From sok at cs.york.ac.uk Wed Feb 1 05:23:41 2006 From: sok at cs.york.ac.uk (sok@cs.york.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 10:23:41 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Studentships available: MSc in Natural Computation Message-ID: Fully Funded EPSRC Studentships/Scholarships for MSc Natural Computation Department of Computer Science, University of York, UK http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/gsp/NC Applications are invited for a new advanced 12 month MSc programme in Natural Computation - computing inspired by the natural world, by biology, physics and chemistry. This course will explore the state of the art in natural computation from the perspective of nature-inspired algorithms; by considering novel views of what constitute computation; and examining how the physical and bio-chemical world provides new foundations for computing. This MSc is intended to provide a route into a PhD or research in this rapidly expanding field. Students choose nine taught modules, covering Bio-inspired Computation (neural and evolutionary algorithms, artificial immune systems, swarms, L-systems, simulation of biosystems); Embodied Computation (quantum conputing, DNA and chemical computing, and evolvable hardware); and Complexity and Emergence (adaptive agents, dynamical systems and emergence). This is followed by a research project. The Department of Computer Science is a research intensive department and was rated 6* in the last research assessment exercise. The Non-Standard Computation Research Group has more than 20 researchers (including teaching and research staff, and research students) working on a wide range of topics in natural computation. Details of how to apply are on the web at http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/gsp. Typically you will have achieved at least a second class degree in Computer Science or a related discipline with an appropriate mathematical basis. We will also consider applicants who have appropriate industrial experience instead. The programme is supported by the EPSRC through its Collaborative Training Account and by a number of leading companies including Microsoft, Rolls-Royce and QinetiQ. We have a number of EPSRC studentships to award to suitably qualified students, covering fees and maintenance costs (UK students) or fees only (EU students). Programme commences October 2006. Applications will be considered until places are filled. -- ___________________________________________________________________ Dr Simon O'Keefe PHONE +44 (0)1904 432762 EMAIL: sok at cs.york.ac.uk Dept of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO10 5DD (U.K.) From bengioy at iro.umontreal.ca Wed Feb 1 08:55:16 2006 From: bengioy at iro.umontreal.ca (Yoshua Bengio) Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:55:16 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: faculty position U. Montreal Message-ID: <43E0BDC4.4080104@iro.umontreal.ca> Hello, A faculty position opening has been posted for my department (computer science and operations research, University of Montreal, www.iro.umontreal.ca). The position is in the area of statistical learning algorithms. U. Montreal is French-speaking and applicants are expected to be able to teach in (not necessarily perfect) French after about a year. In the department, there are currently 3 machine learning professors (www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lisa), as well as a statistical NLP group, a vision group, a bio-informatics group, and a large operations research group. For detailed application instructions please consult the attached document. Applications should theoretically be sent by February 15th but later applications will also be considered until the position is filled. * * * * *Universit? de Montr?al* *Facult? des arts et des sciences* *Department of Computer Science and Operations Research* The DIRO (D?partement d'informatique et de recherche op?rationnelle - Department of Computer Science and Operations Research) invites applications for two tenure-track positions in Computer Science and Operations Research at the Assistant Professor level, starting June 1^st , 2006. Preference will be given to applicants with a strong research program in the following or related areas: ? Learning Algorithms (Statistical learning, data mining) ? Operations Research (Stochastic simulation, modeling and optimization) An excellent candidate working in a field different from those enumerated above would also receive consideration. Beyond demonstrating a clear potential for outstanding research, the successful candidates must be committed to excellence in teaching. The Universit? de Montr?al is the leading French-speaking University in North America. The DIRO offers B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and in bioinformatics, several bidisciplinary B.Sc. degrees, as well as a M.Sc. in electronic commerce and computational finance. With 41 faculty members, 400 undergraduates, 200 M.Sc. students, and 120 Ph.D students, the DIRO is one of the largest Computer Science departments in Canada as well as one of the most active in research. Research interests of current faculty include bioinformatics, teleinformatics, intelligent tutoring systems, computer architecture, software engineering, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, computer graphics and vision, automatic learning, theoretical and quantum computing, parallelism, modeling, simulation and optimization. See http://www.iro.umontreal.ca . *Requirements* : Ph.D. in Computer Science, in Operations Research or a related area. Ability to teach and supervise students in French within one year. *Salary* : Salary is competitive and fringe benefits are excellent. Hardcopy applications including a resume, a statement of current research program, at least three letters of reference, and up to three selected preprints/reprints, should be sent to: Jean Meunier, Professor and Chair D?partement d'informatique et de recherche op?rationnelle, FAS Universit? de Montr?al C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville Montr?al (Qu?bec), H3C 3J7 by February 15^tt , 2006.* *Applications received after that date may be considered until the positions are filled.__ _ _ _ _ In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The Universit? de Montr?al is committed to equity in employment and encourages applications from qualified women. -- Yoshua Bengio Full Professor / Professeur titulaire Canada Research Chair in Statistical Learning Algorithms / titulaire de la chaire de recherche du Canada en algorithmes d'apprentissage statistique D?partement d'Informatique et Recherche Op?rationnelle Universit? de Montr?al, adresse postale: C.P. 6128 Succ. Centre-Ville, Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada H3C 3J7 adresse civique: 2920 Chemin de la Tour, Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada H3T 1J8, #2194 Tel: 514-343-6804. Fax: 514-343-5834. Bureau 3339. http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~bengioy http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lisa From Mayank_Mehta at brown.edu Wed Feb 1 15:05:40 2006 From: Mayank_Mehta at brown.edu (Mehta, Mayank) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 15:05:40 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in systems and computational neuroscience Message-ID: A postdoctoral position is available in the areas of systems and computational neuroscience. We are investigating the role of cellular and synaptic mechanisms in shaping the activity patterns of ensembles of neurons, using a combination of experimental and computational techniques. In particular, we record the activity of a large number (> 100) of neurons from the hippocampus and neocortex in freely behaving rodents using tetrodes, and develop analysis techniques and computational models to understand the data. To learn more about our work see: http://neurophysics.brown.edu Ideal candidates would know both electrophysiology and computational modeling. Candidates with a strong background in one of these areas will also be considered. Please send a CV, name and addresses of three references, and a one page description of your work and research interests by email to: Mayank at Brown.edu -Mayank Mayank R. Mehta Assistant Professor Department of Neuroscience Brown University Box 1953, 190 Thayer St. Providence, RI 02912 Ph: 401 863 9727 Fax: 401 863 1074 Email: Mayank at Brown.edu URL: http://neurophysics.brown.edu http://www.facultyof1000.com/about/biography/9382223434375945 From Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au Wed Feb 1 22:47:09 2006 From: Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au (Ivancevic, Vladimir) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 14:17:09 +1030 Subject: Connectionists: New books on Complex and Neural systems Message-ID: <06212A6B8C6FC1469558969887F87EAD06494BE0@ednex507.dsto.defence.gov.au> Hi all, You might be interested in two new books on Complex and Neural systems: 1. Complex Systems Dynamics: http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-185-72-111772946-0,0 0.html 2. Biodynamics: http://www.worldscibooks.com/mathematics/5968.html Dr Vladimir Ivancevic Senior Research Scientist Human Systems Integration, Land Operations Division Defence Science & Technology Organisation, AUSTRALIA PO Box 1500, 75 Labs, Edinburgh SA 5111 Tel: +61 8 8259 7337 Fax: +61 8 8259 4193 Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au From osporns at indiana.edu Thu Feb 2 08:54:00 2006 From: osporns at indiana.edu (Olaf Sporns) Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:54:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: ICDL Paper Submission Now Open Message-ID: <43E20EF8.6060101@indiana.edu> THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS ICDL 2006 International Conference on Development and Learning - Dynamics of Development and Learning - http://www.icdl06.org Indiana University Bloomington, May 31- June 3, 2006 PAPER SUBMISSION NOW OPEN DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 10, 2006. SPECIAL SESSIONS: http://www.icdl06.org/workshops.html KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: http://www.icdl06.org/speakers.html PAPER SUBMISSION: http://www.icdl06.org/submissions.html CALL FOR PAPERS: http://www.icdl06.org/CFP_ICDL2006.pdf -- Olaf Sporns, PhD Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 From cns at cnsorg.org Thu Feb 2 11:23:28 2006 From: cns at cnsorg.org (CNS) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 09:23:28 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Submissions for CNS 2006 open Message-ID: <20060202162328.M2346@cnsorg.org> Deadline approaching! SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 6, 2006 midnight; submission open January 15, 2006 Submissions should be prepared as a three page extended summary (including figures and references) in PDF format. No other formatting requirements! To submit your paper, follow the www.cns.confmaster.net to the submission server. Click on the link register as new author and edit your userdata. Your password will be emailed to you to the email address indicated. Once you have registered as an author, you can log on, change your password and follow the link register paper to submit your contribution to CNS *2006. Please note that a short abstract (< 400 words) for the meeting program should also be submitted at this time. At submission, please indicate if you would prefer an oral or poster presentation (drop down menue paper type) and choose one Systems and between one and three Field of study keywords in the keywords drop down menus. Please check www.cnsorg.org for more detail. Fifteenth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS*2006 July 16 - July 20, 2006 Edinburgh, UK http://www.cnsorg.org -- CNS - Organization for Computational Neurosciences From gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Thu Feb 2 10:00:26 2006 From: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu (Mark A. Gluck) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 10:00:26 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Job Opening (RA or Postdoc): Cognitive Neurocomputational Modeling Message-ID: Position Offered for Research Assistant or Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cognitive Neurocomputational Modeling of Memory and Memory Disorders We have a grant-funded opening to hire a full time Research Assistant/Programmer or Postdoctoral Fellow to work on computer programming projects developing neurocomputational models of the basal ganglia, cortex, and the hippocampal region, with the goal of using these models to capture a broad range of behavioral data on human learning, memory, and attention. Of particular interest is applying these models to understand and predict the nature of memory and cognitive dysfunction in clinical brain disorders including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and stroke/amnesia. These modeling efforts go hand-in-hand with our ongoing parallel experimental studies with all these clinical populations, as well as with related animal studies in our lab using selective lesions in rats and transgenic mice. In addition, we are interested in applying the normative models to a broad range of applied engineering and Artificial Intelligence applications in control and cognition, to compare them to alternative computing methods for solving these problems. We would be open to hiring either a post-BA who would work for two years before going on to graduate school or a postdoctoral fellow. In either case, it is essential that the person have (1) very strong computer programming skills, (2) prior experience with mathematical and computational models of brain and/or behavior, preferably with exposure and experience with neural-network models, and (3) strong English-language writing and speaking skills. We are located in Northern New Jersey, less than twenty minutes by train from midtown Manhattan. If interested, please email me a letter of interest summarizing your background, training, computer modeling skills and experience, previous publications and presentations of research, and future career goals. Thanks, Mark Gluck -- ___________________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Co-Director, Rutgers Memory Disorders Project Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Phone: (973) 353-1080 x3221 197 University Ave. Fax: (973) 353-1272 Newark, New Jersey 07102 Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Lab: http://www.gluck.edu Memory Loss & Brain Newsletter: http://www.memorylossonline.com -- ___________________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Co-Director, Rutgers Memory Disorders Project Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Phone: (973) 353-1080 x3221 197 University Ave. Fax: (973) 353-1272 Newark, New Jersey 07102 Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Lab: http://www.gluck.edu Memory Loss & Brain Newsletter: http://www.memorylossonline.com From s.luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com Fri Feb 3 10:15:30 2006 From: s.luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com (Steve Luttrell) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:15:30 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Preprint: Discrete Network Dynamics. Part 1: Operator Theory Message-ID: A preprint is available from http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0511027. Title: Discrete Network Dynamics. Part 1: Operator Theory Author: Stephen Luttrell Abstract: An operator algebra implementation of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for simulating Markov random fields is proposed. It allows the dynamics of networks whose nodes have discrete state spaces to be specified by the action of an update operator that is composed of creation and annihilation operators. This formulation of discrete network dynamics has properties that are similar to those of a quantum field theory of bosons, which allows reuse of many conceptual and theoretical structures from QFT. The equilibrium behaviour of one of these generalised MRFs and of the adaptive cluster expansion network (ACEnet) are shown to be equivalent, which provides a way of unifying these two theories. Steve Luttrell S.Luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com|Centre for Information Processing, phone: +44 (0)1684 894046 |QinetiQ, Malvern Technology Centre, fax: +44 (0)1684 894384 |St. Andrews Rd, Malvern, Worcs, |WR14 3PS, U.K. From willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk Sat Feb 4 06:06:30 2006 From: willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk (David Willshaw) Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 11:06:30 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Job opening in Computational Neuroscience In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1139051190.9199.95.camel@tannochbrae.inf.ed.ac.uk> Job Opening in Computational Neuroscience The School of Informatics invites applications for an appointment to a Lectureship in Neuroinformatics, with a focus on computational modelling of the nervous system at any level, including molecular, cellular, systems or cognitive. This position is comparable to assistant professor, but is a permanent appointment. You will be based in the Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation (ANC) (www.anc.ed.ac.uk), which hosts the EPSRC/MRC Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics. This interdisciplinary 4-year PhD training programme attracts students in many fields of neuroinformatics, including computational and cognitive neuroscience. You should be able to demonstrate an outstanding research record and commitment to excellence in teaching. You will be expected to engage with the highly-motivated PhD students in the DTC (http://www.anc.inf.ed.ac.uk/neuroinformatics). You will be expected to develop collaborative links and joint activities both nationally and internationally. There is a lively neuroscience community at Edinburgh; current related initiatives in which ANC members are involved include the UK initiatives in Systems Biology and in Cognitive Systems, the UK Network in Neuroinformatics and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility, a newly-established organisation serving the international neuroinformatics community. For more information and how to apply see www.jobs.ed.ac.uk (ref. 3005472). Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Professor David Willshaw, telephone +44 131 650 4404 or email willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 24th February 2006. From emj at uci.edu Mon Feb 6 12:43:00 2006 From: emj at uci.edu (Eric Mjolsness) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:43:00 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Preprint: Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax Message-ID: A preprint is available: Title: "Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax: An Overview" Venue: 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, Jan. 2006. Author: Mjolsness, E. URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.AI/0511073 ... which is a summary of the longer UCI Technical Report 05-14, "Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax", http://computableplant.ics.uci.edu/papers/StochProcSemanticsTR.pdf Abstract: We define a class of probabilistic models in terms of an operator algebra of stochastic processes, and a representation for this class in terms of stochastic parameterized grammars. A syntactic specification of a grammar is mapped to semantics given in terms of a ring of operators, so that grammatical composition corresponds to operator addition or multiplication. The operators are generators for the time-evolution of stochastic processes. Within this modeling framework one can express data clustering models, logic programs, ordinary and stochastic differential equations, graph grammars, and stochastic chemical reaction kinetics. This mathematical formulation connects these apparently distant fields to one another and to mathematical methods from quantum field theory and operator algebra. -- Eric Mjolsness Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics University of California, Irvine emj at uci.edu www.ics.uci.edu/~emj From jonas at buchli.org Mon Feb 6 04:13:37 2006 From: jonas at buchli.org (Jonas Buchli) Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:13:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd C.f. Participation: EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 Message-ID: <1139217218.6963.4.camel@moria.buchli.org> Dear Connectionists, Please find attached the last call for participation to the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006. Best Jonas Buchli ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <> ==================================================== * EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 * -------------------------- * 2nd Call for Participation ==================================================== We invite you to participate in the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 Dynamical Principles for Neuroscience and Intelligent Biomimetic Devices http://latsis2006.epfl.ch March, 8-10, 2006, (Registration deadline: February 13 !) Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland Aim of the Conference --------------------- The goal of the conference is to bring together scientists and engineers interested in understanding the dynamical properties of the nervous system, and in taking inspiration from those properties for the design of prosthetic and robotic devices. The conference is interdisciplinary in nature, and aims at bringing together researchers working on similar topics and phenomena but from different backgrounds. The conference is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Latsis Foundation. The presentations will consists of a series of invited talks (see below) and of poster presentations (with short poster spotlights). For more background on the aim of the conference, please visit http://latsis2006.epfl.ch Registration ------------ Registration for the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 is open. Please visit the following website for information and registration form: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page14478.html Important Dates --------------- Registration deadline: February 13, 2006 Conference dates: March 8-10, 2006 Invited Speakers & Program --------------------------- Program website: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page13385.html Dynamics of brain function and behavior * Avis Cohen (University of Maryland) * Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm) * Serge Rossignol (Universit? de Montr?al) * Carmen Sandi (EPFL) * Allen Selverston (UC San Diego) Nonlinear Dynamics and neural computation * Bard Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh) * Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) * Martin Hasler (EPFL) * Wolfgang Maass (TU Graz) * Misha Rabinovich (UC San Diego) * Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute of Science) Neuroprosthetics * Maria Chiara Carrozza (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa) * Philippe Renaud (EPFL) * Andrew Schwartz (University of Pittsburgh) Hybrid circuits and electronic neurons * Thierry Bal (Unic / CNRS) * Rodney Douglas (ETHZ, Zurich) * Peter Fromherz (Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried) * Gwendal Le Masson (University of Bordeaux) Biomimetic Robotics and Control * Jean-Louis Deneubourg (Univ. libre de Bruxelles) * Auke Jan Ijspeert (EPFL) * Yasuo Kuniyoshi (University of Tokyo) * Jean-Jacques Slotine (MIT) * Barbara Webb (University of Edinburgh) Abstract submission ------------------- We still have a few poster slots free. People interested in presenting a poster at the Symposium can send us a poster abstract until February 13. Note that by that date the abstract needs to be received in the correct and final format as we have to send the booklets into print after that. See the following page for templates and formatting/submission details: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page14710.html Note that we will not have a full peer review process, the number of posters that we can accept is however limited. Thus, we will accept the contributions depending on relevance to the conference topics, quality, and available place. Once accepted, presenters will have the opportunity to present their work with a poster, as well as a short poster spotlight (a 2-minute presentation) in the conference theatre. Proceedings ----------- The poster abstracts will be published in a booklet with ISBN number distributed at the conference. Organizing Committee -------------------- Main organizer: Auke Ijspeert, EPFL Co-organizers: Aude Billard, EPFL Dario Floreano, EPFL Wulfram Gerstner, EPFL Martin Hasler, EPFL Henry Markram, EPFL Misha Rabinovich, UCSD Al Selverston, UCSD Local chair: Jonas Buchli, EPFL Email contacts: Auke.Ijspeert -at- epfl.ch and Jonas.Buchli -at- epfl.ch From cateau at brain.riken.jp Mon Feb 6 23:45:55 2006 From: cateau at brain.riken.jp (Hide Cateau) Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:45:55 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: PRL paper on the validity of Poisson firing assumption Message-ID: <20060207133148.995E.CATEAU@brain.riken.jp> Hi all, Let me announce you that our paper revisiting thePoisson assumption in neural modeling just came out: Hideyuki Cateau and Alex D. Reyes, Relation between Single Neuron and Population Spiking Statistics and Effects on Network Activity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 058101. Even if each one of neurons fires in a non-Poissonian manner, a collection of inputs from many mostly uncorrelated neurons should look like Poissonian. Our paper disproves this widely assumed view and demonstrate how non-Poissonian firing nature survives to affect the population firing patterns. Cheers, Hide Cateau Lab. for Neural Circuit Theory RIKEN, BSI 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 3500198 Japan cateau at brain.riken.jp 048-462-1111 ext.7465 http://nctl.brain.riken.jp/~cateau/ From tobias at chaos.gwdg.de Tue Feb 7 03:58:40 2006 From: tobias at chaos.gwdg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:58:40 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD student position in theoretical neurophysics at Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Goettingen, Germany Message-ID: <43E86140.5080306@chaos.gwdg.de> The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (G?ttingen, Germany) invites applications for a PhD student position (BATIIa/2) in theoretical neurophysics. Recent progress in neuroscience enables experimental neuroscientists to simultaneously record the activity of up to hundreds of neurons in the brains of animals engaged in a cognitive task. The development of adequate models and mathematical tools for the analysis of such large scale neuronal activity patterns is thus an important challenge in theoretical neuroscience. The successful candidate will use approaches from statistical physics and dynamical systems theory to develop mathematical methods and models for the analysis of the coordinated dynamics of large ensembles of neurons and use them to analyse recordings from the mammalian visual cortex. We are looking for applicants with a first degree in physics or applied mathematics, preferably with prior experience in statistical physics or dynamical systems theory, and interest in interdisciplinary research at the border of theoretical physics and neuroscience. Prior biological or neuroscience training is welcome but not required. The candidate's PhD research will be supported the recently established Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in G?ttingen. G?ttingen is a center of neuroscience in Europe hosting numerous internationally recognized neuroscience research institutions, including three Max Planck Institutes, the European Neuroscience Institute, the German Primate Research Center, and G?ttingen University's Centers for Systems Neuroscience (ZNV) and for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB). The BCCN integrates theoretical and experimental research groups from these institutions to foster interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience specifically supporting close collaboration between theorists and experimental researchers. Please submit your application preferably in one single PDF-document, including cover letter, CV, list of publications, names of possible referees, relevant certificates until March 15, 2006, to: jobs at bccn-goettingen.de (Subject: ThN PhD) While e-mail is preferred, applications may also be submitted in hardcopy to the following address: Prof. Dr. Theo Geisel Subject: ThN PhD Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) G?ttingen Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Bunsenstrasse 10 D - 37073 G?ttingen, Germany http://www.ds.mpg.de The MPIDS is an equal opportunity employer. From d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk Thu Feb 9 05:05:31 2006 From: d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk (Denis Mareschal) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 10:05:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Phd Studentships in London Message-ID: 6 Marie Curie PhD studentships in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Birkbeck University of London, UK The Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development and affiliated laboratories has recently been granted Marie Curie Centre of Excellence in Training status by the European Commission. As a result of this, 6 3-year fellowships are available for the purposes of completing a PhD in Cognitive or Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck University of London. The PhD studentships are tenable for up to 3 years and must be taken up no later than September 30th 2005. Fellows will be hosted at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), within the School of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London. Details of the Centre's and affiliated lab's activities can be found at http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/cbcd.html. The CBCD has the mission to investigate relations between postnatal brain development and changes in perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic abilities from birth through childhood and late adulthood. Research in intrinsically multidisciplinary and involves behavioural testing, ERP, fMRI, NIRS, and computational neural network modelling with typically and atypically developing children as well as adult patient populations. Affiliated labs include: * the Babylab * the Developmental Neurocognition Lab * ALPHAlab * Neurocognitive Development Unit of ICH *Brain and Behaviour Lab Successful applicants will be required to complete a PhD under the supervision of a member of the CBCD faculty and affiliated labs. Eligibility conditions Marie Curie actions carry a number of mobility constraints. Successful applicants cannot have resided more than 1 year within the last 3 in the UK. Ordinarily, applications will only be considered from citizens or long-term residents of the EU or affiliated states who are not citizens or residents of the UK. Other eligibility requirements may apply. Minimum English language standards apply for all PhD candidates to the University of London. Successful candidate will be expected to have sufficient written English skill to undertake the writing