Beyond I.I.d in information theory will be organised by the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), National University of Singapore, from 19-21 May 2014 at the University Town, Education Resource Centre, Seminar Room on NUS campus.

Information theory has a very large range of applications in physics. However, the use of established information-theoretic techniques often relies on the i.i.d. assumption, which demands that certain processes (e.g., the use of a communication channel) can be repeated an arbitrary number of times identically and independently of the other invocations. In order to overcome this limitation, researchers have recently started to devise a more general theory of information, non-asymptotic information theory, which enables the study of arbitrary, structureless settings. Recent topics of interest in this area include explicit one-shot bounds on operational quantities, finite blocklength analysis, second order coding rates, the information spectrum method, and new techniques to derive strong converses.

Although this generalised theory is still under development, it has already found a variety of applications, ranging from cryptography and communication theory to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers who work on various approaches to this general theory of information and their applications.

This workshop is a follow-up on the workshop "Beyond i.i.d. in Information Theory" that was held in Cambridge, 8-11 January 2013 (link). A particular goal of this second edition of the workshop is to foster exchange between the classical and quantum information theory communities.