From v.steuber at herts.ac.uk Tue Jul 1 13:21:54 2008 From: v.steuber at herts.ac.uk (Volker Steuber) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:21:54 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Studentship in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <486A679F.4080603@herts.ac.uk> PhD Studentship in Computational Neuroscience Science and Technology Research Institute University of Hertfordshire UK Applications are invited for a 3 year PhD Studentship in Computational Neuroscience in the Science and Technology Research Institute at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. The studentship will cover a stipend of ?12,940 per year plus payment of the standard UK student fees. Candidates should be interested in information processing in biologically detailed models of neuronal networks. Our research involves close collaboration with experimentalists in Europe and the USA. More details can be found in these recent publications: Steuber, V., Mittmann, W., Hoebeek, F.E., Silver, R.A., De Zeeuw, C.I., Hausser, M. and De Schutter, E. (2007). Cerebellar LTD and pattern recognition by Purkinje cells. Neuron 54, 121-136. Gleeson, P., Steuber, V. and Silver, R.A. (2007). neuroConstruct: A tool for modeling networks of neurons in 3D space. Neuron 54, 219-35. Calcraft L., Adams R. and Davey N. (2007). Efficient Architectures for Sparsely-Connected High Capacity Associative Memory Models, Connection Science 6, 163-75. Applicants should have good computational and numerical skills and a good first degree in maths, computer science, physics, neuroscience or biology. Previous experience in neuroscience is not required but would be an advantage. The UH Science and Technology Research Institute has been rated as 4 (national excellence with evidence of international excellence) at the last UK university research assessment exercise. It is located in Hatfield in Hertfordshire, just north of London. For informal enquiries contact Dr Volker Steuber (v.steuber at herts.ac.uk ) or Dr Neil Davey (n.davey at herts.ac.uk ). Further information and an application form can be obtained from Mrs Lorraine Nicholls, Research Student Administrator, STRI, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB. Tel: +44 1707 286083 Fax: +44 1707 284185 email: l.nicholls at herts.ac.uk. The short-listing process will begin on 25 July 2008. Dr Volker Steuber Senior Lecturer (Research) in Biocomputation Science and Technology Research Institute University of Hertfordshire Hatfield Herts AL10 9AB UK Tel +44 1707 284350 http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqvs/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080701/35afd9c2/attachment-0001.html From D.Vavoulis at warwick.ac.uk Wed Jul 2 13:21:33 2008 From: D.Vavoulis at warwick.ac.uk (Dimitris Vavoulis) Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 18:21:33 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Conference Announcement: Computational Neuroscience, Dec 8-11, 2008 @ the Warwick Mathematics Institute, Warwick University, UK Message-ID: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EPSRC Workshop on Computational Neuroscience Date: December 8-11, 2008 Venue: Mathematics Research Centre, University of Warwick, UK Organizers: Prof. Jianfeng Feng (Warwick University) Prof. David McLaughlin (New York University) Dr. Dimitris Vavoulis (Warwick University) Support: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (EPSRC) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Warwick Mathematics Institute is organizing a four-days Workshop on Computational Neuroscience, from Monday 8 to Thursday 11 of December 2008. The workshop is part of a series of workshops under the general title "Challenges in Scientific Computing", which are funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, UK). Online registration and accommodation requests: https://www.warwick.ac.uk/mrc/register.php?event=66&linked=no Background: Computational Neuroscience requires various aspects of modern applied mathematics, together with the direct use of experimental data and design. The systems or theoretical approach in Neuroscience plays an important role and it is fully demonstrated in the wide applications of the Hodgkin-Huxley model (a PDE or a multi-compartment model with thousands of ODEs). Indeed, up to this day, Systems Neuroscience is one of the best examples of Systems Biology. