Connectionists: GRADUATE TRAINING IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Brian Bowlby
bowlby at bu.edu
Tue Jan 2 11:55:10 EST 2007
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GRADUATE TRAINING IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS
AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
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The Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
(CNS) offers comprehensive graduate training in the neural and
computational principles, mechanisms, and architectures that underlie
human and animal behavior and the application of neural network
architectures to the solution of technological problems. CNS is a
world leader in computational neuroscience, connectionist cognitive
science, and biologically-inspired technology. It has developed a
unique interdisciplinary curriculum of seventeen graduate courses
with which to train its graduate students. CNS research activities
include the major new NSF Center of Excellence for Learning in
Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST; http://cns.bu.edu/celest).
Applications for Fall 2007 admission and financial aid are now being
accepted for PhD, MA, and BA/MA degree programs.
For program details, please see the CNS Brochure at:
http://cns.bu.edu/brochure
Paper applications may be downloaded from:
http://www.bu.edu/grs/academics/admissions/index.html
Online applications may be submitted via:
http://www.bu.edu/link/bin/uiscgi_graduate_application.pl?College=grs
Alternatively, you may request materials via email by sending your
full name and mailing address to amos at cns.bu.edu;
or write, telephone, or fax:
Mr. Robin Amos
Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Boston University
677 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
617/353-9481 (phone)
617/353-7755 (fax)
Applications for admission and financial aid should be received by
the Graduate School Admissions Office no later than January 15. Late
applications will be considered until May 1; after that date
applications will be considered only as special cases.
Applicants are required to submit undergraduate (and, if applicable,
graduate) transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a personal
statement, and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test scores.
Non-degree students may also enroll in CNS courses on a part-time basis.
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DESCRIPTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS
The Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS) provides
advanced training and research experience for graduate students and
qualified undergraduates interested in the neural and computational
principles, mechanisms, and architectures that underlie human and
animal behavior, and the application of neural network architectures
to the solution of technological problems. The department’s training
and research focus on two broad questions. The first question is: How
does the brain control behavior? This is a modern form of the Mind/
Body Problem. The second question is: How can technology emulate
biological intelligence? This question needs to be answered to
develop intelligent technologies that are well suited to human
societies. These goals are symbiotic because brains are unparalleled
in their ability to intelligently adapt on their own to complex and
novel environments. Models of how the brain accomplishes this are
developed through systematic empirical, mathematical, and
computational analysis in the department. Autonomous adaptation to a
changing world is also needed to solve many of the outstanding
problems in technology, and the biological models have inspired
qualitatively new designs for applications. CNS is a world leader in
developing biological models that can quantitatively simulate the
dynamics of identified brain cells in identified neural circuits, and
the behaviors that they control. This new level of understanding is
producing comparable advances in intelligent technology.
CNS is a graduate department that is devoted to the interdisciplinary
training of graduate students. The department awards MA, PhD, and BA/
MA degrees. Its students are trained in a broad range of areas
concerning computational neuroscience, cognitive science, and
neuromorphic systems. The biological training includes study of the
brain mechanisms of vision and visual object recognition; audition,
speech, and language understanding; recognition learning,
categorization, and long-term memory; cognitive information
processing; self-organization and development, navigation, planning,
and spatial orientation; cooperative and competitive network dynamics
and short-term memory; reinforcement and motivation; attention;
adaptive sensory-motor planning, control, and robotics; biological
rhythms; consciousness; mental disorders; and the mathematical and
computational methods needed to support advanced modeling research
and applications. Technological training includes methods and
applications in image processing, multiple types of signal
processing, adaptive pattern recognition and prediction, information
fusion, and intelligent control and robotics.
The foundation of this broad training is the unique interdisciplinary
curriculum of seventeen interdisciplinary graduate courses that have
been developed at CNS. Each of these courses integrates the
psychological, neurobiological, mathematical, and computational
information needed to theoretically investigate fundamental issues
concerning mind and brain processes and the applications of
artificial neural networks and hybrid systems to technology. A
student’s curriculum is tailored to his or her career goals with
academic and research advisors. In addition to taking
interdisciplinary courses within CNS, students develop important
disciplinary expertise by also taking courses in departments such as
biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and psychology.
