The International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA) brings together researchers from electronic design automation and synthetic biology. The goal of IWBDA is to make biology more easily, robustly, reliably, and predictably engineered and therefore, tackle challenges in biology and medicine, leading to advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
Existing synthetic biology conferences and meetings do not explicitly focus on bridging the gap between the work of experimentalists and computational researchers. Bridging this divide is essential for the field of synthetic biology to fulfill its promise. Furthermore, other venues do not actively include the EDA community, which can bring a wide range of experiences, expertise, and perspectives to the design of novel biological systems.
IWBDA has been held successfully in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 when it was co-located with the largest conference for EDA (the Design Automation Conference; DAC). DAC connected the IWBDA audience to the EDA community of over 10,000 academic and industrial participants. This year, IWBDA will be co-located with the BioBricks Foundation Synthetic Biology Conference Series, SB6.0, and will bring together researchers from the synthetic biology, systems biology, and design automation communities. IWBDA includes keynote and invited talks, tutorials, poster sessions, panel discussions, as well as dedicated time for informal discussions.
The intellectual merit of this workshop is a key strength. This workshop will provide a venue for between twelve and fifteen technical talks, four invited lectures, ten to twenty posters, and include an industry/academic panel session. Topics will be diverse and include areas such as: Parts and Standardization, Biological Circuit Simulators, Biological Circuit Design, CAD Tools for Synthetic Biology and Gene Network Reconstruction. No other such workshop exists in Synthetic Biology/EDA.
The broader impacts of IWBDA are numerous. A wide variety of researchers (120+) from EDA and synthetic biology will be brought together in a unique context which does not exist elsewhere. IWBDA will capture and make public the slides, posters, and abstracts from the session. In addition, IWBDA will create a user survey which is used to learn more about how workshops like this can better serve the community. Finally, this conference will also have numerous undergraduate, graduate and post graduate student researchers in attendance. IWBDA encourages and supports woman and underrepresented minority student participation and has a diverse technical program and executive committees.
The International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA) 2013 was held in London, England on July 12-13th at Imperial College. It brought together researchers from the synthetic biology, systems biology, and design automation communities to discuss concepts, methodologies and software tools for the computational analysis and synthesis of biological systems. There were 16 invited talks, 16 posters, 4 keynote speakers, and over 100 attendees. Specifically, NSF funding provided registration and travel support for 18 students. NSF funding was crucial in helping make the workshop a success and helping to develop new researchers for the field. For more information see: www.iwbdaconf.com/2013/ Intellectual Merit: Topics were diverse and included areas such as: "Engineering, Parts, and Standardization", "Characterization and System Identification", "CAD Tools for Synthetic Biology", "Biological Circuit Design and Assembly", and "Applications". No other such workshop exists in Synthetic Biology/EDA. Broader Impacts A wide variety of researchers from EDA and synthetic biology were brought together in a unique context which does not exist elsewhere. We captured and made public the slides, posters, and abstracts from the session. In addition, created a user survey was used to learn more about how workshops like this can better serve the community. Finally, we also had numerous undergraduate, graduate and post graduate student researchers in attendance. We encouraged and supported woman and underrepresented minority student participation and had a diverse technical program and executive committees.
