Itis-2016: Information century, information-century

On the shores of the Gulf of Finland, from September 26 to 30, the 40th interdisciplinary school-conference “Information Technologies and Systems” (Itis-2016) was held. These were four days of lectures, reports, presentations and sessions on the most advanced topics, four days of close communication between students and scientists, four days of continuous discussions and disputes, four days of real scientific life ...

Talking about the future

Over the past year, we saw how the advanced science literally burst into our lives, with Pokemon, a pocket artist Prisma, virtual glasses, drones and other toys. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Iceberg, whom until recently, was just starting to talk about. Today, attention is gradually switching from a large data analysis to ways to storage and transmission. Quantum cryptography, Internet of things, 5G - it is these fashionable areas that are now of greatest interest, but at the same time the greatest difficulties.

The high rates of progress, the severity of the intelligence of young enthusiasts and the support of optimistic sponsors help solve problems that allow you to look into the future. And we want to look far. After the story at the conference on the next generation of the Internet, the main question was the question of what will happen after 5G. In order to answer such questions, to comply with the needs of an actively developing society and simply keep up with progress, you need not only to think about the future, but to live in it. A peculiar trip to the world of the future and became Itis-2016.

Firstly, because many reports and work were somehow related to trending technologies and prospects for their development. Secondly, in parallel with the main program of the conference, two satellite events were held, at which a stormy discussion of where and, most importantly, how to move. These events were the 15th International Symposium on the problem of redundancy in information systems and the international conference on the future generation NW2an networks. Within the framework of the latter, master classes and seminars from developers of National Instruments automation systems were held. In the halls, the company's equipment was put up, it was possible to ask questions and consider it in all details.

In total, in the scientific sessions of Itis-2016 and its satellite events, 228 works were presented, over 160 oral performances, 58 posters, 13 plenary lectures were held; Over 300 delegates from Russia, Germany, Finland, South Korea, Pakistan, Serbia and Bulgaria took part.

Talking about the past

This year Itis turned out to be surprisingly beautiful on dates. 55 years old is performed by the Institute for Problems of Information Transfer (IPPI). A. A. Kharkevich RAS, chief organizer of the conference. It was the tenth Itis in a new format, which was laid in 2006 by the then director of IPPI Alexander Kuleshov, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, now the rector of Skoltha. And exactly 40 years ago, here, in the village of Repino, in a neighboring boarding house, an international conference on information theory was held. Some of the participants in the current school-conference were on it and recalled how difficult it was to become a member in 1976, and for political reasons.

ITIS works will be indexed to RSCI, and the works of Redundance and New2an will be published in IEEE XPLORE SPRINGER Lecture notes in Computer Science, which are indexed by Scopus and Web of Science.

It is assumed that Itis-2017 will be held with the support of the Council of Rectors of Bashkortostan at one of the sites of the capital of the republic. According to the statement of the chairman of the organizing committee, the acting director of the IPPI RAS Andrei Sobolevsky, at the “fifth ten” school-conference, it will be updated: the alleged changes in the Itis format will serve its further development.

Perhaps the most beautiful Itis-2016 date is 100 years since the birth of Claude Shannon, the founder of the modern theory of information. In honor of this significant event, the Shannovskaya session was held in the framework of the conference. The initiator of its holding was Anatoly Vershik, the chief researcher at the St. Petersburg branch of the V. A. Steklov mathematical Institute, the President of the St. Petersburg Mathematical Society in 1998–2008. He talked about how the work of the young American mathematician led to the so -called entropy revolution and everything that surrounds us today. Also, Alexander Kholevo, the 2016 Shannon Prize Laureate (and the second scientist from Russia - after the IPPI employee Mark Pinker, was awarded this prestigious professional award).

-I am very glad and in every possible way welcome the fact that Ipppi organized a session in honor of the 100th anniversary of Claude Shannon, because this event in the world is very widely celebrated. Despite the fact that the birthday has already passed (it was April 30), conferences that are dedicated to this anniversary continue. After all, Shannon, still expressed carefully, is one of the founding fathers not only of the theory of information, but also of the information era. That is, the era of computers, digital technologies, and even this camera, which is held by a pretty girl, ”said Alexander Semenovich laughing, pointing to the camera of our operator. - So this is a very positive event ...

