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Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Fall 02 Special Subject MIT 6.978: Biologically Motivated Programming Technology for Robust SystemsH level (2-0-10) Instructors: Hal Abelson, Radhika Nagpal, Gerald Jay Sussman Class meetings: Tuesday 3-5 in room 34-301 Permission of instructor required A colony of cells cooperates to form a multicellular organism under the direction of a common genetic program. A swarm of bees cooperates to construct a hive. Engineers envision building self-organizing networks, creating vast distributed sensor systems, and even harnessing biological cells as a new computational substrate. These examples raise fundamental questions for the organization of computing systems:
This seminar will provide an introduction to research on new algorithms, principles, and programming languages for achieving coherent, reliable, and complex behavior from the cooperation of large numbers of identically programmed agents. A major source of metaphors for this technology comes from biology. For example, during development, cells with identical DNA cooperate to form incredibly complex structures, in the face of large variations in cell behavior. Even after development, these systems show incredible abilities for self-repair and regeneration. Students will review relevant literature from both computer science and biology and undertake and report on a semester-length original research project. Advanced undergraduates are welcome in the course with permission of instructor. This is an advanced graduate level subject, and so does not qualify as a Course 6 engineering concentration subject.
To get instructor approval: please send email to Prof.
Abelson, Dr.
Nagpal, and Prof.
Sussman ASAP . Your place is not guaranteed until
you recieve an email back to confirm that you have been accepted into
the course.
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