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::: center home >> events >> conferences >> other >> 2015-16 >> (re)engineering

(Re)Engineering Biology: The Emerging Engineering Paradigm in Biomedical Engineering, Systems Biology, and Synthetic Biology

15 - 16 April 2016
Center for Philosophy of Science
817 Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA USA

Advance registration is appreciated, but not required.
To register for this conference, please send your name and university/departmental affiliation to: whb2@pitt.edu

::: ABSTRACTS (PDF File)

 

     Friday, April 15    

8:30

Breakfast

9:00

Welcome

9:15

Keynote 1 Tarja Knuuttila (University of South Carolina) and Andrea Loettgers (University of Geneva)(Chair: Miles Macleod)
“Abstraction and model construction in systems and synthetic biology”

 

Session 1(Chair: Carol Cleland)

10:15

Leonardo Bich (Universidad de Chile) and Luisa Damiano (University of Messina)
“The Synthetic Method between Engineering and Science: A new paradigm for the scientific exploration of the frontiers of life?”

11:00

Coffee Break

11:30

Dominic Berry (University of Edinburgh)
“Why Phytobricks?: How synthetic biologists are engineering plants”

12:15

Melinda Fagan (University of Utah)
“Reprogramming and the Repressilator”

1:00

Lunch (on your own)

2:30

Keynote 2 Eberhard O. Voit (Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University) (Chair: Nancy Nersessian)
“Understanding Biological Systems through Mathematical Modeling”

 

Session 2 (Chair: Leonardo Bich)

3:30

Nicolae Morar (University of Oregon) and Brendan Bohannan(University of Oregon)
“Using Evolution to Engineer Microbiomes”

4:15

Coffee Break

4:45

Sune Holm (University of Copenhagen)
“The Machine Analogy in Synthetic Biology”

5:30

Daniel Brooks (Konrad Lorenz Institute)
“Nature as a Toolbox: A New Look at the Concept of Levels of Organization”

6:15

Adjourn

 

     Saturday, April 16     

9:00

Breakfast

9:30

Keynote 3 William Wimsatt (University of Minnesota) (Chair: Sandra Mitchell)
“Fundamental Engineering Principles of Natural and Artifactual Design”

 

Session 3 (Chair: Agnes Bolinska)

10:30

Mazviita Chirimuuta (University of Pittsburgh)
“Crash Testing an Engineering Framework in Neuroscience: When Does the Idea of Robustness Break Down?”

11:15

Coffee Break

11:45

Mark A. Bedau (Reed College)
“Non-traditional engineering of desired weak emergent properties of synthetic cells”

12:30

Luis Favela (University of Central Florida)
“Crosscutting Biology and Engineering via Fractals

1:15

Lunch (on your own)

 

Session 4 (Chair: Mike Stuart)

2:30

Dominic Halsmer (Oral Roberts University)
“The Multifaceted Potential of Affordance-based Reverse Engineering in Biology”

3:15

Elihu Gerson (Tremont Research Institute) and Alok Srivastava (Tremont Research Institute)
“Reconciling Specialties of Engineering and Biology”

4:00

Coffee Break

4:30

Pablo Schyfter (University of Edinburgh)
“The epistemology of ‘good enough’: Pragmatism and engineering knowledge in synthetic biology”

5:15

Mieke Boon (University of Twente)
“An Engineering Paradigm: Whose paradigm?”

6:00

Adjourn

 

Organizing Committee:

Nancy Nersessian (Chair), Harvard University, nancyn@cc.gatech.edu
Sara Green, University of Copenhagen, saraehrenreichgreen@gmail.com
Tarja Knuuttila, University of South Carolina, tarja.knuuttila@helsinki.fi
Andrea Loettgers, University of Geneva, andrea.loettgers@unige.ch
Alan Love, University of Minnesota, aclove@umn.edu
Miles MacLeod, University of Twente, m.a.j.macleod@twente.nl
Michael Stuart, University of Pittsburgh, m.stuart@pitt.edu

Sponsor:
Center for Philosophy of Science

 


 
 
 
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