2018 European School of Information Theory

Bertinoro,

Proposal by Enrico Paolini, Gianluigi Liva, Georg Böcherer Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Organizing Committee

Enrico Paolini ([email protected]) Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering “G. Marconi”, , Italy I Local arrangements and finances

Gianluigi Liva ([email protected]) Institute of Communication and Navigation German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany I Publicity, web, student contact

Georg Böcherer ([email protected]) Institute for Communications Engineering Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany I Technical program, speaker contact

Advisory support is provided by Prof. Gerhard Kramer

Page 1/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Venue

University Residential Centre of Bertinoro (Ce.U.B.) Bertinoro, FC, Italy (website)

Given on free loans to the University of Bologna by the Roman Curia and used as a venue for conferences, workshops, lectures, and schools

Page 2/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Bertinoro

• A small historical Italian town located in the Emilia- region, province of Forlì- • A Medieval village immersed in the typical Italian landscape • Main towns close to Bertinoro: Cesena and Forlì, both hosting campuses of the School of Engineering, University of Bologna • Its several restaurants serve traditional regional dishes; it is surrounded by wineries producing the famous “sangiovese” red wine

Page 3/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Ce.U.B. Facilities

• 14 lecture rooms: small (10-35 seats), medium (50-80 seats), large (110-170 seats) • 130 beds:

I 25 beds in the “fortress”, mainly for speakers / guests I 105 beds in what used to be the episcopal seminary, at 5 minutes walking from the fortress I All rooms: private bath, TV, telephone, free Wi-Fi, made up every morning by Ce.U.B. personnel I Accommodation in nearby hotels possible – rates are the same due to agreements with the hotels

• In-house catering service

I Breakfasts/lunches served in the Ce.U.B. canteen (200 seats) I Dinner at Ce.U.B. canteen possible; Ce.U.B. also has agreements with several very good restaurants in Bertinoro

Page 4/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Bologna International Airport

• The closest international airport is the “Guglielmo Marconi” airport (BLQ) in Bologna

• Direct connections with most of the main European cities, including Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Chisinau,ˇ Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Katowice, Krakow, L’viv, London, Munich, Lyon, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Rome, Seville, Sofia, Timisoara, Tirana, Valencia, Warsaw, Wien

• Direct connections with some extra-European destinations, including Dubai, Malta, Tunis

• Reachable in two hops from any other international airport in Europe and from the main American and Asian airports

Page 5/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Dates

• We propose a 4.5 days school, from Monday morning to Friday at lunch • We propose the week from May 7th, 2018, to Friday 11th, 2018.

I At the moment these dates seem not to conflict with major IEEE events in the field of Information Theory and Communications: ISIT (Vail, Jul. 17-22), ITW (usually in the Fall), ICC (Kansas City, May 20-24), Globecom (Abu Dhabi, Dec. 9-13), CTW (Puerto Rico, May 14-16), WCNC (Barcelona, Apr. 15-18) • Weather is usually stable and very pleasant in the period from end of April to end of May • During ESIT, no other event will be held in parallel at Ce.U.B. – the whole structure will be reserved for us

Page 6/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Invited Speakers

The following scholars have already agreed to give a lecture at the school in Bertinoro in case this proposal gets accepted:

Prof. Richard Wesel Prof. Emre Telatar Prof. Holger Boche UCLA EPF Lausanne TU Munich

Prof. János Körner Prof. Marco Chiani University of Rome University of Bologna

• In case the proposal is accepted, we plan to invite a sixth speaker

Page 7/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Schedule

• We foresee 6 lectures, 2 interactive sessions, a welcome reception, a social event and a social dinner

• During interactive sessions students can present their own works and discuss with each other

I They could be poster sessions as it is usual for ESIT

• A half-day social event is planned

I We propose a visit to the Guglielmo Marconi foundation in Villa Griffone, near Bologna I This is the place where Marconi began to invent wireless telegraphy I It hosts a museum about origins and development of wireless communications (free admission)

Page 8/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Budget (1/4)

• Besides hospitality for students, speakers, guests, Ce.U.B. directly offers most of the food and beverage services:

I Lunches in their canteen

I Coffee-breaks

I Welcome buffet • They can provide transfer services based on agreements with local companies:

I Transfer from Bologna airport to Ce.U.B.

I Bus service for social event • They can manage the online registration process1 • We have asked Ce.U.B. a quotation for all services

1Compliancy with the requirement of overhead-free bank account to be verified. We have alternative solutions to check: a University of Bologna account, a TUM one, the IEEE Italy Section one.

Page 9/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Budget (2/4)

• Summary of estimated costs (including VAT), assuming 90 students, 11 speakers/guests, and 4.5 days:

Ce.U.B. services 1000 e Lecture room 250 × 5 = 1250 e Students hospitality 50 × 90 × 5 = 22500 e Speakers/guests hospitality 60 × 11 × 5 = 3300 e Speakers/guests travel 700 × 8 = 5600 e Dinner for speakers/guests 25 × 11 × 3 = 825 e Transfer airport ↔ Ce.U.B. 20 × 101 × 2 = 4040 e Coffee break 5 × 101 × 8 = 4040 e Welcome buffet 19 × 101 = 1919 e Social dinner 30 × 101 = 3030 e Social event 40 × 101 = 4040 e T-shirts 3.6 × 90 = 324 e Total 51868 e

Page 10/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Budget (3/4)

• To cover the costs of the School we have hypothesized the following incomes

IEEE Information Theory Society (20000 $; 1 $ = 0.9383 e) 18766 e Students’ registrations 356.7 × 90 = 32103 e University of Bologna 1000 e Total 51869 e

• University of Bologna contribution has not yet been approved

Page 11/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Budget (4/4)

• The tentative registration rate under a 90 students hypothesis (∼ 360 e) seems to be very reasonable, since it also covers welcome buffet, lunches, transfers, social event, and social dinner; there seems to be margin to slightly increase it if needed • It does not cover dinners so at the moment students will need to pay three dinners (as welcome and social dinner are already included). • Students can buy a dinner coupon at Ce.U.B. (∼ 20 e), to be spent in the several Bertinoro restaurants with which Ce.U.B. has agreements; Ce.U.B. also offers dinner in its canteen, upon request (∼ 12 e) • In our proposal we cover dinners for speakers and guests • In case the proposal is approved, we will try to get some additional sponsorships; these sponsorships will be used to cover (at least in part) the dinner expenses of students

Page 12/13 Bertinoro · ESIT 2018 · February 3, 2017 Motion

• We kindly ask the IEEE Information Theory Society to approve our proposal to hold the 2018 edition of ESIT in Bertinoro, Italy

• We kindly request support from the IEEE Information Theory Society in the amount of USD 20000, the same amount the previous European Schools of Information Theory have received. As detailed, this amount will be used to partially cover costs of organization, keeping the registration fee as affordable as possible

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