[new extended deadline]

Dear Colleagues,

During the last 20 years, bio-inspired computation models and mechanisms have been widely used, both in theory and practice, offering novel and interesting results. Natural Computing is a term with a twofold notion: It describes both nature-inspired computation methods and computational processes observed in natural environment. Besides its close connection with the branch of the Theory of Computation, Natural Computing deals with the development of algorithms and techniques inspired by actual natural processes.

The interdisciplinary concept of “Unconventional Computing” means the implementation of non-standard methods and models of the computational process. The research on alternative or unconventional computation methods is initiated mainly because of the apparent limits induced by the nature of the materials and the methods used in current computing technologies (see Moore's law). Therefore, various bio-inspired computing methods have already been proposed and studied, both in practice and theory. Hence, there is an ongoing effort to investigate the possibility of using such methods/materials for actual computation purposes, with promising and interesting results so far.

This Special Issue will try to shed light on problems related to the above concepts. It aims to gather works that will contribute to this emerging field. Hence, original and unpublished research articles on these topics are welcome. The main topics of the proposed Special Issue are the theoretical and practical aspect of unconventional and non-traditional computation methods and algorithms.

Dr. Theodore Andronikos
Dr. Dimitrios Tsoumakos
Dr. Spyros Sioutas
Dr. Ioannis Panagis
Dr. Konstantinos Giannakis
Guest Editors


Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Computation is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.


Keywords
-natural computing
-quantum computing
-quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms
-molecular and DNA computing
-chemical computing
-molecular machines incorporating information processing
-membrane computing
-neural networks
-evolutionary computing
-computation graphs
-computation on networks and graphs
-computing based on dynamical systems
-non-standard approaches
-fuzzy computing
-computation approaches going beyond the Turing model
-application of non-standard computational methods
-physics of computation
-non-traditional approaches to classical problems
-parallel computing
-algorithms based on ant colonies, bees foraging etc.
-logics of unconventional computing
-physical limits to mechanical computation
-unconventional methods in education and learning approaches