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of research on the modeling of intracellular activities, single cell activity and biophysically realistic neuronal networks, and on the integration over different scales. The applications of abstract and simplified models such as the integrate-and-fire model have also become an active area of research. A related exciting field is the analysis of experimental data including multi-electrode data (local-field-potential and spike data), image data and related ohmic data. Aim: The aim of this workshop is to bring scientists (both theoreticians and experimentalists) together to exchange ideas and identify key areas of future research, in particular to promote the development of new analytical, computational and experimental tools for the successful resolution of current problems in the field. Format: The conference will start on Monday morning and finish on Thursday afternoon. There will be a limited number of lectures per day, to give the participants enough time for discussions and collaborations. We will invite both leading theoreticians and experimentalists to join the meeting. The workshop will be organized around the following topics: (i) experiments, models and analysis of intracellular mechanisms (ii) Single cell activity, both at the biophysical and abstract levels (iii) neuronal networks modeling and experiments (iv) dealing with experimental data in particular multi-electrode recordings and reverse engineering approaches. Schedule: (to be announced) Speakers (as of July 1, 2008): 01. Gareth Leng (Edinburgh) 02. Paul Bressloff (Utah) 03. Petr Lansky (Czech Republic) 04. Karl Friston (UCL) 05. Andre Longtin (Ottawa) 06. Stephen Coombes (Nottingham) 07. John Rinzel (New York) 08. Erik De Schutter (Japan) 09. Ding Mingzhou (Florida) 10. Xiao-Jing Wang (Yale) 11. Shun-ichi Amari (RIKEN, Japan) 12. Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) 13. Henry Tuckwell (Max Planck Institute, MiS) 14. Hugh Robinson (Cambridge) 15. Claude Meunier (Paris) 16. Jurgen Jost (Max Planck Institute, MiS) 17. Hiroyuki Nakahara (RIKEN) 18. David Cai (New York) 19. Roger Traub (IBM Research, SUNY Downstate Medical Centre) 20. Jianfeng Feng (Warwick) More information: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/research/events/2008_2009/symposium/ http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/research/events/2008_2009/symposium/wks1/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080702/379bafa9/attachment-0001.html From alexwade at gmail.com Thu Jul 3 13:27:49 2008 From: alexwade at gmail.com (Alex Wade) Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:27:49 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Announcing Cosyne 2009 Message-ID: <76eaaa9a0807031027ua944ffcx3fe6835f106af858@mail.gmail.com> ================================================================= Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING 26 Feb - 1 Mar, 2009 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS 2 - 3 Mar, 2009 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah http://cosyne.org ================================================================= Cosyne is an annual meeting providing an inclusive forum for the exchange of experimental and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The meeting is expected to draw about 350-400 researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. The MAIN MEETING is organized in a single track, and consists of both oral and poster sessions. Some oral presentations are invited (see below), while others are selected based on short submitted abstracts. Poster presentations are also selected from the submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS are held in 6-10 parallel sessions, allowing for more in-depth discussion of specialized topics. A Call for Workshop Proposals will be sent out shortly. 