of a long document in English. Equal Opportunity Birkbeck is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly encourage application from women and recognise the differing life patterns of men and women in the work and trainings sectors. Qualifications The fellowships are open to truly outstanding candidates who must have achieved at least a level of training that would enable them to qualify for entry into a PhD programme in their home country. As the PhD must be completed within the 3 years of the fellowships we anticipate that successful candidate will have already obtained a substantial amount of training in relevant research methods. Conditions of employment Successful candidates will be employed as research assistants within the school of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London. Their salary will be the sterling equivalent of approximately ?32k per annum plus a minimum of ?6k Mobility Allowance per annum. They will also receive an annual payment as a Travel Allowance, and ?2k as a Career Exploratory Allowance paid upon completion of the first 12 months of your appointment. All payments are determined by personal circumstance, details of actual salary and allowances can be obtained upon request Application procedures Interested applicants should consult the relevant web pages of the CBCD and affiliated Labs first to assess whether their research interests and experience match those of relevant possible supervisors. Applications will then be made through the School of Psychology MPhil/PhD Programme (http://www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/courses/phd_research/). Application forms can be obtained from Ms. Mina Daniels (s.daniels at bbk.ac.uk) or they can be downloaded directly form the Birkbeck web pages by following the links on (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/for/prospective/full-time/research). When applying, candidates should make it clear on their application form that they wish to be considered for a Marie Curie Studentship. Applications should be submitted not later than March 31st 2006. A small short list of candidates drawn form those received by this date will be invited to London for interviews approximately 4 to 6 weeks following this date. However, we will continue to consider applications until all 6 positions have been filled. We will announce when the position have been filled on the CBCD web pages cited above. Informal enquires can be made to Professor Mark Johnson (mark..johnson at psychology.bbk.ac.uk), Dr. Denis Mareschal (d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk) or any potential supervisor who is part of the CBCD and affiliated laboratories. Procedural or administrative enquires regarding the application procedures or conditions of employment should be made to he Marie Curie Administrator Ms Katherine Jones (k.jones at bbk.ac.uk) -- ================================================= Dr. Denis Mareschal Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development School of Psychology Birkbeck College University of London Malet St., London WC1E 7HX, UK tel +44 (0)20 7631-6582/6226 reception: 6207 fax +44 (0)20 7631-6312 http://www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/people/academic/mareschal_d/ ================================================= From steffen at jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de Fri Feb 10 05:08:30 2006 From: steffen at jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de (Steffen Wischmann) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:08:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Job Offer at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Goettingen (Germany) Message-ID: <43EC661E.8070909@jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de> Immediately starting: Job Offer at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Goettingen (Germany) The BCCN in Goettingen is involved in two collaborative research projects funded by the European Commission (PACO-PLUS, DRIVSCO) where our goal is to apply perception-action learning in different complex technological scenarios using a variety of robots as test bed. We are looking for a candidate at PhD or Postdoc level preferably with expertise in (sub-)symbolic learning methods and/or computer vision. Good programming skills are definitely required. The goal of the project is to learn the correlation between human (or robot) actions and the changing visual perception which arises from these action. One can assume that this way humans and machines are able to better infer the structure of their world. Thus, these projects seek to understand perception and action in a closed loop way. For this, models of the action- as well as perception-space will be developed and perception-action learning needs to take place within this framework. The focus of this position lies on aspects of (machine) learning. We offer a very active and international working environment at the BCCN, which consists of several groups working in Computational Neuroscience and related fields. The projects are taking place in collaboration with 8 partners from different countries in Europe, which have worked together already in a former project. Specifically, this position will require to collaborate with the University of Barcelona, Spain, where the successful candidate is expected to stay for several weeks in the course of the project. Starting date: Immediately preferred!, Duration: Up to 4 years. Salary according to the German BAT System, with BAT IIa, negotiable between 50% and 100% according to the expertise of the applicant. Send your application (preferably as PDF file) or further inquiries to Prof. F. Woergoetter worgott at chaos.gwdg.de Our web pages start at: http://www.ifi.informatik.uni-goettingen.de/cng/ The BCCN is at: http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/ From Wael.El-deredy at manchester.ac.uk Fri Feb 10 04:13:59 2006 From: Wael.El-deredy at manchester.ac.uk (Wael El-Deredy) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:13:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Industrial CASE studentship on Graphical Models Message-ID: <6725489.1139562839457.JavaMail.ocs@arke-pub1.theogony.net> Bayesian networks for knowledge discovery and collaborative filtering EPSRC CASE Studentship A PhD studentship is available for three years to develop and evaluate graphical models for collaborative filtering. Probabilistic recommender systems capable of hidden variables underpinning preference, choice and purchase behaviour will be developed within the Bayesian belief networks framework. The project will involve close interaction with industrial sponsors and will be supervised by Professor Paulo Lisboa at the school of Computing and Mathematical Sciences - Liverpool John Moores University and Dr. Wael El-Deredy at School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester. The successful candidate will receive an enhanced EPSRC stipend starting at ?14,000 in year 1 and rising to ?16,500 in year 3. Eligible candidates* wishing to apply should send by email a supporting statement together with a CV containing names and addresses of two referees by the closing date of Friday, 10th March 2006. * Candidates must satisfy the EPSRC eligibility requirements: Recent changes to the criteria have opened full CASE studentship funding to EU nationals with residence in the UK for at least 3 years, which now include periods of stay for the purpose of higher education. For further information and applying contact Professor PJG Lisboa email: p.j.lisboa at livjm.ac.uk, tel. 0151 231 3226 From B.Kappen at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 13 15:58:35 2006 From: B.Kappen at science.ru.nl (Bert Kappen) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:58:35 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: job in machine learning and genetics at SNN Message-ID: Postdoc position available at SNN Nijmegen. SNN Nijmegen is a university based research group dedicated to fundamental research in the areas of machine learning and computational neuroscience. Specific topics are Bayesian networks, approximate inference methods, time-series modeling, bio-informatics, expert systems, stochastic control and collaborative decision making. The group consists currently of 10 researchers. In our group, we have a postdoc position available in a project on genetic linkage analysis, which concerns the problem of finding the genetic correlates of diseases or phenotypes in pedigrees of humans or animals. The required computation is intractable and has recently been succesfully improved using belief propagation (CVM). The research is carried out in close collaboration with experimental research groups on human genetics and animal breeding. The requirement for the postdoc position is a PhD and publications relevant for the above research topic. The postdoc position is full-time for a period of 3 years. For more information see www.snn.ru.nl or contact Bert Kappen (b.kappen at science.ru.nl, +31 24 3614241). Application: Applications should be sent by email before March 15 2006 to snn at science.ru.nl. Applications should contain a complete CV, a brief description of the research interests. Bert Kappen SNN Radboud University Nijmegen URL: www.snn.kun.nl/~bert The Netherlands tel: +31 24 3614241 fax: +31 24 3541435 B.Kappen at science.ru.nl From rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk Wed Feb 15 06:57:05 2006 From: rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bob Damper) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:57:05 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Letter-to-phoneme machine lerning challenge Message-ID: Connectionist may be interested in the following ... ******* Dear PASCAL researchers, Welcome to the Letter-to-Phoneme Conversion Challenge -- PRONALSYL http://www.pascal-network.org/Challenges/PRONALSYL/ email: rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk Yannick.Marchand at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Part of the EU Network of Excellence PASCAL Challenge Program. Participation is open to all. The objective of the Challenge is to advance the state of the art in letter-to-phoneme conversion. This `automatic pronunciation' problem is not only important in its own right (e.g., as a component part of many speech technologies) but has also served as a benchmark for machine learning methodologies for many years (cf. Sejnowski and Rosenberg's famous NETtalk). Although PASCAL is centrally concerned with machine learning (ML), we are also very keen that at least some participants employ expert knowledge based approaches (i.e., manually-written linguists' rules) to allow us to compare the performance of the two very different paradigms. This is not a competition in the sense of having winners and losers. Rather the motivation is to learn from our joint efforts. Hence, we are keen for at least some participants to try out very simple methods (e.g., naive Bayes classifier) that can be used as a `baseline' for comparative purposes. The scientific goals are: * To understand better the nature of the conversion problem, how this varies across languages, and how and why different machine learning techniques might be more or less appropriate for this task. * To improve on the best automatic pronunciation result(s) so far achieved, either by use of a novel ML approach or by improving an existing one (or perhaps using manually-written rules). * To understand better the nature of strongly related problems (letter-phoneme string alignment, syllabification, morphemic decomposition, stress assignment, ...) that might impact on the capabilities of a letter-to-phoneme conversion system. * To advance machine learning methodology in general. It is intended that discussion and preliminary results will be presented in the Pascal Challenge Workshop in Venice (10-12 April 2006), and final reporting will be at NIPS in December 2006. Program Committee: Walter Daelemans, University of Antwerp, Belgium Bob Damper, University of Southampton, UK (Co-Chair) Kjell Gustafson, Acapela and KTH, Stockholm, Sweden Yannick Marchand, National Research Council, Canada (Co-Chair) Francois Yvon, ENST, Paris, France Please go to the website for further details of PRONALSYL and available datasets: http://www.pascal-network.org/Challenges/PRONALSYL/ We are looking forward to an interesting challenge! The Program Committee. From J.Triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Thu Feb 16 06:12:37 2006 From: J.Triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (J.Triesch@fias.uni-frankfurt.de) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:12:37 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: FIAS Summer School - Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems (05-27. Aug. 2006, Frankfurt/Main, Germany) Message-ID: (apologies for multiple postigns) Announcement and Call for Applications: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) Summer School: Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Frankfurt, Germany from Saturday, August 5 to Sunday, August 27, 2006. The application deadline is Saturday, April 15, and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. FACULTY: Larry ABBOTT, Columbia University, USA Ad AERTSEN, University of Freiburg, Germany Dana BALLARD, University of Rochester, USA Emery BROWN, Harvard and MIT, USA Gyrgy BUZSKI, Rutgers University, USA Yves FRGNAC, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France Wulfram GERSTNER*, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, France Rainer Goebel, Maastricht University, Netherlands Claudius GROS, Goethe University, Germany Wolfgang MAASS, FIAS, Germany and Technische Universitt Graz, Austria Bartlett MEL, University of South California, USA Gordon PIPA, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany John RINZEL*, New York University, USA Wolf SINGER, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany Andrey SOLOV'YOV, FIAS, Germany Jochen TRIESCH, FIAS, Germany and UC San Diego, USA Christoph VON DER MALSBURG, FIAS, Germany Carl VAN VREESWIJK, Ren Descartes University, France *invited GOALS: There is a deficiency in the exchange of ideas between theoretical physicists and experimental biologists. This arises from different background knowledge bases and viewpoints, even when addressing the same problem. The aim of the FIAS Summer School on Theoretical Neuroscience and Complex Systems is to provide a bridge linking experimentalists and theorists. The school also addresses the challenge of further developing theoretical sciences and transferring existing concepts into the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience. This transference will be highly dependent on the successful training of students so that they can bridge the different fields. Applicants will work on projects that they themselves propose, and to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations, each student will be assigned a "working-group" comprising one experimental neuroscientist, one theoretical neuroscientist, and one theoretical physicist. FORMAT: The three-week summer workshop will include a preschool that will take place at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. During these three days, theoretical physicists will be trained in basic concepts of neuroscience, experimental neuroscientists will be trained in basic concepts of network theory and complex systems, and theoretical neuroscientists will be trained in experimental neuroscience. The first two days of the summer school will be used to introduce the main concepts of neuronal systems and information processing. The second week is devoted to the characterization and analysis of neural recordings, as well as to the description and modeling of neurons, synapses, and small networks. The third week introduces approaches for modeling higher cognitive functions. Throughout, participants work on projects that they themselves propose, and this work will be carried out in collaboration with an interdisciplinary working-group comprising one experimental neuroscientist, one theoretical neuroscientist, and one theoretical physicist. Lectures will be held in the mornings from Monday-Friday, while students will work on their projects in the afternoons from Monday-Wednesday. Intra-group progress reports will be presented on Wednesday and Friday evenings. A preview of the following week's lectures will be provided on Thursday afternoons to ensure that all participants are comfortable with the material to be discussed. Saturdays will be devoted to "theory in practice" and participants will have the chance to visit actual research laboratories: MPIH (Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research) in Frankfurt and the Honda Research Institute in Offenbach. Each Sunday will be reserved for recreational opportunities, and on the final day of the summer school, the projects will be presented. The scientific program will cover the following areas: - Neuroanatomy - Neurophysiology - Basics in modeling of neurons - Realistic models of neural microcircuits - Abstract models of higher-level functions - Outlook to other complex systems LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: FIAS is a Foundation of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University and is located on the natural science campus, Riedberg, in Frankfurt am Main. It also has close collaboration with the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the J.W. Goethe-University and the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and Biophysics. The preschool will take place at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research. Students and Lecturers will stay in the Marriott Courtyard Frankfurt Nordwestzentrum. The hotel is located very close to the FIAS Institute and has excellent access to the public transport system. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: FIAS organizes the summer school and covers the accommodation and the cultural Program. Students have to pay a registration fee of 150 euro. Students from Easter European countries or students in general who need support for their travel expenses can apply for reimbursement and a waiver for the registration fee. Please indicate this in your application if you are considering applying for reimbursement. We will also need an estimation of your travel expenses. HOW TO APPLY: Students who have a bachelor, a master, a Ph.D., or other equivalent degrees can apply for this summer school. To apply, please provide two letters of recommendation, a curriculum vitae, as well as a one page description of a small project she/he is planning to work on during the course. The project proposal should outline the basic idea as well as problems the student might have faced so far. Based on the proposal, the committee will group students to teams and assign interdisciplinary faculty to each individual team. Information about applying and the summer school in general can be found at the website: http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/ A copy of the summer school announcement can be downloaded from: http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/FIAS_summerschool_Poster_A2.pdf Application will include: - First name, last name, affiliation, valid e-mail address - Two letters of recommendation - Curriculum Vitae - Project proposal (max. one page) - Request for reimbursement of travel expenses (if applicable) Please send your documents in an electronic format to: neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de The application deadline is Saturday, April 15, 2006. Applicants will be notified by e-mail by May 1, 2006. For further information, please contact: Denise Meixler (neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de) Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Max-von-Laue-Str. 1 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany tel: +49 69 798 47601 fax: +49 69 798 47611 From andreas at cs.ntua.gr Fri Feb 17 05:25:47 2006 From: andreas at cs.ntua.gr (andreas) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:25:47 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: ICANN 2006 Call for papers Message-ID: <200602171025.k1HAPpsx028992@theseas.softlab.ece.ntua.gr> Call for Papers International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 06) 10-14 September 2006 Holiday Inn Hotel, Athens, Greece ************Conference Framework************ The 16th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, ICANN 2006, will be held from September 10 to September 14, 2006, at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Athens Greece. ICANN is an annual conference organized by the European Neural Network Society in cooperation with the International Neural Network Society, Japanese Neural Network Society, and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, and is a premier European event in all topics related to neural networks. ICANN 2006 (www.icann2006.org) welcomes contributions on the theory, algorithms, applications and implementations in the following broad areas: ? Computational neuroscience; ? Connectionist cognitive science; ? Data analysis and pattern recognition; ? Graphical networks models, Bayesian networks; ? Hardware implementations and embedded systems; ? Neural and hybrid architectures and learning algorithms; ? Neural control, reinforcement learning and robotics applications; ? Neuroinformatics; ? Neural dynamics and complex systems; ? Real world applications; ? Robotics, control, planning; ? Signal and time series processing; ? Self-organization; ? Vision and image processing; ? Web semantics; ? Intelligent Multimedia and the Semantic Web. Ideas and nominations for interesting tutorials, special sessions, workshops and experts willing to organize various session tracks are called for. Most active experts will be included in the scientific committee of the conference. Proceedings of ICANN will be published in Springer's "Lecture Notes in Computer Science". Paper length is restricted to a maximum of 10 pages, including figures. ************Deadlines and Conference dates************ 06.01 Submission page opens 14.03 End of submission of papers (abstract+full paper) to regular sessions 30.03 End of submission of papers to special sessions 30.04 Acceptance/rejection notification 15.06 Deadline for camera ready papers 01.07 Deadline for early registration 10.09 Tutorials - first day of the conference 11-13.09 Main part of the conference 14.09 Workshops For further information and/or contacts, send inquiries to Prof. Stefanos Kollias (stefanos at cs.ntua.gr) Prof Andreas Stafylopatis (andreas at cs.ntua.gr) School of Electrical & Computer Engineering National Technical University of Athens 9, Heroon Polytechniou str., 157 80 Zografou, Athens, Greece. General Chair Stefanos Kollias, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece Co-Chair Andreas Stafylopatis, NTUA, Greece Program Chair Wlodzislaw Duch, Torum, PL & Singapore; ENNS President-elect Erkki Oja, Helsinki, FI; ENNS President Honorary Chair John G. Taylor, Kings College, London, UK; ENNS Past President ************International Program Committee************ ? Peter Andras, U. Newcastle, UK ? Panos Antsaklis, U. N. Dame, USA ? Nikolaos Bourbakis, Wright State Univ., USA ? Peter Erdi, Univ. Budapest, HU & Kalamazoo ? Georg Dorffner, Univ. Wien, AT ? Christophe Garcia, France T?l?com ? Erol Gelenbe, Imperial College London, UK ? Stan Gielen, Univ. Nijmegen, NL ? Nikola Kasabov, Kedri, AUT, NZ ? Janusz Kacprzyk, Warsaw, PL ? Okyay Kaynak, Bogazici Univ., TR ? Chris Koutsougeras, Tulane University, USA ? Thomas Martinetz, Luebeck, DE ? Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou, Rutgers University, USA ? Lars Niklasson, Sk?vde SE ? Marios Polycarpou, Univ. of Cyprus ? Demetris Psaltis, Caltech, USA ? Olli Simula, Espoo, FI ? Alessandro Sperduti, U.Padova, IT ? Lefteris Tsoukalas, Purdue Uni, USA ? Michel Verleysen, Louvain-la-Neuve, BE ? Alessandro Villa, U. Grenoble, FR ************Local Organizing Committee************ ? Yannis Avrithis, NTUA ? Christos Douligeris, Piraeus Univ ? George Dounias, Aegean Univ ? Kostas Karpouzis, ICCS-NTUA ? Aris Likas, Univ. of Ioannina ? Kostas Margaritis, Univ. Macedonia ? Stavros Perantonis, NCSR, Athens ? Yannis Pitas, AUTH, Salonica ? Costas Pattichis, Univ. of Cyprus ? Apostolos Paul Refenes, Athens University Economics & Business ? Christos Schizas, Univ. of Cyprus ? Thanos Skodras, Univ. of Patras ? Kostas Spyropoulos, NCSR, Athens ? Giorgos Stamou, ICCS-NTUA ? Sergios Theodoridis, UoA ? Spyros Tzafestas, NTUA ? Mihalis Zervakis, TUC, Crete From hugh.chipman at acadiau.ca Fri Feb 17 11:34:13 2006 From: hugh.chipman at acadiau.ca (Hugh Chipman) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:34:13 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Fellowship - Statistical Learning withGraph-Structured Data Message-ID: Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship Statistical Learning with Graph-Structured Data The Department of Mathematics and Statistics invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Statistical Learning with Graph-Structured Data. Recent or expected Ph.D., to start July 2006. 1 year position, with possible renewal for second year. Analysis of network data, social network modelling, and data visualization. Desired skills/background: statistical computation, modelling with large data sets, and familiarity with supervised/unsupervised statistical learning methods. See http://ace.acadiau.ca/math/postdoc.htm for details. Email a CV, statement of research interests, and names of three potential referees to statpostdoc at acadiau.ca. Review of applicants will commence March 10, 2006, and will continue until the position is filled. From bower at uthscsa.edu Fri Feb 17 17:09:35 2006 From: bower at uthscsa.edu (james Bower) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:09:35 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Final Hotel and Meeting Registration for Wam-Bamm*06 Message-ID: Deadline for Pre-registration and Hotel Reservations Wam-Bamm*96 San Antonio Texas March 23 - 25, 2006 February 24th (this coming Friday) is the final deadline for meeting pre-registration and hotel reservations. After the 24th, registration costs increase by 25% and we can not guarantee you a room at the hotel. Hotel Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-345-9285 Make sure and mention that you are attending the Wam-Bamm meeting Meeting registration is open at the meeting website http://wam-bamm.org/wam-bamm06.htm Meeting Structure Wam-Bamm is a meeting devoted to realistic biological modeling. This years meeting will take place over three days, organized as follows: Thursday March 23rd site: University of Texas San Antonio Morning: Tutorials on the Introduction to Realistic Modeling Afternoon: Special Workshop on the Future Development of Biological Simulators. Evening: Grand opening of the new Computational Biology Facility in San Antonio WAM-BAMM*06 Friday March 24th site: Menger Hotel Contributed and Invited Papers. A special Tribute to Wil Rall and his pioneering work on compartmental modeling of dendrites. Sat. March 25th Site: Menger Hotel Special focus on modeling / simulation / and analysis of the olfactory system. Evening: banquet and rodeo :-) Invited speakers for this year's meeting include: Wil Rall (NIH Retired) "Retrospective on 40 years of dendritic modeling: where it all started" Gordon Shepherd (Yale University) "Dendro-dendritic connections: a realistic model-based prediction" Phillip Ulinski (University of Chicago) "Waves, Avalanches and Metastable States in Visual Cortex" John Miller (Montana State University) "What is a "feature detecting cell"? What is a "feature"?" Mike Hasselmo (Boston University) "Modeling the neurophysiological mechanisms of memory guided behavior." John Rinzel (NYU) "Timing computations in the auditory brain stem" John Kauer (Tufts University) "Computation in olfaction" Upinder Bhalla (National Center for Biological Sciences Bangalore, India) "Coding in the olfactory system" Rehan Khan (U.C. Berkeley) "Predicting olfactory perception from odorant structure" The special Workshop on Simulator Structure will include presentations and discussions led by: Dr. James Bower: Overview - where we have been, where we are going Dr. David Beeman: Development of GENESIS 3.0 Dr. Upinder Bhalla: The Design and Capabilities of MOOSE Dr. Sharon Crook and Padraig Gleeson: NeuroML, the XML for neuronal simulation project Mr. Josef Svitak: Interface Design Dr. Greg Hood: HPC and Neural Simulation: Capacity for large scale models Dr. James Bower: Internet tools for collaboration For more information on Wam-Bamm*06 including the full meeting program visit: wam-bamm.org -- James M. Bower Ph.D. Research Imaging Center University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive San Antonio, TX 78284-6240 Cajal Neuroscience Center University of Texas San Antonio Phone: 210 567 8080 Fax: 210 567 8152 From F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk Fri Feb 17 12:32:04 2006 From: F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk (Fernando Almeida e Costa) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:32:04 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Workshop in AlifeX - Call for papers Message-ID: <001501c633e8$13065850$1430b88b@rn.informatics.scitech.susx.ac.uk> ********************************************************************* ....................Call for papers and demos........................ ..............Motion, Morphologies and Cognition..................... .................. Workshop @ AlifeX............................. .....www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup/alifexwk .......... ...........Organized by the Morphodynamics and Cognition Group........... ...................University of Sussex................................... **************************************************************************** AlifeX, in June, taking place at Indiana University, USA, is to host a workshop on ?Morphologies, Motion and Cognition? organised by the Morphodynamics and Cognition Group from the University of Sussex. This workshop will take place on the 3rd of June (all-day session), and on the evening of the 4th. Venue: Indiana Memorial Union, in the same area as the main conference presentations. We are accepting submissions of papers and/or proposals of demos. *********************** Aim of the workshop *********************** Our intention is to bring together researchers from robotics, psychology, and ethology to examine and discuss how morphology and motion shapes the perceptual worlds and cognitive behaviours of robots and natural organisms. Although we welcome simulations, we want to encourage work on "physical" robots, or simulated robots that have interesting morphologies. In the approach to cognition that we will be discussing, cognitive activity is regarded as crucially dependent upon, and emerging from, the exploitation of all the physical properties available to the agent, namely its morphology and motion. The key principle of this approach is to minimise the amount of control at the algorithmic level by exploiting the dynamics of the agent, produced by its interaction with the environment. This approach views organisms and robots as dynamic systems, whose parts are continually perturbed by cues from their environments that act to modulate their behaviours. **************** Keynote Speakers **************** Inman Harvey, University of Sussex Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich ********* Topics ********* The work to be submitted may include (but is not limited to) the following topics: - the exploitation by an agent of its morphodynamics (morphologies and motion) for cognitive purposes, at any level of "cognition" in both humans and robots. - passive dynamic walkers - relation with the environment through active perception - evolution of morphologies, morphogenesis - developmental issues in both humans/animals and robots - dynamical theories of cognition - embodied and situated robotics - constructed worlds of robots - articulated motion in robots and animals - sensorimotor and movement coordination - evolvable hardware - design principles for fully embodied and situated robots - automatic robot manufacture - 3D rapid prototyping printers - non-holonomic robot control - control for underactuated or compliant structures - methods for the analysis of the interaction of morphology, motion, and control ************ Papers ************ Papers can either be technical or conceptual, in the area covered by the workshop. Length should not exceed 10 pages, double spaced, and must be emailed in pdf format to one of the organisers (see addresses below in "organising committee") ************ Demos ************ Demos can be presented as physical robots, computer simulations or videos of physical robots. If you are interested in presenting a demo please contact one of the members of the organising committee as soon as possible. ****************** Important dates ****************** Deadline submission: May 1 Notification of acceptance: May 10 Camera-ready versions: May 20 ************ Publication ************ If the submitted contributions are of sufficient quality, papers emerging from the workshop will be forwarded to undergo the review process of a scientific journal, for a special issue. ************ Details ************ You may find detailed information about the workshop in our webpage at www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup/alifexwk or through the conference webpage at www.alifex.org ******************** PROGRAMME COMMITTEE ******************** Bill Bigge, University of Sussex Josh Bongard, Cornell University Inman Harvey, University of Sussex Phil Husbands, University of Sussex Fumiya Iida, University of Zurich Eduardo Izquierdo-Torres, University of Sussex Akio Ishiguro, University of Nagoya Hod Lipson, Cornell University Max Lungarella, University of Tokyo Romi Nijhawan, University of Sussex Chandana Paul, Cornell University Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich Linda Smith, Indiana University Olaf Sporns, Indiana University Kasper St?y, University of Southern Denmark Tim Taylor, Timberpost, Ltd. Eric Vaughan, University of Sussex Rachel Wood, University of Sussex Tom Ziemke, University of Sk?vde ************************** Organising Committee ************************** Fernando Almeida e Costa F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk Ian Macinnes ian at british-cybernetics.co.uk ************************************************* www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup From rangel at stanford.edu Sat Feb 18 09:57:45 2006 From: rangel at stanford.edu (Antonio Rangel) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 06:57:45 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: SUMMER SCHOOL IN NEUROECONOMICS Message-ID: Call for Applications STANFORD SUMMER SCHOOL IN NEUROECONOMICS 2006 July 17 - July 28, 2006. Stanford University, California, USA http://neuroeconomics-summerschool.stanford.edu Application Deadline: MARCH 15, 2006 Organizers: Colin Camerer (Caltech) Paul Gilmcher (NYU) Antonio Rangel (Stanford) The aim of the Stanford Summer School in Neuroeconomics is to provide an introduction to the new fiel of neuroeconomics to graduate students and post-docs in neuroscience, psychology, and economics. Part of the meeting will focus on "computational neuroeconomics", which provides the unifying framework for the field, and a common language for the three related fields. This part of the program describes state-of-the art models of how the brain makes economic decisions (Which variables are computed? How are they computed? How do they interact with each other to generate choices?) The other part of the program covers several experimental techniques and their applications to neuroeconomics. The program also includes daily research talks by leading scholars in the field and a student project. Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars in neuroscience, psychology, and economics are invited to apply. Those interested in attending the course should send the materials listed below by e-mail no later MARCH 15, 2006. 40 applicants will be selected and notified by email in mid-April, 2006. LECTURERS (include): Kent Berridge (Michigan) Colin Camerer (Caltech) Nathaniel Daw (UCL) Daniel Kahneman (Princeton) Paul Glimcher (NYU) David Laibson (Harvard) George Loewenstein (Carnegie-Mellon) Read Montague (Baylor) John O?Doherty (Caltech) Elizabeth Phelps (NYU) Michael Platt (Duke) Antonio Rangel (Stanford) Aldo Rustichini (Minnesota) Alan Sanfey (U. Arizona) Tania Singer (UCL) Elke Weber (Columbia) SPONSORS: National Science Foundation National Institute of Aging SIEPR PARTIAL LIST OF TOPICS: Computational Models of Reward Learning Neural Basis of Reward Learning Perceptual Decision Making Computational Models of Economic Decision Making Neural Basis of Decision Making Psychological Perspectives on Well-Being Neural Basis of Experienced and Decision Utility Behavioral Economics of Choice Under Uncertainty Neural Foundations of Choice Under Risk and Uncertainty Neuroeconomics of Intertemporal Choice Role of Emotions in Decision Making Advances in Social Neuroscience Neuroeconomics of Social Exchange APPLICATION: Please send the following materials via email by MARCH 15 TH, 2006. No late submissions will be accepted. Send to: Dafna Baldwin dafb at stanford.edu 1-650-725-6668. Materials: 1. Application form (available at the school?s website) 2. Two letters of recommendation (to be sent by email to the same address by the evaluator). SELECTION: We will accept 40 students based primarily on their research interests and motivation. We will also consider the balance of members' research disciplines and other factors that contribute to a diverse intellectual atmosphere. COSTS AND FINANCIAL AID: The program will provide lodging (in double rooms at the Stanford dorms), materials, breakfasts, lunches, and some dinners. Limited travel funds will be available for students who cannot obtain sufficient travel support from their home laboratories or institutions. Travel funds must be requested with the application. ADDICTIONAL INFORMATION: Details about the program will be posted on the web course web page: http://neuroeconomics-summerschool.stanford.edu/ For specific questions regarding the application process please contact: Antonio Rangel Stanford University Department of Economics Stanford, CA 94305 rangel at stanford.edu From steve at cns.bu.edu Sat Feb 18 13:26:00 2006 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:26:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Experimental/Computational Cognitive Neuroscience at Cog. Neuro. Soc. meeting, April 8 Message-ID: EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE: TOWARDS A SYNTHESIS A Satellite Symposium at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Hyatt Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, April 8, 2006 Co-sponsored by the NSF Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST) http://cns.bu.edu/CELEST and the International Neural Network Society(INNS) http://www.inns.org/ This symposium discusses recent experimental data about important topics in cognitive neuroscience, and computational cognitive neuroscience models aimed at explaining these and related data in a unified way while making new predictions that can be tested by multiple means. 9:55am - 10:00am Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Welcome and Introduction Speech Perception and Production 10:00am - 10:30am Gregory Hickok (University of California at Irvine) Sensory-Motor Integration in Speech: Evidence from Neurophysiology and Neuropsychology 10:30am - 11:00am Joseph Perkell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Speech Motor Control: Movement Goals and Sensory Feedback Mechanisms 11:00am - 11:40am Frank Guenther (Boston University) Neural Modeling and Imaging of the Cortical Interactions Underlying Speech 11:40am - 11:55am Discussion 11:55am - 1:10pm Lunch Visual Attention and Learning 1:10pm - 1:40pm Takeo Watanabe (Boston University) Perceptual Learning without Attention 1:40pm - 2:10pm Robert Desimone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Visual Attention and Neural Synchrony 2:10pm - 2:50pm Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Cortical Dynamics of Visual Learning, Attention, and Synchrony 2:50pm - 3:20pm Discussion and Coffee Break Cognitive Control, Sequence Learning, and Planning 3:20pm - 3:50pm Robert Sekuler (Brandeis University) Imitating Unfamiliar Sequences 3:50pm - 4:20pm Earl Miller (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) The Prefrontal Cortex: Rules, Concepts, Cognitive Control 4:20pm - 5:00pm Daniel Bullock (Boston University) Modeling Frontal Circuits that Control Unfamiliar and Learned Sequences 5:00pm - 5:15pm Discussion and Wrap-up ********************* REGISTRATION INFORMATION To register for the symposium please e-mail Susanne Daley at sdaley at bu.edu with the subject heading CNS06 satellite symposium registration. Please include the following information: Mr/Ms/Dr/Prof: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Affiliation: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Address: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- City, State, Postal Code: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phone and Fax: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite symposium attendees are required to register and must also be registered for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting. For registration and general information for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting please see http://www.taramillerevents.com/cns2006/. Registration for the satellite symposium is at no extra fee. From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 20 10:51:09 2006 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:51:09 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 69 (issues 7-9) Message-ID: <43F9E56D.7080405@science.ru.nl> Neurocomputing volume 69 (issues 7-9) ------- SPECIAL PAPERS (New Issues in Neurocomputing edited by Jochen J. Steil, Gavin C. Cawley and Fabrice Rossi) New Issues in Neurocomputing (editorial) Jochen J. Steil, Gavin C. Cawley and Fabrice Rossi Attractor neural networks with patchy connectivity Christopher Johansson, Martin Rehn and Anders Lansner Rapid learning and robust recall of long sequences in modular associator networks Michael Lawrence, Thomas Trappenberg and Alan Fine Online stability of backpropagation?decorrelation recurrent learning Jochen J. Steil Generalized relevance LVQ (GRLVQ) with correlation measures for gene expression analysis Marc Strickert, Udo Seiffert, Nese Sreenivasulu, Winfriede Weschke, Thomas Villmann and Barbara Hammer Learning vector quantization: The dynamics of winner-takes-all algorithms Michael Biehl, Anarta Ghosh and Barbara Hammer Efficient estimation of multidimensional regression model using multilayer perceptrons Joseph Rynkiewicz Boosting by weighting critical and erroneous samples Vanessa G?mez-Verdejo, Manuel Ortega-Moral, Jer?nimo Arenas-Garc?a and An?bal R. Figueiras-Vidal Evolving hybrid ensembles of learning machines for better generalisation Arjun Chandra and Xin Yao Applications of multi-objective structure optimization Alexander Gepperth and Stefan Roth Kernel methods and the exponential family St?phane Canu and Alex Smola Kernel extrapolation S.V.N. Vishwanathan, Karsten M. Borgwardt, Omri Guttman and Alex Smola Support vector machine for functional data classification Fabrice Rossi and Nathalie Villa Translation-invariant classification of non-stationary signals Vincent Guigue, Alain Rakotomamonjy and St?phane Canu Robust analysis of MRS brain tumour data using t-GTM Alfredo Vellido, Paulo J.G. Lisboa and Dolores Vicente EEG classification using generative independent component analysis Silvia Chiappa and David Barber ------- REGULAR PAPERS Stochastic model and neural coding of large-scale neuronal population with variable coupling strength Rubin Wang and Xianfa Jiao Neural network based control strategies for improving plasma characteristics in reactive ion etching N. Tudoroiu, R.V. Patel and K. Khorasani A global exponential robust stability criterion for interval delayed neural networks with variable delays Chuandong Li, Xiaofeng Liao and Rong Zhang Cell assemblies for diagnostic problem-solving Andreas Wichert Hidden neuron pruning of multilayer perceptrons using a quantified sensitivity measure Xiaoqin Zeng and Daniel S. Yeung ------- LETTERS A reliable method for HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini An ensemble of classifiers for the diagnosis of erythemato-squamous diseases Loris Nanni A novel method for fingerprint verification that approaches the problem as a two-class pattern recognition problem Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini Ensemble of classifiers for protein fold recognition Loris Nanni Advanced methods for two-class problem formulation for on-line signature verification Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini Human authentication featuring signatures and tokenised random numbers Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini A reliable method for the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma Loris Nanni Machine learning algorithms for T-cell epitopes prediction ? SHORT Loris Nanni Experimental comparison of one-class classifiers for online signature verification Loris Nanni Noise removal using a novel non-negative sparse coding shrinkage technique Li Shang, De-Shuang Huang, Chun-Hou Zheng and Zhan-Li Sun Nonnegative independent component analysis based on minimizing mutual information technique Chun-Hou Zheng, De-Shuang Huang, Zhan-Li Sun, Michael R. Lyu and Tat-Ming Lok Optimal selection of time lags for TDSEP based on genetic algorithm Zhan-Li Sun, De-Shuang Huang, Chun-Hou Zheng and Li Shang Robust extraction of specific signals with temporal structure Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Extraction of temporally correlated sources with its application to non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram extraction Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Extraction of a source signal whose kurtosis value lies in a specific range Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Enhancing decision-based neural networks through local competition Gustavo Camps-Valls, Luis G?mez-Chova, Joan Vila-Franc?s, Jos? D. Mart?n-Guerrero, Antonio J. Serrano-L?pez and Emilio Soria-Olivas Efficient pruning of multilayer perceptrons using a fuzzy sigmoid activation function E. Soria-Olivas, J.D. Mart?n-Guerrero, A.J. Serrano-L?pez, J. Calpe-Maravilla, J. Vila-Franc?s and G. Camps-Valls An efficient simulated annealing algorithm for the minimum vertex cover problem Xinshun Xu and Jun Ma Gaussian moments for noisy complexity pursuit Zhenwei Shi and Changshui Zhang An LVQ-based adaptive algorithm for learning from very small codebooks J.S. S?nchez and A.I. Marqu?s Robust kernel discriminant analysis and its application to feature extraction and recognition Zhizheng Liang, David Zhang and Pengfei Shi (2D)2 FLD: An efficient approach for appearance based object recognition P. Nagabhushan, D.S. Guru and B.H. Shekar On stability of disturbed Hopfield neural networks with time delays ? Yiguang Liu, Zhisheng You and Liping Cao A new nonlinear feature extraction method for face recognition Yanwei Pang, Zhengkai Liu and Nenghai Yu Ratio rule and homomorphic filter for enhancement of digital colour image Ming-Jung Seow and Vijayan K. Asari Exponential stability of a class of generalized neural networks with time-varying delays Anhua Wan, Jigen Peng and Miansen Wang A fast NPCA algorithm for online blind source separation Xiaolong Zhu, Xianda Zhang and Yongtao Su A neuro-fuzzy approach for diagnosis of antibody deficiency syndrome Joon Shik Lim, Dianhui Wang, Yong-Soo Kim and Sudhir Gupta Solving alignment problems in neural spike sorting using frequency domain PCA Hae Kyung Jung, Joon Hwan Choi and Taejeong Kim From B.Kappen at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 20 06:24:14 2006 From: B.Kappen at science.ru.nl (Bert Kappen) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:24:14 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: Promedas medical diagnosis Message-ID: Dear all, Promedas is a diagnostic expert system for internal medicine, based on Bayesian networks. Of all the systems that are currently under active development, Promedas is one of the largest system around. The current version has about 2000 diagnoses and 1800 findings. For those interested, you can download a demo version of Promedas internal medicine from www.promedas.nl Enjoy. Bert Kappen SNN Radboud University Nijmegen URL: www.snn.kun.nl/~bert The Netherlands tel: +31 24 3614241 fax: +31 24 3541435 B.Kappen at science.ru.nl From d.polani at herts.ac.uk Mon Feb 20 07:51:53 2006 From: d.polani at herts.ac.uk (Daniel Polani) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:51:53 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd Call for Papers: Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors at KES 2006 Message-ID: <17401.47977.71359.660275@perm.feis.herts.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, please find attached the 2nd call for papers for the ESOSAPH session (Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors, Actuators and Processing Hardware) at KES 2006. We would be grateful if you would forward this call to interested colleagues. - Daniel Polani and Mikhail Prokopenko //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 2nd Call for Papers & Participation: Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors, Actuators and Processing Hardware (ESOSAPH) Invited Session at KES 2006 Tenth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems 9-11. October 2006, Bournemouth, UK //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Program Chairs Daniel Polani (University of Hertfordshire, UK) Mikhail Prokopenko (CSIRO, Australia) Session website: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqdp1/kes_2006.html _________________________________________________________________ Introduction Recent technology has witnessed the advent of cheap ubiquitous sensing, processing and actuating capabilities for isolated, distributed or collective robotic systems. These appear in the form of intelligent materials, nano-motors and -sensors, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), grid processors, Avogadro-scale digital circuits and similar structures. Established conventional AI computation paradigms do not harness the full potential of this new type of technological ability that includes dynamic reconfiguration, addition or removal of sensors, actuators or processing hardware. Classical AI paradigms are inadequate to deal with the requirements of these scenarios which require flexible and adaptive acquisition, manipulation and distribution of information as opposed to sterile off-line AI software designs detached from concrete usage scenarios. One is confronted with the necessity to adapt sensoric properties and/or configuration to a situation or task at hand, discovery of new sensoric modalities,the use of newly added actuators in novel ways, the necessity of reconfiguring computational hardware after being damaged, and much more. What all these requirements have in common is that, in general, there cannot be a full a priori appreciation of the possible scenarios that can occur during the lifetime of the involved hardware and software. On the other hand, biological systems are capable to tackle such problems on a regular basis. E.g. the recovery of functionality in experiments where sensoric or neural tissues are transplanted to other than the original locations show that biological systems have a powerful potential to reconfigure their "hardware" and "software" to suit the relevant situation. Biologically inspired approaches, e.g. evolutionary and neural methods, as well as self-organization to tackle these challenges, have been increasingly found to be fruitful. Evolutionary sensorics, self-organizing controllers, neural strategies have all provided new insights, methodologies, towards the achievement of self- and externally modified sensomotoric loops. Solving these problems has an enormous potential: it would allow the construction of robust, cheap autonomous vehicles, sensor/actuator networks consisting of a large number of autonomous sensor/actuator units ('agents') that interact with each other to obtain the best results. It would open the way to apply novel sensing/actuation materials for the construction of agents because the self-organized adaptation mechanisms would be able to deal with the novelty. _________________________________________________________________ Call for Contributions We solicit papers for poster or oral presentations (20 minute talk) reporting working in this exciting area. Talks should address an interdisciplinary audience, but may nevertheless deal with issues at the cutting edge of research. _________________________________________________________________ Topics Possible topics for the invited session are or involve (this is not an exhaustive list and other relevant topics may be covered): * evolution or self-organization of physical sensors and actuators (artificial, bio-inspired, and biological) * abstract models for the evolution, self-organization and adaptation of sensors, actuators and processing, and for detection of emergent behaviour * evolution of controllers (including, but not limited to neural or cellular architectures) * self-monitoring and self-repair of damaged sensoric, computational and communication architectures * self-organization in sensomotoric loops * self-organized adaptive communication (e.g. mechanisms for the emergence of communication protocols) * evolution or self-organized modularity and hierarchies * identification of relevant information and features in sensoric input and of relevant behaviours and activities in actuatoric output If you are unsure whether your topic is adequate for submission to the session, please contact the program chairs. _________________________________________________________________ Important Dates Submission of papers: 4 March 2006 Notification of acceptance: 15 April 2006 _________________________________________________________________ Submission The submission should be no longer than 8 pages in Springer format. Please refer to the session website http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqdp1/kes_2006.html for details. _________________________________________________________________ Program Committee Hussein Abbass UNSW-ADFA, Australia Andrew Adamatzky UWE, UK Peter Dauscher University of Mainz, Germany Attila Egri-Nagy University of Hertfordshire, UK Hod Lipson Cornell University, USA Chrystopher Nehaniv University of Hertfordshire, UK David Payton Hughes Research Labs, USA Don Price CSIRO, Australia William Prosser NASA LaRC, USA Claude Sammut UNSW, Australia Susan Stepney University of York, UK Ivan Tanev Doshisha University, Japan Alexander Tarakanov Academy of Sciences, Russia _________________________________________________________________ From qobi at purdue.edu Tue Feb 21 11:07:17 2006 From: qobi at purdue.edu (Jeffrey Mark Siskind) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:07:17 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: POCV 2006 Message-ID: SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: POCV 2006 The Fifth IEEE Computer Society Workshop on Perceptual Organization in Computer Vision New York City June 22, 2006, In Conjunction with IEEE CVPR 2006 http://elderlab.yorku.ca/pocv IMPORTANT DATES: * Submission deadline: 11:59pm EST, March 17, 2006 * Notification: April 17, 2006 * Final versions of accepted papers due: April 24, 2006 THEME: Perceptual Organization is the process of establishing a meaningful relational structure over raw visual data, where the extracted relations correspond to the physical structure of the scene. A driving motivation behind perceptual organization research in computer vision is to deliver representations needed for higher-level visual tasks such as object detection, object recognition, activity recognition and scene reconstruction. Because of its wide applicability, the potential payoff from perceptual organization research is enormous. The 5th IEEE POCV Workshop, to be held in conjunction with CVPR 2006 (New York), will bring together experts in perceptual organization and related areas to report on recent research results and to provide ideas for future directions. PREVIOUS IEEE POCV WORKSHOPS: * 2004 CVPR (Washington, DC) * 2001 ICCV (Vancouver, Canada) * 1999 ICCV (Crete, Greece) * 1998 CVPR (Santa Barbara, CA) SCOPE: Papers are solicited in all areas of perceptual organization, including but not limited to: * image segmentation * feature grouping * texture segmentation * contour completion * spatiotemporal/motion segmentation * figure-ground discrimination * integration of top-down and bottom-up methods * perceptual organization for object or activity detection/recognition * unification of segmentation, detection and recognition * biologically-motivated methods * neural basis for perceptual organization * learning in perceptual organization * graphical methods * natural scene statistics * evaluation methods ALGORITHM EVALUATION: Research progress in perceptual organization depends in part on quantitative evaluation and comparison of algorithms. Authors reporting results of new algorithms are strongly encouraged to objectively quantify performance and compare against at least one competing approach. BROADER ISSUES: Perceptual organization research faces a number of challenges. One is defining what the precise goal of perceptual organization algorithms should be. What kind of representation should they deliver? What databases should be used for evaluation? How can we quantify performance to allow objective evaluation and comparison between algorithms? How do we know when we?ve succeeded? To try to meet these challenges, we particularly encourage contributions of a more general nature that attempt to address one or more of these questions. These may include definitional papers, theoretical frameworks that might apply to multiple different perceptual organization problems, establishment of useful databases, modeling of underlying natural scene statistics, evaluation methodologies, etc. Biological Motivation BIOLOGICAL MOTIVATION: Much of the current work in perceptual organization in computer vision has its roots in qualitative principles established by the Gestalt Psychologists nearly a century ago, and this link between computational and biological research continues to this day. Following this tradition, we specifically invite biological vision researchers working in the field of perceptual organization to submit work that may stimulate new directions of research in the computer vision community. WORKSHOP OUTPUT: All accepted papers will be included in the Electronic Proceedings of CVPR, distributed on DVD at the conference, and will be indexed by IEEE Xplore. We are also exploring the possibility of a special journal issue on perceptual organization in computer vision, with a separate call for papers. PAPER SUBMISSION: Submission is electronic, and must be in PDF format. Papers must not exceed 8 double-column pages. Submissions must follow standard IEEE 2-column format of single-spaced text in 10 point Times Roman, with 12 point interline space. All submissions must be anonymous. Please use the IEEE Computer Society CVPR format kit. Stay tuned for exact details on how to submit. In submitting a paper to the POCV Workshop, authors acknowledge that no paper of substantially similar content has been or will be submitted to another conference or workshop during the POCV review period. For further details and updates, please see the workshop website: http://elderlab.yorku.ca/pocv WORKSHOP CHAIRS: James Elder, York University jelder at yorku.ca Jeffrey Mark Siskind, Purdue University qobi at purdue.edu PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Ronen Basri, Weizmann Institute, Israel Kim Boyer, Ohio State University, USA James Coughlan, Smith-Kettlewell Institute, USA Sven Dickinson, University of Toronto, Canada Anthony Hoogs, GE Global Research, USA David Jacobs, University of Maryland, USA Ian Jermyn, INRIA, France Benjamin Kimia, Brown University, USA Norbert Kruger, Aalborg University, Denmark Michael Lindenbaum, Technion, Israel Zili Liu, University of California, Los Angeles, USA David Martin, Boston College, USA Gerard Medioni, University of Southern California, USA Zygmunt Pizlo, Purdue University, USA Sudeep Sarkar, University of South Florida, USA Eric Saund, Palo Alto Research Center, USA Ohad ben Shahar, Ben Gurion University, Israel Kaleem Siddiqi, McGill University, Canada Manish Singh, Rutgers University, USA Shimon Ullman, Weizmann Institute, Israel Johan Wagemans, University of Leuven, Belgium Song Wang, University of South Carolina, USA Rich Zemel, University of Toronto, Canada Song-Chun Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Steve Zucker, Yale University, USA Jeff (http://www.ece.purdue.edu/~qobi) From paul.cisek at umontreal.ca Wed Feb 22 11:23:20 2006 From: paul.cisek at umontreal.ca (Paul Cisek) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:23:20 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: International Symposium on Computational Neuroscience- Montreal, Canada, May 8-9, 2006 Message-ID: <009a01c637cc$4bac0aa0$87e4cc84@Engram> SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR POSTERS ------------------------------------------------------------------- XXVIIIth International Symposium COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE: >From theory to neurons and back again May 8-9, 2006 University of Montr?al Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------- The 28th International Symposium of the Groupe de recherche sur le syst?me nerveux central et le Centre de recherche en sciences neurologiques will be held on May 8-9, 2006, at the University of Montr?al. The objectives of this symposium are to illustrate the power and utility of computational approaches to address fundamental issues of brain function from the level of single cells to that of large systems, as well as to discuss how computational and more traditional physiological methods complement one another. The symposium will include presentations on computational models of sensory and motor systems, learning processes, and information coding. Registration is now open. Please visit http://www.grsnc.umontreal.ca/XXVIIIs/ for information. Submissions are invited for a limited number of poster presentations. Authors of select posters will be invited to contribute a short chapter to a special issue of the book series Progress in Brain Research. Deadline for poster submissions: Friday, March 31, 2006. Conference speakers: Larry Abbott Yoshua Bengio Catherine Carr Paul Cisek Simon Giszter