Also students work individually with one or more research advisors to
learn how to carry out advanced interdisciplinary research in their
chosen research areas. As a result of this breadth and depth of
training, CNS students have succeeded in finding excellent jobs in
both academic and technological areas after graduation.
The CNS Department interacts with colleagues in several Boston
University research centers, and with Boston-area scientists
collaborating with these centers. The units most closely linked to
the department are the Center for Adaptive Systems, the major new NSF
Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and
Technology (CELEST; http://cns.bu.edu/celest) and the CNS Technology
Laboratory (http://cns.bu.edu/techlab). Students interested in neural
network hardware can work with researchers in CNS and at the College
of Engineering. In particular, CNS is part of a major ONR MURI Center
for Intelligent Biomimetic Image Processing and Classification that
includes colleagues who are developing neuromorphic VLSI chips. Other
research resources include the campus-wide Program in Neuroscience,
which unites cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy,
neuropharmacology, and neural modeling across the Charles River
Campus and the School of Medicine; in sensory robotics, biomedical
engineering, computer and systems engineering, and neuromuscular
research within the College of Engineering; in dynamical systems
within the Department of Mathematics; in theoretical computer science
within the Department of Computer Science; and in biophysics and
computational physics within the Department of Physics. Key
colleagues in these units hold joint appointments in CNS in order to
expedite training and research interactions with CNS core faculty and
students.
In addition to its basic research and training program, the
department organizes an active colloquium series, various research
and seminar series, and international conferences and symposia, to
bring distinguished scientists from experimental, theoretical, and
technological disciplines to the department.
The department is housed in its own four-story building, which
includes ample space for faculty and student offices and laboratories
(active perception, auditory neuroscience, computer vision and
computational neuroscience, sensory-motor control, speech and
language, technology and visual psychophysics), as well as an
auditorium, classroom, seminar rooms, a library, and a faculty-
student lounge. The department has a powerful computer network for
carrying out large-scale simulations of behavioral and brain models
and applications.
FACULTY AND RESEARCH STAFF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL
SYSTEMS AND CENTER FOR ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
Jelle Atema
Professor of Biology
Director, Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
PhD, University of Michigan
Sensory biology, chemical signals, animal behavior, receptor
physiology, behavioral ecology, chemical ecology, computational
models, robotics
http://www.bu.edu/biology/Faculty_Staff/atema.html
Helen Barbas
Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Sargent College
PhD, Physiology/Neurophysiology, McGill University, Canada
Organization of the prefrontal cortex, investigation of pathways that
transmit signals to prefrontal cortices from structures associated
with sensory, cognitive, mnemonic and emotional processes
http://www.bu.edu/sargent/people/faculty/barbas_helen.html
Virginia Best
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Physiology, University of Sydney, Australia
Auditory processing in humans, with a focus on spatial hearing,
spatial attention and speech perception
Daniel H. Bullock
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, and Psychology
PhD, Experimental Psychology, Stanford University
Sensory-motor performance and learning, voluntary control of action,
serial order and timing, cognitive development
http://cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Bullock.html
Yongqiang Cao
Senior Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, York University, United Kingdom
Brain modeling and biologically inspired computing; 3D vision,
pattern recognition and large scale data mining
http://www.math.yorku.ca/Who/Grads/yqcao/
Gail A. Carpenter
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Mathematics
PhD, Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Learning and memory, vision, synaptic processes, pattern recognition,
remote sensing, medical database analysis, machine learning,
differential equations, neural network technology transfer
http://cns.bu.edu/~gail/
Michael A. Cohen
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Computer Science
PhD, Psychology, Harvard University
Speech and language processing, measurement theory, neural modeling,
dynamical systems, cardiovascular oscillations physiology and time
series
http://cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Cohen.html
H. Steven Colburn
