IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Vol. 69, No. 2, June 2019 EDITOR: Salim El Rouayheb ISSN 1059-2362 President’s Column Emina Soljanin Spring for me got to mean awards time. That But, are there really our and their lands in sci- is because for many years now, I spend a ence (and in life)? Is there really a place where substantial amount of my “free” Spring time one truly belongs? As I was pondering this ques- sitting in or chairing various awards commit- tion, the sad news about the passing of Elwyn tees of the Information Theory Society (ex of- Berlekamp reached me, and in that instant, I ficio), and at the IEEE level. The work includes knew the answer. If you have taken a coding reading nominations, endorsement letters, dis- theory class, you know who Elwyn Berlekamp sertations, and papers, as well as organizing, was. You can read a few formal words about him leading, or participating in meetings where the in this issue and on the web, and I hope, much winners get selected. Each year, I get newly im- more later this year in the newsletter and else- pressed by the apparently increasing creativity where. I will here tell you something personal. and hard work of nominated teams and indi- viduals. This year, I am looking forward to con- Berlekamp’s was the first Shannon Lecture gratulate many winners in person at the ISIT I attended. It was at the ISIT in San Antonio award ceremony, as they get handed over their in 1993, where I worked as a student helper well deserved plaques. Just thinking about that but did not have an ISIT paper yet, and, no makes me feel proud and happy to be a part of our scientific wonder, that will forever stay in my mind. But what I remem- community, and this year, that gives me a solace as well. And ber even more clearly is a conversation with him at the ITW yet, like the physicist David Mermin did many years ago, I ask in Svalbard in 1997. I was working at Bell Labs then, in the myself whether the system of prizes, honors, and awards has run department called Mathematics of Communications whose in- completely amok, absorbing far too much of the time and energy of the ternal number was 11217. Berlekamp told me he did his time community in proportion to the benefits conferred [1]. at Bell Labs too, in the department whose number was n and 2n − 1 was the largest known Mersenne prime then. Just a few Spring is also the time when many of us receive reviews for years ago, he called me in connection with the 2016 Shannon the papers we submitted to conferences with winter-time centennial celebration at Bell Labs. He told me he had been deadlines, such as our own ISIT, as well as, not exactly ours invited to participate in the program, but worried that the (yet), ICML, PODC, SIGMETRICS. Upon reading the reviews, place had changed, and perhaps, it would not even matter to we often get happy, but more often, we get disappointed. And anyone that someone like him was there. I reassured him that as I try to listen, with forbearance, to my colleagues and stu- his presence would mean a lot in different ways to very many dents, I observe how their reactions get unevenly polarized people at different (personal and professional) levels. into anger and disillusionment on one side and euphoria and approval on the other. But the reality, as always, exists Over the years, I saw Elwyn Berlecamp several times, mostly in between or (depending on whether you have classical or at various Berkeley institutions, participating at both engi- quantum upbringing) as a superposition of the two extremes. neering and math events, always well received by many dif- For my colleagues, I know that this too shall pass. But for my ferent groups and individuals. Berlekamp was a giant of Cod- students, I ask myself whether I imparted on them (what my ing Theory. Or was that Mathematics? Or Economics? Perhaps father read to me a half a century ago on a different continent he was 30% a Coding Theorist, and 45% a Mathematician, and [2]) that science is the Red Queen Race and that, if you ven- 25% an Economist. As these numbers were popping up in my ture into someone else’s land, then it takes all the running you head, I remembered the words of the journalist Amin Maalouf can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! (continued on page 9) 2 From the Editor Salim El Rouayheb This issue of the newsletter starts with the announcements, calls for nominations, and upcoming con- regular column by the president our society. ferences, can be submitted at the IT Society website http:// We continue with a report on the 2019 www.itsoc.org. Articles and columns can be e-mailed to me Oberpfaffenhofen Workshop on High at [email protected] with a subject line that in- Throughput Coding (OWHTC 2019). We cludes the words “IT newsletter.” also have the minutes from the Board of Governors meeting in San Diego this past The next