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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:Physarum Can Compute Shortest Paths
DTSTART:20141014T140000
DTEND:20141014T150000
DTSTAMP:20260407T230449Z
UID:8ea64b779313fe448c5e8e84b701f3416796be9338ea34d62f0a8fde
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Vincenzo Bonifaci - Institute of Systems Analysis and Informat
 ics\, Italian National Research Council (IASI-CNR)\, Rome\nABSTRACT\nNatur
 al processes are often capable of exhibiting remarkable information proces
 sing abilities. Physarum polycephalum -- the 'many headed' slime mold -- i
 s a single-cell\, multiple nuclei organism that is apparently able to solv
 e rather complex tasks\, such as finding the shortest path between two poi
 nts in a maze while foraging food. Mathematical models have been proposed 
 by biomathematicians to describe the feedback mechanism used by Physarum t
 o adapt its tubular channels while foraging two food sources s0 and s1. We
  prove that\, under one such model\, the mass of the mold will eventually 
 converge to the shortest s0-s1 path of the network that the mold lies on\,
  independently of the structure of the network or of the initial mass dist
 ribution. This matches the experimental observations by the biologists and
  can be seen as an example of a "natural algorithm"\, that is\, an algorit
 hm developed by evolution over millions of years.\nNatural algorithms prov
 ide an information processing perspective on biological processes\, as wel
 l as inspiration for innovative solutions in computer science. We discuss 
 how to turn the Physarum dynamics into a discrete algorithm that is suitab
 le for implementation on modern computers. We also illustrate some of the 
 many open questions concerning Physarum's computational capabilities.
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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