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Audition, binaural interaction, auditory virtual environments, signal
processing models of hearing
http://www.bu.edu/dbin/bme/faculty/?prof=colburn&faculty=12&first=0
Howard Eichenbaum
Professor of Psychology
Chairman, Department of Psychology
Director, Center for Memory and Brain
Director, Cognitive Neurobiology Laboratory
PhD, Psychology, University of Michigan
Neurophysiological studies of how the hippocampal system mediates
declarative memory
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/eichenbaum/
William D. Eldred III
Professor of Biology
PhD, University of Colorado, Health Science Center
Visual neurobiology and neurochemical signal transduction in the retina
http://www.bu.edu/biology/Faculty_Staff/eldred.html
Daniel Franklin
CELEST Director of Curriculum Development, Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University (pending)
MBA, Statistics and Organizational Design, Boston University
Learning and memory, development, education; deliver new and enhanced
curriculum modules for use by teachers with students of all ages
Jean Berko Gleason
Professor Emereitus of Psychology
PhD, Harvard University
Psycholinguistics
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/gleason/
Sucharita Gopal
Professor of Geography
PhD, University of California at Santa Barbara
Neural networks, computational modeling of behavior, geographical
information systems, fuzzy sets, spatial cognition, multi-scale
modeling, and information technology
http://www.bu.edu/geography/people/faculty/gopal/
Anatoli Gorchetchnikov
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Theoretical modeling of spatial navigation in humans and animals with
the emphasis on the hippocampal function, create printed educational
materials on natural and artificial learning mechanisms
Stephen Grossberg
Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering
Chairman, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Director, Center for Adaptive Systems
Director, Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science,
and Technology
Director, Center for Intelligent Biomimetic Image Processing and
Classification
PhD, Mathematics, Rockefeller University
Vision, audition, language, learning and memory, reward and
motivation, cognition, development, sensory-motor control, mental
disorders, applications
http://cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg
Frank Guenther
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
MSE, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
Speech production, speech perception, biological sensory-motor
control and functional brain imaging
http://cns.bu.edu/~guenther/
Catherine L. Harris
Associate Professor of Psychology
PhD, Cognitive Science and Psychology, University of California at
San Diego
Visual word recognition, psycholinguistics, cognitive semantics,
second language acquisition, computational models of cognition
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/charris/
Michael E. Hasselmo
Professor of Psychology
Director, Graduate Studies, Department of Psychology
Director, Computational Neurophysiology Laboratory
PhD, Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, United Kingdom
Computational modeling and experimental testing of neuromodulatory
mechanisms involved in encoding, retrieval and consolidation
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/hasselmo/
Allyn Hubbard
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin
VLSI circuit design: digital, analog, subthreshold analog, biCMOS,
CMOS; information processing in neurons, neural net chips, synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) processing chips, sonar processing chips;
auditory models and experiments
http://www.bu.edu/dbin/bme/faculty/?prof=aeh
Dae-Shik Kim
Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Director, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI)
PhD, Neurophysiology, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research
Functional and connectivity mapping of the human visual cortex
http://www.bu.edu/dbin/anatneuro/our_people/faculty/kim.php
Thomas G. Kincaid
Professor of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering, College of
Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Signal and image processing, neural networks, non-destructive testing
Mark Kon
Professor of Mathematics
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Neural network theory, functional analysis, mathematical physics,
partial differential equations
http://math.bu.edu/people/mkon/s_index.html
Norbert Kopco
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Lecturer, Department of Cybernetics and AI, Technical, University of
Kosice, Slovakia
Spatial auditory perception; behavioral studies and modeling of
speech and non-speech perception in complex environments, auditory
localization, plasticity, attention, and crossmodal factors in
spatial hearing
http://cns.bu.edu/~kopco/
Nancy Kopell
Professor of Mathematics