Sten Grillner Stephen Grossberg Geoffrey Hinton Len Maler Eve Marder James McClelland David McCrea Bruce McNaughton Alexandre Pouget Stephen Scott Michael Shadlen Reza Shadmehr Robert Shapley Daniel Wolpert Sponsors: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Groupe de recherche sur le syst?me nervaux central (GRSNC) Fonds de la recherche en sant? du Qu?bec (FRSQ) Universit? de Montr?al (CEDAR) ----------------------------------------------- Paul Cisek, Ph.D. Department of physiology, room 4141 University of Montreal C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville Montreal QC H3C 3J7 Canada phone: 514-343-6111 x4355 FAX: 514-343-2111 email: paul.cisek at umontreal.ca ----------------------------------------------- From edizquierdo at gmail.com Wed Feb 22 11:16:35 2006 From: edizquierdo at gmail.com (Eduardo Izquierdo-Torres) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:16:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: artificial autonomy call4papers Message-ID: ----> CALL4PAPERS <----- --------------------------------------------------------- ARTIFICIAL AUTONOMY WORKSHOP advances in simulation models of autonomous systems AlifeX 3rd June 2006 Bloomington, Indiana, USA --------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy --------------------------------------------------------- [[[ submission deadline: 31st March ]]] ..:: SCOPE ::.. The topic of this workshop is the status, research agenda and conceptual discussion of simulation models of autonomous systems, as one of the main goals of Artificial Life and a key notion for the understanding and modeling of biological and cognitive organization. The main objectives of the workshop are: a) to clarify conceptually and pragmatically the notion of autonomy (and related concepts such as autopoiesis, closure to efficient causation, adaptivity, self-maintenance, etc.), b) to overview and evaluate past achievements/failures on the simulation of autonomous systems, c) to discuss "in principle" difficulties of computability and simulation of autonomy and d) to design a possible road-map for future research agendas. ..:: EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS ::.. We will encourage discussions based on specific simulation models, as conceptual tools to delve into the recursive, integrated and embodied nature of autonomous systems. Contributions will be opened to simulation models of basic/autopoietic/metabolic (biological) autonomy as well as neural/sensorimotor/behavioral (cognitive) autonomy. A more limited number of papers dealing with historical reviewing and philosophical or mathematical approaches will also be accepted. ..:: WEBSITE ::.. Please do not hesitate to visit the workshop's website (http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy), which will be regularly updated for coordination and discussion of different aspects of the workshop. ..:: PUBLICATION ::.. A selection of the papers accepted for the workshop will be included (after an additional reviewing process) in a special issue of the journal "Biological Theory" (MIT Press) or, alternatively, "BioSystems" (the final decision will depend on each journal's time constraints, currently under negotiation). ..:: SUBMISSION ::.. Contributions (6 pages, two columns, single spacing) must be submitted before 31st March to barandi at sf.ehu.es AND kepa_ruiz at ehu.es . Detailed submission instructions can be found at: http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy/submission.php ..:: REGISTRATION ::.. In order to take part in the workshop registration for the full conference is required (no additional registration needs to be done): http://www.alifex.org/registration/ Looking forward to your contributions, Xabier Barandiaran & Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Information, Autonomy and Systems Research Group Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science University of the Basque Country From stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk Fri Feb 24 07:49:35 2006 From: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk (Stefan Wermter) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 12:49:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Stipend funding available for MSc Intelligent Systems Message-ID: <43FF00DF.9070608@sunderland.ac.uk> Stipends available for MSc Intelligent Systems for EU students --------------------------------------------------------------- We are pleased to announce that for eligible selected EU students we have just obtained notice of funding to offer places with free fees and a bursary for our MSc Intelligent Systems. This stipend of free fees and bursary was about 8000 EURO last term. This scheme applies to our Feb/March entry 2006 and also our entry in October 2006 for selected EU students. ***Please forward to students who may be interested.*** The School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland is delighted to announce the launch of its MSc Intelligent Systems programme for 2006. Building on the School's leading edge research in intelligent systems this masters programme will be funded partially via the ESF scheme. Intelligent Systems is an exciting field of study for science and industry since the currently existing computing systems have often not yet reached the various aspects of human performance. "Intelligent Systems" is a term to describe software systems and methods, which simulate aspects of intelligent behaviour. The intention is to learn from nature and human performance in order to build more powerful computing systems. The aim is to learn from cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, engineering, and linguistics for building more powerful computational system architectures. In this programme a wide variety of novel and exciting techniques will be taught including neural networks, intelligent robotics, machine learning, natural language processing, vision, evolutionary genetic computing, data mining, fuzzy methods, and hybrid intelligent architectures. The Bursary Scheme applies to this Masters programme commencing February/March 2006 and October 2006 and we have obtained funding through the European Social Fund (ESF). ESF support enables the University to waive the normal tuition fee and provide a bursary of ? 50 per week for 45 weeks for eligible selected EU students, together up to about 5500 pounds or about 8000 Euro. We also have support for fee-only stipends and further support under the women into science programme for UK and EU students. For further information in the first instance please see: http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/Teaching_frame.html http://osiris.sund.ac.uk/webedit/allweb/courses/progmode.php?prog=G550A&mode=FT&mode2=&dmode=C http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/teaching/sund_is_app.pdf For information and applications contact: alfredo.moscardini at sunderland.ac.uk Please forward to interested students. Stefan *************************************** Stefan Wermter Professor for Intelligent Systems Centre for Hybrid Intelligent Systems School of Computing and Technology University of Sunderland St Peters Way Sunderland SR6 0DD United Kingdom phone: +44 191 515 3279 fax: +44 191 515 3553 email: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0stw/ http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/ **************************************** From seth at nsi.edu Fri Feb 24 19:00:38 2006 From: seth at nsi.edu (Anil K Seth) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:00:38 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Announcement: ALIFEX workshop on Neurodynamics and Cognitive Behaviors Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20060224160006.053ec480@mail.nsi.edu> --------------------------------------------------------------------- ALIFEX WORKSHOP NEURODYNAMIC METHODS FOR ANALYSIS AND CONTROL OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORS 3rd June, 2006 Bloomington, Indiana, USA Organized by Robert Kozma, Anil Seth, and Jun Tani www.nsi.edu/users/seth/ALIFEXwsp.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------- Neural mechanisms of behavior show a rich variety of complex and self-organizing dynamics that intervene between stimulus and response. In embodied, embedded neural systems, these dynamics may reflect cognitive aspects of behavior such as memory, selection, sequencing, attention, and intention. While there has been considerable exploration of neurodynamics in abstract models, there is a growing need for novel mathematical and computational methods both for analyzing embodied, embedded neural systems, and for generating neurodynamic control systems for artificial software agents and robots, which demonstrate biologically plausible cognitive behaviors. This workshop will provide a forum for discussion and development of these methods by researchers in the area, as well through open audience participation. Approaches presented at the workshop will range from dynamical systems and chaotic oscillators, homeostatic regulatory mechanisms, neuropercolation models and random graphs, complexity theory, information theory, autopoiesis, and causality analysis. We place special emphasis on using any of these approaches to facilitate embodied cognition. In the spirit of the synthetic mode of artificial life research, equal emphasis will be given to methods for neurodynamic control and neurodynamic analysis, and it is expected that there will be opportunities to transfer techniques from one domain to the other. The workshop will consist of a series of invited presentations with participation from an open audience. There will be two panel discussions with the speakers as panelists. If you would like to get involved in this workshop (beyond simply turning up), please contact any of the organizers (see below). Speakers so far include: Owen Holland (Essex, UK) Takashi Ikegami (Tokyo, Japan) Jeffrey Krichmar (San Diego, US) Robert Kozma (Memphis, US) Yasuo Kuniyoshi (Tokyo, Japan) Anil Seth (San Diego, US) Olaf Sporns (Indiana, US) Jun Tani (Tokyo, Japan) Jochen Triesch (Frankfurt, Germany) In order to take part in the workshop registration for the full conference is required (there are no additional registration costs for the workshop): http://www.alifex.org/registration/. Looking forward to seeing you in Indiana: Robert Kozma (University of Memphis, TN, USA): http://cnd.memphis.edu/ Anil K Seth (The Neurosciences Institute, CA, USA): http://www.nsi.edu/users/seth. Jun Tani (The Riken Brain Institute, Tokyo, Japan): http://www.bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/~tani ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anil K Seth, D.Phil., Associate Fellow, The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, email: seth at nsi.edu, web: www.nsi.edu/users/seth/ From retienne at jhu.edu Sat Feb 25 15:25:18 2006 From: retienne at jhu.edu (Ralph Etienne-Cummings) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 15:25:18 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop 2006 In-Reply-To: <41F7C734.8060205@jhu.edu> References: <41F7C734.8060205@jhu.edu> Message-ID: <4400BD2E.4070402@jhu.edu> Please forgive us if you get this announcement more than once: ======================================================================== Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop Call for Applications Sunday, June 25 - Saturday, July 15, 2006 Telluride, Colorado ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avis COHEN (University of Maryland) Rodney DOUGLAS (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Ralph ETIENNE-CUMMINGS (Johns Hopkins University) Paul HASLER (Georgia Institute of Technology) Timmer HORIUCHI (University of Maryland) Giacomo INDIVERI (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Christof KOCH (California Institute of Technology)- Past Organization Board Member Terrence SEJNOWSKI (Salk Institute and UCSD) Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland) Andre van SCHAIK(University of Sydney) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We invite applications for a three week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado from Sunday, June 25 to Saturday, July 15, 2006. The application deadline is Friday, March 24, and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2005 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Wow Wee Toys, Airforce Research Office, Eglin Airforce Research Lab, Nova Sensors, Institute for NeuroInfomatics - ETHZ, Geogia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, Johns Hopkins University, The Salk Institute, and by the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Last year's workshop was an exciting event and a great success. We strongly encourage interested parties to browse through the previous workshop web pages at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/past-workshops GOALS: Carver Mead introduced the term "Neuromorphic Engineering" for a new field based on the design and fabrication of artificial neural systems, such as vision systems, head-eye systems, and roving robots, whose architecture and design principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. The goal of this workshop is to bring together young investigators and more established researchers from academia with their counterparts in industry and national laboratories, working on both neurobiological as well as engineering aspects of sensory systems and sensory-motor integration. The focus of the workshop will be on active participation, with demonstration systems and hands on experience for all participants. Neuromorphic engineering has a wide range of applications from nonlinear adaptive control of complex systems to the design of smart sensors. Many of the fundamental principles in this field, such as the use of learning methods and the design of parallel hardware (with an emphasis on analog and asynchronous digital VLSI), are inspired by biological systems. However, existing applications are modest and the challenge of scaling up from small artificial neural networks and designing completely autonomous systems at the levels achieved by biological systems lies ahead. The assumption underlying this three week workshop is that the next generation of neuromorphic systems would benefit from closer attention to the principles found through experimental and theoretical studies of real biological nervous systems as whole systems. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems neuroscience (in particular learning, oculo-motor and other motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on analog VLSI design, small mobile robots (Koalas, Kheperas, LEGO robots), hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, the majority of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Participants will be free to explore and play with whatever they choose in the afternoon. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorial on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, etc. Projects that are carried out during the workshop will be centered in a number of working groups, including: * active vision * audition * motor control * central pattern generator and locomotion * robotics * multichip communication * analog VLSI * learning * neuroprosthetic systems The active perception project group will emphasize vision and human sensory-motor coordination. Issues to be covered will include spatial localization and constancy, attention, motor planning, eye movements, and the use of visual motion information for motor control. The central pattern generator group will focus on small walking and undulating robots. It will look at characteristics and sources of parts for building robots, play with working examples of legged and segmented robots, and discuss CPG's and theories of nonlinear oscillators for locomotion. It will also explore the use of simple analog VLSI sensors for autonomous robots. The robotics group will use rovers and working digital vision boards as well as other possible sensors to investigate issues of sensorimotor integration, navigation and learning. The audition group aims to develop biologically plausible algorithms and aVLSI implementations of specific auditory tasks such as source localization and tracking, and sound pattern recognition. Projects will be integrated with visual and motor tasks in the context of a robot platform. The multichip communication project group will use existing interchip communication interfaces to program small networks of artificial neurons to exhibit particular behaviors such as amplification, oscillation, and associative memory. Issues in multichip communicationwill be discussed. LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We also plan to provide wireless internet access and encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around mid April 2006. Participants are expected to pay a $800.00 workshop fee at that time in order to reserve a place in the workshop. The cost of a shared condominium will be covered for all academic participants but upgrades to a private room will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. Travel reimbursement of up to $500 for US domestic travel and up to $800 for overseas travel will be possible if financial help is needed (please specify on the application). HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e.postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. The application website is: http://ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2006/apply/ Application will include: * First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. * Curriculum Vitae. * One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop. * Two letters of recommendation (to be sent by references directly to "Alice W. Mobaidin" ). The application deadline is Friday, March 24, 2006. Applicants will be notified by e-mail by the end of April. From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Tue Feb 28 05:07:23 2006 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:07:23 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CfP: ECAI06 Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning, NeSy'06 Message-ID: <440420DB.8030508@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> 2nd Call for Papers ------------------- Second International Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning ***NeSy'06*** A Workshop at ECAI2006, Riva del Garda, Italy, 1st of August 2006 Website http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy06/ Deadline for submission: 15th of April, 2006 NeSy'05 took place at IJCAI-05, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 2005. Scope ----- Artificial Intelligence researchers continue to face huge challenges in their quest to develop truly intelligent systems. The recent developments in the field of neural-symbolic integration bring an opportunity to integrate well-founded symbolic artificial intelligence with robust neural computing machinery to help tackle some of these challenges. The Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning is intended to create an atmosphere of exchange of ideas, providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of the key topics related to neural-symbolic integration. Topics of interest include: * The representation of symbolic knowledge by connectionist systems; * Learning in neural-symbolic systems; * Extraction of symbolic knowledge from trained neural networks; * Reasoning in neural-symbolic systems; * Biological inspiration for neural-symbolic integration; * Applications in robotics, semantic web, engineering, bioinformatics, etc. Submission ---------- Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit original papers that have not been submitted for review or published elsewhere. Submitted papers must be written in English and should not exceed 6 pages in the case of research and experience papers, and 2 pages in the case of position papers (including figures, bibliography and appendices) in ECAI format. All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality, relevance, originality, significance, and soundness. Papers must be submitted directly by email in PDF format to nesy at soi.city.ac.uk Presentation ------------ Selected papers will be presented during the workshop. The workshop will include extra time for audience discussion of the presentation allowing the group to have a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and ideas being presented. Publication ----------- Accepted papers will be published in official workshop proceedings, which will be distributed during the workshop. Authors of the best papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their papers to the journal of logic and computation, OUP. Important Dates --------------- Deadline for submission: 15th of April, 2006 Notification of acceptance: 10th of May, 2006 Camera-ready paper due: 17th of May, 2006 Workshop date: 28 or 29 Aug ECAI 2006 main conference dates: 28th of August to 1st of September, 2006. Workshop Organisers ------------------- Artur d'Avila Garcez (City University London, UK) Pascal Hitzler (University Karlsruhe, Germany) Guglielmo Tamburrini (Universit? di Napoli, Italy) Programme Committee (preliminary) --------------------------------- Artur d'Avila Garcez (City University London, UK) Sebastian Bader (TU Dresden, Germany) Howard Blair (Syracuse University, USA) Dov Gabbay (Kings College London, UK) Marco Gori (Univeristy of Siena, Italy) Barbara Hammer (TU Clausthal, Germany) Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis (University of Patras, Greece) Pascal Hitzler (University of Karlsruhe, Germany) Luis Lamb (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) John Lloyd (The Australian National University, Australia) Vasile Palade (Oxford University, UK) Antony K. Seda (University College Cork, Ireland) Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) Guglielmo Tamburrini (Universit? di Napoli Feredico II, Italy) Stefan Wermter (University of Sunderland, UK) Gerson Zaverucha (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Invited speakers ---------------- Marco Gori, University of Siena, Italy Heat Kernel Learning Machines for Symbolic Problems (tentative titel) Stefan Wermter, University of Sunderland, UK Hybrid Intelligent Systems and Cognitive Robotics (tentative title) Additional Information ---------------------- Up-to-date information can be obtained from http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy06/ General questions concerning the workshop should be addressed to nesy at soi.city.ac.uk. You are also invited to subscribe to the neural-symbolic integration mailing list at http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/mailman/listinfo/nesy -- Dr. Pascal Hitzler Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe email: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de fax: +49 721 608 6580 web: http://www.pascal-hitzler.de phone: +49 721 608 4751 http://www.neural-symbolic.org From R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk Tue Feb 28 06:13:56 2006 From: R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk (Roman Borisyuk) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:13:56 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: New MSc Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK Message-ID: <52A8091888A23F47A013223014B6E9FE055716DF@03-CSEXCH.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> We are pleased to announce a new MSc programme Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at University of Plymouth, UK. The course is full time for 12 months, and is due to start in October 2006. Theoretical and computational neuroscience provides the solid basis necessary to shed fresh light on the basic mechanisms underpinning brain function at the cellular, circuit and systems levels. The programme's taught modules provide knowledge and skills in a wide range of theoretical techniques which are under intensive use in Neuroscience. These include techniques for the development and analysis of mathematical and computational models of neural activity, brain structures, cognitive functions, etc, and probabilistic and statistical techniques for analysing different types of experimental neuroscience data. In addition to the taught modules, students will work individually with one or more research advisors to develop a research project for their dissertation and to learn how to carry out advanced interdisciplinary research in their chosen research area. The MSc programme is taught by staff in the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience (CTCN) at the University of Plymouth, UK. The CTCN is one of the leading centres in the field of theoretical neuroscience. The Centre has brought together a range of international experts from various backgrounds with expertise in mathematical and computational techniques and their application in neuroscience. KEY FEATURES We offer a unique training scheme to students in two streams: 1 "Physical Sciences" stream. Students with a background in the physical sciences or mathematics will acquire knowledge and understanding in fundamental principles of neurobiology and in theoretical and computational neuroscience. 2 "Life Sciences" stream. Students with a background in the life sciences will acquire knowledge and skills in theoretical methods and computational techniques for studying the brain. For more information and application see http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/taught/3068/MSc+Theoretic al+and+Computational+Neuroscience From wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk Tue Feb 28 06:26:36 2006 From: wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk (Daniel Wolpert) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:26:36 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Cambridge University: Postdocs in Computational Sensorimotor Control Message-ID: <006301c63c59$d6214ba0$0d96a981@WORLD301F95B77> UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING We are currently seeking two highly motivated Research Associates (postdoctoral fellows) to join our group working on theoretical and experimental approaches to human sensorimotor control. The project is led by Professor Daniel Wolpert and involves investigating the processes involved in motor learning, sensorimotor integration and control. The successful applicants will be expected to conduct independent research involving both computational and experimental studies in humans. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Psychology, or Physical and Engineering Sciences relevant to sensorimotor control, with an academic record of scientific excellence, independent research, and a strong interest in an interdisciplinary approach to motor control. A strong mathematical, statistical, and/or computational background and experience with computers and programming (Matlab, C++, etc.) is expected. Applicants with a strong computational background relevant to neuroscience who wish to learn experimental approaches will also be considered. The appointment will be for two years initially starting July 1st, 2006 or as soon as possible thereafter. Salary is in the range ?20,044 to ?30,002 p.a. Further details of the posts and an application form (PD18) are available on www.wolpertlab.com. Informal enquiries should be addressed by email to Professor Wolpert (wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk ). Applicants are asked to submit (a) a cover letter describing their research experiences, interests, and goals, (b) a curriculum vitae, (c) a completed form PD18 (section I and III only) with the names and contact information of three individuals who can serve as references. These should be sent to Mrs. J. Milne (preferably by email jrm16 at eng.cam.ac.uk ), Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK to arrive prior to April 14th, 2006. The University is committed to equality of opportunity From tt at cs.dal.ca Mon Feb 27 13:23:12 2006 From: tt at cs.dal.ca (Thomas Trappenberg) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 14:23:12 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <20060227182305.C8F0EB01A@mail.cs.dal.ca> WORKSHOP ON CONTINUOUS ATTRACTOR NEURAL NETWORKS at CNS 2006 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS We invite submissions of abstracts for a one-day workshop on Continuous Attractor Neural Networks (http://users.cs.dal.ca/~tt/CNS06CANN) at CNS 2006 (http://www.cnsorg.org ) in Edinburgh this summer (July 16-20). Such neural field models of the Wilson-Cowan type, or bump models, are a fundamental type of neural networks that have many applications in neuroscientific modelling and engineering. Our intention is to bring together researchers from a wide variety of areas who have been studying this type of networks. We will try to accommodate many presentations, either in form of brief talks or poster discussions depending on the number of submissions. Please send abstracts by email to Si Wu (siwu at cogs.susx.ac.uk) by March 22, 2006. You do not need to follow any specific format as long as we can open the document and can get a sense of your contribution in this area. Best regards Si Wu (University of Sussex, UK) Thomas Trappenberg (Dalhousie University, Canada) ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Thomas P. Trappenberg Faculty of Computer Science Dalhousie University 6050 University Avenue Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 1W5 Phone (902) 494-3087 Fax: 902-492-1517 From padams at notes.cc.sunysb.edu Tue Feb 28 18:55:04 2006 From: padams at notes.cc.sunysb.edu (padams@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:55:04 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Announcement of Search for Founding Director, Computational Neuroscience Center, Stony Brook Message-ID: Director, Center for Computational Neuroscience Stony Brook University seeks an outstanding scientific leader to serve as founding Director of a new Center for Computational Neuroscience. The successful director will have expertise in computational neuroscience and demonstrated leadership ability to build upon traditional disciplines in neurobiology, psychology, other biomedical sciences, physical sciences, electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics to develop integrative, research and training programs in computational neurosciences. The requirements include an MD, PhD or equivalent degree, the academic rank of Associate or Full Professor, extramural funding at a national/international level including publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reviews, and invited presentations at national/international meetings. The candidate will also have a proven record of success in graduate student and/or post-doc training. The Center Director will have the resources to recruit new faculty to Stony Brook University in coordination with Neurobiology and other relevant departments in the College of Arts & Science, College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, the School of Medicine and in collaboration with the neighboring Brookhaven National and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Substantial resources to establish this Center of excellence have been provided by New York State and Stony Brook University for faculty recruitment and infrastructure development. The review of applications will begin January 1, 2006 and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should forward a curriculum vitae to: Computational Neuroscience Director Search Committee, c/o Maria D. Anderson, Stony Brook University, 407 Administration, Stony Brook, New York 11794-1401 or email CompNeuroSearch at notes.cc.sunysb.edu. The State University of New York at Stony Brook is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. From sok at cs.york.ac.uk Wed Feb 1 05:23:41 2006 From: sok at cs.york.ac.uk (sok@cs.york.