23/04/2016, 14:30 — 15:00 — Abreu Faro Amphitheatre
José Fiadeiro, Royal Holloway, University of London

Actor networks: a modelling framework for cyberphysical system protocols

Abstract: We outline actor networks as a formal model of computation in heterogenous networks of computers, humans and their devices.   The formalism builds on Latour’s Actor Network paradigm, which has been very influential in sociology, emphasizing and analyzing the ways in which the interactions between people and objects, as equal factors, drive social processes. It also builds on other  network-based models of computation that have become popular across sciences, from physics and biology, to sociology and computer science. This is joint work with Antónia Lopes (University of Lisbon) and Dusko Pavlovic (University of Hawaii).