PhD, Mathematics, University of California at Berkeley
Dynamics of networks of neurons, applied mathematics and dynamical
systems
http://cbd.bu.edu/members/nkopell.html
Jacqueline A. Liederman
Professor of Psychology
Director, Brain, Behavior and Cognition Program
PhD, Psychology, University of Rochester
Developmental neuropsychology, neuropsychology, physiological
psychology, dynamics of interhemispheric cooperation; prenatal
correlates of neurodevelopmental disorders
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/liederman/
Ennio Mingolla
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Psychology
PhD, Psychology, University of Connecticut
Visual perception, mathematical modeling of visual processes
http://cns.bu.edu/~ennio/
Geoffrey Stuart Morrison
Research Fellow, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Linguistics, University of Alberta, Canada
Modeling of first and second language speech perception learning
http://cns.bu.edu/~gsm2
Alfonso Nieto-Castanon
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Speech, statistics, signal processing, computational neuroscience
Joseph Perkell
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Senior Research Scientist, MIT Research Lab of Electronics, Speech
Communication Group
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Motor control of speech production
http://rleweb.mit.edu/rlestaff/p-perk.htm
Marc Pomplun
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts,
Boston
PhD, Computer Science, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Eye movements, visual attention, modeling of cognitive processes,
human-computer interaction
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~marc/
Adam Reeves
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University
PhD, Psychology, City University of New York
Psychophysics, cognitive psychology, vision
http://www.psych.neu.edu/people/faculty/reeves.html
Kevin Reilly
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Speech and Hearing Science, University of Washington, Seattle
Speech production, sensory-motor control and learning, computational
neuroscience
Michele Rucci
Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Scuola Superiore S.-Anna, Pisa, Italy
Vision, sensory-motor control and learning, and computational
neuroscience
http://cns.bu.edu/~rucci
Elliot Saltzman
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, Sargent College
Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT
PhD, Developmental Psychology, University of Minnesota
Modeling and experimental studies of human sensorimotor control and
coordination of the limbs and speech articulators, focusing on issues
of timing in skilled activities
http://www.bu.edu/sargent/people/faculty/saltzman_elliot.html
Fabrizio Santini
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Computer Science, University of Florence, Italy
Neuromorphic robotics, vision, neuroprocessors and large neural
system simulations
Robert Savoy
Adjunct Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Assistant in Experimental Psychology; Director, fMRI Education;
Instructor
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital
President, HyperVision Incorporated, Lexington, MA
PhD, Experimental Psychology, Harvard University
Computational neuroscience; visual psychophysics of color, form, and
motion perception
Teaching about functional MRI and other brain mapping methods
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/martinos/people/showPerson.php?
people_id=148
Eric Schwartz
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems; Electrical, Computer and
Systems Engineering; & Anatomy and Neurobiology
PhD, High Energy Physics, Columbia University
Computational neuroscience, machine vision, neuroanatomy, neural
modeling
http://cns.bu.edu/pub/ericlee/
Robert Sekuler
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering,
Biomolecular Engineering Research Center
Frances and Louis H. Salvage Professor of Psychology, Brandeis
University
Consultant in neurosurgery, Boston Children's Hospital
PhD, Psychology, Brown University
Visual motion, brain imaging, relation of visual perception, memory,
and movement
http://people.brandeis.edu/~sekuler/
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Biomedical
Engineering
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Psychoacoustics, audition, auditory localization, binaural hearing,
sensorimotor adaptation, mathematical models of human performance
http://cns.bu.edu/~shinn/
David Somers
Associate Professor of Psychology
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Functional MRI, psychophysical, and computational investigations of
visual perception and attention
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/somers/
Chantal E. Stern
Associate Professor of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Boston
University
Associate Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
Director, Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory
PhD, Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, United Kingdom
Functional neuroimaging studies (fMRI and MEG) of learning and memory
http://www.bu.edu/psych/faculty/stern/
Timothy Streeter
Research Associate, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
MS, Physics, University of New Hampshire
MA, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Spatial auditory perception, perceptual adaptation
Malvin C. Teich
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering, and Physics
PhD, Cornell University
Quantum optics and imaging, photonics, wavelets and fractal
stochastic processes, biological signal processing and information
transmission
http://people.bu.edu/teich/
Joseph Z. Tsien
Professor of Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering
Director, Center for Systems Neurobiology
PhD, Molecular Biology, University of Minnesota
Neural mechanisms of learning, memory and concepts; neural codes and
brain-machine-interface
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=65&PageID=9355
Lucia Vaina
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
PhD, Sorbonne Dres Science, National Politechnique Institute,
Toulouse, France
Computational visual neuroscience; theoretical engineering and
neuroinformatics
http://www.bu.edu/bravi/people/lucia.html
Takeo Watanabe
Associate Professor of Psychology
Director, Vision Sciences Laboratory
PhD, Behavioral Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan
Perception of objects and motion and effects of attention on
perception using psychophysics and brain imaging (f-MRI)
http://people.bu.edu/takeo/takeo/takeo.html
Jeremy Wolfe
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
Psychophysicist, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Surgery Department
Director of Psychophysical Studies, Center for Clinical Cataract
Research
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Visual attention, pre-attentive and attentive object representation
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/surgery/research/facultypages/
WolfeResearch.asp
Curtis Woodcock
Professor of Geography
Director, Geographic Applications, Center for Remote Sensing
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
Biophysical remote sensing, particularly of forests and natural
vegetation, canopy reflectance models and their inversion, spatial
modeling, and change detection; biogeography; spatial analysis;
geographic information systems; digital image processing
http://www.bu.edu/cees/people/faculty/woodcock/
CNS DEPARTMENT COURSE OFFERINGS
CAS CN500 Computational Methods in Cognitive and Neural Systems
CAS CN510 Principles and Methods of Cognitive and Neural Modeling I
CAS CN520 Principles and Methods of Cognitive and Neural Modeling II
CAS CN530 Neural and Computational Models of Vision
CAS CN540 Neural and Computational Models of Adaptive Movement
Planning and Control
CAS CN550 Neural and Computational Models of Recognition, Memory and
Attention
CAS CN560 Neural and Computational Models of Speech Perception and
Production
CAS CN570 Neural and Computational Models of Conditioning,
Reinforcement, Motivation and Rhythm
CAS CN580 Introduction to Computational Neuroscience
GRS CN700 Computational and Mathematical Methods in Neural Modeling
GRS CN710 Advanced Topics in Neural Modeling: Comparative Analysis of
Learning Systems
GRS CN720 Neural and Computational Models of Planning and Temporal
Structure in Behavior
GRS CN730 Models of Visual Perception
GRS CN740 Topics in Sensory-Motor Control
GRS CN760 Topics in Speech Perception and Recognition
GRS CN780 Topics in Computational Neuroscience
GRS CN810 Topics in Cognitive and Neural Systems: Visual Event
Perception
GRS CN811 Topics in Cognitive and Neural Systems: Visual Perception
GRS CN911, 912 Research in Neural Networks for Adaptive Pattern
Recognition
GRS CN915, 916 Research in Neural Networks for Vision and Image
Processing
GRS CN921, 922 Research in Neural Networks for Speech and Language
Processing
GRS CN925, 926 Research in Neural Networks for Adaptive Sensory-Motor
Planning and Control
GRS CN931, 932 Research in Neural Networks for Conditioning and
Reinforcement Learning
GRS CN935, 936 Research in Neural Networks for Cognitive Information
Processing
GRS CN941, 942 Research in Nonlinear Dynamics of Neural Networks
GRS CN945, 946 Research in Technological Applications of Neural Networks
GRS CN951, 952 Research in Hardware Implementations of Neural Networks
CNS students also take a wide variety of courses in related
departments. In addition, students participate in a weekly colloquium
series, an informal lecture series, and student-run special interest
groups, and attend lectures and meetings throughout the Boston area;
and advanced students work in small research groups.
LABORATORY AND COMPUTER FACILITIES
The department is funded by fellowships, grants, and contracts from
federal agencies and private foundations that support research in
life sciences, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and engineering.
