Sono due i nuovi appuntamenti che il ciclo Distinguished Lecturers, promosso dal Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione dell'Universit? di Padova, prevede per ottobre 2007.

Il primo ha per titolo "From wireless networks to sensor networks and onward to networked embedded control", e ospiter? quale relatore il Prof. Panganamala R. Kumar, Franklin Woeltge Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering presso l'Universit? dell' Illinois.
Il seminario si terr? il 18 ottobre con inizio alle ore 15:00 presso l'Aula Magna 'A. Lepschy' del Dipartimento (Via Gradenigo 6 - Padova).

Abstract
We address the issue of organizing principles for three different types of emerging systems: wireless networks, sensor networks, and networked control. In wireless networks, there is no a priori notion of links: transmitting nodes simply radiate energy, and receiving nodes hear a superposition of all such transmissions. The wireless medium therefore offers many more possibilities for communicating information than just relaying packets from node to node. We address the question of what should be the architecture of wireless networks, as well as determining fundamental limits on their information carrying capacity. Sensor networks are comprised of nodes equipped with sensors monitoring their environment, as well as computational and wireless communication capabilities. Besides merely transmitting information, nodes can also combine, discard or process information. Thus the entire network comprises a computational cum communication system. We address the issue of how information should be processed within such networks. Finally, we turn to the problem of networked control, where nodes can act on their environment, as well as sense. We propose an abstraction of virtual collocation for enabling the proliferation of such systems, and provide an overview of efforts in the Convergence Lab at the University of Illinois.

Il secondo seminario ha per titolo "Quantum Information and the Forgetfulness of Nature", e sar? tenuto da Charles H. Bennett, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights il 22 ottobre con inizio alle ore 15:00 sempre in Aula Magna 'A. Lepschy'.

Abstract
The quantum principles of superposition and entanglement have led to a fundamental recasting of the theory of information and computation, and are especially helpful in understanding the nature of privacy. The most private information, exemplified the path taken by a particle in the infamous two-slit experiment, exists only conditionally and temporarily--after the experiment is over even God has forgotten what 'happened'. Less private are classical secrets, facts known only to a few, or information--like the lost poems of Sappho--that once was public but has been lost over time. Finally there is information that has been replicated and propagated so widely as to be infeasible to conceal and unlikely to be forgotten. Modern information technology has caused an explosion of such information, with the beneficial side effect of making it harder for tyrants to rewrite the history of their misdeeds; and it is tempting to hope that all macroscopic information is permanent, making such cover-ups impossible in principle. However, by comparing entropy flows into and out of the Earth with estimates of the planet's storage capacity, we conclude that most macroscopic information--for example the pattern of sand grains on an ancient beach--is impermanent, becoming irrecoverable in principle from evidence on Earth though still recorded in the Universe. Depending on the diligence and forgetfulness of his enemies, former US labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, thought to have been murdered in 1977, may by now have acquired this ambiguous epistemological status.