Connectionists: International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Information Fusion: Funding Available

[M.Casey@surrey.ac.uk]

My apologies if you receive multiple copies of this e-mail.

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International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Information Fusion
Tuesday 22 August - Wednesday 23 August 2006, University of Surrey,
Guildford, UK.

http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ias/workshops/biif/

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Confirmed tutorial guests include: 

Professor Barry Stein, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake
Forest University School of Medicine.
Dr Gemma Calvert, Multisensory Research Group in the Department of
Psychology, University of Bath.
Dr Charles Spence, Department of Psychology, Oxford University.
Dr Belur V. Dasarathy, Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier Information
Fusion journal.

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Natural and Artificial Multi-sensory Processing

The ability to process, interpret and act upon sensory information is
perhaps one of the most remarkable aspects of human and animal
cognition.  Our sensory systems process large volumes of information at
different scales in short periods of time, far out-performing current
artificial systems, which struggle to usefully process just a single
modality of information.  For example, whereas speech recognition
systems have achieved real-time continuous operation, artificial
systems, designed for vision or olfaction are far less advanced, yet the
combination of different information sources, or senses, may help
overcome some of the processing limitations.  This disparity between
natural and artificial cognitive systems has been recognised in the
recent UK Foresight Cognitive Systems Review, which suggests that our
understanding of both natural and artificial systems of sensory
processing can be achieved through collaboration between life and
physical scientists.

About the Workshop

The workshop is sponsored by the EPSRC and the University of Surrey's
Institute of Advanced Studies.  The aim is to promote collaboration
between disciplines to develop an understanding of how to build adaptive
information fusion systems by improving our knowledge from both natural
and artificial systems research.  The programme is designed to
facilitate a cross-discipline understanding of multi-sensory fusion,
with discussions on key topics and future directions, and presentation
of current ideas.  This is to be achieved through tutorials from leaders
in each of the target disciplines, brainstorming and debate sessions
lead by relevant researchers, and presentations from research students.

Abstracts and papers will be available to workshop attendees via the
website and printed proceedings.  After the workshop, participants will
be invited to submit papers based upon their work to two journal special
issues (journals to be confirmed).  These will contain a  mixture of
review/discussion articles and presentations of current research work.

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Funding

There are a small number of funds available to support attendance at the
workshop.  Funding is being provided to cover workshop registration and
accommodation (including dinner and breakfast) for two nights on campus
(21st and 22nd).  Funding is unfortunately not available for travel.
Applicants seeking funding should submit a request to
biif2006 at surrey.ac.uk by Wednesday 26th July.  Priority will be given to
students and/or workshop presenters.  Students should submit evidence to
support their status (such as e-mail confirmation from their
supervisor).  Funding has been provided by the EPSRC under grant number
EP/E012795/1.

Important Dates

26 July 2006 Deadline for funding applications
31 July 2006 Notification of funding allocation
22-23 August 2006 Workshop at the University of Surrey

Further information can be obtained from: 
- Website: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ias/workshops/biif/
- Enquiries about funding: biif2006 at surrey.ac.uk
- General and administrative enquiries: Mrs Gautier O'Shea,
S.Gautier at surrey.ac.uk; Mrs Heather Norman, H.Norman at surrey.ac.uk
- Dr Matthew Casey, M.Casey at surrey.ac.uk; tel. +44 (0)1483 689635
- Dr Paul Sowden, P.Sowden at surrey.ac.uk
- Dr Hujun Yin, Hujun.Yin at manchester.ac.uk
- Dr Tony Browne, A.Browne at surrey.ac.uk