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 10:23:41 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Studentships available: MSc in Natural Computation Message-ID: Fully Funded EPSRC Studentships/Scholarships for MSc Natural Computation Department of Computer Science, University of York, UK http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/gsp/NC Applications are invited for a new advanced 12 month MSc programme in Natural Computation - computing inspired by the natural world, by biology, physics and chemistry. This course will explore the state of the art in natural computation from the perspective of nature-inspired algorithms; by considering novel views of what constitute computation; and examining how the physical and bio-chemical world provides new foundations for computing. This MSc is intended to provide a route into a PhD or research in this rapidly expanding field. Students choose nine taught modules, covering Bio-inspired Computation (neural and evolutionary algorithms, artificial immune systems, swarms, L-systems, simulation of biosystems); Embodied Computation (quantum conputing, DNA and chemical computing, and evolvable hardware); and Complexity and Emergence (adaptive agents, dynamical systems and emergence). This is followed by a research project. The Department of Computer Science is a research intensive department and was rated 6* in the last research assessment exercise. The Non-Standard Computation Research Group has more than 20 researchers (including teaching and research staff, and research students) working on a wide range of topics in natural computation. Details of how to apply are on the web at http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/gsp. Typically you will have achieved at least a second class degree in Computer Science or a related discipline with an appropriate mathematical basis. We will also consider applicants who have appropriate industrial experience instead. The programme is supported by the EPSRC through its Collaborative Training Account and by a number of leading companies including Microsoft, Rolls-Royce and QinetiQ. We have a number of EPSRC studentships to award to suitably qualified students, covering fees and maintenance costs (UK students) or fees only (EU students). Programme commences October 2006. Applications will be considered until places are filled. -- ___________________________________________________________________ Dr Simon O'Keefe PHONE +44 (0)1904 432762 EMAIL: sok at cs.york.ac.uk Dept of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO10 5DD (U.K.) From bengioy at iro.umontreal.ca Wed Feb 1 08:55:16 2006 From: bengioy at iro.umontreal.ca (Yoshua Bengio) Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:55:16 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: faculty position U. Montreal Message-ID: <43E0BDC4.4080104@iro.umontreal.ca> Hello, A faculty position opening has been posted for my department (computer science and operations research, University of Montreal, www.iro.umontreal.ca). The position is in the area of statistical learning algorithms. U. Montreal is French-speaking and applicants are expected to be able to teach in (not necessarily perfect) French after about a year. In the department, there are currently 3 machine learning professors (www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lisa), as well as a statistical NLP group, a vision group, a bio-informatics group, and a large operations research group. For detailed application instructions please consult the attached document. Applications should theoretically be sent by February 15th but later applications will also be considered until the position is filled. * * * * *Universit? de Montr?al* *Facult? des arts et des sciences* *Department of Computer Science and Operations Research* The DIRO (D?partement d'informatique et de recherche op?rationnelle - Department of Computer Science and Operations Research) invites applications for two tenure-track positions in Computer Science and Operations Research at the Assistant Professor level, starting June 1^st , 2006. Preference will be given to applicants with a strong research program in the following or related areas: ? Learning Algorithms (Statistical learning, data mining) ? Operations Research (Stochastic simulation, modeling and optimization) An excellent candidate working in a field different from those enumerated above would also receive consideration. Beyond demonstrating a clear potential for outstanding research, the successful candidates must be committed to excellence in teaching. The Universit? de Montr?al is the leading French-speaking University in North America. The DIRO offers B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and in bioinformatics, several bidisciplinary B.Sc. degrees, as well as a M.Sc. in electronic commerce and computational finance. With 41 faculty members, 400 undergraduates, 200 M.Sc. students, and 120 Ph.D students, the DIRO is one of the largest Computer Science departments in Canada as well as one of the most active in research. Research interests of current faculty include bioinformatics, teleinformatics, intelligent tutoring systems, computer architecture, software engineering, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, computer graphics and vision, automatic learning, theoretical and quantum computing, parallelism, modeling, simulation and optimization. See http://www.iro.umontreal.ca . *Requirements* : Ph.D. in Computer Science, in Operations Research or a related area. Ability to teach and supervise students in French within one year. *Salary* : Salary is competitive and fringe benefits are excellent. Hardcopy applications including a resume, a statement of current research program, at least three letters of reference, and up to three selected preprints/reprints, should be sent to: Jean Meunier, Professor and Chair D?partement d'informatique et de recherche op?rationnelle, FAS Universit? de Montr?al C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville Montr?al (Qu?bec), H3C 3J7 by February 15^tt , 2006.* *Applications received after that date may be considered until the positions are filled.__ _ _ _ _ In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The Universit? de Montr?al is committed to equity in employment and encourages applications from qualified women. -- Yoshua Bengio Full Professor / Professeur titulaire Canada Research Chair in Statistical Learning Algorithms / titulaire de la chaire de recherche du Canada en algorithmes d'apprentissage statistique D?partement d'Informatique et Recherche Op?rationnelle Universit? de Montr?al, adresse postale: C.P. 6128 Succ. Centre-Ville, Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada H3C 3J7 adresse civique: 2920 Chemin de la Tour, Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada H3T 1J8, #2194 Tel: 514-343-6804. Fax: 514-343-5834. Bureau 3339. http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~bengioy http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lisa From Mayank_Mehta at brown.edu Wed Feb 1 15:05:40 2006 From: Mayank_Mehta at brown.edu (Mehta, Mayank) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 15:05:40 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in systems and computational neuroscience Message-ID: A postdoctoral position is available in the areas of systems and computational neuroscience. We are investigating the role of cellular and synaptic mechanisms in shaping the activity patterns of ensembles of neurons, using a combination of experimental and computational techniques. In particular, we record the activity of a large number (> 100) of neurons from the hippocampus and neocortex in freely behaving rodents using tetrodes, and develop analysis techniques and computational models to understand the data. To learn more about our work see: http://neurophysics.brown.edu Ideal candidates would know both electrophysiology and computational modeling. Candidates with a strong background in one of these areas will also be considered. Please send a CV, name and addresses of three references, and a one page description of your work and research interests by email to: Mayank at Brown.edu -Mayank Mayank R. Mehta Assistant Professor Department of Neuroscience Brown University Box 1953, 190 Thayer St. Providence, RI 02912 Ph: 401 863 9727 Fax: 401 863 1074 Email: Mayank at Brown.edu URL: http://neurophysics.brown.edu http://www.facultyof1000.com/about/biography/9382223434375945 From Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au Wed Feb 1 22:47:09 2006 From: Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au (Ivancevic, Vladimir) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 14:17:09 +1030 Subject: Connectionists: New books on Complex and Neural systems Message-ID: <06212A6B8C6FC1469558969887F87EAD06494BE0@ednex507.dsto.defence.gov.au> Hi all, You might be interested in two new books on Complex and Neural systems: 1. Complex Systems Dynamics: http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-185-72-111772946-0,0 0.html 2. Biodynamics: http://www.worldscibooks.com/mathematics/5968.html Dr Vladimir Ivancevic Senior Research Scientist Human Systems Integration, Land Operations Division Defence Science & Technology Organisation, AUSTRALIA PO Box 1500, 75 Labs, Edinburgh SA 5111 Tel: +61 8 8259 7337 Fax: +61 8 8259 4193 Vladimir.Ivancevic at dsto.defence.gov.au From osporns at indiana.edu Thu Feb 2 08:54:00 2006 From: osporns at indiana.edu (Olaf Sporns) Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:54:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: ICDL Paper Submission Now Open Message-ID: <43E20EF8.6060101@indiana.edu> THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS ICDL 2006 International Conference on Development and Learning - Dynamics of Development and Learning - http://www.icdl06.org Indiana University Bloomington, May 31- June 3, 2006 PAPER SUBMISSION NOW OPEN DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 10, 2006. SPECIAL SESSIONS: http://www.icdl06.org/workshops.html KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: http://www.icdl06.org/speakers.html PAPER SUBMISSION: http://www.icdl06.org/submissions.html CALL FOR PAPERS: http://www.icdl06.org/CFP_ICDL2006.pdf -- Olaf Sporns, PhD Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 From cns at cnsorg.org Thu Feb 2 11:23:28 2006 From: cns at cnsorg.org (CNS) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 09:23:28 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Submissions for CNS 2006 open Message-ID: <20060202162328.M2346@cnsorg.org> Deadline approaching! SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 6, 2006 midnight; submission open January 15, 2006 Submissions should be prepared as a three page extended summary (including figures and references) in PDF format. No other formatting requirements! To submit your paper, follow the www.cns.confmaster.net to the submission server. Click on the link register as new author and edit your userdata. Your password will be emailed to you to the email address indicated. Once you have registered as an author, you can log on, change your password and follow the link register paper to submit your contribution to CNS *2006. Please note that a short abstract (< 400 words) for the meeting program should also be submitted at this time. At submission, please indicate if you would prefer an oral or poster presentation (drop down menue paper type) and choose one Systems and between one and three Field of study keywords in the keywords drop down menus. Please check www.cnsorg.org for more detail. Fifteenth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS*2006 July 16 - July 20, 2006 Edinburgh, UK http://www.cnsorg.org -- CNS - Organization for Computational Neurosciences From gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Thu Feb 2 10:00:26 2006 From: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu (Mark A. Gluck) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 10:00:26 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Job Opening (RA or Postdoc): Cognitive Neurocomputational Modeling Message-ID: Position Offered for Research Assistant or Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cognitive Neurocomputational Modeling of Memory and Memory Disorders We have a grant-funded opening to hire a full time Research Assistant/Programmer or Postdoctoral Fellow to work on computer programming projects developing neurocomputational models of the basal ganglia, cortex, and the hippocampal region, with the goal of using these models to capture a broad range of behavioral data on human learning, memory, and attention. Of particular interest is applying these models to understand and predict the nature of memory and cognitive dysfunction in clinical brain disorders including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and stroke/amnesia. These modeling efforts go hand-in-hand with our ongoing parallel experimental studies with all these clinical populations, as well as with related animal studies in our lab using selective lesions in rats and transgenic mice. In addition, we are interested in applying the normative models to a broad range of applied engineering and Artificial Intelligence applications in control and cognition, to compare them to alternative computing methods for solving these problems. We would be open to hiring either a post-BA who would work for two years before going on to graduate school or a postdoctoral fellow. In either case, it is essential that the person have (1) very strong computer programming skills, (2) prior experience with mathematical and computational models of brain and/or behavior, preferably with exposure and experience with neural-network models, and (3) strong English-language writing and speaking skills. We are located in Northern New Jersey, less than twenty minutes by train from midtown Manhattan. If interested, please email me a letter of interest summarizing your background, training, computer modeling skills and experience, previous publications and presentations of research, and future career goals. Thanks, Mark Gluck -- ___________________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Co-Director, Rutgers Memory Disorders Project Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Phone: (973) 353-1080 x3221 197 University Ave. Fax: (973) 353-1272 Newark, New Jersey 07102 Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Lab: http://www.gluck.edu Memory Loss & Brain Newsletter: http://www.memorylossonline.com -- ___________________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Co-Director, Rutgers Memory Disorders Project Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University Phone: (973) 353-1080 x3221 197 University Ave. Fax: (973) 353-1272 Newark, New Jersey 07102 Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Lab: http://www.gluck.edu Memory Loss & Brain Newsletter: http://www.memorylossonline.com From s.luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com Fri Feb 3 10:15:30 2006 From: s.luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com (Steve Luttrell) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:15:30 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Preprint: Discrete Network Dynamics. Part 1: Operator Theory Message-ID: A preprint is available from http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0511027. Title: Discrete Network Dynamics. Part 1: Operator Theory Author: Stephen Luttrell Abstract: An operator algebra implementation of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for simulating Markov random fields is proposed. It allows the dynamics of networks whose nodes have discrete state spaces to be specified by the action of an update operator that is composed of creation and annihilation operators. This formulation of discrete network dynamics has properties that are similar to those of a quantum field theory of bosons, which allows reuse of many conceptual and theoretical structures from QFT. The equilibrium behaviour of one of these generalised MRFs and of the adaptive cluster expansion network (ACEnet) are shown to be equivalent, which provides a way of unifying these two theories. Steve Luttrell S.Luttrell at signal.QinetiQ.com|Centre for Information Processing, phone: +44 (0)1684 894046 |QinetiQ, Malvern Technology Centre, fax: +44 (0)1684 894384 |St. Andrews Rd, Malvern, Worcs, |WR14 3PS, U.K. From willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk Sat Feb 4 06:06:30 2006 From: willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk (David Willshaw) Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 11:06:30 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Job opening in Computational Neuroscience In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1139051190.9199.95.camel@tannochbrae.inf.ed.ac.uk> Job Opening in Computational Neuroscience The School of Informatics invites applications for an appointment to a Lectureship in Neuroinformatics, with a focus on computational modelling of the nervous system at any level, including molecular, cellular, systems or cognitive. This position is comparable to assistant professor, but is a permanent appointment. You will be based in the Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation (ANC) (www.anc.ed.ac.uk), which hosts the EPSRC/MRC Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics. This interdisciplinary 4-year PhD training programme attracts students in many fields of neuroinformatics, including computational and cognitive neuroscience. You should be able to demonstrate an outstanding research record and commitment to excellence in teaching. You will be expected to engage with the highly-motivated PhD students in the DTC (http://www.anc.inf.ed.ac.uk/neuroinformatics). You will be expected to develop collaborative links and joint activities both nationally and internationally. There is a lively neuroscience community at Edinburgh; current related initiatives in which ANC members are involved include the UK initiatives in Systems Biology and in Cognitive Systems, the UK Network in Neuroinformatics and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility, a newly-established organisation serving the international neuroinformatics community. For more information and how to apply see www.jobs.ed.ac.uk (ref. 3005472). Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Professor David Willshaw, telephone +44 131 650 4404 or email willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 24th February 2006. From emj at uci.edu Mon Feb 6 12:43:00 2006 From: emj at uci.edu (Eric Mjolsness) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:43:00 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Preprint: Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax Message-ID: A preprint is available: Title: "Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax: An Overview" Venue: 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, Jan. 2006. Author: Mjolsness, E. URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.AI/0511073 ... which is a summary of the longer UCI Technical Report 05-14, "Stochastic Process Semantics for Dynamical Grammar Syntax", http://computableplant.ics.uci.edu/papers/StochProcSemanticsTR.pdf Abstract: We define a class of probabilistic models in terms of an operator algebra of stochastic processes, and a representation for this class in terms of stochastic parameterized grammars. A syntactic specification of a grammar is mapped to semantics given in terms of a ring of operators, so that grammatical composition corresponds to operator addition or multiplication. The operators are generators for the time-evolution of stochastic processes. Within this modeling framework one can express data clustering models, logic programs, ordinary and stochastic differential equations, graph grammars, and stochastic chemical reaction kinetics. This mathematical formulation connects these apparently distant fields to one another and to mathematical methods from quantum field theory and operator algebra. -- Eric Mjolsness Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics University of California, Irvine emj at uci.edu www.ics.uci.edu/~emj From jonas at buchli.org Mon Feb 6 04:13:37 2006 From: jonas at buchli.org (Jonas Buchli) Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:13:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd C.f. Participation: EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 Message-ID: <1139217218.6963.4.camel@moria.buchli.org> Dear Connectionists, Please find attached the last call for participation to the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006. Best Jonas Buchli ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <> ==================================================== * EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 * -------------------------- * 2nd Call for Participation ==================================================== We invite you to participate in the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 Dynamical Principles for Neuroscience and Intelligent Biomimetic Devices http://latsis2006.epfl.ch March, 8-10, 2006, (Registration deadline: February 13 !) Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland Aim of the Conference --------------------- The goal of the conference is to bring together scientists and engineers interested in understanding the dynamical properties of the nervous system, and in taking inspiration from those properties for the design of prosthetic and robotic devices. The conference is interdisciplinary in nature, and aims at bringing together researchers working on similar topics and phenomena but from different backgrounds. The conference is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Latsis Foundation. The presentations will consists of a series of invited talks (see below) and of poster presentations (with short poster spotlights). For more background on the aim of the conference, please visit http://latsis2006.epfl.ch Registration ------------ Registration for the EPFL-LATSIS Symposium 2006 is open. Please visit the following website for information and registration form: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page14478.html Important Dates --------------- Registration deadline: February 13, 2006 Conference dates: March 8-10, 2006 Invited Speakers & Program --------------------------- Program website: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page13385.html Dynamics of brain function and behavior * Avis Cohen (University of Maryland) * Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm) * Serge Rossignol (Universit? de Montr?al) * Carmen Sandi (EPFL) * Allen Selverston (UC San Diego) Nonlinear Dynamics and neural computation * Bard Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh) * Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) * Martin Hasler (EPFL) * Wolfgang Maass (TU Graz) * Misha Rabinovich (UC San Diego) * Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute of Science) Neuroprosthetics * Maria Chiara Carrozza (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa) * Philippe Renaud (EPFL) * Andrew Schwartz (University of Pittsburgh) Hybrid circuits and electronic neurons * Thierry Bal (Unic / CNRS) * Rodney Douglas (ETHZ, Zurich) * Peter Fromherz (Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried) * Gwendal Le Masson (University of Bordeaux) Biomimetic Robotics and Control * Jean-Louis Deneubourg (Univ. libre de Bruxelles) * Auke Jan Ijspeert (EPFL) * Yasuo Kuniyoshi (University of Tokyo) * Jean-Jacques Slotine (MIT) * Barbara Webb (University of Edinburgh) Abstract submission ------------------- We still have a few poster slots free. People interested in presenting a poster at the Symposium can send us a poster abstract until February 13. Note that by that date the abstract needs to be received in the correct and final format as we have to send the booklets into print after that. See the following page for templates and formatting/submission details: http://latsis2006.epfl.ch/page14710.html Note that we will not have a full peer review process, the number of posters that we can accept is however limited. Thus, we will accept the contributions depending on relevance to the conference topics, quality, and available place. Once accepted, presenters will have the opportunity to present their work with a poster, as well as a short poster spotlight (a 2-minute presentation) in the conference theatre. Proceedings ----------- The poster abstracts will be published in a booklet with ISBN number distributed at the conference. Organizing Committee -------------------- Main organizer: Auke Ijspeert, EPFL Co-organizers: Aude Billard, EPFL Dario Floreano, EPFL Wulfram Gerstner, EPFL Martin Hasler, EPFL Henry Markram, EPFL Misha Rabinovich, UCSD Al Selverston, UCSD Local chair: Jonas Buchli, EPFL Email contacts: Auke.Ijspeert -at- epfl.ch and Jonas.Buchli -at- epfl.ch From cateau at brain.riken.jp Mon Feb 6 23:45:55 2006 From: cateau at brain.riken.jp (Hide Cateau) Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:45:55 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: PRL paper on the validity of Poisson firing assumption Message-ID: <20060207133148.995E.CATEAU@brain.riken.jp> Hi all, Let me announce you that our paper revisiting thePoisson assumption in neural modeling just came out: Hideyuki Cateau and Alex D. Reyes, Relation between Single Neuron and Population Spiking Statistics and Effects on Network Activity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 058101. Even if each one of neurons fires in a non-Poissonian manner, a collection of inputs from many mostly uncorrelated neurons should look like Poissonian. Our paper disproves this widely assumed view and demonstrate how non-Poissonian firing nature survives to affect the population firing patterns. Cheers, Hide Cateau Lab. for Neural Circuit Theory RIKEN, BSI 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 3500198 Japan cateau at brain.riken.jp 048-462-1111 ext.7465 http://nctl.brain.riken.jp/~cateau/ From tobias at chaos.gwdg.de Tue Feb 7 03:58:40 2006 From: tobias at chaos.gwdg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:58:40 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD student position in theoretical neurophysics at Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Goettingen, Germany Message-ID: <43E86140.5080306@chaos.gwdg.de> The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (G?ttingen, Germany) invites applications for a PhD student position (BATIIa/2) in theoretical neurophysics. Recent progress in neuroscience enables experimental neuroscientists to simultaneously record the activity of up to hundreds of neurons in the brains of animals engaged in a cognitive task. The development of adequate models and mathematical tools for the analysis of such large scale neuronal activity patterns is thus an important challenge in theoretical neuroscience. The successful candidate will use approaches from statistical physics and dynamical systems theory to develop mathematical methods and models for the analysis of the coordinated dynamics of large ensembles of neurons and use them to analyse recordings from the mammalian visual cortex. We are looking for applicants with a first degree in physics or applied mathematics, preferably with prior experience in statistical physics or dynamical systems theory, and interest in interdisciplinary research at the border of theoretical physics and neuroscience. Prior biological or neuroscience training is welcome but not required. The candidate's PhD research will be supported the recently established Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in G?ttingen. G?ttingen is a center of neuroscience in Europe hosting numerous internationally recognized neuroscience research institutions, including three Max Planck Institutes, the European Neuroscience Institute, the German Primate Research Center, and G?ttingen University's Centers for Systems Neuroscience (ZNV) and for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB). The BCCN integrates theoretical and experimental research groups from these institutions to foster interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience specifically supporting close collaboration between theorists and experimental researchers. Please submit your application preferably in one single PDF-document, including cover letter, CV, list of publications, names of possible referees, relevant certificates until March 15, 2006, to: jobs at bccn-goettingen.de (Subject: ThN PhD) While e-mail is preferred, applications may also be submitted in hardcopy to the following address: Prof. Dr. Theo Geisel Subject: ThN PhD Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) G?ttingen Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Bunsenstrasse 10 D - 37073 G?ttingen, Germany http://www.ds.mpg.de The MPIDS is an equal opportunity employer. From d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk Thu Feb 9 05:05:31 2006 From: d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk (Denis Mareschal) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 10:05:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Phd Studentships in London Message-ID: 6 Marie Curie PhD studentships in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Birkbeck University of London, UK The Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development and affiliated laboratories has recently been granted Marie Curie Centre of Excellence in Training status by the European Commission. As a result of this, 6 3-year fellowships are available for the purposes of completing a PhD in Cognitive or Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck University of London. The PhD studentships are tenable for up to 3 years and must be taken up no later than September 30th 2005. Fellows will be hosted at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), within the School of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London. Details of the Centre's and affiliated lab's activities can be found at http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/cbcd.html. The CBCD has the mission to investigate relations between postnatal brain development and changes in perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic abilities from birth through childhood and late adulthood. Research in intrinsically multidisciplinary and involves behavioural testing, ERP, fMRI, NIRS, and computational neural network modelling with typically and atypically developing children as well as adult patient populations. Affiliated labs include: * the Babylab * the Developmental Neurocognition Lab * ALPHAlab * Neurocognitive Development Unit of ICH *Brain and Behaviour Lab Successful applicants will be required to complete a PhD under the supervision of a member of the CBCD faculty and affiliated labs. Eligibility conditions Marie Curie actions carry a number of mobility constraints. Successful applicants cannot have resided more than 1 year within the last 3 in the UK. Ordinarily, applications will only be considered from citizens or long-term residents of the EU or affiliated states who are not citizens or residents of the UK. Other eligibility requirements may apply. Minimum English language standards apply for all PhD candidates to the University