July 1

Three things happening on July 1:

1. I'm heading to Boston for ISIT. I'm looking forward to it -- this will be my first ISIT since Seoul. Come see my paper in session S16.T9 (Information Theory in Biology). I'll blog more about the paper later, but in the meanwhile, Trailhead is cool. And as Anand notes, the unconnected papers might be the most interesting -- they're the ones bringing the new ideas.
2. My first sabbatical officially gets started. I'll be spending the year with a startup, Engage Biomechanics, focusing on wearable wireless sensors and body-area networks. The company is looking at applications in medical devices. I've never been an entrepreneur before, so it should be interesting and I'll blog when I get a chance.
3. It's the 20th anniversary of the day I reported to basic training and joined the Navy. With recruiting ads like this, how could I say no?

Video: Keynote at Research to Standards workshop

Here's the video of my keynote (joinly with Steve Bush) at the Research to Standards workshop on June 10, alongside ICC 2012 in Ottawa.

"Standards and Innovation in Emerging Technologies: Why Industry and Academia Need Each Other"

This is a playlist. You can also see it directly on YouTube.

Abstract and speaker bios after the jump.

The capacity of molecular communication: Molecular efficiency

Say you've got two genetically engineered bacteria, which you're using as a communication system. Maybe you've engineered the organism's quorum sensing abilities, or its calcium receptors, to do your bidding. Whatever way you're doing it, what you want to do is to send a message, encoded in a pattern of molecules, that propagate from one bacteria to the other. This is molecular communication.

So exactly how fast can you send information? In other words, what is the Shannon capacity?

Would you believe that it's infinite?

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Keynote, keynote, keynote.

I'm giving a keynote (well ... half of a keynote, the other half by Steve Bush) this Sunday at the Research to Standards workshop, held alongside next week's ICC in Ottawa. We'll be talking about the role standards play in emerging technologies, like nanonetworking. This is related to our own work in leading the IEEE 1906.1 nanonetworking standardization effort.

1906.1 is a new idea for the Communications Society. Historically, standards have been used to consolidate industrial interest around established technologies. Now, we're using the standardization process to get everyone talking the same language, get interest from industry, and avoid dilution of the idea at the beginning of the technology cycle. So far the project is a resounding success: we have academics from around the world, plus representatives from large industrial players, as well as several government research bodies.

We're speaking from 9:15 to 10:00 on Sunday. I don't have the location yet, but check here for the details. Hope to see you there.