Radisson Hotel Boston - Conference Hotel Chosen

We are pleased to announce that the conference hotel has been finalized. The location for the conference will be at the Radisson Hotel Boston, in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Radisson Hotel Boston, located in the cultural heart of downtown Boston, is within walking distance of theaters, shopping and many well-known Boston attractions. Guests at the Hotel Boston enjoy easy access to Quincy Market, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Garden, Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum and many prime Boston points of interest. The hotel adjoins Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Freedom Trail. There is also a shuttle from the hotel to the Boston airport.

The hotel is a 100% smoke-free facility, and offers the kind of warm hospitality, inviting atmosphere and premier services sure to please business and leisure travelers alike.

The Radisson Hotel Boston offers 356 spacious and comfortable guest rooms. Large work desk, in-room safes and complimentary High-Speed Internet Access in all guest rooms. Each room has a private balcony with inspiring view of downtown Boston.

To ensure you receive the discounted room rates at Radisson Hotel Boston, please book your hotel room by phone at either the phone numbers listed below:

Radisson Worldwide: (800) 333-3333
Reservations/Hotel Line: (617) 482-1800

These rates are guaranteed until August 22, 2008. Make sure you indicate you are from the "Nano-Nets 2008 Group" to receive the discount conference rate of $249 a night for a single/double room. Individuals responsible for making their own reservations will be asked to guarantee for late arrival with a major credit card. Should the individual “not show” or cancel by 4:00 PM one day prior to arrival, the individual’s credit card will be charged, or any deposit will be applied for the first night’s room revenue. Participants are responsible for hotel room charges, tax, and incidental charges.

Conference Hotel Website: http://www.radisson.com/bostonma

Sylvain Martel - Keynote Abstract

Sylvain Martel's Keynote abstract is now available here and at: http://www.nanonets.org/keynote.shtml.

Keynote Title:
"Towards Intelligent Bacterial Nanorobots Capable of Communicating with the Macro-World"

Keynote Abstract:
The field of nanorobotics defines nanorobots from large robotic platforms capable of nanometer-scale operations to robots with overall dimensions in the nanometer-scale. But because of actual technological constraints, the definition of nanorobots often includes untethered robots with overall dimensions in the micrometer-scale that depend on the integration of nanometer-scale components for the execution of specific tasks. An example is the intracellular magnetite nanoparticles assembled in a chain-like structure and termed magnetosomes embedded in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB).

As demonstrated by our group, this structure allows accurate directional control of these flagellated bacteria by an external computer by exploiting magnetotaxis where a directional torque is induced from local magnetic fields generated with relatively small electrical currents. By controlling a swarm of MC-1 cells, each providing through a pair of flagellated nanomotors thrust forces exceeding 4pN, it becomes possible in an aqueous medium to provide directional control and propulsion to relatively large micro-components and in particular microelectronic integrated circuits (IC) that can provide a level of intelligence to micrometer-scale aqueous robots.

In this talk, we show that it is possible with actual available technologies to implement an intelligent untethered system or robot with overall dimensions of only a few hundreds micrometers capable of communicating to an external computer its directional propulsion requirements based on sensory information collected by the robot itself in order to find a specific target. The talk will not only show examples of computer-controlled bacterial actuation and how it can be exploited to minimize electrical energy requirement for the implementation of smaller untethered robots, but the basic architecture of such intelligent robot will be presented with emphasis on engineering challenges at such a scale.

Among several topics, the talk will propose a new communication paradigm between such nanorobots and external computers, bypassing power and miniaturization limitations of the more traditional communication techniques when implemented at such a scale. Then the presentation will conclude on the possibility of implementing swarms of these intelligent bacterial robots to accomplish more advanced tasks through networked interactions and other techniques including swarm intelligence.

The abstract for Tatsuya Suda's keynote will be coming soon!

~Damira (Nano-Net 2008 Webmaster)

Sylvain Martel - New Keynote Speaker

We are pleased to announce that Sylvain Martel will be joining Tatsuya Suda as a main keynote speaker for the Nano-Net 2008 Conference.

SYLVAIN MARTEL received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Montréal, Canada, in 1997. Following postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he was appointed Research Scientist at the BioInstrumentation Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. From Feb. 2001 to Sept. 2004, he had dual appointments at MIT and as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal (EPM), Campus of the University of Montréal, Montréal, Canada. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and Director of the NanoRobotics Laboratory at EPM that he founded in 2002.Dr. Martel holds the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Micro/Nanosystem Development, Fabrication and Validation since 2001. He has over 120 refereed publications, several patents, gives several invited presentations annually, and he is an active member in many international committees and organizations worldwide. Dr. Martel’s main expertise is in the field of nanorobotics, micro- and nano-systems, and the development of novel instrumented platforms and a variety of related support technologies targeted mainly for biomedical and bioengineering applications, and nanotechnology. He has a vast experience in electronics, computer engineering, and also worked extensively in biomedical and mechanical engineering.

Presently, Dr. Martel leads a multidisciplinary team involved in research and development of new instrumented platforms mainly for the medical field and in bioengineering, such as 1) development of nano-factories based on a fleet of scientific instruments configured as autonomous miniature robots capable of high throughput screening in biotechnology and autonomous operations at the molecular scale, 2) developmenet of minimally invasive tools based on microdevices propelled in the blood vessels by magnetic gradients generated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems for tumor targeting and other applications, 3) development of biosensors designed to be navigated through the blood vessels that could potentially be targeted at the brain for non-invasive recording and imaging of brain activities with high spatial resolution, and 4)development of various microsystems using and integrating magnetotactic bacteria as computer controlled functional components for various applications including but not limited to the fast detection of pathogenic bacteria and as bio-carriers for drug delivery in cancer therapy.

~Damira (Nano-Net Webmaster)

Wei Wang - New TPC Member

We are pleased to annouce our new Technical Program Committee member, Wei Wang from the University at Albany, State University of New York College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada in 2002 and is currently an Assistant Professor.

His research interests include modeling and simulation of nanoscale devices and interconnects, CMOS-nano hybrid circuits, 3D IC, FPGA and ASIC design, and computer arithmetic and cryptography. Dr. Wang has over 90 journal and conference publications and two US patents. He is an editor of Journal of Computer Science and Technology and Journal of Computers and was a Section Chair of IWSOC04 and SPND 2004 conferences and also served at the technical committee of IEEE IWSOC 04, Great Lake VLSI 2005, 2007, ISCAS 2007, 2008 and NanoArch 2008 conferences.

Dr. Wang is also a member of IEEE. He is a technical committee (TC) member of IEEE Nano and Giga TC and IEEE VLSI System Design TC. He served as a panelist for NSF NIRT program. He was the executive committee member of IEEE Central Indiana Section and helped organize IEEE Indiana Workshop in June 2006.

~Damira (Nano-Net Webmaster)