Talking about the present

This year, 35 works in the student section “My First Article” were presented at the School-Conference. These are the work of guys who are already taking their first real steps in science. According to the organizers, despite the fact that for many participants such events are a pen of the pen, the work is quite serious and significant. Some participants even prepare their projects for publication in international scientific journals.

“This suggests that the conference fulfills its main function, namely, it is a platform where young scientists can present their scientific results and get a review from leading scientists , ” commented the executive co-chair of Itis-2016 Evgeny Khorov.

Ippi RAS began to hold a conference of young scientists in 1966 - five years after its creation. After a break in the 1990s, the conference gathered again in 2007. Every year, Itis unites scientists and engineers from leading research centers, universities in Russia and abroad in one of the cities of our country. The conference co -organizers in different years were the MIPT, NIU HSE, BFU named after I. Kant, Mian, IPU RAS, NSU named after N.I. Lobachevsky and other scientific centers of Russia. Holding Itis in the format of an exit conference is another tradition of the event, which is annually supported by the organizers. This year, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) performed the coorganizer of Itis-2016.

Talking about the eternal

Looking at how students present their first work, and adult scientists help advice, point out mistakes and share their opinions, involuntarily the idea arises that something eternal and important is happening before your eyes.

In general, I must say that Itis is perhaps unique in that students discuss their ideas with the best representatives of their fields of science, and they have the opportunity to see their activities from a different angle and find the successors of their work. Moreover, there are no barriers between youth and authoritative scientists. Together they walk, dine, play the guitar. The conference reigns a very warm, family atmosphere that is not characteristic of events of this kind. This, perhaps, is the power of tradition.

Itis is a place where leading scientists, students, graduate students and employees of scientific institutes gather for the tenth time to discuss the most important thing. The place where all these 10 years ideas, projects are born, plans are being built. The place where friendship, respect and intelligence reign. The place where science lives .

“The face of everything that is associated with the use of secure algorithms and in general with the practice of using information technology is changing. Today, a huge number of very significant tasks are solved using devices lying in each of you in your pockets. However, there are problems that need to be solved now, ”says Evgeny Kruk (SPbGUAP), chairman of the 15th International Symposium on the problem of redundancy in the information systems Problems of Redundance in Information and Control Systems.

“This year we are the first time together with Itis on the same site. Many young scientists with expert opinions from abroad came from our side, which is often also an important moment in the development of students as researchers, and then as engineers. I can say that everything is quite interesting, reports often cause violent emotions. Both students and experienced people find something of their own. During technical sessions, quite interesting developments were presented both by Russian scientists and foreign ones, ”says Evgeny Kucheryy, organizer of the New2an conference.

“These conferences were mainly held by the IPPI. And what is worth noting, one of the organizers was my good friend Roland Lvovich Dobrushin (1929–1995, worked at Ippi RAS, his name was named after one of the institute laboratories - a mathematical laboratory No. 4. - E.A. ). He insisted that mathematicians would come to these conferences. That is, it was not only the theory of information and its applications, but also pure mathematics, one way or another associated with it. And therefore, the conferences were a very high level. There was a very good composition. I can only remember one thing that concerns me personally, but it is worth saying about it, because it is a symbol of those times. Although it took place 30 kilometers from Leningrad, it was possible to get to the conference only “with permission”. This does not mean that you cannot come and listen to the lecture. Please. But you have no right to participate in discussions, all the more, make reports, and so on. And here I am, since I was always on the Black List, did not receive such permission. I submitted an application for a report, and university officials told me that “there will be no permission to you”. When one of my well -wishers asked the official: “What is the matter?”, The official answered the duty phrase, but very funny: “He does not conduct public work.” To which this person who knew me well says: “How? He leads the work of the Leningrad Mathematical Society,” to which the official said an even more wonderful phrase: “He likes this work, and therefore this is not a public work, ” recalls the mathematician Anatoly Vershik.

“Genes of bacteria are like girls in a hostel. Genes can live in groups and change between them. At the same time, some structure may appear in front of each group. It's like a bouquet that can appear in front of the room of girls. If we want to know which girls get bouquets in these groups, we can see how they move, where bouquets appear, and then find out who exactly they are intended, ”Anna Obraztsova told about the topic of her poster from the faculty of bioengineering and bioinformatics of Moscow State University. She and Zoya Chervontseva from the same faculty prepared two post -post reports on the fall of Ribos with ethanol stress and how bacteria genes are regulated by RNA structures.

Egor Antoshchenko
Photos provided by Ippi RAS.