2009 CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: * Richard Axel (Columbia University, USA) * Cori Bargmann (Rockefeller University, USA) * Axel Borst (MPI, Germany) * Jack Gallant (UC Berkeley, USA) * Read Montague (Baylor College of Medicine, USA) * Henry Markram (EPFL, Switzerland) * Earl Miller (MIT, USA) * Jennifer Raymond (Stanford University, USA) * Stephen Scott (Queens University, Canada) * Shihab Shamma (U Maryland, USA) * Joshua Tenenbaum (MIT, USA) * Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel) ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 2 Dec 2008 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: * Tony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) * Alex Pouget (University of Rochester) * Zach Mainen (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: * General Chair: Matteo Carandini (University College London) * Program Chair: Maneesh Sahani (University College London) * Workshop Chairs: Adam Kohn (Yeshiva University) and Alex Huk (UT Austin) * Publications Chair: Alex Wade (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute) ADVISORY BOARD: * Eero Simoncelli (New York University) * Peter Dayan (University College London) * Steven Lisberger (UC San Francisco) * Karel Svoboda (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) From mpolycar at ucy.ac.cy Sun Jul 6 06:01:43 2008 From: mpolycar at ucy.ac.cy (Marios M. Polycarpou) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:01:43 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks; vol.19, no.6, June 2008 Message-ID: <0f0e01c8df4f$4b5a5200$0e172ac2@IBM36165813261> Dear Colleagues, The following articles appear in the latest issue of IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks; vol.19, no.6, June 2008. The articles can be retrieved on IEEE Xplore: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=72 or directly by clicking the individual paper URL below. Marios M. Polycarpou IEEE-TNN Editor-in-Chief email: ieeetnn at ucy.ac.cy 1. Title: Beyond Feedforward Models Trained by Backpropagation: A Practical Training Tool for a More Efficient Universal Approximator Authors: Ilin, R.; Kozma, R.; Werbos, P. J Pages: 929-937 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04526695.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4526695&arSt=929&ared=937&arAuthor=Ilin%2C+R.%3B+Kozma%2C+R.%3B+Werbos%2C+P.+J. 2. Title: Global Convergence and Limit Cycle Behavior of Weights of Perceptron Authors: Ho, C. Y.-F.; Ling, B. W.-K.; Lam, H.-K.; Nasir, M. H. U. Pages: 938-947 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04480131.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4480131&arSt=938&ared=947&arAuthor=Ho%2C+C.+Y.-F.%3B+Ling%2C+B.+W.-K.%3B+Lam%2C+H.-K.%3B+Nasir%2C+M.+H.+U. 3. Title: Centroid Neural Network With a Divergence Measure for GPDF Data Clustering Authors: Park, D.-C.; Kwon, O.-H.; Chung, J. Pages: 948-957 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04470005.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470005&arSt=948&ared=957&arAuthor=Park%2C+D.-C.%3B+Kwon%2C+O.-H.%3B+Chung%2C+J. 4. Title: Implementation of Pipelined FastICA on FPGA for Real-Time Blind Source Separation Authors: Shyu, K.-K.; Lee, M.-H.; Wu, Y.-T.; Lee, P.-L. Pages: 958-970 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04480150.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4480150&arSt=958&ared=970&arAuthor=Shyu%2C+K.-K.%3B+Lee%2C+M.-H.%3B+Wu%2C+Y.-T.%3B+Lee%2C+P.-L. 5. Title: Global Convergence of SMO Algorithm for Support Vector Regression Authors: Takahashi, N.; Guo, J.; Nishi, T. Pages: 971-982 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04479862.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4479862&arSt=971&ared=982&arAuthor=Takahashi%2C+N.%3B+Guo%2C+J.%3B+Nishi%2C+T. 6. Title: Optimized Approximation Algorithm in Neural Networks Without Overfitting Authors: Liu, Y.; Starzyk, J. A.; Zhu, Z. Pages: 983-995 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04471901.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4471901&arSt=983&ared=995&arAuthor=Liu%2C+Y.%3B+Starzyk%2C+J.+A.%3B+Zhu%2C+Z. 7. Title: A Constrained Optimization Approach to Preserving Prior Knowledge During Incremental Training Authors: Ferrari, S.; Jensenius, M. Pages: 996-1009 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04479860.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4479860&arSt=996&ared=1009&arAuthor=Ferrari%2C+S.%3B+Jensenius%2C+M. 8. Title: Adaptive Gain Control for Spike-Based Map Communication in a Neuromorphic Vision System Authors: Meng, Y.; Shi, B. E. Pages: 1010-1021 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04480132.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4480132&arSt=1010&ared=1021&arAuthor=Meng%2C+Y.%3B+Shi%2C+B.+E. 9. Title: Local Convergence Analysis of FastICA and Related Algorithms Authors: Shen, H.; Kleinsteuber, M.; Huper, K. Pages: 1022-1032 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04471900.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4471900&arSt=1022&ared=1032&arAuthor=Shen%2C+H.