itNL0307.qxd 2/15/07 9:53 AM Page 1 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Vol. 57, No. 1, March 2007 Editor: Daniela Tuninetti ISSN 1059-2362 President’s Column Bixio Rimoldi Greetings to all IT Society members ten by an ad-hoc committee chaired by Bruce Hajek, Dave and friends of information theory! also formed a standing conference committee composed of Alex Grant (chair), Dan Costello, Tony Ephremides, Bruce It is an honor for me to serve as the Hajek, and Han Vinck. The Conference Committee will president of the IEEE Information recommend policies for conferences and provide advice Theory Society this year. As many and assistance to meeting organizers. In the long run this of you know, the IT society has 5 committee will make a big difference to conference organ- officers that de facto form a 5-year izers and should significantly streamline the presentations “presidential pipeline”: one starts of conference related matters at board meetings. While as the second vice president (cur- writing about recent accomplishments, I would like to rently Andrea Gold-smith) and in commend the leadership that Andrea has taken in forming Bixio Rimoldi subsequent years he/she becomes and chairing a very successful Student Committee. first vice president (Marc Fossorier), president, junior past president (Dave Neuhoff), I would like to take the opportunity to thank the mem- and senior past president (Steve McLaughlin). We interact bers of the Board of Governors whose term expired at the very frequently and I am happy to be part of a team that end of 2006, namely John Anderson, Tom Cover, works so well together. Johannes Huber, and Alex Vardy, and congratulate and welcome our newly elected and re-elected members, I am particularly grateful to Dave and Steve for the various namely Dave Forney, Tor Helleseth, Ryuji Kohno, Andi initiatives they have undertaken as presidents during the Loeliger, Muriel Médard, Prakash Narayan, and Alon past two years and for leaving a clear picture of what Orlitzky. needs to be done in the near future. Last year Dave has covered much ground in terms of negotiating win-win Special thanks go to Muriel Médard who’s 3-year term as agreements with IEEE and with conference organizers. As treasurer ended on December 31, 2006. We have been lucky a result, the Society can become a technical co-sponsor of a to have someone of Muriel’s competence and iron fist dur- conference. This means that the conference proceedings ing the difficult financial times that started in 2002 when can be included in IEEE Xplore while the conference IEEE, in an attempt to correct its financial difficulties, organizers may retain copyright. Besides becoming more depleted the Society’s reserves. Muriel followed Marc accessible, the proceedings that are included in IEEE Fossorier, and on Jan. 1, 2007, Anant Sahai has taken over. Xplore provide a financial benefit to the Society. After a With him I am confident that our “luck” with treasurers difficult negotiation with IEEE Dave was also able to will continue. obtain that the Society be granted a 3-year trial period dur- ing which its members will have electronic access to pro- Finally I would like to thank Alex Vardy and the ad-hoc com- ceedings of conferences sponsored by the Society. mittee he chaired for their outstanding report on the growth Following the recommendation of an excellent report writ- of the Transactions. itNL0307.qxd 2/15/07 9:53 AM Page 2 2 From the Editor Daniela Tuninetti Dear IT society members, Please help to make the Newsletter as interesting and informa- tive as possible by offering suggestions and contributing news. I hope you had a great start of the year. I The deadlines for the next few issues of the Newsletter are as would like to start 2007 by thanking our follows (please notice that the deadlines have been moved for- past president Dave Neuhoff. It has been a ward by about a week with respect to the past): great pleasure for me to get to know him and work with him for society related mat- Issue Deadline ters during the past year. At the same time, June 2007 April 10, 2007 I would like to welcome our new president September 2007 July 10, 2007 Bixio Rimoldi. I wish him great success in December 2007 October 10, 2007 his new office. Electronic submission, especially in Ascii, LaTeX and Word formats, is encouraged. Please In this first issue of 2007 I hope you will keep in mind that any electronic photographs should be high resolution. enjoy the column of our President Bixio Rimoldi as well as Anthony Ephremides’ I may be reached at the following address: Historian’s column, and Sol Golomb’s puz- zle. You will also find the announcement of Daniela Tuninetti prestigious awards recently won to mem- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering bers of Society, and the list of members University of Illinois at Chicago, M/C 