Monday Keynote

Jennifer Volk (University of Wisconsin-Madison)	George Tzimpragos (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Physical Computation in the Era of Hardware Specialization

Boolean logic and operators have formed the foundation of modern computing for nearly a century. However, as computing moves closer to physics and the physical world around us, relying strictly on the same abstractions may be suboptimal, potentially steering research toward well-explored but less fruitful directions. In this talk, we offer a different perspective—one that starts by rethinking the role of time from merely an optimization target to a computational and storage resource. We exemplify its advantages through investigations in superconducting computing and sensor processing. In the former, representing data with transient voltage pulses enforces an integrate-and-fire computing model, and the lack of resistance in superconducting interconnects redefines architectural possibilities. To this end, we argue that asynchronous operations and delay-line memories become key to accelerate the technology’s path to practicality, simultaneously boosting efficiency, design automation, and resilience prospects with minimal investment. In the latter, we explore how the same temporal abstractions can be transformative even within CMOS, reshaping how we envision analog-to-digital interfaces.

Tuesday Keynote

Thomas E. Gorochowski

(School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, UK)

Programming Biological Systems across Scales using Synthetic Biology

Biology computes. From individual cells deciding how to differentiate during development, to social insects coordinating their actions when scavenging for food; the ability to perform complex computations and process information enables life across scales. But what if we could tap into some of this computational potential? How might this be best done, and would it offer new paradigms for thinking about computing? In this talk, I will introduce the field of synthetic biology that aims to engineer biological systems and discuss some of the approaches my group has been taking to address these questions. I will demonstrate how DNA can be written to implement basic decision-making tasks in living cells, highlight some of the challenges we face when reprogramming biology across scales, and consider how we might make use of the inherent ability of biology to adapt and evolve to inspire more effective biodesign workflows. Overall, I hope that the research presented will sparks new ideas for how analog computing might fit into our understanding biological computations and how it might provide new directions for reprogramming biology.