Dear Colleague,
I would like to invite you to contribute/participate in an annual international conference that takes place in Las Vegas every June. The conference is called "Mathematics and Engineering Techniques in Medicine and Biological Sciences" (METMBS) with its website at http://metmbs.sdsu.edu/. This is a major gathering of various research communities (Parallel and Distributed Processing, Artificial Neural Networks, Image Processing, Internet Computing, etc.) with twelve conferences (http://www.ashland.edu/~iajwa/conferences/) proceeding concurrently in the same location. Last year, the combined event attracted nearly 2000 participants from around the world. As before, the participants of METMBS can attend any of the seven conferences free of charge. Furthermore, the annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (a prestigious publication in the field of sciences), has dedicated a 500 page special issue to papers from METMBS 2001 - a testimony to the quality of the conference. We hope to attract invitations for Journal publications for this year's METMBS as well. Moreover, the conference sponsors have agreed, as before, to allocate a generous amount of funds to promote the conference and to provide high exposure for its proceedings. Some of this money will be spent towards donating a large number of conference proceedings to many major libraries/universities around the country and the world. As in the previous years, I believe that this will provide a high level of exposure to the work presented at this conference and those who organize its technical sessions. For your information, I have included the call for papers of this conference. If you decide to propose a technical session, please send me a paragraph describing the focus of the session. The focus need not be one that fits under the categories listed bellow, however it needs to be relevant to the overall theme of the conference. I look forward to your reply and future collaborations. With best regards Faramarz Valafar ----------------------------- Faramarz Valafar Associate Professor Department of Computer Science San Diego State University CALL FOR PAPERS =============== The 2002 International Conference on Mathematics and Engineering Techniques in Medicine and Biological Sciences METMBS'02 http://metmbs.sdsu.edu June 24 - 27, 2002 Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Call for Papers Recent advances in computer technology have provided the tools and the environment to study, analyze, and better understand complex systems. This technological development has enabled researchers to collect and analyze massive amounts of data to a scale previously not possible. The impact of this technology is now being felt in the medical field and in the biological sciences. In recent years, research in interdisciplinary areas such as Bioinformatics and computer assisted medical decision-making has dramatically intensified. METMBS'02 aims to provide a platform for researchers to present and discuss recent breakthroughs in this area. The METMBS'02 Conference will be held concurrently (i.e., same location and dates) with a number of other international conferences and workshops (PDPTA'02, CISST'02, IC-AI'02, IC'02, CIC'02, ...). The last concurrent meeting of this group of conferences in year 2001 had research contributions from 52 countries (the events held in Las Vegas had over 1400 participants from all over the world.) It is hoped that METMBS'02 will maintain its strong international flavor in this year's meeting as well. You are invited to submit a draft paper of about 5 pages and/or a proposal to organize a technical session (see below for submission information). All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. THE NAMES OF TECHNICAL SESSION CHAIRS WILL APPEAR AS ASSOCIATE EDITORS ON THE COVER OF THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. SCOPE: Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: o Bioinformatics: This includes informatics techniques in genomics gene sequencing, gene pattern discovery, gene pattern-function studies, and other genomics related studies). o Data mining in medicine and biological sciences. o Pattern recognition in medicine and biological sciences. o Signal processing in medicine and biological sciences (e.g. biomedical signal processing, etc.) o Image processing in medicine and biological sciences (e.g. biomedical image processing, biomedical imaging, etc.) o Medical decision-making. o Medical Physics. o Biomedical Engineering. o Biomedical Electronics. o Biosignal interpretation. o Any application of computers in Medicine and biological sciences (protein structure-function analysis, drug and protein design, molecular modeling and simulation, etc.) o Application of information technology in biomedicine (e.g. medical database management, information retrieval and use of computers in hospitals) o Application of Computational Intelligence (artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary computing) in medicine and biological sciences o Medical and bio-computing. o Computer-based medical systems (automation in medicine, etc.) o Recent history (1990-2001) of Mathematics and engineering techniques in medicine and biological sciences, and what to expect during the next decade (2001-2010); New horizons. Review articles) o Other aspects and applications relating to technological advancements in medicine and biological sciences. SUBMISSION OF PAPERS Prospective authors are invited to submit three copies of their draft paper (about 5 pages - single space, font size of 10 to 12) to F. Valafar (address is given below) by the due date. E-mail and Fax submissions are also acceptable. The length of the Camera-Ready papers (if accepted) will be limited to 7 (IEEE style) pages. Papers must not have been previously published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. The first page of the draft paper should include: title of