Facilities include laboratories for experimental research and
computational modeling in visual perception; audition, speech and
language processing; sensory-motor control and robotics; and
technology transfer. Data analysis and numerical simulations are
carried out on a state-of-the-art network comprised of Sun
workstations, Macintoshes, and both 32-bit and 64-bit PCs. A PC farm
running BU’s own version of Linux (BU Linux v4.6 based on Fedora Core
3) is available as a distributed computational environment. All
students have department supplied PCs on their desktops (running
either Microsoft Windows XP Pro or BU Linux) allowing them to run
their simulations either locally or remotely on one of the
department’s workstations. Mathematical simulation and modeling are
carried out using standard software packages such as Mathematica or
Matlab, as well as SPlus and VisSim. The department also maintains a
core collection of books and journals, and has access both to the
Boston University libraries and to the many other collections of the
Boston Library Consortium.
In addition, several specialized facilities and software are
available for use. These include:
ACTIVE PERCEPTION LABORATORY
Models of the visual system often examine steady-state levels of
neural activity during presentations of visual stimuli. It is
difficult, however, to envision how such steady-states could occur
under natural viewing conditions, given that the projection of the
visual scene on the retina is never stationary. The Active Perception
Laboratory is dedicated to the investigation of the interactions
between visual perception and behavior. Research focuses on the
theoretical and computational analysis of the influences of motor
activity on the sampling and representation of visual information,
the coupling of models of neuronal systems with robotic systems, and
the design of psychophysical experiments with human subjects. The
Active Perception Laboratory includes extensive computational
facilities that allow the execution of large-scale simulations of
neural systems. Additional facilities include instruments for the
psychophysical investigation of eye movements during visual analysis,
including an accurate and non-invasive eye tracker, and robotic
systems for the simulation of different types of behavior. The Active
Perception Laboratory hosts Mr. T, a humanoid robot with two 6
degrees-of-freedom arms and a head/eye system designed to replicate
visual input signals to the human eye.
AUDITORY NEUROSCIENCE LABORATORY
The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Cognitive
and Neural Systems is an experimental and theoretical laboratory
focused on auditory perception, particular spatial auditory
perception, plasticity, and attention. The laboratory contains
numerous PCs used both as workstations for students to model and
analyze data and to control laboratory equipment and run experiments.
The other major equipment in the laboratory includes special-purpose
signal processing and sound generating equipment, electromagnetic
head tracking systems, a two-channel spectrum analyzer, and other
miscellaneous equipment for producing, measuring, analyzing, and
monitoring auditory stimuli. The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory
consists of three adjacent rooms in the basement of 677 Beacon Street
(the home of the CNS Department). One room houses an 8 ft. by 8 ft.
single-walled sound-treated booth as well as space for students. The
second room is primarily used as student workspace for developing and
debugging experiments. The third space houses a robotic arm, capable
of automatically positioning a small acoustic speaker anywhere on the
surface of a sphere of adjustable radius, allowing automatic
measurement of the signals reaching the ears of a listener for a
sound source from different positions in space, including the effects
of room reverberation.
COMPUTER VISION - COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE LABORATORY
The Computer Vision/Computational Neuroscience Laboratory is
comprised of an electronics workshop, including a surface-mount
workstation, PCD fabrication tools, and an Alterra EPLD design
system; an active vision laboratory including actuators and video
hardware; and systems for computer aided neuroanatomy and application
of computer graphics and image processing to brain sections and MRI
images. The laboratory supports research in the areas of neural
modeling, computational neuroscience, computer vision, robotics, and
fMRI imaging. The major question being addressed is the nature of
representation of the visual world in the brain, in terms of
observable neural architectures such as topographic mapping and
columnar architecture. The application of novel architectures for
image processing for computer vision and robotics is also a major
topic of interest. Recent work in this area has included the design
and patenting of novel actuators for robotic active vision systems,
the design of real-time algorithms for use in mobile robotic
applications, and the design and construction of miniature autonomous
vehicles using space-variant active vision design principles.
