Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer1 1 Update on the Third Annual School of Information Theory Update on the Third Annual School of Information Theory BoG meeting, ITA 2010 January 31, 2010 Aylin Yener & Gerhard Kramer

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer2January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer2 Logistics 2010 School to be at USC in Los Angeles Dates: Thu-Sun, Aug 5-8, 2010 Tentative calendar: Applications due: April 15 “Registration” due: June 1 Web site: committees/student/2010-school-of-it

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer3 3 Organizing Committee General Chairs: Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer Program and Applications: Michelle Effros and Tracey Ho Local Arrangements: Mike Neely and Alex Dimakis Web Site: Matthieu Bloch Treasurer: Sriram Viswanath January 31, 2010

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer4January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer4 In

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer5January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer5 In 2009 The school took place at Northwestern University, Aug Over 140 students attended The program included 3 lectures (same as in 2008) Instructors lectured 4.5 hours each

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer6January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer6 New in 2010 We decided to shorten the lectures and increase the number of instructors New format: Six 2-hour lectures during the first 3 days by 6 speakers, Keynote on the 4th day Motivation: - Increase instructor-to-student ratio - Expand number of topics - New format will be easier on the instructors and students

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer7January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer7 New in 2010 School was registered with IEEE as a “conference” and the ITSOC confirmed sponsorship IEEE is issuing Sriram (treasurer) a bank account card (hopefully this is done by week’s end) Nihar (ITSOC treasurer) contacted about transferring $10k approved at Taormina BoG meeting Dorm contract is with the IEEE for review Cost: $43/person/night + 14% bed tax Total: about $27k. We need to pay 10% upon signing (likely within 2 weeks). All remaining costs to be paid 5 days before event.

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer8January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer8 Instructors/Excursion/Expansion 5 potential instructors contacted. Instructors who accepted so far: Andrea Goldsmith, Sergio Verdu, Jack Wolf Jack is the organizers’ choice for Padovani Lecturer ; he is willing to serve as such; requires MCC approval Three more potential lecturers were contacted; hopefully all agree within a few days Keynote speaker: one person identified as candidate who will be contacted shortly Excursion : Bruce Moision (JPL) has agreed to help organize an excursion to JPL (we’ll have to see how to fit that in) Expansion: advertise to Mexico faculty to encourage a real North American School

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer9January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer9 Fundraising We raised $58k in Breakdown: - ITSOC $20k - DARPA- ITMANET and ARO $20k - NSF $10k - Northwestern $5k - USC $2k - Notre Dame $1k We plan to approach the same sources. We’ll try for more from NSF. USC EE Dept. agreed to contribute.

Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer10January 31, 2010Aylin Yener and Gerhard Kramer10 Request for Funds We respectfully ask for an additional $10k (to bring the total to $20k) support from the society