few deadlines are: February. With sadness, we conclude this issue with an in memoriam for Hendrik July 10, 2019 for the issue of September 2019. Christoffel Ferreira who passed away last November and a short obituary to Elwyn October 10, 2019 for the issue of December 2019. Berlekamp who recently passed away on April 9th at the age of 78. A full in memo- January 10, 2020 for the issue of March 2020. riam of Elwyn Berlekamp will appear in a forthcoming issue. Please submit plain text, LaTeX, or Word source files; do not worry about fonts or layout as this will be taken care of by IEEE layout specialists. Electronic photos and graphics should As a reminder, announcements, news, be in high resolution and sent as separate files. and events intended for both the printed newsletter and the website, such as award Salim El Rouayheb IEEE Information Theory Table of Contents Society Newsletter President’s Column . 1 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter From the Editor . 2 (USPS 360-350) is published quarterly by the Information Theory Society of the Institute of Report on the 2019 Oberpfaffenhofen Workshop on High Throughput Coding Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (OWHTC 2019) ...........................................................3 Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors Meeting..................4 New York, NY 10016-5997. Cost is $1.00 per member per year (included In Memoriam: Hendrik Christoffel Ferreira (1954–2018) ........................8 in Society fee) for each member of the Information Theory Society. Printed in the In Memoriam: Elwyn Berlekamp (1940–2019) .................................9 U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Recent Publications.......................................................10 Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Call for Papers ..........................................................13 Information Theory Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Conference Calendar . 16 © 2019 IEEE. Information contained in this newsletter may be copied without permis- sion provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, and the title of the publication and its date appear. IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ whatis/policies/p9-26.html. Promoting Sustainable Forestry SFI-01681 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter June 2019 3 Report on the 2019 Oberpfaffenhofen Workshop on High Throughput Coding (OWHTC 2019) Organizers: Gianluigi Liva, Alexandre Graell i Amat, Fabian Steiner, and Gerhard Kramer The first Oberpfaffenhofen Workshop on High Throughput Coding (DLR), Bane Vasic (University of Arizona), Tommaso Foggi (Uni- (OWHTC 2019) was held at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) versità degli Studi di Parma), Laurent Schmalen (Nokia), Joachim in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, on February 27–28, 2019. The event Neu (Stanford), Hongchen Yu (Huawei), Stefan Dierks (Rohde & was organized by DLR, Chalmers University, and the Institute for Schwarz), and Balazs Matuz (DLR). The talk topics included hard Communications Engineering of the Technical University of Munich and soft decoding, quantized message passing, circuit implemen- (TUM). The workshop had over 70 registered participants. tations, and other topics with applications to high-speed decoding (Tbps) for fiber optic communications (PON, DCN, DCI, long- The technical program included 26 invited talks. On Wednes- haul). Doctoral candidates from several academic and industrial day, February 27, the speakers were Guido Montorsi (Politec- institutions presented posters. nico di Milano), Rainer Strobel (Intel), Gerhard Kramer (TUM), Søren Forchhammer (DTU), Maxim Kuschnerov (Huawei), Nor- The social program included lunches, refreshments, and a dinner. bert Wehn (TU Kaiserslautern), Emmanuel Boutillon (Universite The organizers would like to thank Ms. Irmgard Völl-Elias for ad- de Bretagne Sud), Catherine Douillard (IMT Atlantique), Georg ministrative support, and the DLR Satellite Networks Department Böcherer (Huawei), Andreas Burg (EPFL), Krishna Narayanan for organizational support and funding. Funding was also provid- (Texas A&M), Marco Ferrari (Politecnico di Milano), and Richard ed by the TUM Institute for Communications Engineering. The pro- Wesel (UCLA). On Thursday, February 28, the speakers were Fa- gram, presentations, and photos are available at the web address: bian Steiner (TUM), Alexandre Graell i Amat (Chalmers), Frank Kschischang (University of Toronto), Stephan ten Brink (Universi- http://www.lnt.ei.tum.de/en/events/2019-oberpfaffenhofen- ty of Stuttgart), Gerhard Bauch (TU Hamburg), Ramon Mata Calvo workshop-on-high-throughput-coding-owhtc/ Frank Kschischang emphasizing the global impact of research on high throughput coding. Gianluigi Liva pointing the way.