IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Vol. 61, No. 4, December 2011 Editor: Tracey Ho ISSN 1045-2362 Editorial committee: Helmut Bölcskei, Giuseppe Caire, Meir Feder, Joerg Kliewer, Anand Sarwate, and Andy Singer President’s Column Giuseppe Caire It feels like just yesterday since I started my and S. Verdú) and L. Zhang, for the paper term as President of the Information Theory “Capacity of Gaussian Channels with Duty Society, and one year has almost passed! Cycle and Power Constraints” (co-authored Looking back, it has been a good year, with with D. Guo). more ups than downs, full of exciting events as well as challenges for our Society. Both As said, this year has (almost) gone, and my ISIT and ITW took place in fairly unusual lo- term as the Society President is ending. In cations: Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Paraty, this regard, I’d like to congratulate the newly Brazil. Although not planned in advance, in elected officers, our President for 2012, Mu- the midst of the present economic crisis, fo- riel Médard, First Vice-President, Gerhard cusing on the BRIC (with all due respect for Kramer, and Second Vice-President, Abbas the PIGS) was somehow a sign of the times. El Gamal. 2012 will be a jam-packed year for Letting alone the jokes on global politics and our Society, including the five-year review economics, it is a matter of fact that our Soci- of our Transactions and of the Society by the ety is expanding its global outreach. The “C” corresponding IEEE Technical Activity Board (China) and the “I” (India) of “BRIC” are also overdue, and I committees, and ISIT at M.I.T., which is expected to beat all re- am very pleased that the Board of Governors approved the cords of submission and attendance. I am fully confident that organization of ISIT in Hong Kong in 2015. with Muriel, Gerhard and Abbas the Society is in great and capable hands, and that all challenges will be met with vision, Another highlight of 2011 was the Annual School of Informa- leadership and dedication. tion Theory, in Austin TX. In only a few years since its cre- ation, the Annual School has become a major event, with a 2011 has also been a critical transition year for the Trans- steady 200+ graduate students, and tens of faculty, lecturers actions on Information Theory. Our new Editor in Chief, and visitors from industry, attending and participating every Helmut Bölcskei, presented the State of The Transactions and year. Together with the European Winter School of Informa- announced his editorial plan at the annual Board of Gover- tion Theory, that in 2011 was held in Barcelona, the School nors meeting in Saint Petersburg. While classical bibliomet- represents an exceptionally successful initiative of the Society ric indicators such as total number of citations, impact factor, towards its membership, and in particular towards our stu- eigenfactor, and article influence score are strong (in fact,the dent members, who represent the future of our society and of Transactions rank at the top in terms of total citations over our field. The two next Annual Schools are already planned all IEEE journals, other parameters such as sub-to-pub (time for 2012 and 2013, in Cornell University and in Purdue Uni- from first submission to publication) and publication queue versity, respectively. (time from acceptance to publication, are not yet in line with our objectives and with the standards of top-quality journals. Talking about students, I’d like to acknowledge and con- Helmut has taken several steps to tackle these long-standing gratulate the recipients of the 2011 ISIT Student Paper Award. problems. In particular, following his proposal, we approved The Award Committee decision has not been an easy one, to increase the page budget for 2011 in order to keep the publi- with several high quality papers and presentations offered at cation queue under control. The transition from the old paper ISIT. Wisely, the Award Committee decided to hold its deci- management system (Pareja) to the new system (ScholarOne), sion in order to go over the top candidate papers again after the increase of fast-rejects, and the introduction of a firm pol- the conference. Finally, the 2011 Student Paper Award was icy to avoid the re-submission of rejected papers without a given to: A. Ingber, for the paper “The Dispersion of Infinite duly and comprehensive revision, will play a key role in re- Constellations” (co-authored with R. Zamir and M. Feder), ducing the sub-to-pub time. Also, Helmut’s effort to increase Y. Wu, for the paper “Degrees of Freedom of the Interference Channel: A General Formula” (co-authored with S. Shamai continued on page 3 2 From the Editor Tracey Ho Dear IT Society members, figure out the ropes and gave me very valuable advice at all stages. In this issue we have Giuseppe Caire’s last column as President of the IT Society. I was very pleased