Call for Workshop Proposals

The organizing committee of ISIT 2024 is please to invite proposals for workshops to be held at the Symposium with the main goal of broadening the participation of researchers in sibling communities, such as physics, computer science, economics, and neuroscience, facilitating the exchange of ideas between other fields and information theory and enriching the experience of regular attendees of ISIT. The ISIT workshops will be held on Sunday the 7th of July 2024 in parallel with the tutorials, and they will be half-day (3 hour) or full-day (6-hour) events.

Workshop proposals should focus on clearly defined new topics (or new perspectives on old topics) with a preference for subjects at the intersection of information theory and other fields. The workshops may include a mix of regular papers, invited presentations, keynotes, and panels. Invited presentations should ideally be from speakers who do not typically attend ISIT. All presentations must be in person.

If the workshop organizers desire that the workshop papers be published on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library then papers should abide by the ISIT 2024 paper style, format, and length, and the process should follow the main conference reviewing guidelines. Workshop organizers will be responsible for organizing their peer-reviewing process.

Proposal Submission

Workshop proposals should be submitted to the email [email protected] in a free-form pdf file.

The proposal should include three pages for the main proposal and two pages of supplemental information about the organizers, along with an unlimited number of references.

Main Proposal: The following information should be included in the main proposal (up to three pages):

1. Full title: The workshop may include an acronym, which could facilitate recognition if the workshop is envisaged to have multiple editions over the years.

2. Duration and type: Half or full day event

3. Short abstract (up to 200 words): Explain the main ideas, highlighting the differences with respect to topics covered by the Symposium and the potential benefits to the Society and to ISIT attendees.

4. Keywords listing the main topics covered.

5. Expected number of attendees

6. Publication of the workshop papers at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library: Would you like workshop papers authors to have the option to publish papers at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library: Yes/No. (Note that the possibility of this option is still being discussed with the IEEE, and we anticipate that such papers would not be labeled as “ISIT” papers on Xplore, since decisions on them would be handled by the workshop organizing committee and not the ISIT TPC. While both posters and papers/talks are possible, the possible publication of contributions in IEEE Xplore would be limited to papers presented in as talks.)

7. Extended abstract (up to 1000 words, including a few references as necessary): Discuss motivation, relation with topics covered by the Symposium, interactions with sibling communities, impact in terms of new attendees, and benefits for typical ISIT attendees.

8. Tentative schedule: Describe the targeted mix of regular papers, invited presentations, keynotes, and panels (any subset of these would be acceptable), mentioning specific contributors if possible. An example schedule, emphasizing interaction, is provide in the “Call for Workshop Proposals” document. It is suggested that organizers limit their direct contribution to the workshop to a single paper, talk, or tutorial.

9. Diversity: An account of efforts made to ensure the diversity of organizers and speakers, including, among other possibilities, demographic, gender, geographic, seniority, academic / industrial / governmental

10. Funds: Anticipating roughly $12.5k in funding per full-day workshop, whose participation do you propose to support? Please note that travel fund requests should be targeted towards attendees that do not normally attend the ISIT. Besides travel support, how else would you suggest using the funds? Note that workshop registration fees will be charged; such fees will contribute to / cover the cost of coffee breaks, publication in IEEE Xplore, etc.

11. JSAIT / BITS: Comment on the possibility / plans for a proposal of a special issue of JSAIT based on the workshop, or on the potential for tutorial papers in the BITS magazine.

12. Tutorials: One option is to propose a full day event that combines a workshop with a tutorial. If of interest please comment, noting that tutorials proposals are due later than workshop proposals. (The ISIT Tutorial co-chairs would be brought in to consider any such proposed couplings.)

Supplemental Information: The two pages of supplemental information about the organizers must include the following:

• Contacts: Organizer name(s), affiliation(s), address(es), and email(s); up to three organizers.

• Bios: Short bios of the organizer(s), including expertise on the proposed topic, such as relevant publications or projects, experience with organizing similar efforts in the past, and a personal website link

Proposals will be assessed based on their potential impact on broadening participation, on the interest and excitement they may generate, on the credentials of their organizer(s), and on the completeness and feasibility of the proposed plan.

Important dates for workshop submissions (all anywhere-on-earth)

• Workshop application deadlines: 01 October 2023

• Workshop acceptance notification: 01 November 2023

• Suggested submission date for workshop contributions: synchronized with ISIT paper submission deadline (TBA)

• Mandatory accept / reject notification date for workshop contributions: same as ISIT papers (TBA)

Workshop Logistics

Organizers of ISIT workshops will be responsible for planning and promotion of the workshops, including the setup of an external website that will be linked on the ISIT 2024 website but not hosted there; for running the paper reviewing process; and for communicating with the Workshop Chairs.

Workshop Chairs

Stark Draper ([email protected])

Henry Pfister (henry[email protected])

Osvaldo Simeone ([email protected])

Contact

[email protected]

Workshop Guidelines

The ISIT workshop guidelines can be downloaded here.

Example of a full-day schedule

8:30 Breakfast and coffee

9:00-10:30 Overview and tutorial

10:30-11:00 Break – with ice breaker activity for participants

11:00-12:00 Morning session (e.g., three 20 min talks)

12:00-1:30 lunch box and poster session (posters may be left up all day to foster further interaction) or demos or other group activities to build interaction and discussion

1:30-3:00 Afternoon session (more talks or tutorial part 2)

3:00-3:30 Break

3:30-5:00 (or later) Panel, more talks, round-table, or other events

(Note: please coordinate end-time with ISIT welcome reception)

Example of a half-day schedule

8:30 Breakfast and coffee

9:00-10:00 Overview and tutorial

10:00-10:20 Break – with ice breaker activity for participants

10:20-12:00 Session (e.g., five 20 min talks)