of London. Successful candidate will be expected to have sufficient written English skill to undertake the writing of a long document in English. Equal Opportunity Birkbeck is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly encourage application from women and recognise the differing life patterns of men and women in the work and trainings sectors. Qualifications The fellowships are open to truly outstanding candidates who must have achieved at least a level of training that would enable them to qualify for entry into a PhD programme in their home country. As the PhD must be completed within the 3 years of the fellowships we anticipate that successful candidate will have already obtained a substantial amount of training in relevant research methods. Conditions of employment Successful candidates will be employed as research assistants within the school of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London. Their salary will be the sterling equivalent of approximately ?32k per annum plus a minimum of ?6k Mobility Allowance per annum. They will also receive an annual payment as a Travel Allowance, and ?2k as a Career Exploratory Allowance paid upon completion of the first 12 months of your appointment. All payments are determined by personal circumstance, details of actual salary and allowances can be obtained upon request Application procedures Interested applicants should consult the relevant web pages of the CBCD and affiliated Labs first to assess whether their research interests and experience match those of relevant possible supervisors. Applications will then be made through the School of Psychology MPhil/PhD Programme (http://www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/courses/phd_research/). Application forms can be obtained from Ms. Mina Daniels (s.daniels at bbk.ac.uk) or they can be downloaded directly form the Birkbeck web pages by following the links on (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/for/prospective/full-time/research). When applying, candidates should make it clear on their application form that they wish to be considered for a Marie Curie Studentship. Applications should be submitted not later than March 31st 2006. A small short list of candidates drawn form those received by this date will be invited to London for interviews approximately 4 to 6 weeks following this date. However, we will continue to consider applications until all 6 positions have been filled. We will announce when the position have been filled on the CBCD web pages cited above. Informal enquires can be made to Professor Mark Johnson (mark..johnson at psychology.bbk.ac.uk), Dr. Denis Mareschal (d.mareschal at bbk.ac.uk) or any potential supervisor who is part of the CBCD and affiliated laboratories. Procedural or administrative enquires regarding the application procedures or conditions of employment should be made to he Marie Curie Administrator Ms Katherine Jones (k.jones at bbk.ac.uk) -- ================================================= Dr. Denis Mareschal Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development School of Psychology Birkbeck College University of London Malet St., London WC1E 7HX, UK tel +44 (0)20 7631-6582/6226 reception: 6207 fax +44 (0)20 7631-6312 http://www.psyc.bbk.ac.uk/people/academic/mareschal_d/ ================================================= From steffen at jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de Fri Feb 10 05:08:30 2006 From: steffen at jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de (Steffen Wischmann) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:08:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Job Offer at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Goettingen (Germany) Message-ID: <43EC661E.8070909@jupiter.chaos.gwdg.de> Immediately starting: Job Offer at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Goettingen (Germany) The BCCN in Goettingen is involved in two collaborative research projects funded by the European Commission (PACO-PLUS, DRIVSCO) where our goal is to apply perception-action learning in different complex technological scenarios using a variety of robots as test bed. We are looking for a candidate at PhD or Postdoc level preferably with expertise in (sub-)symbolic learning methods and/or computer vision. Good programming skills are definitely required. The goal of the project is to learn the correlation between human (or robot) actions and the changing visual perception which arises from these action. One can assume that this way humans and machines are able to better infer the structure of their world. Thus, these projects seek to understand perception and action in a closed loop way. For this, models of the action- as well as perception-space will be developed and perception-action learning needs to take place within this framework. The focus of this position lies on aspects of (machine) learning. We offer a very active and international working environment at the BCCN, which consists of several groups working in Computational Neuroscience and related fields. The projects are taking place in collaboration with 8 partners from different countries in Europe, which have worked together already in a former project. Specifically, this position will require to collaborate with the University of Barcelona, Spain, where the successful candidate is expected to stay for several weeks in the course of the project. Starting date: Immediately preferred!, Duration: Up to 4 years. Salary according to the German BAT System, with BAT IIa, negotiable between 50% and 100% according to the expertise of the applicant. Send your application (preferably as PDF file) or further inquiries to Prof. F. Woergoetter worgott at chaos.gwdg.de Our web pages start at: http://www.ifi.informatik.uni-goettingen.de/cng/ The BCCN is at: http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/ From Wael.El-deredy at manchester.ac.uk Fri Feb 10 04:13:59 2006 From: Wael.El-deredy at manchester.ac.uk (Wael El-Deredy) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:13:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Industrial CASE studentship on Graphical Models Message-ID: <6725489.1139562839457.JavaMail.ocs@arke-pub1.theogony.net> Bayesian networks for knowledge discovery and collaborative filtering EPSRC CASE Studentship A PhD studentship is available for three years to develop and evaluate graphical models for collaborative filtering. Probabilistic recommender systems capable of hidden variables underpinning preference, choice and purchase behaviour will be developed within the Bayesian belief networks framework. The project will involve close interaction with industrial sponsors and will be supervised by Professor Paulo Lisboa at the school of Computing and Mathematical Sciences - Liverpool John Moores University and Dr. Wael El-Deredy at School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester. The successful candidate will receive an enhanced EPSRC stipend starting at ?14,000 in year 1 and rising to ?16,500 in year 3. Eligible candidates* wishing to apply should send by email a supporting statement together with a CV containing names and addresses of two referees by the closing date of Friday, 10th March 2006. * Candidates must satisfy the EPSRC eligibility requirements: Recent changes to the criteria have opened full CASE studentship funding to EU nationals with residence in the UK for at least 3 years, which now include periods of stay for the purpose of higher education. For further information and applying contact Professor PJG Lisboa email: p.j.lisboa at livjm.ac.uk, tel. 0151 231 3226 From B.Kappen at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 13 15:58:35 2006 From: B.Kappen at science.ru.nl (Bert Kappen) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:58:35 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: job in machine learning and genetics at SNN Message-ID: Postdoc position available at SNN Nijmegen. SNN Nijmegen is a university based research group dedicated to fundamental research in the areas of machine learning and computational neuroscience. Specific topics are Bayesian networks, approximate inference methods, time-series modeling, bio-informatics, expert systems, stochastic control and collaborative decision making. The group consists currently of 10 researchers. In our group, we have a postdoc position available in a project on genetic linkage analysis, which concerns the problem of finding the genetic correlates of diseases or phenotypes in pedigrees of humans or animals. The required computation is intractable and has recently been succesfully improved using belief propagation (CVM). The research is carried out in close collaboration with experimental research groups on human genetics and animal breeding. The requirement for the postdoc position is a PhD and publications relevant for the above research topic. The postdoc position is full-time for a period of 3 years. For more information see www.snn.ru.nl or contact Bert Kappen (b.kappen at science.ru.nl, +31 24 3614241). Application: Applications should be sent by email before March 15 2006 to snn at science.ru.nl. Applications should contain a complete CV, a brief description of the research interests. Bert Kappen SNN Radboud University Nijmegen URL: www.snn.kun.nl/~bert The Netherlands tel: +31 24 3614241 fax: +31 24 3541435 B.Kappen at science.ru.nl From rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk Wed Feb 15 06:57:05 2006 From: rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bob Damper) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:57:05 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Letter-to-phoneme machine lerning challenge Message-ID: Connectionist may be interested in the following ... ******* Dear PASCAL researchers, Welcome to the Letter-to-Phoneme Conversion Challenge -- PRONALSYL http://www.pascal-network.org/Challenges/PRONALSYL/ email: rid at ecs.soton.ac.uk Yannick.Marchand at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Part of the EU Network of Excellence PASCAL Challenge Program. Participation is open to all. The objective of the Challenge is to advance the state of the art in letter-to-phoneme conversion. This `automatic pronunciation' problem is not only important in its own right (e.g., as a component part of many speech technologies) but has also served as a benchmark for machine learning methodologies for many years (cf. Sejnowski and Rosenberg's famous NETtalk). Although PASCAL is centrally concerned with machine learning (ML), we are also very keen that at least some participants employ expert knowledge based approaches (i.e., manually-written linguists' rules) to allow us to compare the performance of the two very different paradigms. This is not a competition in the sense of having winners and losers. Rather the motivation is to learn from our joint efforts. Hence, we are keen for at least some participants to try out very simple methods (e.g., naive Bayes classifier) that can be used as a `baseline' for comparative purposes. The scientific goals are: * To understand better the nature of the conversion problem, how this varies across languages, and how and why different machine learning techniques might be more or less appropriate for this task. * To improve on the best automatic pronunciation result(s) so far achieved, either by use of a novel ML approach or by improving an existing one (or perhaps using manually-written rules). * To understand better the nature of strongly related problems (letter-phoneme string alignment, syllabification, morphemic decomposition, stress assignment, ...) that might impact on the capabilities of a letter-to-phoneme conversion system. * To advance machine learning methodology in general. It is intended that discussion and preliminary results will be presented in the Pascal Challenge Workshop in Venice (10-12 April 2006), and final reporting will be at NIPS in December 2006. Program Committee: Walter Daelemans, University of Antwerp, Belgium Bob Damper, University of Southampton, UK (Co-Chair) Kjell Gustafson, Acapela and KTH, Stockholm, Sweden Yannick Marchand, National Research Council, Canada (Co-Chair) Francois Yvon, ENST, Paris, France Please go to the website for further details of PRONALSYL and available datasets: http://www.pascal-network.org/Challenges/PRONALSYL/ We are looking forward to an interesting challenge! The Program Committee. From J.Triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Thu Feb 16 06:12:37 2006 From: J.Triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (J.Triesch@fias.uni-frankfurt.de) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:12:37 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: FIAS Summer School - Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems (05-27. Aug. 2006, Frankfurt/Main, Germany) Message-ID: (apologies for multiple postigns) Announcement and Call for Applications: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) Summer School: Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Frankfurt, Germany from Saturday, August 5 to Sunday, August 27, 2006. The application deadline is Saturday, April 15, and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. FACULTY: Larry ABBOTT, Columbia University, USA Ad AERTSEN, University of Freiburg, Germany Dana BALLARD, University of Rochester, USA Emery BROWN, Harvard and MIT, USA Gyrgy BUZSKI, Rutgers University, USA Yves FRGNAC, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France Wulfram GERSTNER*, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, France Rainer Goebel, Maastricht University, Netherlands Claudius GROS, Goethe University, Germany Wolfgang MAASS, FIAS, Germany and Technische Universitt Graz, Austria Bartlett MEL, University of South California, USA Gordon PIPA, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany John RINZEL*, New York University, USA Wolf SINGER, FIAS and Max-Planck Institute, Germany Andrey SOLOV'YOV, FIAS, Germany Jochen TRIESCH, FIAS, Germany and UC San Diego, USA Christoph VON DER MALSBURG, FIAS, Germany Carl VAN VREESWIJK, Ren Descartes University, France *invited GOALS: There is a deficiency in the exchange of ideas between theoretical physicists and experimental biologists. This arises from different background knowledge bases and viewpoints, even when addressing the same problem. The aim of the FIAS Summer School on Theoretical Neuroscience and Complex Systems is to provide a bridge linking experimentalists and theorists. The school also addresses the challenge of further developing theoretical sciences and transferring existing concepts into the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience. This transference will be highly dependent on the successful training of students so that they can bridge the different fields. Applicants will work on projects that they themselves propose, and to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations, each student will be assigned a "working-group" comprising one experimental neuroscientist, one theoretical neuroscientist, and one theoretical physicist. FORMAT: The three-week summer workshop will include a preschool that will take place at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. During these three days, theoretical physicists will be trained in basic concepts of neuroscience, experimental neuroscientists will be trained in basic concepts of network theory and complex systems, and theoretical neuroscientists will be trained in experimental neuroscience. The first two days of the summer school will be used to introduce the main concepts of neuronal systems and information processing. The second week is devoted to the characterization and analysis of neural recordings, as well as to the description and modeling of neurons, synapses, and small networks. The third week introduces approaches for modeling higher cognitive functions. Throughout, participants work on projects that they themselves propose, and this work will be carried out in collaboration with an interdisciplinary working-group comprising one experimental neuroscientist, one theoretical neuroscientist, and one theoretical physicist. Lectures will be held in the mornings from Monday-Friday, while students will work on their projects in the afternoons from Monday-Wednesday. Intra-group progress reports will be presented on Wednesday and Friday evenings. A preview of the following week's lectures will be provided on Thursday afternoons to ensure that all participants are comfortable with the material to be discussed. Saturdays will be devoted to "theory in practice" and participants will have the chance to visit actual research laboratories: MPIH (Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research) in Frankfurt and the Honda Research Institute in Offenbach. Each Sunday will be reserved for recreational opportunities, and on the final day of the summer school, the projects will be presented. The scientific program will cover the following areas: - Neuroanatomy - Neurophysiology - Basics in modeling of neurons - Realistic models of neural microcircuits - Abstract models of higher-level functions - Outlook to other complex systems LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: FIAS is a Foundation of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University and is located on the natural science campus, Riedberg, in Frankfurt am Main. It also has close collaboration with the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the J.W. Goethe-University and the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and Biophysics. The preschool will take place at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research. Students and Lecturers will stay in the Marriott Courtyard Frankfurt Nordwestzentrum. The hotel is located very close to the FIAS Institute and has excellent access to the public transport system. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: FIAS organizes the summer school and covers the accommodation and the cultural Program. Students have to pay a registration fee of 150 euro. Students from Easter European countries or students in general who need support for their travel expenses can apply for reimbursement and a waiver for the registration fee. Please indicate this in your application if you are considering applying for reimbursement. We will also need an estimation of your travel expenses. HOW TO APPLY: Students who have a bachelor, a master, a Ph.D., or other equivalent degrees can apply for this summer school. To apply, please provide two letters of recommendation, a curriculum vitae, as well as a one page description of a small project she/he is planning to work on during the course. The project proposal should outline the basic idea as well as problems the student might have faced so far. Based on the proposal, the committee will group students to teams and assign interdisciplinary faculty to each individual team. Information about applying and the summer school in general can be found at the website: http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/ A copy of the summer school announcement can be downloaded from: http://www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/FIAS_summerschool_Poster_A2.pdf Application will include: - First name, last name, affiliation, valid e-mail address - Two letters of recommendation - Curriculum Vitae - Project proposal (max. one page) - Request for reimbursement of travel expenses (if applicable) Please send your documents in an electronic format to: neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de The application deadline is Saturday, April 15, 2006. Applicants will be notified by e-mail by May 1, 2006. For further information, please contact: Denise Meixler (neuro_school at fias.uni-frankfurt.de) Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Max-von-Laue-Str. 1 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany tel: +49 69 798 47601 fax: +49 69 798 47611 From andreas at cs.ntua.gr Fri Feb 17 05:25:47 2006 From: andreas at cs.ntua.gr (andreas) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:25:47 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: ICANN 2006 Call for papers Message-ID: <200602171025.k1HAPpsx028992@theseas.softlab.ece.ntua.gr> Call for Papers International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 06) 10-14 September 2006 Holiday Inn Hotel, Athens, Greece ************Conference Framework************ The 16th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, ICANN 2006, will be held from September 10 to September 14, 2006, at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Athens Greece. ICANN is an annual conference organized by the European Neural Network Society in cooperation with the International Neural Network Society, Japanese Neural Network Society, and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, and is a premier European event in all topics related to neural networks. ICANN 2006 (www.icann2006.org) welcomes contributions on the theory, algorithms, applications and implementations in the following broad areas: ? Computational neuroscience; ? Connectionist cognitive science; ? Data analysis and pattern recognition; ? Graphical networks models, Bayesian networks; ? Hardware implementations and embedded systems; ? Neural and hybrid architectures and learning algorithms; ? Neural control, reinforcement learning and robotics applications; ? Neuroinformatics; ? Neural dynamics and complex systems; ? Real world applications; ? Robotics, control, planning; ? Signal and time series processing; ? Self-organization; ? Vision and image processing; ? Web semantics; ? Intelligent Multimedia and the Semantic Web. Ideas and nominations for interesting tutorials, special sessions, workshops and experts willing to organize various session tracks are called for. Most active experts will be included in the scientific committee of the conference. Proceedings of ICANN will be published in Springer's "Lecture Notes in Computer Science". Paper length is restricted to a maximum of 10 pages, including figures. ************Deadlines and Conference dates************ 06.01 Submission page opens 14.03 End of submission of papers (abstract+full paper) to regular sessions 30.03 End of submission of papers to special sessions 30.04 Acceptance/rejection notification 15.06 Deadline for camera ready papers 01.07 Deadline for early registration 10.09 Tutorials - first day of the conference 11-13.09 Main part of the conference 14.09 Workshops For further information and/or contacts, send inquiries to Prof. Stefanos Kollias (stefanos at cs.ntua.gr) Prof Andreas Stafylopatis (andreas at cs.ntua.gr) School of Electrical & Computer Engineering National Technical University of Athens 9, Heroon Polytechniou str., 157 80 Zografou, Athens, Greece. General Chair Stefanos Kollias, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece Co-Chair Andreas Stafylopatis, NTUA, Greece Program Chair Wlodzislaw Duch, Torum, PL & Singapore; ENNS President-elect Erkki Oja, Helsinki, FI; ENNS President Honorary Chair John G. Taylor, Kings College, London, UK; ENNS Past President ************International Program Committee************ ? Peter Andras, U. Newcastle, UK ? Panos Antsaklis, U. N. Dame, USA ? Nikolaos Bourbakis, Wright State Univ., USA ? Peter Erdi, Univ. Budapest, HU & Kalamazoo ? Georg Dorffner, Univ. Wien, AT ? Christophe Garcia, France T?l?com ? Erol Gelenbe, Imperial College London, UK ? Stan Gielen, Univ. Nijmegen, NL ? Nikola Kasabov, Kedri, AUT, NZ ? Janusz Kacprzyk, Warsaw, PL ? Okyay Kaynak, Bogazici Univ., TR ? Chris Koutsougeras, Tulane University, USA ? Thomas Martinetz, Luebeck, DE ? Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou, Rutgers University, USA ? Lars Niklasson, Sk?vde SE ? Marios Polycarpou, Univ. of Cyprus ? Demetris Psaltis, Caltech, USA ? Olli Simula, Espoo, FI ? Alessandro Sperduti, U.Padova, IT ? Lefteris Tsoukalas, Purdue Uni, USA ? Michel Verleysen, Louvain-la-Neuve, BE ? Alessandro Villa, U. Grenoble, FR ************Local Organizing Committee************ ? Yannis Avrithis, NTUA ? Christos Douligeris, Piraeus Univ ? George Dounias, Aegean Univ ? Kostas Karpouzis, ICCS-NTUA ? Aris Likas, Univ. of Ioannina ? Kostas Margaritis, Univ. Macedonia ? Stavros Perantonis, NCSR, Athens ? Yannis Pitas, AUTH, Salonica ? Costas Pattichis, Univ. of Cyprus ? Apostolos Paul Refenes, Athens University Economics & Business ? Christos Schizas, Univ. of Cyprus ? Thanos Skodras, Univ. of Patras ? Kostas Spyropoulos, NCSR, Athens ? Giorgos Stamou, ICCS-NTUA ? Sergios Theodoridis, UoA ? Spyros Tzafestas, NTUA ? Mihalis Zervakis, TUC, Crete From hugh.chipman at acadiau.ca Fri Feb 17 11:34:13 2006 From: hugh.chipman at acadiau.ca (Hugh Chipman) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:34:13 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Fellowship - Statistical Learning withGraph-Structured Data Message-ID: Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship Statistical Learning with Graph-Structured Data The Department of Mathematics and Statistics invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Statistical Learning with Graph-Structured Data. Recent or expected Ph.D., to start July 2006. 1 year position, with possible renewal for second year. Analysis of network data, social network modelling, and data visualization. Desired skills/background: statistical computation, modelling with large data sets, and familiarity with supervised/unsupervised statistical learning methods. See http://ace.acadiau.ca/math/postdoc.htm for details. Email a CV, statement of research interests, and names of three potential referees to statpostdoc at acadiau.ca. Review of applicants will commence March 10, 2006, and will continue until the position is filled. From bower at uthscsa.edu Fri Feb 17 17:09:35 2006 From: bower at uthscsa.edu (james Bower) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:09:35 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Final Hotel and Meeting Registration for Wam-Bamm*06 Message-ID: Deadline for Pre-registration and Hotel Reservations Wam-Bamm*96 San Antonio Texas March 23 - 25, 2006 February 24th (this coming Friday) is the final deadline for meeting pre-registration and hotel reservations. After the 24th, registration costs increase by 25% and we can not guarantee you a room at the hotel. Hotel Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-345-9285 Make sure and mention that you are attending the Wam-Bamm meeting Meeting registration is open at the meeting website http://wam-bamm.org/wam-bamm06.htm Meeting Structure Wam-Bamm is a meeting devoted to realistic biological modeling. This years meeting will take place over three days, organized as follows: Thursday March 23rd site: University of Texas San Antonio Morning: Tutorials on the Introduction to Realistic Modeling Afternoon: Special Workshop on the Future Development of Biological Simulators. Evening: Grand opening of the new Computational Biology Facility in San Antonio WAM-BAMM*06 Friday March 24th site: Menger Hotel Contributed and Invited Papers. A special Tribute to Wil Rall and his pioneering work on compartmental modeling of dendrites. Sat. March 25th Site: Menger Hotel Special focus on modeling / simulation / and analysis of the olfactory system. Evening: banquet and rodeo :-) Invited speakers for this year's meeting include: Wil Rall (NIH Retired) "Retrospective on 40 years of dendritic modeling: where it all started" Gordon Shepherd (Yale University) "Dendro-dendritic connections: a realistic model-based prediction" Phillip Ulinski (University of Chicago) "Waves, Avalanches and Metastable States in Visual Cortex" John Miller (Montana State University) "What is a "feature detecting cell"? What is a "feature"?" Mike Hasselmo (Boston University) "Modeling the neurophysiological mechanisms of memory guided behavior." John Rinzel (NYU) "Timing computations in the auditory brain stem" John Kauer (Tufts University) "Computation in olfaction" Upinder Bhalla (National Center for Biological Sciences Bangalore, India) "Coding in the olfactory system" Rehan Khan (U.C. Berkeley) "Predicting olfactory perception from odorant structure" The special Workshop on Simulator Structure will include presentations and discussions led by: Dr. James Bower: Overview - where we have been, where we are going Dr. David Beeman: Development of GENESIS 3.0 Dr. Upinder Bhalla: The Design and Capabilities of MOOSE Dr. Sharon Crook and Padraig Gleeson: NeuroML, the XML for neuronal simulation project Mr. Josef Svitak: Interface Design Dr. Greg Hood: HPC and Neural Simulation: Capacity for large scale models Dr. James Bower: Internet tools for collaboration For more information on Wam-Bamm*06 including the full meeting program visit: wam-bamm.org -- James M. Bower Ph.D. Research Imaging Center University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive San Antonio, TX 78284-6240 Cajal Neuroscience Center University of Texas San Antonio Phone: 210 567 8080 Fax: 210 567 8152 From F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk Fri Feb 17 12:32:04 2006 From: F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk (Fernando Almeida e Costa) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:32:04 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Workshop in AlifeX - Call for papers Message-ID: <001501c633e8$13065850$1430b88b@rn.informatics.scitech.susx.ac.uk> ********************************************************************* ....................Call for papers and demos........................ ..............Motion, Morphologies and Cognition..................... .................. Workshop @ AlifeX............................. .....www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup/alifexwk .......... ...........Organized by the Morphodynamics and Cognition Group........... ...................University of Sussex................................... **************************************************************************** AlifeX, in June, taking place at Indiana University, USA, is to host a workshop on ?Morphologies, Motion and Cognition? organised by the Morphodynamics and Cognition Group from the University of Sussex. This workshop will take place on the 3rd of June (all-day session), and on the evening of the 4th. Venue: Indiana Memorial Union, in the same area as the main conference presentations. We are accepting submissions of papers and/or proposals of demos. *********************** Aim of the workshop *********************** Our intention is to bring together researchers from robotics, psychology, and ethology to examine and discuss how morphology and motion shapes the perceptual worlds and cognitive behaviours of robots and natural organisms. Although we welcome simulations, we want to encourage work on "physical" robots, or simulated robots that have interesting morphologies. In the approach to cognition that we will be discussing, cognitive activity is regarded as crucially dependent upon, and emerging from, the exploitation of all the physical properties available to the agent, namely its morphology and motion. The key principle of this approach is to minimise the amount of control at the algorithmic level by exploiting the dynamics of the agent, produced by its interaction with the environment. This approach views organisms and robots as dynamic systems, whose parts are continually perturbed by cues from their environments that act to modulate their behaviours. **************** Keynote Speakers **************** Inman Harvey, University of Sussex Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich ********* Topics ********* The work to be submitted may include (but is not limited to) the following topics: - the exploitation by an agent of its morphodynamics (morphologies and motion) for cognitive purposes, at any level of "cognition" in both humans and robots. - passive dynamic walkers - relation with the environment through active perception - evolution of morphologies, morphogenesis - developmental issues in both humans/animals and robots - dynamical theories of cognition - embodied and situated robotics - constructed worlds of robots - articulated motion in robots and animals - sensorimotor and movement coordination - evolvable hardware - design principles for fully embodied and situated robots - automatic robot manufacture - 3D rapid prototyping printers - non-holonomic robot control - control for underactuated or compliant structures - methods for the analysis of the interaction of morphology, motion, and control ************ Papers ************ Papers can either be technical or conceptual, in the area covered by the workshop. Length should not exceed 10 pages, double spaced, and must be emailed in pdf format to one of the organisers (see addresses below in "organising committee") ************ Demos ************ Demos can be presented as physical robots, computer simulations or videos of physical robots. If you are interested in presenting a demo please contact one of the members of the organising committee as soon as possible. ****************** Important dates ****************** Deadline submission: May 1 Notification of acceptance: May 10 Camera-ready versions: May 20 ************ Publication ************ If the submitted contributions are of sufficient quality, papers emerging from the workshop will be forwarded to undergo the review process of a scientific journal, for a special issue. ************ Details ************ You may find detailed information about the workshop in our webpage at www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup/alifexwk or through the conference webpage at www.alifex.org ******************** PROGRAMME COMMITTEE ******************** Bill Bigge, University of Sussex Josh Bongard, Cornell University Inman Harvey, University of Sussex Phil Husbands, University of Sussex Fumiya Iida, University of Zurich Eduardo Izquierdo-Torres, University of Sussex Akio Ishiguro, University of Nagoya Hod Lipson, Cornell University Max Lungarella, University of Tokyo Romi Nijhawan, University of Sussex Chandana Paul, Cornell University Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich Linda Smith, Indiana University Olaf Sporns, Indiana University Kasper St?y, University of Southern Denmark Tim Taylor, Timberpost, Ltd. Eric Vaughan, University of Sussex Rachel Wood, University of Sussex Tom Ziemke, University of Sk?vde ************************** Organising Committee ************************** Fernando Almeida e Costa F.AlmeidaCosta at sussex.ac.uk Ian Macinnes ian at british-cybernetics.co.uk ************************************************* www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/morphodynamicsgroup From rangel at stanford.edu Sat Feb 18 09:57:45 2006 From: rangel at stanford.edu (Antonio Rangel) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 06:57:45 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: SUMMER SCHOOL IN NEUROECONOMICS Message-ID: Call for Applications STANFORD SUMMER SCHOOL IN NEUROECONOMICS 2006 July 17 - July 28, 2006. Stanford University, California, USA http://neuroeconomics-summerschool.stanford.edu Application Deadline: MARCH 15, 2006 Organizers: Colin Camerer (Caltech) Paul Gilmcher (NYU) Antonio Rangel (Stanford) The aim of the Stanford Summer School in Neuroeconomics is to provide an introduction to the new fiel of neuroeconomics to graduate students and post-docs in neuroscience, psychology, and economics. Part of the meeting will focus on "computational neuroeconomics", which provides the unifying framework for the field, and a common language for the three related fields. This part of the program describes state-of-the art models of how the brain makes economic decisions (Which variables are computed? How are they computed? How do they interact with each other to generate choices?) The other part of the program covers several experimental techniques and their applications to neuroeconomics. The program also includes daily research talks by leading scholars in the field and a student project. Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars in neuroscience, psychology, and economics are invited to apply. Those interested in attending the course should send the materials listed below by e-mail no later MARCH 15, 2006. 40 applicants will be selected and notified by email in mid-April, 2006. LECTURERS (include): Kent Berridge (Michigan) Colin Camerer (Caltech) Nathaniel Daw (UCL) Daniel Kahneman (Princeton) Paul Glimcher (NYU) David Laibson (Harvard) George Loewenstein (Carnegie-Mellon) Read Montague (Baylor) John O?Doherty (Caltech) Elizabeth Phelps (NYU) Michael Platt (Duke) Antonio Rangel (Stanford) Aldo Rustichini (Minnesota) Alan Sanfey (U. Arizona) Tania Singer (UCL) Elke Weber (Columbia) SPONSORS: National Science Foundation National Institute of Aging SIEPR PARTIAL LIST OF TOPICS: Computational Models of Reward Learning Neural Basis of Reward Learning Perceptual Decision Making Computational Models of Economic Decision Making Neural Basis of Decision Making Psychological Perspectives on Well-Being Neural Basis of Experienced and Decision Utility Behavioral Economics of Choice Under Uncertainty Neural Foundations of Choice Under Risk and Uncertainty Neuroeconomics of Intertemporal Choice Role of Emotions in Decision Making Advances in Social Neuroscience Neuroeconomics of Social Exchange APPLICATION: Please send the following materials via email by MARCH 15 TH, 2006. No late submissions will be accepted. Send to: Dafna Baldwin dafb at stanford.edu 1-650-725-6668. Materials: 1. Application form (available at the school?s website) 2. Two letters of recommendation (to be sent by email to the same address by the evaluator). SELECTION: We will accept 40 students based primarily on their research interests and motivation. We will also consider the balance of members' research disciplines and other factors that contribute to a diverse intellectual atmosphere. COSTS AND FINANCIAL AID: The program will provide lodging (in double rooms at the Stanford dorms), materials, breakfasts, lunches, and some dinners. Limited travel funds will be available for students who cannot obtain sufficient travel support from their home laboratories or institutions. Travel funds must be requested with the application. ADDICTIONAL INFORMATION: Details about the program will be posted on the web course web page: http://neuroeconomics-summerschool.stanford.edu/ For specific questions regarding the application process please contact: Antonio Rangel Stanford University Department of Economics Stanford, CA 94305 rangel at stanford.edu From steve at cns.bu.edu Sat Feb 18 13:26:00 2006 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:26:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Experimental/Computational Cognitive Neuroscience at Cog. Neuro. Soc. meeting, April 8 Message-ID: EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE: TOWARDS A SYNTHESIS A Satellite Symposium at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Hyatt Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, April 8, 2006 Co-sponsored by the NSF Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST) http://cns.bu.edu/CELEST and the International Neural Network Society(INNS) http://www.inns.org/ This symposium discusses recent experimental data about important topics in cognitive neuroscience, and computational cognitive neuroscience models aimed at explaining these and related data in a unified way while making new predictions that can be tested by multiple means. 9:55am - 10:00am Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Welcome and Introduction Speech Perception and Production 10:00am - 10:30am Gregory Hickok (University of California at Irvine) Sensory-Motor Integration in Speech: Evidence from Neurophysiology and Neuropsychology 10:30am - 11:00am Joseph Perkell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Speech Motor Control: Movement Goals and Sensory Feedback Mechanisms 11:00am - 11:40am Frank Guenther (Boston University) Neural Modeling and Imaging of the Cortical Interactions Underlying Speech 11:40am - 11:55am Discussion 11:55am - 1:10pm Lunch Visual Attention and Learning 1:10pm - 1:40pm Takeo Watanabe (Boston University) Perceptual Learning without Attention 1:40pm - 2:10pm Robert Desimone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Visual Attention and Neural Synchrony 2:10pm - 2:50pm Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Cortical Dynamics of Visual Learning, Attention, and Synchrony 2:50pm - 3:20pm Discussion and Coffee Break Cognitive Control, Sequence Learning, and Planning 3:20pm - 3:50pm Robert Sekuler (Brandeis University) Imitating Unfamiliar Sequences 3:50pm - 4:20pm Earl Miller (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) The Prefrontal Cortex: Rules, Concepts, Cognitive Control 4:20pm - 5:00pm Daniel Bullock (Boston University) Modeling Frontal Circuits that Control Unfamiliar and Learned Sequences 5:00pm - 5:15pm Discussion and Wrap-up ********************* REGISTRATION INFORMATION To register for the symposium please e-mail Susanne Daley at sdaley at bu.edu with the subject heading CNS06 satellite symposium registration. Please include the following information: Mr/Ms/Dr/Prof: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Affiliation: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Address: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- City, State, Postal Code: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phone and Fax: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite symposium attendees are required to register and must also be registered for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting. For registration and general information for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting please see http://www.taramillerevents.com/cns2006/. Registration for the satellite symposium is at no extra fee. From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 20 10:51:09 2006 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:51:09 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 69 (issues 7-9) Message-ID: <43F9E56D.7080405@science.ru.nl> Neurocomputing volume 69 (issues 7-9) ------- SPECIAL PAPERS (New Issues in Neurocomputing edited by Jochen J. Steil, Gavin C. Cawley and Fabrice Rossi) New Issues in Neurocomputing (editorial) Jochen J. Steil, Gavin C. Cawley and Fabrice Rossi Attractor neural networks with patchy connectivity Christopher Johansson, Martin Rehn and Anders Lansner Rapid learning and robust recall of long sequences in modular associator networks Michael Lawrence, Thomas Trappenberg and Alan Fine Online stability of backpropagation?decorrelation recurrent learning Jochen J. Steil Generalized relevance LVQ (GRLVQ) with correlation measures for gene expression analysis Marc Strickert, Udo Seiffert, Nese Sreenivasulu, Winfriede Weschke, Thomas Villmann and Barbara Hammer Learning vector quantization: The dynamics of winner-takes-all algorithms Michael Biehl, Anarta Ghosh and Barbara Hammer Efficient estimation of multidimensional regression model using multilayer perceptrons Joseph Rynkiewicz Boosting by weighting critical and erroneous samples Vanessa G?mez-Verdejo, Manuel Ortega-Moral, Jer?nimo Arenas-Garc?a and An?bal R. Figueiras-Vidal Evolving hybrid ensembles of learning machines for better generalisation Arjun Chandra and Xin Yao Applications of multi-objective structure optimization Alexander Gepperth and Stefan Roth Kernel methods and the exponential family St?phane Canu and Alex Smola Kernel extrapolation S.V.N. Vishwanathan, Karsten M. Borgwardt, Omri Guttman and Alex Smola Support vector machine for functional data classification Fabrice Rossi and Nathalie Villa Translation-invariant classification of non-stationary signals Vincent Guigue, Alain Rakotomamonjy and St?phane Canu Robust analysis of MRS brain tumour data using t-GTM Alfredo Vellido, Paulo J.G. Lisboa and Dolores Vicente EEG classification using generative independent component analysis Silvia Chiappa and David Barber ------- REGULAR PAPERS Stochastic model and neural coding of large-scale neuronal population with variable coupling strength Rubin Wang and Xianfa Jiao Neural network based control strategies for improving plasma characteristics in reactive ion etching N. Tudoroiu, R.V. Patel and K. Khorasani A global exponential robust stability criterion for interval delayed neural networks with variable delays Chuandong Li, Xiaofeng Liao and Rong Zhang Cell assemblies for diagnostic problem-solving Andreas Wichert Hidden neuron pruning of multilayer perceptrons using a quantified sensitivity measure Xiaoqin Zeng and Daniel S. Yeung ------- LETTERS A reliable method for HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini An ensemble of classifiers for the diagnosis of erythemato-squamous diseases Loris Nanni A novel method for fingerprint verification that approaches the problem as a two-class pattern recognition problem Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini Ensemble of classifiers for protein fold recognition Loris Nanni Advanced methods for two-class problem formulation for on-line signature verification Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini Human authentication featuring signatures and tokenised random numbers Loris Nanni and Alessandra Lumini A reliable method for the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma Loris Nanni Machine learning algorithms for T-cell epitopes prediction ? SHORT Loris Nanni Experimental comparison of one-class classifiers for online signature verification Loris Nanni Noise removal using a novel non-negative sparse coding shrinkage technique Li Shang, De-Shuang Huang, Chun-Hou Zheng and Zhan-Li Sun Nonnegative independent component analysis based on minimizing mutual information technique Chun-Hou Zheng, De-Shuang Huang, Zhan-Li Sun, Michael R. Lyu and Tat-Ming Lok Optimal selection of time lags for TDSEP based on genetic algorithm Zhan-Li Sun, De-Shuang Huang, Chun-Hou Zheng and Li Shang Robust extraction of specific signals with temporal structure Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Extraction of temporally correlated sources with its application to non-invasive fetal electrocardiogram extraction Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Extraction of a source signal whose kurtosis value lies in a specific range Zhi-Lin Zhang and Zhang Yi Enhancing decision-based neural networks through local competition Gustavo Camps-Valls, Luis G?mez-Chova, Joan Vila-Franc?s, Jos? D. Mart?n-Guerrero, Antonio J. Serrano-L?pez and Emilio Soria-Olivas Efficient pruning of multilayer perceptrons using a fuzzy sigmoid activation function E. Soria-Olivas, J.D. Mart?n-Guerrero, A.J. Serrano-L?pez, J. Calpe-Maravilla, J. Vila-Franc?s and G. Camps-Valls An efficient simulated annealing algorithm for the minimum vertex cover problem Xinshun Xu and Jun Ma Gaussian moments for noisy complexity pursuit Zhenwei Shi and Changshui Zhang An LVQ-based adaptive algorithm for learning from very small codebooks J.S. S?nchez and A.I. Marqu?s Robust kernel discriminant analysis and its application to feature extraction and recognition Zhizheng Liang, David Zhang and Pengfei Shi (2D)2 FLD: An efficient approach for appearance based object recognition P. Nagabhushan, D.S. Guru and B.H. Shekar On stability of disturbed Hopfield neural networks with time delays ? Yiguang Liu, Zhisheng You and Liping Cao A new nonlinear feature extraction method for face recognition Yanwei Pang, Zhengkai Liu and Nenghai Yu Ratio rule and homomorphic filter for enhancement of digital colour image Ming-Jung Seow and Vijayan K. Asari Exponential stability of a class of generalized neural networks with time-varying delays Anhua Wan, Jigen Peng and Miansen Wang A fast NPCA algorithm for online blind source separation Xiaolong Zhu, Xianda Zhang and Yongtao Su A neuro-fuzzy approach for diagnosis of antibody deficiency syndrome Joon Shik Lim, Dianhui Wang, Yong-Soo Kim and Sudhir Gupta Solving alignment problems in neural spike sorting using frequency domain PCA Hae Kyung Jung, Joon Hwan Choi and Taejeong Kim From B.Kappen at science.ru.nl Mon Feb 20 06:24:14 2006 From: B.Kappen at science.ru.nl (Bert Kappen) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:24:14 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: Promedas medical diagnosis Message-ID: Dear all, Promedas is a diagnostic expert system for internal medicine, based on Bayesian networks. Of all the systems that are currently under active development, Promedas is one of the largest system around. The current version has about 2000 diagnoses and 1800 findings. For those interested, you can download a demo version of Promedas internal medicine from www.promedas.nl Enjoy. Bert Kappen SNN Radboud University Nijmegen URL: www.snn.kun.nl/~bert The Netherlands tel: +31 24 3614241 fax: +31 24 3541435 B.Kappen at science.ru.nl From d.polani at herts.ac.uk Mon Feb 20 07:51:53 2006 From: d.polani at herts.ac.uk (Daniel Polani) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:51:53 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd Call for Papers: Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors at KES 2006 Message-ID: <17401.47977.71359.660275@perm.feis.herts.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, please find attached the 2nd call for papers for the ESOSAPH session (Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors, Actuators and Processing Hardware) at KES 2006. We would be grateful if you would forward this call to interested colleagues. - Daniel Polani and Mikhail Prokopenko //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 2nd Call for Papers & Participation: Evolutionary and Self-Organizing Sensors, Actuators and Processing Hardware (ESOSAPH) Invited Session at KES 2006 Tenth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems 9-11. October 2006, Bournemouth, UK //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Program Chairs Daniel Polani (University of Hertfordshire, UK) Mikhail Prokopenko (CSIRO, Australia) Session website: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqdp1/kes_2006.html _________________________________________________________________ Introduction Recent technology has witnessed the advent of cheap ubiquitous sensing, processing and actuating capabilities for isolated, distributed or collective robotic systems. These appear in the form of intelligent materials, nano-motors and -sensors, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), grid processors, Avogadro-scale digital circuits and similar structures. Established conventional AI computation paradigms do not harness the full potential of this new type of technological ability that includes dynamic reconfiguration, addition or removal of sensors, actuators or processing hardware. Classical AI paradigms are inadequate to deal with the requirements of these scenarios which require flexible and adaptive acquisition, manipulation and distribution of information as opposed to sterile off-line AI software designs detached from concrete usage scenarios. One is confronted with the necessity to adapt sensoric properties and/or configuration to a situation or task at hand, discovery of new sensoric modalities,the use of newly added actuators in novel ways, the necessity of reconfiguring computational hardware after being damaged, and much more. What all these requirements have in common is that, in general, there cannot be a full a priori appreciation of the possible scenarios that can occur during the lifetime of the involved hardware and software. On the other hand, biological systems are capable to tackle such problems on a regular basis. E.g. the recovery of functionality in experiments where sensoric or neural tissues are transplanted to other than the original locations show that biological systems have a powerful potential to reconfigure their "hardware" and "software" to suit the relevant situation. Biologically inspired approaches, e.g. evolutionary and neural methods, as well as self-organization to tackle these challenges, have been increasingly found to be fruitful. Evolutionary sensorics, self-organizing controllers, neural strategies have all provided new insights, methodologies, towards the achievement of self- and externally modified sensomotoric loops. Solving these problems has an enormous potential: it would allow the construction of robust, cheap autonomous vehicles, sensor/actuator networks consisting of a large number of autonomous sensor/actuator units ('agents') that interact with each other to obtain the best results. It would open the way to apply novel sensing/actuation materials for the construction of agents because the self-organized adaptation mechanisms would be able to deal with the novelty. _________________________________________________________________ Call for Contributions We solicit papers for poster or oral presentations (20 minute talk) reporting working in this exciting area. Talks should address an interdisciplinary audience, but may nevertheless deal with issues at the cutting edge of research. _________________________________________________________________ Topics Possible topics for the invited session are or involve (this is not an exhaustive list and other relevant topics may be covered): * evolution or self-organization of physical sensors and actuators (artificial, bio-inspired, and biological) * abstract models for the evolution, self-organization and adaptation of sensors, actuators and processing, and for detection of emergent behaviour * evolution of controllers (including, but not limited to neural or cellular architectures) * self-monitoring and self-repair of damaged sensoric, computational and communication architectures * self-organization in sensomotoric loops * self-organized adaptive communication (e.g. mechanisms for the emergence of communication protocols) * evolution or self-organized modularity and hierarchies * identification of relevant information and features in sensoric input and of relevant behaviours and activities in actuatoric output If you are unsure whether your topic is adequate for submission to the session, please contact the program chairs. _________________________________________________________________ Important Dates Submission of papers: 4 March 2006 Notification of acceptance: 15 April 2006 _________________________________________________________________ Submission The submission should be no longer than 8 pages in Springer format. Please refer to the session website http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqdp1/kes_2006.html for details. _________________________________________________________________ Program Committee Hussein Abbass UNSW-ADFA, Australia Andrew Adamatzky UWE, UK Peter Dauscher University of Mainz, Germany Attila Egri-Nagy University of Hertfordshire, UK Hod Lipson Cornell University, USA Chrystopher Nehaniv University of Hertfordshire, UK David Payton Hughes Research Labs, USA Don Price CSIRO, Australia William Prosser NASA LaRC, USA Claude Sammut UNSW, Australia Susan Stepney University of York, UK Ivan Tanev Doshisha University, Japan Alexander Tarakanov Academy of Sciences, Russia _________________________________________________________________ From qobi at purdue.edu Tue Feb 21 11:07:17 2006 From: qobi at purdue.edu (Jeffrey Mark Siskind) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:07:17 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: POCV 2006 Message-ID: SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: POCV 2006 The Fifth IEEE Computer Society Workshop on Perceptual Organization in Computer Vision New York City June 22, 2006, In Conjunction with IEEE CVPR 2006 http://elderlab.yorku.ca/pocv IMPORTANT DATES: * Submission deadline: 11:59pm EST, March 17, 2006 * Notification: April 17, 2006 * Final versions of accepted papers due: April 24, 2006 THEME: Perceptual Organization is the process of establishing a meaningful relational structure over raw visual data, where the extracted relations correspond to the physical structure of the scene. A driving motivation behind perceptual organization research in computer vision is to deliver representations needed for higher-level visual tasks such as object detection, object recognition, activity recognition and scene reconstruction. Because of its wide applicability, the potential payoff from perceptual organization research is enormous. The 5th IEEE POCV Workshop, to be held in conjunction with CVPR 2006 (New York), will bring together experts in perceptual organization and related areas to report on recent research results and to provide ideas for future directions. PREVIOUS IEEE POCV WORKSHOPS: * 2004 CVPR (Washington, DC) * 2001 ICCV (Vancouver, Canada) * 1999 ICCV (Crete, Greece) * 1998 CVPR (Santa Barbara, CA) SCOPE: Papers are solicited in all areas of perceptual organization, including but not limited to: * image segmentation * feature grouping * texture segmentation * contour completion * spatiotemporal/motion segmentation * figure-ground discrimination * integration of top-down and bottom-up methods * perceptual organization for object or activity detection/recognition * unification of segmentation, detection and recognition * biologically-motivated methods * neural basis for perceptual organization * learning in perceptual organization * graphical methods * natural scene statistics * evaluation methods ALGORITHM EVALUATION: Research progress in perceptual organization depends in part on quantitative evaluation and comparison of algorithms. Authors reporting results of new algorithms are strongly encouraged to objectively quantify performance and compare against at least one competing approach. BROADER ISSUES: Perceptual organization research faces a number of challenges. One is defining what the precise goal of perceptual organization algorithms should be. What kind of representation should they deliver? What databases should be used for evaluation? How can we quantify performance to allow objective evaluation and comparison between algorithms? How do we know when we?ve succeeded? To try to meet these challenges, we particularly encourage contributions of a more general nature that attempt to address one or more of these questions. These may include definitional papers, theoretical frameworks that might apply to multiple different perceptual organization problems, establishment of useful databases, modeling of underlying natural scene statistics, evaluation methodologies, etc. Biological Motivation BIOLOGICAL MOTIVATION: Much of the current work in perceptual organization in computer vision has its roots in qualitative principles established by the Gestalt Psychologists nearly a century ago, and this link between computational and biological research continues to this day. Following this tradition, we specifically invite biological vision researchers working in the field of perceptual organization to submit work that may stimulate new directions of research in the computer vision community. WORKSHOP OUTPUT: All accepted papers will be included in the Electronic Proceedings of CVPR, distributed on DVD at the conference, and will be indexed by IEEE Xplore. We are also exploring the possibility of a special journal issue on perceptual organization in computer vision, with a separate call for papers. PAPER SUBMISSION: Submission is electronic, and must be in PDF format. Papers must not exceed 8 double-column pages. Submissions must follow standard IEEE 2-column format of single-spaced text in 10 point Times Roman, with 12 point interline space. All submissions must be anonymous. Please use the IEEE Computer Society CVPR format kit. Stay tuned for exact details on how to submit. In submitting a paper to the POCV Workshop, authors acknowledge that no paper of substantially similar content has been or will be submitted to another conference or workshop during the POCV review period. For further details and updates, please see the workshop website: http://elderlab.yorku.ca/pocv WORKSHOP CHAIRS: James Elder, York University jelder at yorku.ca Jeffrey Mark Siskind, Purdue University qobi at purdue.edu PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Ronen Basri, Weizmann Institute, Israel Kim Boyer, Ohio State University, USA James Coughlan, Smith-Kettlewell Institute, USA Sven Dickinson, University of Toronto, Canada Anthony Hoogs, GE Global Research, USA David Jacobs, University of Maryland, USA Ian Jermyn, INRIA, France Benjamin Kimia, Brown University, USA Norbert Kruger, Aalborg University, Denmark Michael Lindenbaum, Technion, Israel Zili Liu, University of California, Los Angeles, USA David Martin, Boston College, USA Gerard Medioni, University of Southern California, USA Zygmunt Pizlo, Purdue University, USA Sudeep Sarkar, University of South Florida, USA Eric Saund, Palo Alto Research Center, USA Ohad ben Shahar, Ben Gurion University, Israel Kaleem Siddiqi, McGill University, Canada Manish Singh, Rutgers University, USA Shimon Ullman, Weizmann Institute, Israel Johan Wagemans, University of Leuven, Belgium Song Wang, University of South Carolina, USA Rich Zemel, University of Toronto, Canada Song-Chun Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Steve Zucker, Yale University, USA Jeff (http://www.ece.purdue.edu/~qobi) From paul.cisek at umontreal.ca Wed Feb 22 11:23:20 2006 From: paul.cisek at umontreal.ca (Paul Cisek) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:23:20 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: International Symposium on Computational Neuroscience- Montreal, Canada, May 8-9, 2006 Message-ID: <009a01c637cc$4bac0aa0$87e4cc84@Engram> SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR POSTERS ------------------------------------------------------------------- XXVIIIth International Symposium COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE: >From theory to neurons and back again May 8-9, 2006 University of Montr?al Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------- The 28th International Symposium of the Groupe de recherche sur le syst?me nerveux central et le Centre de recherche en sciences neurologiques will be held on May 8-9, 2006, at the University of Montr?al. The objectives of this symposium are to illustrate the power and utility of computational approaches to address fundamental issues of brain function from the level of single cells to that of large systems, as well as to discuss how computational and more traditional physiological methods complement one another. The symposium will include presentations on computational models of sensory and motor systems, learning processes, and information coding. Registration is now open. Please visit http://www.grsnc.umontreal.ca/XXVIIIs/ for information. Submissions are invited for a limited number of poster presentations. Authors of select posters will be invited to contribute a short chapter to a special issue of the book series Progress in Brain Research. Deadline for poster submissions: Friday, March 31, 2006. Conference speakers: Larry Abbott Yoshua Bengio Catherine Carr Paul Cisek Simon Giszter Sten Grillner Stephen Grossberg Geoffrey Hinton Len Maler Eve Marder James McClelland David McCrea Bruce McNaughton Alexandre Pouget Stephen Scott Michael Shadlen Reza Shadmehr Robert Shapley Daniel Wolpert Sponsors: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Groupe de recherche sur le syst?me nervaux central (GRSNC) Fonds de la recherche en sant? du Qu?bec (FRSQ) Universit? de Montr?al (CEDAR) ----------------------------------------------- Paul Cisek, Ph.D. Department of physiology, room 4141 University of Montreal C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville Montreal QC H3C 3J7 Canada phone: 514-343-6111 x4355 FAX: 514-343-2111 email: paul.cisek at umontreal.ca ----------------------------------------------- From edizquierdo at gmail.com Wed Feb 22 11:16:35 2006 From: edizquierdo at gmail.com (Eduardo Izquierdo-Torres) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:16:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: artificial autonomy call4papers Message-ID: ----> CALL4PAPERS <----- --------------------------------------------------------- ARTIFICIAL AUTONOMY WORKSHOP advances in simulation models of autonomous systems AlifeX 3rd June 2006 Bloomington, Indiana, USA --------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy --------------------------------------------------------- [[[ submission deadline: 31st March ]]] ..:: SCOPE ::.. The topic of this workshop is the status, research agenda and conceptual discussion of simulation models of autonomous systems, as one of the main goals of Artificial Life and a key notion for the understanding and modeling of biological and cognitive organization. The main objectives of the workshop are: a) to clarify conceptually and pragmatically the notion of autonomy (and related concepts such as autopoiesis, closure to efficient causation, adaptivity, self-maintenance, etc.), b) to overview and evaluate past achievements/failures on the simulation of autonomous systems, c) to discuss "in principle" difficulties of computability and simulation of autonomy and d) to design a possible road-map for future research agendas. ..:: EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS ::.. We will encourage discussions based on specific simulation models, as conceptual tools to delve into the recursive, integrated and embodied nature of autonomous systems. Contributions will be opened to simulation models of basic/autopoietic/metabolic (biological) autonomy as well as neural/sensorimotor/behavioral (cognitive) autonomy. A more limited number of papers dealing with historical reviewing and philosophical or mathematical approaches will also be accepted. ..:: WEBSITE ::.. Please do not hesitate to visit the workshop's website (http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy), which will be regularly updated for coordination and discussion of different aspects of the workshop. ..:: PUBLICATION ::.. A selection of the papers accepted for the workshop will be included (after an additional reviewing process) in a special issue of the journal "Biological Theory" (MIT Press) or, alternatively, "BioSystems" (the final decision will depend on each journal's time constraints, currently under negotiation). ..:: SUBMISSION ::.. Contributions (6 pages, two columns, single spacing) must be submitted before 31st March to barandi at sf.ehu.es AND kepa_ruiz at ehu.es . Detailed submission instructions can be found at: http://www.ehu.es/ias-research/autonomy/submission.php ..:: REGISTRATION ::.. In order to take part in the workshop registration for the full conference is required (no additional registration needs to be done): http://www.alifex.org/registration/ Looking forward to your contributions, Xabier Barandiaran & Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Information, Autonomy and Systems Research Group Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science University of the Basque Country From stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk Fri Feb 24 07:49:35 2006 From: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk (Stefan Wermter) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 12:49:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Stipend funding available for MSc Intelligent Systems Message-ID: <43FF00DF.9070608@sunderland.ac.uk> Stipends available for MSc Intelligent Systems for EU students --------------------------------------------------------------- We are pleased to announce that for eligible selected EU students we have just obtained notice of funding to offer places with free fees and a bursary for our MSc Intelligent Systems. This stipend of free fees and bursary was about 8000 EURO last term. This scheme applies to our Feb/March entry 2006 and also our entry in October 2006 for selected EU students. ***Please forward to students who may be interested.