154 nominated IEEE Fellow in 2007. Please join 851 S. Morgan St., me in congratulating them all for their Chicago, IL, 60607-7053, USA achievements. In addition, there are reports E-mail: [email protected] on ITW 2006 and ISITA 2006, an interesting story about Laveen Kanal, and interesting insider news from program manager I wish everyone again a happy and proficient 2007. Sincerely, Sirin Tekinay at the National Science Daniela Tuninetti Foundation. Finally, if you do not know your Shannon number, you will find the answers in this issue. Table of Contents IEEE President’s Column . .1 Information Theory From the Editor . .2 The Historian’s Column . .3 Society Newsletter IT Members Receive Prestigious Awards . .4 New IEEE Fellows as of January 2007 . .4 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter (USPS 360-350) is published quarterly by the Workshop Report: The 2006 Information Theory Workshop (ITW 2006) . .5 Information Theory Society of the Institute of Workshop Report: The 2006 International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications (ISITA 2006) . .6 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Golomb’s Puzzle Column: Calculator Magic . .7 Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, Call for Nominations . .7 New York, NY 10016-5997. Named Professorship to Honor Laveen Kanal, IEEE Life Fellow and Early IT Transactions Editor for Pattern Recognition . .8 Cost is $1.00 per member per year (included in Society fee) for each member of the Golomb’s Puzzle Column: The 3X+1 Problem . .9 Information Theory Society. Printed in the What’s Your Shannon Number? . .10 U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, Guest Column: News from the Communications Program at NSF . .11 NY and at additional mailing offices. Call for Papers: Information Theoretic Security . .13 Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Call for Papers: Redundancy 2007 . .14 Information Theory Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Call for Papers: ITW 2007 . .15 Call for Papers: ITW 2007 . .16 © 2007 IEEE. Information contained in this Call for Papers: ISCTA 07 . .17 newsletter may be copied without permission provided that the copies are not made or dis- Call for Papers: SPWC 2007 . .18 tributed for direct commercial advantage, and Information Theory Winter School 2007 . .19 the title of the publication and its date appear. Conference Calendar . .20 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter March 2007 itNL0307.qxd 2/15/07 9:53 AM Page 3 3 The Historian’s Column Anthony Ephremides In the past I have mused frequently over our society’s relationship Another workshop was planned to with its soviet counterpart during the Cold War era. Prompted by the take place in 2003 in Hong Kong (by recent workshop in Changdu, China, I would like to review our rela- then already an integral part of China) tionship with the Chinese. It has been a very different, much less tur- following the Yokohama ISIT in bulent, and, perhaps, much more consequential than our dealings Japan. Alas, fears arising from the with the Soviets. “bird flu” epidemic that broke out early that year forced the cancellation When Information Theory was born, China was in serious political, of that workshop for which Raymond economic, and military internal turmoil. It was heuristically closed to Young (among others) had labored so most of the rest of the world and there hardly was any communica- intensely. tion with the country’s scientists. Especially during the dire cultural Revolution period any thoughts about entropy and error correction Despite that setback, through the sustained efforts of people like might result in hard labor in the fields for the purpose of personal Raymond, Shu Lin, Ping Li, and others, the very successful recent work- fault correction. shop in Chengdu took place finally last Fall. This workshop revealed the depth and breadth of the “hold” that Information Theory has created in But then Nixon went to China (even an opera has been written to China. The majority of the participants were from China and they dis- dramatize that historic visit), Mao subsequently passed away, the played talent, enthusiasm, and creativity. Dick Blahut reminisced about power struggle that ensued was more or less resolved, and, lo-and- the sequence of events that culminated in the current healthy growth of behold, in 1979 at the ISIT in Groguanio, Italy, two Chinese profes- Information Theory in China (and by Chinese researchers worldwide). sors showed up. It is still unclear who read Shannon’s paper first in He likened the initiative of Shu Lin’s (who had actually instigated the China and when.. The fact is that by 1979 there had been a sufficient original visit and participation by Chinese delegates in the 1979 ISIT) to amount of knowledge and interest generated in that vast country.