomas Nelson: Tnelson@brocku.ca



Please submit special session proposals, which should contain a title, motivation and scope as well as a biosktech of the organizers, to Dr Joseph Brown by email (Email: j.brown@innopolis.ru).