*** The School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland is delighted to announce the launch of its MSc Intelligent Systems programme for 2006. Building on the School's leading edge research in intelligent systems this masters programme will be funded partially via the ESF scheme. Intelligent Systems is an exciting field of study for science and industry since the currently existing computing systems have often not yet reached the various aspects of human performance. "Intelligent Systems" is a term to describe software systems and methods, which simulate aspects of intelligent behaviour. The intention is to learn from nature and human performance in order to build more powerful computing systems. The aim is to learn from cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, engineering, and linguistics for building more powerful computational system architectures. In this programme a wide variety of novel and exciting techniques will be taught including neural networks, intelligent robotics, machine learning, natural language processing, vision, evolutionary genetic computing, data mining, fuzzy methods, and hybrid intelligent architectures. The Bursary Scheme applies to this Masters programme commencing February/March 2006 and October 2006 and we have obtained funding through the European Social Fund (ESF). ESF support enables the University to waive the normal tuition fee and provide a bursary of ? 50 per week for 45 weeks for eligible selected EU students, together up to about 5500 pounds or about 8000 Euro. We also have support for fee-only stipends and further support under the women into science programme for UK and EU students. For further information in the first instance please see: http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/Teaching_frame.html http://osiris.sund.ac.uk/webedit/allweb/courses/progmode.php?prog=G550A&mode=FT&mode2=&dmode=C http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/teaching/sund_is_app.pdf For information and applications contact: alfredo.moscardini at sunderland.ac.uk Please forward to interested students. Stefan *************************************** Stefan Wermter Professor for Intelligent Systems Centre for Hybrid Intelligent Systems School of Computing and Technology University of Sunderland St Peters Way Sunderland SR6 0DD United Kingdom phone: +44 191 515 3279 fax: +44 191 515 3553 email: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0stw/ http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/ **************************************** From seth at nsi.edu Fri Feb 24 19:00:38 2006 From: seth at nsi.edu (Anil K Seth) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:00:38 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Announcement: ALIFEX workshop on Neurodynamics and Cognitive Behaviors Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20060224160006.053ec480@mail.nsi.edu> --------------------------------------------------------------------- ALIFEX WORKSHOP NEURODYNAMIC METHODS FOR ANALYSIS AND CONTROL OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORS 3rd June, 2006 Bloomington, Indiana, USA Organized by Robert Kozma, Anil Seth, and Jun Tani www.nsi.edu/users/seth/ALIFEXwsp.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------- Neural mechanisms of behavior show a rich variety of complex and self-organizing dynamics that intervene between stimulus and response. In embodied, embedded neural systems, these dynamics may reflect cognitive aspects of behavior such as memory, selection, sequencing, attention, and intention. While there has been considerable exploration of neurodynamics in abstract models, there is a growing need for novel mathematical and computational methods both for analyzing embodied, embedded neural systems, and for generating neurodynamic control systems for artificial software agents and robots, which demonstrate biologically plausible cognitive behaviors. This workshop will provide a forum for discussion and development of these methods by researchers in the area, as well through open audience participation. Approaches presented at the workshop will range from dynamical systems and chaotic oscillators, homeostatic regulatory mechanisms, neuropercolation models and random graphs, complexity theory, information theory, autopoiesis, and causality analysis. We place special emphasis on using any of these approaches to facilitate embodied cognition. In the spirit of the synthetic mode of artificial life research, equal emphasis will be given to methods for neurodynamic control and neurodynamic analysis, and it is expected that there will be opportunities to transfer techniques from one domain to the other. The workshop will consist of a series of invited presentations with participation from an open audience. There will be two panel discussions with the speakers as panelists. If you would like to get involved in this workshop (beyond simply turning up), please contact any of the organizers (see below). Speakers so far include: Owen Holland (Essex, UK) Takashi Ikegami (Tokyo, Japan) Jeffrey Krichmar (San Diego, US) Robert Kozma (Memphis, US) Yasuo Kuniyoshi (Tokyo, Japan) Anil Seth (San Diego, US) Olaf Sporns (Indiana, US) Jun Tani (Tokyo, Japan) Jochen Triesch (Frankfurt, Germany) In order to take part in the workshop registration for the full conference is required (there are no additional registration costs for the workshop): http://www.alifex.org/registration/. Looking forward to seeing you in Indiana: Robert Kozma (University of Memphis, TN, USA): http://cnd.memphis.edu/ Anil K Seth (The Neurosciences Institute, CA, USA): http://www.nsi.edu/users/seth. Jun Tani (The Riken Brain Institute, Tokyo, Japan): http://www.bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/~tani ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anil K Seth, D.Phil., Associate Fellow, The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, email: seth at nsi.edu, web: www.nsi.edu/users/seth/ From retienne at jhu.edu Sat Feb 25 15:25:18 2006 From: retienne at jhu.edu (Ralph Etienne-Cummings) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 15:25:18 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop 2006 In-Reply-To: <41F7C734.8060205@jhu.edu> References: <41F7C734.8060205@jhu.edu> Message-ID: <4400BD2E.4070402@jhu.edu> Please forgive us if you get this announcement more than once: ======================================================================== Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop Call for Applications Sunday, June 25 - Saturday, July 15, 2006 Telluride, Colorado ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avis COHEN (University of Maryland) Rodney DOUGLAS (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Ralph ETIENNE-CUMMINGS (Johns Hopkins University) Paul HASLER (Georgia Institute of Technology) Timmer HORIUCHI (University of Maryland) Giacomo INDIVERI (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Christof KOCH (California Institute of Technology)- Past Organization Board Member Terrence SEJNOWSKI (Salk Institute and UCSD) Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland) Andre van SCHAIK(University of Sydney) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We invite applications for a three week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado from Sunday, June 25 to Saturday, July 15, 2006. The application deadline is Friday, March 24, and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2005 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Wow Wee Toys, Airforce Research Office, Eglin Airforce Research Lab, Nova Sensors, Institute for NeuroInfomatics - ETHZ, Geogia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, Johns Hopkins University, The Salk Institute, and by the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Last year's workshop was an exciting event and a great success. We strongly encourage interested parties to browse through the previous workshop web pages at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/past-workshops GOALS: Carver Mead introduced the term "Neuromorphic Engineering" for a new field based on the design and fabrication of artificial neural systems, such as vision systems, head-eye systems, and roving robots, whose architecture and design principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. The goal of this workshop is to bring together young investigators and more established researchers from academia with their counterparts in industry and national laboratories, working on both neurobiological as well as engineering aspects of sensory systems and sensory-motor integration. The focus of the workshop will be on active participation, with demonstration systems and hands on experience for all participants. Neuromorphic engineering has a wide range of applications from nonlinear adaptive control of complex systems to the design of smart sensors. Many of the fundamental principles in this field, such as the use of learning methods and the design of parallel hardware (with an emphasis on analog and asynchronous digital VLSI), are inspired by biological systems. However, existing applications are modest and the challenge of scaling up from small artificial neural networks and designing completely autonomous systems at the levels achieved by biological systems lies ahead. The assumption underlying this three week workshop is that the next generation of neuromorphic systems would benefit from closer attention to the principles found through experimental and theoretical studies of real biological nervous systems as whole systems. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems neuroscience (in particular learning, oculo-motor and other motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on analog VLSI design, small mobile robots (Koalas, Kheperas, LEGO robots), hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, the majority of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Participants will be free to explore and play with whatever they choose in the afternoon. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorial on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, etc. Projects that are carried out during the workshop will be centered in a number of working groups, including: * active vision * audition * motor control * central pattern generator and locomotion * robotics * multichip communication * analog VLSI * learning * neuroprosthetic systems The active perception project group will emphasize vision and human sensory-motor coordination. Issues to be covered will include spatial localization and constancy, attention, motor planning, eye movements, and the use of visual motion information for motor control. The central pattern generator group will focus on small walking and undulating robots. It will look at characteristics and sources of parts for building robots, play with working examples of legged and segmented robots, and discuss CPG's and theories of nonlinear oscillators for locomotion. It will also explore the use of simple analog VLSI sensors for autonomous robots. The robotics group will use rovers and working digital vision boards as well as other possible sensors to investigate issues of sensorimotor integration, navigation and learning. The audition group aims to develop biologically plausible algorithms and aVLSI implementations of specific auditory tasks such as source localization and tracking, and sound pattern recognition. Projects will be integrated with visual and motor tasks in the context of a robot platform. The multichip communication project group will use existing interchip communication interfaces to program small networks of artificial neurons to exhibit particular behaviors such as amplification, oscillation, and associative memory. Issues in multichip communicationwill be discussed. LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We also plan to provide wireless internet access and encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around mid April 2006. Participants are expected to pay a $800.00 workshop fee at that time in order to reserve a place in the workshop. The cost of a shared condominium will be covered for all academic participants but upgrades to a private room will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. Travel reimbursement of up to $500 for US domestic travel and up to $800 for overseas travel will be possible if financial help is needed (please specify on the application). HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e.postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. The application website is: http://ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2006/apply/ Application will include: * First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. * Curriculum Vitae. * One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop. * Two letters of recommendation (to be sent by references directly to "Alice W. Mobaidin" ). The application deadline is Friday, March 24, 2006. Applicants will be notified by e-mail by the end of April. From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Tue Feb 28 05:07:23 2006 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:07:23 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CfP: ECAI06 Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning, NeSy'06 Message-ID: <440420DB.8030508@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> 2nd Call for Papers ------------------- Second International Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning ***NeSy'06*** A Workshop at ECAI2006, Riva del Garda, Italy, 1st of August 2006 Website http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy06/ Deadline for submission: 15th of April, 2006 NeSy'05 took place at IJCAI-05, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 2005. Scope ----- Artificial Intelligence researchers continue to face huge challenges in their quest to develop truly intelligent systems. The recent developments in the field of neural-symbolic integration bring an opportunity to integrate well-founded symbolic artificial intelligence with robust neural computing machinery to help tackle some of these challenges. The Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning is intended to create an atmosphere of exchange of ideas, providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of the key topics related to neural-symbolic integration. Topics of interest include: * The representation of symbolic knowledge by connectionist systems; * Learning in neural-symbolic systems; * Extraction of symbolic knowledge from trained neural networks; * Reasoning in neural-symbolic systems; * Biological inspiration for neural-symbolic integration; * Applications in robotics, semantic web, engineering, bioinformatics, etc. Submission ---------- Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit original papers that have not been submitted for review or published elsewhere. Submitted papers must be written in English and should not exceed 6 pages in the case of research and experience papers, and 2 pages in the case of position papers (including figures, bibliography and appendices) in ECAI format. All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality, relevance, originality, significance, and soundness. Papers must be submitted directly by email in PDF format to nesy at soi.city.ac.uk Presentation ------------ Selected papers will be presented during the workshop. The workshop will include extra time for audience discussion of the presentation allowing the group to have a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and ideas being presented. Publication ----------- Accepted papers will be published in official workshop proceedings, which will be distributed during the workshop. Authors of the best papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their papers to the journal of logic and computation, OUP. Important Dates --------------- Deadline for submission: 15th of April, 2006 Notification of acceptance: 10th of May, 2006 Camera-ready paper due: 17th of May, 2006 Workshop date: 28 or 29 Aug ECAI 2006 main conference dates: 28th of August to 1st of September, 2006. Workshop Organisers ------------------- Artur d'Avila Garcez (City University London, UK) Pascal Hitzler (University Karlsruhe, Germany) Guglielmo Tamburrini (Universit? di Napoli, Italy) Programme Committee (preliminary) --------------------------------- Artur d'Avila Garcez (City University London, UK) Sebastian Bader (TU Dresden, Germany) Howard Blair (Syracuse University, USA) Dov Gabbay (Kings College London, UK) Marco Gori (Univeristy of Siena, Italy) Barbara Hammer (TU Clausthal, Germany) Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis (University of Patras, Greece) Pascal Hitzler (University of Karlsruhe, Germany) Luis Lamb (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) John Lloyd (The Australian National University, Australia) Vasile Palade (Oxford University, UK) Antony K. Seda (University College Cork, Ireland) Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) Guglielmo Tamburrini (Universit? di Napoli Feredico II, Italy) Stefan Wermter (University of Sunderland, UK) Gerson Zaverucha (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Invited speakers ---------------- Marco Gori, University of Siena, Italy Heat Kernel Learning Machines for Symbolic Problems (tentative titel) Stefan Wermter, University of Sunderland, UK Hybrid Intelligent Systems and Cognitive Robotics (tentative title) Additional Information ---------------------- Up-to-date information can be obtained from http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy06/ General questions concerning the workshop should be addressed to nesy at soi.city.ac.uk. You are also invited to subscribe to the neural-symbolic integration mailing list at http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/mailman/listinfo/nesy -- Dr. Pascal Hitzler Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe email: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de fax: +49 721 608 6580 web: http://www.pascal-hitzler.de phone: +49 721 608 4751 http://www.neural-symbolic.org From R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk Tue Feb 28 06:13:56 2006 From: R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk (Roman Borisyuk) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:13:56 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: New MSc Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK Message-ID: <52A8091888A23F47A013223014B6E9FE055716DF@03-CSEXCH.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> We are pleased to announce a new MSc programme Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at University of Plymouth, UK. The course is full time for 12 months, and is due to start in October 2006. Theoretical and computational neuroscience provides the solid basis necessary to shed fresh light on the basic mechanisms underpinning brain function at the cellular, circuit and systems levels. The programme's taught modules provide knowledge and skills in a wide range of theoretical techniques which are under intensive use in Neuroscience. These include techniques for the development and analysis of mathematical and computational models of neural activity, brain structures, cognitive functions, etc, and probabilistic and statistical techniques for analysing different types of experimental neuroscience data. In addition to the taught modules, students will work individually with one or more research advisors to develop a research project for their dissertation and to learn how to carry out advanced interdisciplinary research in their chosen research area. The MSc programme is taught by staff in the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience (CTCN) at the University of Plymouth, UK. The CTCN is one of the leading centres in the field of theoretical neuroscience. The Centre has brought together a range of international experts from various backgrounds with expertise in mathematical and computational techniques and their application in neuroscience. KEY FEATURES We offer a unique training scheme to students in two streams: 1 "Physical Sciences" stream. Students with a background in the physical sciences or mathematics will acquire knowledge and understanding in fundamental principles of neurobiology and in theoretical and computational neuroscience. 2 "Life Sciences" stream. Students with a background in the life sciences will acquire knowledge and skills in theoretical methods and computational techniques for studying the brain. For more information and application see http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/taught/3068/MSc+Theoretic al+and+Computational+Neuroscience From wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk Tue Feb 28 06:26:36 2006 From: wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk (Daniel Wolpert) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:26:36 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Cambridge University: Postdocs in Computational Sensorimotor Control Message-ID: <006301c63c59$d6214ba0$0d96a981@WORLD301F95B77> UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING We are currently seeking two highly motivated Research Associates (postdoctoral fellows) to join our group working on theoretical and experimental approaches to human sensorimotor control. The project is led by Professor Daniel Wolpert and involves investigating the processes involved in motor learning, sensorimotor integration and control. The successful applicants will be expected to conduct independent research involving both computational and experimental studies in humans. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Psychology, or Physical and Engineering Sciences relevant to sensorimotor control, with an academic record of scientific excellence, independent research, and a strong interest in an interdisciplinary approach to motor control. A strong mathematical, statistical, and/or computational background and experience with computers and programming (Matlab, C++, etc.) is expected. Applicants with a strong computational background relevant to neuroscience who wish to learn experimental approaches will also be considered. The appointment will be for two years initially starting July 1st, 2006 or as soon as possible thereafter. Salary is in the range ?20,044 to ?30,002 p.a. Further details of the posts and an application form (PD18) are available on www.wolpertlab.com. Informal enquiries should be addressed by email to Professor Wolpert (wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk ). Applicants are asked to submit (a) a cover letter describing their research experiences, interests, and goals, (b) a curriculum vitae, (c) a completed form PD18 (section I and III only) with the names and contact information of three individuals who can serve as references. These should be sent to Mrs. J. Milne (preferably by email jrm16 at eng.cam.ac.uk ), Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK to arrive prior to April 14th, 2006. The University is committed to equality of opportunity From tt at cs.dal.ca Mon Feb 27 13:23:12 2006 From: tt at cs.dal.ca (Thomas Trappenberg) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 14:23:12 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <20060227182305.C8F0EB01A@mail.cs.dal.ca> WORKSHOP ON CONTINUOUS ATTRACTOR NEURAL NETWORKS at CNS 2006 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS We invite submissions of abstracts for a one-day workshop on Continuous Attractor Neural Networks (http://users.cs.dal.ca/~tt/CNS06CANN) at CNS 2006 (http://www.cnsorg.org ) in Edinburgh this summer (July 16-20). Such neural field models of the Wilson-Cowan type, or bump models, are a fundamental type of neural networks that have many applications in neuroscientific modelling and engineering. Our intention is to bring together researchers from a wide variety of areas who have been studying this type of networks. We will try to accommodate many presentations, either in form of brief talks or poster discussions depending on the number of submissions. Please send abstracts by email to Si Wu (siwu at cogs.susx.ac.uk) by March 22, 2006. You do not need to follow any specific format as long as we can open the document and can get a sense of your contribution in this area. Best regards Si Wu (University of Sussex, UK) Thomas Trappenberg (Dalhousie University, Canada) ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Thomas P. Trappenberg Faculty of Computer Science Dalhousie University 6050 University Avenue Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 1W5 Phone (902) 494-3087 Fax: 902-492-1517 From padams at notes.cc.sunysb.edu Tue Feb 28 18:55:04 2006 From: padams at notes.cc.sunysb.edu (padams@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:55:04 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Announcement of Search for Founding Director, Computational Neuroscience Center, Stony Brook Message-ID: Director, Center for Computational Neuroscience Stony Brook University seeks an outstanding scientific leader to serve as founding Director of a new Center for Computational Neuroscience. The successful director will have expertise in computational neuroscience and demonstrated leadership ability to build upon traditional disciplines in neurobiology, psychology, other biomedical sciences, physical sciences, electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics to develop integrative, research and training programs in computational neurosciences. The requirements include an MD, PhD or equivalent degree, the academic rank of Associate or Full Professor, extramural funding at a national/international level including publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reviews, and invited presentations at national/international meetings. The candidate will also have a proven record of success in graduate student and/or post-doc training. The Center Director will have the resources to recruit new faculty to Stony Brook University in coordination with Neurobiology and other relevant departments in the College of Arts & Science, College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, the School of Medicine and in collaboration with the neighboring Brookhaven National and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Substantial resources to establish this Center of excellence have been provided by New York State and Stony Brook University for faculty recruitment and infrastructure development. The review of applications will begin January 1, 2006 and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should forward a curriculum vitae to: Computational Neuroscience Director Search Committee, c/o Maria D. Anderson, Stony Brook University, 407 Administration, Stony Brook, New York 11794-1401 or email CompNeuroSearch at notes.cc.sunysb.edu. The State University of New York at Stony Brook is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.