The Logistics of Small Things - A Crossdisciplinary Feasibility Account

诺丁汉在计算机科学和运筹学(OR)领域的前沿研究致力于开发决策支持系统，以优化处理大量(~数百万)宏观对象，例如卡车送货、人员排班、空间分配、跑道调度等。而纳米和生物科学则处理数十亿(或更多)微/纳米尺度的对象。在试图弥合OR和NanoBio技术之间的差距方面，很少有人进行研究，因为规模的缩小会带来物体数量的爆炸性增长。小物流学将成为研究下列研究主题(和其他主题)的概念性保护伞：*加速纳米科学：扫描探针显微镜用于成像和操纵原子大小的物体。这一过程是纳米科学的关键使能技术，非常费力和耗时。OR&Decision Support方法论能否在ATOM级别上发挥作用？能否改变和开发最先进的计划和调度技术，以便以最佳方式逐个原子地构建复杂物质？*智能药物自动化编程：未来的智能药物将以分布式(纳米生物)信息处理设备为核心。将复杂的决策任务(例如，给定的纳米胶囊附着到特定细胞上，传递其药物有效载荷，监测和报告进展)分解为无数更简单的分子过程，是针对患者的纳米医学的关键瓶颈。从例如遗传编程中衍生出来的决策支持系统能否被用来自动和优化地对智能药物进行编程？*优化合成生物学项目的生命周期：合成生物学的目标是在类似工程学的精神中运作。然而，目前的做法缺乏一个严格和正式的决策过程。也就是说，合成生物学项目从设计到实施的最具成本效益的路径是什么？没有可以系统地研究和回答这些问题的框架。人们能否定义合成生物学项目的生命周期以将其成本降至最低？小事物物流跨学科可行性账户将寻求探索OR和纳米生物科学之间的接口。如果后者要很快交付实际应用，就需要消除几个物流瓶颈。该项目将寻求确定这些瓶颈所在的位置，并制作解决方案的原型

Nottingham's leading edge research at the interface of Computer Science and Operational Research (OR) is concerned with developing decision support systems for the optimal handling of large numbers (~ millions) of macroscopic objects, e.g., truck delivery, personnel rostering, space allocation, runway scheduling, etc. Nano and Bio sciences, on the other hand, deal with billions (or more) of micro/nano-scale objects. Very little research has been done on trying to bridge the gap between OR and NanoBio technologies for which scale reductions bring an explotion in objects' quantities. The Logistics of Small Things will be the conceptual umbrella under which the following research themes (and others) will be investigated:* Accelerating Nanoscience: Scanning Probe Microscopy is used to image and manipulate atom-sized objects. This process, a key-enabling technology for the nanosciences, is extremely laborious and time consuming. Can OR & decision support methodologies be brought to bear at the atom level? Can state-of-the-art planning and scheduling technologies be altered and developed to optimally build, atom-by-atom, complex matter? * Smart Drugs Automated Programming: Future smart drugs will be, at their core, distributed (nano-bio) information processing devices. Splitting up complex decision-making tasks (e.g. a given nano-capsule attaches to a specific cell, delivers its drug payload, monitors and reports progress) into myriads of simpler molecular processes is a critical bottleneck in patient-specific nanomedicine. Can decision support systems derived from, e.g., Genetic Programming, be used to automatically and optimally program Smart Drugs? * Optimising the life-cycle of Synthetic Biology Projects: Synthetic Biology aims at operating within an Engineering-like ethos. However, current practice lacks a rigorous and formal decision making process. That is, questions such as what is the most cost-effective path from design to implementation for a synthetic biology project? have no framework from where they could be systematically studied and answered. Can one define a Synthetic Biology project's life-cycle to minimise its costs?The Logistics of Small Things Cross-Disciplinary Feasibility account will seek to probe the interface between OR and the NanoBio Sciences. If the latter are to deliver practical applications soon, several logistics bottlenecks will need to be removed. This project will seek to identify where those bottlenecks reside and prototype their solutions