Computational techniques are revolutionizing the way in which research is conducted in science and engineering. However, even in domains that seem closely liked, such as biology, medicine, and drug discovery, research advances are not broadly disseminated and do not become widely known. This conference would bring together computational scientists from these three areas and foster collaborations. A set of outstanding researchers from around the world have agreed to structure this new effort. The three day meeting meeting, in Orland Florida, would have participation by students through travel grants. This building of the next generation of computing science in different application areas is one of the key outcomes of this meeting. In addition, the selected papers will be made available online. In addition, some of the papers will be published through BioMed Central, which has reduced the costs for this new meeting. Bringing together academic and industry researchers to consider the latest advances in computational methods will promote the rapid transfer of results from research to products and technologies.
The First International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and medical Sciences (ICCABS) was held at the Holiday Inn – in the Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, FL, from February 3rd to February 5th, 2011. The conference was a great success as reported by the attendees. In spite of the bad weather, almost all the registrants showed up in the conference. In fact, 97 of the 109 registrants attended the conference. All the talks were well attended and appreciated. We had the posters displayed for almost two days. The social events were also a big success! Funds from NSF were used to support 23 graduate students who represented 19 different universities from 7 countries and 3 Keynote speakers. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its goal of bringing together scientists in various areas of bio and medical sciences and fostering collaborations among them. Broader Impact: The funds from NSF were used to support the travel expenses of graduate students and keynote speakers. These students got to meet experts and listen to their research results. Not only the attending students but also their friends would benefit since when the students returned to their schools they would have communicated their experience with their friends. The conference proceedings will be of great use to students, researchers, and practitioners. Portions of the proceedings could be used in different courses as well. Also, two BMC Journal issues are coming out of selected papers from the conference.