%3B+Kleinsteuber%2C+M.%3B+Huper%2C+K. 10. Title: Representation of Nonlinear Random Transformations by Non-Gaussian Stochastic Neural Networks Authors: Turchetti, C.; Crippa, P.; Pirani, M.; Biagetti, G. Pages: 1033-1060 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04460850.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4460850&arSt=1033&ared=1060&arAuthor=Turchetti%2C+C.%3B+Crippa%2C+P.%3B+Pirani%2C+M.%3B+Biagetti%2C+G. 11. Title: Incremental Learning of Chunk Data for Online Pattern Classification Systems Authors: Ozawa, S.; Pang, S.; Kasabov, N. Pages: 1061-1074 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04470004.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470004&arSt=1061&ared=1074&arAuthor=Ozawa%2C+S.%3B+Pang%2C+S.%3B+Kasabov%2C+N. 12. Title: Absolute Exponential Stability of Recurrent Neural Networks With Generalized Activation Function Authors: Xu, J.; Cao, Y.-Y.; Sun, Y.; Tang, J. Pages: 1075-1089 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04470006.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470006&arSt=1075&ared=1089&arAuthor=Xu%2C+J.%3B+Cao%2C+Y.-Y.%3B+Sun%2C+Y.%3B+Tang%2C+J. 13. Title: Nonnegative Matrix Factorization in Polynomial Feature Space Autors: Buciu, I.; Nikolaidis, N.; Pitas, I. Pages: 1090-1100 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04488103.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4488103&arSt=1090&ared=1100&arAuthor=Buciu%2C+I.%3B+Nikolaidis%2C+N.%3B+Pitas%2C+I. 14. Title: Automatic Relevance Determination for Identifying Thalamic Regions Implicated in Schizophrenia Authors: Browne, A.; Jakary, A.; Vinogradov, S.; Fu, Y.; Deicken, R. F. Pages: 1101-1107 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04493273.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4493273&arSt=1101&ared=1107&arAuthor=Browne%2C+A.%3B+Jakary%2C+A.%3B+Vinogradov%2C+S.%3B+Fu%2C+Y.%3B+Deicken%2C+R.+F. 15. Title: An Adaptive Learning Approach for 3-D Surface Reconstruction From Point Clouds Authors: Junior, A. M. B.; Neto, A. D. D.; de Melo, J. D.; Goncalves, L. M. G. Pages: 1130-1140 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04526697.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4526697&arSt=1130&ared=1140&arAuthor=Junior%2C+A.+M.+B.%3B+Neto%2C+A.+D.+D.%3B+de+Melo%2C+J.+D.%3B+Goncalves%2C+L.+M.+G. 16. Title: Corrections to "On Adaptive Learning Rate That Guarantees Convergence in Feedforward Networks" Authors: Behera, L.; Kumar, S.; Patnaik, A. Pages: 1141-1141 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04531606.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4531606&arSt=1141&ared=1141&arAuthor=Behera%2C+L.%3B+Kumar%2C+S.%3B+Patnaik%2C+A. 17. Title: Neurodynamics of Cognition and Consciousness Authors: Perlovsky, L. I.; Kozma, Eds., R. Pages: 1142-1142 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4531603/04531604.pdf?isnumber=4531603&prod=JNL&arnumber=4531604&arSt=1142&ared=1142&arAuthor=Perlovsky%2C+L.+I.%3B+Kozma%2C+Eds.%2C+R. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080706/98fe2343/attachment-0001.html From terry at salk.edu Sun Jul 6 18:28:20 2008 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:28:20 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Computational Neurobiology Graduate Program at UCSD In-Reply-To: Message-ID: DEADLINE: DECEMBER 15, 2008 COMPUTATIONAL NEUROBIOLOGY SPECIALIZATION Neurosciences Graduate Training Program - University of California, San Diego http://neurograd.ucsd.edu/doctoral/cnspec.html Overview The Computational Neurobiology Specialization is a new facet of the broader Neuroscience Graduate Program at UCSD. The goal of the specialization is to train the next generation of neuroscientists with the broad range of computational and analytical skills that are essential to understand the organization and function of complex neural systems. The specialization is intended for students with backgrounds in neuroscience, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, computer science, engineering, and mathematics. The specialization allows Neuroscience students to concentrate on a focused program of rigorous course work in both the theoretical and experimental aspects of computational neuroscience. Students are encouraged to pursue thesis research that includes both an experimental and a computational component, often arranged by the student as a collaboration