The International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA) brings together researchers from electronic design automation (the practice of using computer software to build complex electronics) and synthetic biology (the forward design of novel biological systems using engineering principles). 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 Electronic Design Automation (EDA) community, which can bring a wide range of experiences, expertise, and perspectives to the design of novel biological systems. 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, Computer-Aided Design 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. The organizers will capture and make public the slides, posters, and abstracts from the session. They encourage and support woman and underrepresented minority student participation and have a diverse technical program and executive committees. A user survey is planned which will be used to learn more about how workshops like this can better serve the community.
