Program Committee

Anthony Ephremides (Co-Chairman)
Thomas Ericson (Co-Chairman)
 

Venkat Anantharam Alexander Barg Andrew Barron Martin Bossert Pascale Charpin Gérard Cohen Daniel J. Costello, Jr. Imre Csiszár Alfredo De Santis Stefan Dodunekov Nariman Farvardin Meir Feder G. David Forney, Jr.

Laszlo Györfi Joachim Hagenauer Bruce Hajek Tor Helleseth Michael Honig Iiro Honkala Johannes Huber Tom Hoeholdt Hideki Imai Rolf Johannesson Torleiv Kløve Kingo Kobayashi Sanjeev Kulkarni

Ueli Maurer Urbashi Mitra Prakash Narayan Vincent Poor Bixio Rimoldi Paul H. Siegel Wojciech Szpankowski Ludo Tolhuizen David Tse Ugo Vaccaro A.J. Han Vinck Frans Willems

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The organizers acknowledge with thanks the financial support obtained from the following organizations:

GENERAL INFORMATION

Place and date
The 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT2000) will be held at the Sorrento Palace Hotel and Conference Center, Sorrento, Italy, from Sunday, 25 June, through Friday, 30 June.

Plenary talks (8:30--9:30, Sala SIRENE)
Monday- Panel Discussion : "The Next Fifty Years of Information Theory and Beyond"
Panelists: Tom Cover, Robert Gallager, James Massey, Jacob Ziv
Tuesday- Shannon Lecture: Tadao Kasami, "Recursive Soft-decision Decoding Algorithms for Binary Linear Block Codes"
Wednesday- Peter Shor, "Quantum Shannon Theory"
Thursday- Shannon Lecture: Thomas Kailath, "Adaptive Filtering, Displacement Structure and Fast Modems"
Friday- Sanjoy Mitter, "Control with Information Constraints: Information Theory Meets System Theory"

Technical Program
As usual, the technical program (attached) will cover interesting and important recent advances across all subfields of Information Theory. For ISIT2000, all technical talks will be limited to 20 minutes. On Monday evening, there will be an opportunity to present recent results: sign up at the registration office.

Personal Invitation
If you require a personal invitation to attend the conference, please contact the Conference Secretariat (e-mail address: stilema@fileita.it).

Travel Grants
A limited number of travel grants is available. Applications should be directed to the Conference Co-Chairman Sergio Verdú.

Language
The official conference language is English. All presentations will be in English, and no translation service will be available.

Web Site
www.dia.unisa.it/isit2000

Travel
Sorrento can be reached from Napoli by train ("circumvesuviana" line), by bus, by boat, or by car (the latter option is not recommended due to the heavy and difficult traffic in the Summer season).

Trains leave from the lower level of the Central Train Station of Napoli about every 30’, and reach Sorrento in one hour, with intermediate stops at Ercolano, Pompei, Castellammare, and Vico Equense (all the Symposium hotels are in walking distance from the Sorrento train station). A one-way ticket costs about Lit 5,000. Please refer to the Web site of the Symposium for the train schedules.
Regular buses are available to reach the Napoli Central Train Station from the Napoli Capodichino airport, and are less expensive than taxis (which cost about Lit 40,000.) If you plan to arrive in Napoli by train, a timetable of the Italian railroad (not including the circumvesuviana) can be found at the web site http://www.fs-on-line.com/

A public bus service is available from the Napoli Capodichino airport to the city of Sorrento; a ticket costs around Lit 10,000. The bus leaves four times a day. A bus service for ISIT2000 participants will also be provided on Sunday, 25 June, connecting the Napoli airport with the symposium hotels, at the cost of Lit 30,000 per person. Reservations are needed to use this service (please see the registration form).

A boat service connects Napoli (Molo Beverello) with Sorrento every 2 hours. A hydrofoil trip (by far the most scenic choice) takes about 1 hour and costs Lit 13,000.

A taxi ride from the Napoli airport to Sorrento will cost about Lit 180,000.