to learn that Tara Javidi will be the next Please join me in thanking him for his in- newsletter editor – please join me in welcoming her to the spiring and dedicated leadership over position. While announcements, news and events intend- the past year, and in welcoming Muriel ed for both the printed newsletter and the website can be Médard as the incoming President next submitted jointly at the IT Society website http://www.it- year. Gerhard Kramer’s article, the sec- soc.org/ using the links “Share News” and “Announce an ond in our “Teaching IT” series, provides Event”, articles that do not fall into the above categories a fresh look at the classical Gelfand-Pinsker should be e-mailed to her at [email protected]. problem. Also in this issue are workshop edu, with a subject line that includes the words “IT newslet- and symposium reports, the minutes from ter”. The deadlines for the next few issues are: the Board of Governors meeting at ISIT, and the announcement of the ISIT Student Issue Deadline Paper Award winners – warmest congratu- March 2012 January 10, 2012 lations on your outstanding work! June 2012 April 10, 2012 September 2012 July 10, 2012 It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since I started as newsletter editor Please submit ASCII, LaTeX or Word source files; do not worry about fonts or layout and that I’m putting together my last is- as this will be taken care of by IEEE layout specialists. Electronic photos and graphics sue. I’ve enjoyed working with all the should be in high resolution and sent as separate files. contributors and, more recently, with the newsletter committee – many thanks to all Thank you for your support and readership, and I look forward to continuing to enjoy for your great contributions and sugges- your contributions in future issues. tions! And a big thank you to the past and present IT Society officers who helped me Tracey Ho IEEE Information Theory Table of Contents Society Newsletter President’s Column ............................................. 1 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter (USPS 360-350) is published quarterly by the From the Editor .................................................2 Information Theory Society of the Institute of Teaching IT: An Identity for the Gelfand-Pinsker Converse ........... 4 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, The Historian’s Column . 7 New York, NY 10016-5997. International Symposium on Information Cost is $1.00 per member per year (included Theory (ISIT) 2011 Student Paper Award ........................... 8 in Society fee) for each member of the TM 3 Information Theory Society. Printed in the Golomb’s Puzzle Column The Sequence n – n ................... 8 U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, TM NY and at additional mailing offices. Golomb’s Puzzle Column Primes and Divisibility Solutions ........ 9 Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Symposium in Remembrance of Rudolf Information Theory Society Newsletter, Ahlswede, Bielefeld, July 25–26, 2011 . 10 IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Report on the First Workshop on Network Coding © 2011 IEEE. Information contained in this newsletter may be copied without permis- and Data Storage (NCDS 2011). 11 sion provided that the copies are not made or Workshop Report: Algebraic Structure in Network distributed for direct commercial advantage, and the title of the publication and its date Information Theory . 12 appear. IEEE Information Theory Society Board IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. For of Governors Meeting Minutes. 14 more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ whatis/policies/p9-26.html. Call for Nominations . 19 Conference Calendar ........................................... 23 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter D e c e m b e r 2 011 3 President’s Column continued from page 1 the number of more senior people to serve as Associate Editor, processing time of our Transactions, by acting as responsible re- including people who have served before, is paying off, as you viewers, and accepting our own share of work, for the sake of the can see from the inside front cover of the Transactions. I’d like to common good of our scientific community. After all, high-quality express all my gratitude and appreciation to Helmut and to the volunteers’ service is the most precious resource of our Society, members of the executive editorial board, G. David Forney Jr., and it is time that we all feel engaged to make a difference. Shlomo Shamai (Shitz), Sergio Verdú, and Alexander Vardy for their effort and dedication. Beyond improving the review time, it is a matter of fact that lately the Transactions have received an exponentially growing number However, maintaining the quality of the Transactions on Infor- of first submissions, in more and more diverse areas.