I recent went to the UIUC’s chapter of ACM open house and I noticed they had several SIGs (special interest groups) that I found interesting. The key that I found interesting were SigArt (a SIG for A.I.), SigSoft (for software projects), and SigBot (a SIG for robot building). What I noticed though, was that there was not a group for biology related topics. There was a special interest group for computer human interaction (SigChi), but it lacks the focus on specifically biology or science related topics.
Therefore I decided to get a group of 5 members who were interested in physical science related topics and make a request for a new SIG. I would like to make a SIG called SigSci or SigBio a special interest group in physical sciences. I would like to build models of reactions, build simulations of biological systems, gather data and analyze it, and I would actually want to build a “thinking cap.” Using some ideas from neuroscience to increase learning speed.
In either case, I hope to get it started this semester!