Recently one such vehicle has successfully driven itself on the
streets of Boston. Applications of fMRI imaging to measuring the
topographic structure of human primary and extra-striate visual
cortex are a current focus of research.
SENSORY-MOTOR CONTROL LABORATORY
The Sensory-Motor Control Laboratory supports experimental studies of
sensory-motor behavior and computational studies of neural circuits
that enable learned voluntary action. Equipment includes a computer-
controlled, helmet-mounted, video-based, eye-head tracking system.
The latter’s camera samples eye position at 240Hz and also allows
reconstruction of what subjects are attending to as they freely scan
a scene under normal lighting. Thus the system affords a wide range
of visuo-motor studies. To facilitate computational studies, the
laboratory is connected to the Department’s and University’s
extensive network of Linux and Windows workstations and Linux
computational servers.
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE LABORATORY
The Speech Laboratory includes facilities for analog-to-digital and
digital-to-analog software conversion. Ariel equipment allows
reliable synthesis and playback of speech waveforms. An Entropic
signal-processing package provides facilities for detailed analysis,
filtering, spectral construction, and formant tracking of the speech
waveform. Various large databases, such as TIMIT and TIdigits, are
available for testing algorithms of speech recognition. The
laboratory also contains a network of Windows-based PC computers
equipped with software for the analysis of functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) data, including region-of-interest (ROI)
based analyses involving software for the parcellation of cortical
and subcortical brain regions in structural MRI images.
TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
The Technology Laboratory fosters the development of neural network
models derived from basic scientific research, and facilitates the
transition of the resulting technologies to software and
applications. The Lab was established in 2001, with a grant from the
Air Force Office of Scientific Research: “Information Fusion for
Image Analysis: Neural Models and Technology Development.” Current
projects include multi-level fusion and data mining in a geospatial
context, in collaboration with the Boston University Center for
Remote Sensing; and medical image analysis, in collaboration with the
Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Boston University Medical
Center. This research and development effort builds on models of
opponent-color visual processing, contour and texture processing, and
Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) pattern learning and recognition, as
well as other models of vision, associative learning, and prediction.
Additional projects include collaborations with the Harvard Medical
School, to develop methods for analysis of large-scale medical
databases, currently to predict HIV resistance to antiretroviral
therapy; and with HRL (formerly Hughes Research Laboratories), to
develop robotic platforms. Associated basic research projects are
conducted within the joint context of scientific data and
technological constraints. Emerging neural network technologies are
embedded in the CNS Image Processing Toolkit and the CNS Neural
Classifier Toolkit. Software, articles, and educational materials are
available through the CELEST Technology Website (http://cns.bu.edu/
techlab/), a growing resource for the NSF Center for Excellence for
Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (http://cns.bu.edu/
celest/).
VISUAL PSYCHOPHYSICS LABORATORY
The Visual Psychophysics Laboratory includes a group of faculty and
graduate students that conducts psychophysical and computational
modeling studies of many aspects of visual perception, including
motion perception, shape-from-texture, contour extraction, and visual
navigation. See: http://cns.bu.edu/vislab/. The laboratory occupies
an 800-square-foot suite, including three dedicated rooms for data
collection, and houses a variety of computer-controlled display
platforms, including Macintosh, Windows and Linux workstations.
Ancillary resources for visual psychophysics include a computer-
controlled video camera, stereo viewing devices, a photometer, and a
variety of display-generation, data-collection, and data-analysis
software.
AFFILIATED LABORATORIES
Affiliated CAS/CNS faculty members have additional laboratories
ranging from visual and auditory psychophysics and neurophysiology,
anatomy, and neuropsychology to engineering and chip design. These
facilities are used in the context of faculty/student collaborations.
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DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS GRADUATE TRAINING
ANNOUNCEMENT
Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Boston University
677 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: 617/353-9481
Fax: 617/353-7755
Email: amos at cns.bu.edu
Web: http://cns.bu.edu/
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