Some of the world’s finest minds will converge on Liverpool next week for a major international conference on the theme of Bio-Inspired Computing. Usually held in Asia or Australia, the event, is being staged in Europe for the first time.

Around 70 experts from as far afield as China, India, Brazil , Canada, Algeria, Malaysia, and New Zealand will congregate at Liverpool Hope University between September 8th and 10th for BIC-TA 2010 – otherwise known as ‘Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications’.

Bio-inspired computing – in which computing is inspired by nature and biology - is a relatively new science, comprising new computing paradigms such as Membrane Computing and DNA Computing having been developed in the past 10-12 years. Experts, inspired by the Nature and Cell Biology, are developing mathematical and computational theories, models, and systems imbibing the features such as self healing, inter and intra cellular communication,  adaptability, scalability and flexibility.

The underlying philosophy motivating this research is to apply these powerful Bio-inspired techniques to problems that have hitherto proved to be intractable, complex, highly nonlinear and difficult to solve.

The conference has been organised and hosted by Professor Atulya K. Nagar, the Foundation Professor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at Liverpool Hope, and Head of the Department of Computer Science.

For more information on the conference, go to: http://www.hope.ac.uk/bicta2010

Liverpool Hope University is to host a major international conference to coincide with Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain.  The conference, 'The Idea of a University - Revisited', runs from 16th-19th September, and will bring together leading education experts and theologians and salute the contribution to higher education of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman(pictured).

Cardinal Newman's major publication, 'The Idea of a University', was written in the 1850s and is credited in helping form many of the ideas which governed higher education in the decades that followed. Pope Benedict XVI will beatify Cardinal Newman in Birmingham on 19th September.

The conference is aimed at a wide audience, including University staff with an academic interest in this area, as well as teachers, theologians, and those who think more generally about values in education and public life.

Further details of the conference can be found at: http://www.hope.ac.uk/newmanconference

Liverpool Hope's Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences is entering the new academic year in buoyant mood following the acceptance of a track proposal by the conference organising committee of EURAM, the prestigious European Academy of Management.

The theme of the track is in the form of a question: "Can ICT provide the inspiration and motivation for cultural changes in organisations?" The organisers of this track are Dr. John Brinkman, Dr. Nabil Sultan, Prof. David Weir (from Liverpool Hope University) and Dr. Sylvia Van de Bunt (from Vrije Universiteit, Holland).

The four organisers have also been asked to organise a session within the general Business and Society track on the 'Cultures of Small Businesses'. The conference will be held in Tallinn, Estonia (European Capital of Culture 2011) on 1-4 June 2011. 'Management Culture in the 21st Century' is the conference's main theme.

Liverpool Hope also organised a EURAM track in 2009 when the conference was held in Liverpool following the award of the city's Capital of Culture status in 2008. The track then was organised by Dr. Nabil Sultan, Prof. David Weir and Beverly Metcalfe and was on Arab Gulf Development