Student Committee Report and Update on the Second Annual North American Information Theory School

1. Student Committee Report and Update on the Second Annual North American Information Theory School Aylin Yener, Penn State Presented at the BoG meeting, ISIT09 A. Yener

2. Outline • Upcoming Events: • ISIT 2009 • General info and Outlook • School Update A. Yener

3. ISIT 2009 Event 1 • June 29, 2009 (tomorrow), 12:50-2:30, COEX 105: Panel discussion “When does conversation become collaboration?” • Panelist: • Michelle Effros (Caltech) • Nihar Jindal (UMinn) • Gerhard Kramer (USC) • Daniela Tuninetti (UIC) • Jack Wolf (UCSD) • Lunch will be provided A. Yener

4. ISIT 2009 Event 2 • July 2, 2009, 12:50-2:30, COEX 105: round table research discussion • Lunch will be provided • Topics: • Secrecy • Network Coding • Energy Efficiency • Feedback in Communication Systems • Achievability techniques for network communication • Biometric Security • Scaling laws • Compressed sensing • Interference Channel • Sparse graph code • Experimental Information Theory • Coding strategies for relay networks • T-shirts will be distributed to students at the end A. Yener

5. ISIT 2009 Events- Cost Panel Discussion and Meeting • Room Charge: KRW1,320,000 (including 10% tax) • Food: • - Sandwich: KRW15,400 (including 10% tax) X 140 persons = KRW 2,156,000 • - Orange Juice: KRW1,100 (including 10% tax) X 140 persons = KRW 154,000 Round Table Research Discussion • Room Charge: KRW 1,320,000 (including 10% tax) • Food: • - Sandwich: KRW15,400 (including 10% tax) X 140 persons = KRW 2,156,000 • - Orange Juice: KRW1,100 (including 10% tax) X 140 persons = KRW 154,000 • T-shirts: KRW6,000 X 140 EA = KRW 840,000 TOTAL= KRW 8100,000 ~ = $6500 A. Yener

6. Upcoming Events • Allerton: Possibly a panel discussion and/or a graduating student poster event A. Yener

7. Membership Update • Current members: Student co-chairs: Ivana Maric (Stanford), Krish Eswaran (UCB); members: Deniz Gunduz (Princeton/Stanford), Xiang He (Penn State); Web: Matthieu Bloch (Notre Dame) • New member: Salim ElRouayheb (Texas A&M) A. Yener

8. Forward look: • Volunteers • We need to reach out to more volunteers for student leadership as our membership rapidly grows. • Student leaders: Potential new members need to be sought as the current ones transition to post-student life. • Please encourage your students and have them contact Aylin. • Web • The new ITSoc web-site is great! A. Yener

9. Update: Second Annual North American School of Information Theory A. Yener

10. The Second Annual North American School of Information Theory will take place August 10–13, 2009 at the Northwestern University Campus, Evanston IL. A. Yener

11. Organizing Committee for 2009 • General Chairs: • Aylin Yener, Penn State • Gerhard Kramer, USC • Program and Local Arrangements: • Randy Berry, Northwestern • Dongning Guo, Northwestern • Applications: • Daniela Tuninetti, UIC • Natasha Devroye, UIC • Web and publicity: • Matthieu Bloch, GATech • Yalin Sagduyu, Northwestern A. Yener

12. Keynote and Instructors • Keynote: Robert Gallager, MIT • Instructors: • Abbas El Gamal, Stanford • Bruce Hajek, UIUC • Dan Costello, Notre Dame • Abbas El Gamal is the first Padovani Lecturer. A. Yener

13. Basics • Any graduate student or post-doc eligible to apply for the school with their presentation/poster title. • Students will each give a 10min talk or present a poster. • No registration Fee. • Ideally: NO COST to attendees. • Reality: As allowed by the support we have. • New for 2009: Lodging in the dorms which we subsidize. A. Yener

14. Applications • Deadline was April 21, 2009. • Applications were collected online • Site was open less than three weeks • Earlier projected cap was: 100 students (2008 stats: final student count attending was 101). A. Yener

15. Applications • Number of (non-local) applicants: 162 • NW and UIC students participating (not included above): ~12 • In addition a number of junior faculty asked to participate. • The numbers required us to rethink and organize accordingly. • Option 1: Define criteria under more than 40% applicants can be turned down • Option 2: Be optimistic and find a way to accommodate everyone. A. Yener

16. Organization Update • We resolved the space problem by switching to a classroom that can accommodate up to 300 (earlier we had a classroom for 120). • We made a deal to get the entire dorm to ourselves during the school. • We decided to subsidize the cost of the dorm. A. Yener

17. School Accommodations • Agreement is signed with Slivka Residential College on Northwestern's Campus (5min walking distance to the classroom) • We guaranteed 130 beds to be filled at $55/night for 4 nights. • We decided to subsidize $30/night/student, and to collect $25/night=$100/student for the dorm. A. Yener

18. Attendance • We informed the students on June 2, and asked them to confirm their attendance and provide $25/night=$100/student for the dorm. (Note: Each student had to create an account on itsoc.org first  ) • 126non-local students are confirmed so far (can go up by 10) • Additionally we will have: • 12 local students • 8 organizers • 10 or so invited guests (faculty, sponsors) • 4 speakers A. Yener

19. Attendance 2009 • Expected total number of attendees: 160-170 • Student attendees have grown by 40% since last year! • 101 in 2008 versus 138-148 in 2009 • Budget will be tight. • More students=more food • Dorm subsidy also a big ticket item A. Yener

20. Estimated 2009 Budget • Lunches: $ 8000 • Picnic/Bonfire: $ 3500 • Breakfasts: $ 4500 • Materials etc $ 4000 • Instructor Travel $ 2500 • Contingency $ 2900 • Dorm $28600 $54000 + A. Yener

21. Funding Status • Society: 20k • DARPA+ARL/ARO: 5-15k (amount not finalized yet) • Northwestern: 5k • USC: 2k • Dorm contribution from students: 12.6k • No response from NSF yet. • Total: 44.6k - 54.6k A. Yener

22. Summary • Preparations are going well. • The demand for the school has grown by 40% since 2008. • We are trying our best to accommodate all with a tight budget. A. Yener