Accommodation
Room blocks have been reserved at the Conference Hotel and several other hotels, all located in the small town of Sorrento. Most of them are within approximately 15’ walk from the Sorrento Palace Hotel. For hotels located further a free shuttle service will be provided. It is recommended that the reservations be made as early as possible, and in any case no later than March 31. The hotel prices in Lit (per room and per day, including breakfast) are listed in the following. Budget accommodations (4-bed bungalows in a campsite) are also available: please contact the organizing secretariat at stilema@fileita.it for further information.

Cancellations made prior to June 1st, 2000 will be subject to LIT 100,000 administration charge. For cancellations received after this date, the first night’s room rate will be charged.

A Word of Caution
Although Sorrento is no less safe than most cities in the world, please be aware that some care should be exercised when walking around. During Summer tourists are expected to carry large amounts of cash, cameras, etc., and are sometimes targeted by petty thieves (often little kids) who try to snatch their purses. Although this usually does not entail any risk for personal safety, it might spoil your trip: thus, be sure you pay some extra attention.

TUTORIALS
In the morning and in the afternoon of Sunday, June 25, four 3-hour tutorials will be held as follows:

Sunday, June 25, 9:40am
Tutorial A: Jim Massey, Cryptography: An Introduction for Information Theorists.
Tutorial B: Rob Calderbank, Vahid Tarokh Space/Time Coding

Sunday, June 25, 2:30pm
Tutorial C: Vince Poor, Advanced Signal Processing for Wireless Communications
Tutorial D: Frank Kschischang, Codes on Graphs and Iterative Decoding

See the Symposium web site for further details. The registration fee for each tutorial is Lit 85,000.

REGISTRATION
The registration desk, located at the ground floor of the Sorrento Palace Conference Center, will be open from 9am to 8pm on Sunday June 25, and from 9am to 6pm for the rest of the week.

SOCIAL PROGRAM

Sunday, June 25
7pm to 9pm: Get-together party (Sorrento Palace Hotel).

Tuesday, June 27
6:30pm to 8pm: Concert (Location TBD).

Wednesday, June 28
2:30pm to 9pm: Excursion to Pompei and pizza dinner. (Not included in the registration fee, it costs Lit 88,000.)

Thursday, June 29
8:30pm to 11pm:Banquet and award ceremony (National Railway Museum of Napoli Pietrarsa).

Friday, June 30
8:30pm to 11pm: Farewell ceremony and pasta party (Sorrento Palace Hotel).

COMPANIONS’ PROGRAM

Monday, June 26
Afternoon: Guided walking tour of Sorrento (Lit 45,000)
Tuesday, June 27
All day: Guided excursion to Napoli (Lit 60,000).
Thursday, June 29
All day: Guided excursion to the island of Capri (Lit 78,000).
Friday, June 30
Morning: Guided excursion to the Amalfi coast (Lit 53,000).

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Registration fee
The regular registration fee includes admittance to all sessions, proceedings, coffee during the conference, four lunches (on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday), the get-together party, the concert, the banquet, and the farewell pasta party. The student registration fee does not include the lunches. Please note that both the registration form and the payment must be received by the Secretariat to obtain the early-registration fee.

Payment
Payment should be remitted in Italian Lira (LIT) or Euros, at the official rate 1936.27 LIT/Euro. Bank, currency, and transfer charges should be paid for by the registrant. Payment by credit card (Diners, VISA, and MasterCard only) is also possible. Please fill in the proper information on the registration form.

Cancellations
Cancellations must be made in writing to the Conference Secretariat. Cancellations made prior to June 1st, 2000 will be subject to LIT 100,000 administration charge. For cancellations made on or after this date, the fees are nonrefundable. Substitutes will be accepted at any time.

THE SYMPOSIUM LOGO
It represents Janus, the god of all beginnings in Roman religion. He is the spirit of doorways (in Latin: januae) and archways (jani). He is usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions, and yields his name to the first month of the year. The logo symbolizes both the inception of the new millennium and that of the second half-century of Information Theory.