the paper, name, affiliation, postal address, E-mail address, telephone number, and Fax number for each author. The first page should also include the name of the author who will be presenting the paper (if accepted) and a maximum of 5 keywords. PROPOSAL FOR ORGANIZING TECHNICAL SESSIONS Each technical session will have at least 6 paper presentations. The session chairs will be responsible for all aspects of their sessions; including, soliciting papers, reviewing, selecting, ... The names of session chairs will appear as Associate Editors in the conference proceedings. After the conference, some sessions will be considered for publication in appropriate journals as Special Issues with the session proposer as the Guest Editor of the journal. Proposals to organize technical sessions should include the following information: name and address (+ E-mail) of proposer, title of session, a 100-word description of the topic of the session, and a short description on how the session will be advertised (in most cases, session proposers solicit papers from colleagues and researchers whose work is known to the session proposer). Mail your proposal to F. Valafar (address is given below); E-mail submissions are preferred. EVALUATION PROCESS Papers will be evaluated for originality, significance, clarity, and soundness. Two researchers in the topical area will referee each paper. The Camera-Ready papers will be reviewed by one person. PUBLICATION The conference proceedings will be published by CSREA Press (ISBN) in hardcopy. The proceedings will be available at the conference. Some accepted papers will also be considered for journal publication (soon after the conference). (In addition to the hardcopy, it is also planned to publish the papers on a CD.) ORGANIZERS/SPONSORS A number of university faculty members and their staff in cooperation with the Monte Carlo Resort (Conference Division, Las Vegas), will be organizing the conference. The conference will be sponsored by World Academy of Sciences and co-sponsored by Computer Science Research, Education, & Applications Press (CSREA: USA Federal EIN # 58-2171953) together with research centers, international associations, international research groups, and developers of high-performance machines and systems. The complete list of sponsors and co-sponsors will be available at a later time. (Previous conferences' sponsors included: CSREA, the National Supercomputing Center for Energy and the Environment - DOE, The International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, The International Technology Institute (ITI), The Java High Performance Computing research group, World Scientific and Engineering Society, Sundance Digital Signal Processing Inc., the Computer Vision Research and Applications Tech., ...) LOCATION OF CONFERENCE The conference will be held in the Monte Carlo Resort hotel Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (with any overflows at other near-by hotels). The Monte Carlo Resort is a mega hotel with excellent conference facilities and over 3,000 rooms. The hotel is minutes from the Las Vegas airport with 24-hour shuttle service to and from the airport. This hotel has many vacation and recreational attractions, including: waterfalls, casino, spa, pools & kiddie pools, sunning decks, Easy River water ride, wave pool with cascades, lighted tennis courts, health spa (with workout equipment, whirlpool, sauna, ...), arcade virtual reality game rooms, nightly shows, snack bars, a number of restaurants, shopping area, bars, ... Many of these attractions are open 24 hours a day and most are suitable for families and children. The negotiated hotel's room rate for conference attendees is very reasonable (79USD + tax) per night (no extra charge for double occupancy) for the duration of the conference. The hotel is within walking distance from most other Las Vegas attractions (major shopping areas, recreational destinations, fine dining and night clubs, free street shows, ...). For the benefit of our international colleagues: the state of Nevada neighbors with the states of California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. Las Vegas is only a few driving hours away from other major cities, including: Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, ... EXHIBITION An exhibition is planned for the duration of the conference. Interested parties should contact F. Valafar (address is given below). All exhibitors will be considered to be the co-sponsors of the conference. IMPORTANT DATES Feb. 22, 2002 (Friday): Draft papers (about 5 pages) due March 21, 2002 (Thursday): Notification of acceptance April 22, 2002 (Monday): Camera-Ready papers & Prereg. due June 24-27, 2002: METMBS'02 International Conference Proposals to organize technical sessions should be submitted as soon as possible. All accepted papers are expected to be presented at the conference. MEMBERS OF PROGRAM & ORGANIZING COMMITTEES The Program Committee is currently being formed. Those interested in joining the Program Committee should e-mail F. Valafar (address given below) the following information: Name, affiliation and position, complete mailing address, e-mail address, tel/fax numbers, a short biography together with research interests. OTHER INFORMATION It is planned to add other related conferences and workshops to be held simultaneously (same location and dates) creating an international multiconference. Each conference will have its own proceedings and technical/research sessions. Proposals to organize international conferences or workshops (to be held simultaneously with 2002 events) should be sent to Hamid R. Arabnia ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). CONFERENCE CHAIR: Professor Faramarz Valafar Department of Computer Science San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182-7720 Tel: (619) 594-3742 Fax: (619) 594-6746 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://metmbs.sdsu.edu
