Application-driven Challenges for Automata Networks and Complex Systems

The ACANCOS project aims to lay the foundation for a solid, and internationally competitive research, which is deeply rooted in a context of numerous prior collaborations (but non structured in an unique network on a worldwide scale) on Automata Networks, Cellular Automata, and modelling of complex systems by these discrete models.ACANCOS connects the scientific expertise and excellence of research groups from five countries, two of them outside EU, including experts from two distinct communities (AN and CA), from two distinct orientations (theory-oriented and application-oriented), and from three distinct disciplines (computer science, mathematics, and biomedicine).The scientific objectives of the project are:a) Increasing the knowledge on the relations among the architecture/properties of the underlying graph of AN and the dynamical properties of DTDS defined by AN;b) Understanding the sensitivity/robustness of AN to (a)synchronism;c) Understanding AN through the concept of intrinsic simulation, i.e. the capacity of instances of the computational model to simulate the dynamical behaviour of other instances of the same model;d) Targeting and understanding wide classes of CA both exhibiting the complex behaviours of general CA and with decidable dynamical properties;e) Designing efficient decision algorithms for the dynamical properties describing the dynamical behaviour of DTDS defined by the above mentioned classes of CA;f) Understanding the complexity of the problems regarding the dynamics of DTDS defined by CA with both finite and infinite lattice. g) AN for new conceptualisation and modelling of GRN: theoretical validations and applicative validations on real GRN;h) New CA-based methods for data encryption;Sharing knowledge among different cultural and scientific environments will be crucial to achieve the scientific objectives of the project. The partnership will be strengthened through summer schools and workshops.