Proposal: Second Annual School of Information Theory

September 23, 2008 A. Yener 1

Proposal: Second Annual School of Information Theory

Aylin Yener, Penn State

Presented at the BoG meeting, UIUC


School took place in the firstweek of June 2008

Background: First Annual School of Information Theory

• European Winter School in Coding & Information Theory has existed since the early 1990s

• Purpose: an event where students can get to know each other outside of “large” events

• The idea of having a School inNorth America began in late 2006

• IEEE Information Theory SocietyBoG supported the idea

• Preparations for the Penn StateUniversity event began in Sept. 2007


Attendance Statistics for 2008

• Over 150 student applicants • Student Attendance: 101 • Senior attendees (including

instructors): 13

• IT Society: 20k• DARPA: 10k• Penn State (total): 6k• Princeton: 3k

Support for 2008


Budget Details for 2008

• 114 total attendees, no registration fee.

• Classrooms: free of charge.• Remainder of 39k dispersed as travel

grants.

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Food total $13,094Banquet dinner $ 4,213

Reception $ 2,199Misc. expenses (posters, photos, tapes,...)

$ 4,000

Instructor lodging $ 955Instructor transportation $ 2,300Travel grants $12,239Total $39,000


Next Stop is…• Chicago


Organizing Committee for 2009

• Aylin Yener, Penn State• Gerhard Kramer, Bell Labs (USC)• Daniela Tuninetti, UIC• Randy Berry Northwestern• Dongning Guo, Northwestern• Yalin Sagduyu, Northwestern• Matthieu Bloch, Notre Dame• TBA• TBA• TBA


From the proposal (Sept 07) School of Information Theory:Our way to pay it forward to our society’s future generations

• Lectures by renowned members of our society.

• Students interact with their peers.• Students interact with senior

scientists and get feedback on their work.

• Students get exposed to contextand “big picture” early on.

• The school will help foster friendships and collaboration for future academic and industrial scientists and promote IT.


Observations from the First Annual School of Information Theory:

• Lectures generated much excitement, and plenty of questions.

• Students interacted with their peers and with the senior attendees extensively.

• Student presentations were well prepared and enthusiastically delivered.

• Exit survey ratings were great• We are confident that the school

helps foster friendships and collaboration for future academic and industrial scientists and promote IT.

• Bottomline: Model is working well.


Goals and Procedure: same as 2008!

• Any graduate student or post-doc eligible to apply

• Students apply for the school with their presentation/poster title

• Students will each give a 10min talk or present a poster.

• Cap:100 students • No registration Fee • Ideally: NO COST to attendees• Reality: As allowed by travel grants• New for 2009: Lodging available in

the dorms.


Calendar, Location for 2009

The Second Annual School of Information Theory is planned to take place August 2, Sunday – August 6, Thursday 2009 at the Northwestern University Campus, Evanston IL.


Northwestern University• Located in Evanston, the first suburb

north of Chicago (about 30 minutes to downtown Chicago).

• 240-acre campus on Lake Michigan.• Easy access to public transportation

and 30 minute cab ride from O’hare International Airport.

• Classrooms available for free.


Northwestern University- Lodging Options• Room and board packages

from NWU dorms available: $100/day including all three meals

• Hotel rates in the vicinity runs about $120-200/day for August 2-7, 2009(2-3 students can share the room)


Useful points summary• Dorm rooms, including meals, and

reasonable hotels available on or close to campus.

• Classrooms/auditoriums for free.• We’ll make every effort to keep the

misc expenses as well as food/break costs down.

• Limit the number of students to 100.

• Instructors (TBA): We’ll use exit survey data from 2008 (suggested instructors)

• Topics: TBA (sufficiently different from 08): potential examples: source coding, networking.


2009 Schedule August 3 August 4 August 5 August 6

Opening remarks 3X90min Lectures TBA

(2 breaks, lunch)

3X90min Lectures TBA

(2 breaks, lunch)

Keynote: TBA Student presentations 10:00-12:00

Panel:TBA

Student Presentations 3:30-6pm

Barbecue 7-9:00pm

2X90 Lectures: TBA(1break, lunch)Student presentations 1pm-6pm

Student presentations4-6pm

Student presentations4-6pm


2009 Budget (100 students) • Lunches total: $ 8000• Wednesday Barbecue $ 3500 (with lots of veggie options )• Breaks: $ 4000• Breakfasts total: $ 4500• Food total $20000• Easels,poster boards,badges, registration packets,

mutimedia… $ 4000• Instructor travel support $ 3500• Contingency $ 2500• $ 30000

• Not including student travel grants.• Students pay for lodging and dinners.

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Potential Sponsors for 2009

• Society.• NSF for student travel

grants.• Local IEEE chapter.• Motorola.


Second Annual School of Information Theory (2009)

• We request $20k from the society to cover the expenses and provide travel grants with the remaining funds if any.

Proposal: Second Annual School of Information Theory

Documents

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