Engineering artificial immunity

Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) is a diverse area of research that attempts to bridge the divide between immunology and engineering and are developed through the application of techniques such as mathematical and computational modeling of immunology, abstraction from those models into algorithm (and system) design and implementation in the context of engineering. Whilst AIS has become known as an area of computer science and engineering that uses immune system metaphors for the creation of novel solutions to problems, I argue that the area of AIS is much wider and is not confined to the simple development of new algorithms. In this talk I would like to broaden the understanding of what AIS are all about, thus driving the area into a true interdisciplinary one of genuine interaction between immunology, mathematics and engineering. In this interdisciplinary context I will discuss the role that AIS might be able to play in digital ecosystems.