Where Life Meets Technology
July 21-22, 2003 in Madrid, Spain

conference overview
The IT world has been able to cope with “technological advancement” because its progress has been built upon sciences and architectures that were well understood. But the next wave of strategic computing – grounded in biology – breaks this pattern. The introduction of organic components creates possibilities that can't be imagined within an information infrastructure based on electronics alone.

The notion of “hybrid” bio-electronic devices and applications will become commonplace, leveraging the high-speed and low cost of silicon technologies with the unique capabilities of bio-chemical and biophysical components. Biomechanical sensors in particular will have a huge impact.

Advances may lead us to become the first generation of humans to radically engineer new life forms. Research into organic life forms, including plants, animals and bacteria, will have implications for industries as diverse as energy, manufacturing, agriculture, waste disposal, chemicals and food. Our notions of security might change as well as developments create new biometric and even cryptographic opportunities. We're starting to harness our understanding of how cells work to bring us closer to the creation of "thinking" machines. The same understanding is enabling us to control the natural disadvantages of human engineering. As science fiction is becoming fact, there will soon be a little cyborg in all of us. Digital taps will open a flood of new personal data. Who will own, manage, and maintain it?

None of this would be happening without pervasive computing, advances in miniaturization, and the integration of biology, physiology, chemistry, and computing. The business opportunities around these new life systems are vast, but the consequences for us as a species are far greater.

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speakers
Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Senior Managing Director and CEO, Flagship Ventures
Mr. Richard Bennett, CEO, Tarian Technology
Dr. Adam Heller, Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin
Dr. David Hillis, Professor, Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin
Dr. Chih-Ming Ho, Director, Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration (CMISE), UCLA
Dr. Eric Mayes, CEO, Nanomagnetics Ltd.
Ms. Dawn Meyerriecks, Chief Technology Officer, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Mr. David Neilson, Senior Director, Global Information Solutions, Worldwide Drug Discovery, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development
Dr. Jay Neitz, Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin
Dr. Toribio Fernández Otero, Professor of Physical Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Cartagena
Mr. Stephen Petranek, Editor-in-Chief, Discover
Dr. Steven M. Potter, Assistant Professor, Laboratory for NeuroEngineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Ehud Shapiro, Professor, Computer Science and Applied Math, Weizmann Institute of Science

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