between two research groups. Upon achievement of degree requirements, students will receive a diploma indicating both their successful completion of the broader Neuroscience Program as well as their specialization in Computational Neurobiology. Themes The program is focused on these major themes relevant for computational neuroscience research: Neurobiology of Neural Systems - the anatomy, physiology, and behavior of systems of neurons, with emphasis on basic phenomenology. Advanced Measurement Tools in Neuroscience - Advanced imaging and recording techniques reflecting the impact of experimental physics on neuroscience. Algorithms for the Analysis of Neural Data - New algorithms and techniques for analyzing data obtained from physiological recording Theoretical Basis for Collective Neural Dynamics - A synthesis of approaches from mathematics and physical sciences as well as biology will be used to explore the collective properties and nonlinear dynamics of neuronal systems. Participating Faculty include: * Henry Abarbanel (Physics): Nonlinear and oscillatory dynamics; modeling central pattern generators in the lobster stomatogastric ganglion. Director, Institute for Nonlinear Systems at UCSD * Thomas Albright (Salk Institute): Motion processing in primate visual cortex; linking single neurons to perception; fMRI in awake, behaving monkeys. Director, Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology * Darwin Berg (Neurobiology): Regulation synaptic components, assembly and localization, function and long-term stability. * Ed Callaway (Salk Institute): Organization and function of neural circuits, visual cortex, genetic & viral methods * Gert Cauwenberghs (Biology): Neuromorphic Engineering; analog VLSI chips; wireless recording and nanoscale instrumentation for neural systems; large-scale cortical modeling. * Andrea Chiba (Cognitive Science): Spatial attention, associative learning, cholinergic, amygdala * EJ Chichilnisky (Salk Institute): Retinal multielectrode recording; neural coding, visual perception. * Garrison Cottrell (Computer Science and Engineering): Dynamical neural network models and learning algorithms * Virginia De Sa (Cognitive Science): Computational basis of perception and learning (both human and machine); multi-sensory integration and contextual influences. * Mark Ellisman (Neurosciences, School of Medicine): High resolution electron and light microscopy; anatomical reconstructions. Director, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research * Fred Gage (Salk Institute): Plasticity, neurogenesis, genetics, genomics. Models of neurogenesis in the hippocampus. * Tim Gentner (Psychology): Neuroethology of vocal communication and audition. Models of birdsong learning. * Robert Hecht-Nielsen (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Neural computation and the functional organization of the cerebral cortex. Founder of Hecht-Nielsen Corporation * Steve Hillyard (Neurosciences, School of Medicine): EEG, perception, attention, memory, ERP, SSVEP * Harvey Karten (Neurosciences, School of Medicine): Anatomical, physiological and computational studies of the retina and optic tectum of birds and squirrels * David Kleinfeld (Physics): Active sensation in rats; properties of neuronal assemblies; optical imaging of large-scale activity. * William Kristan (Neurobiology): Computational Neuroethology; functional and developmental studies of the leech nervous system, including studies of the bending reflex and locomotion. Director, Neurosciences Graduate Program at UCSD * Herbert Levine (Physics): Nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation in physical and biological systems, including cardiac dynamics and the growth and form of bacterial colonies * Scott Makeig (Institute for Neural Computation): Analysis of cognitive event-related brain dynamics and fMRI using time-frequency and Independent Component Analysis * Javier Movellan (Institute for Neural Computation): Sensory fusion and learning algorithms for continuous stochastic systems * Mikhael Rabinovich (Institute for Nonlinear Science): Dynamical systems analysis of the stomatogastric ganglion of the lobster and the antenna lobe of insects * Pamela Reinagel (Biology): Sensory and neural coding; natural scene statistics; recordings from the visual system of cats and rodents. * John Reynolds (Salk Institute): Visual attention, cortex, psychophysics, neurophysiology, neural modeling * Massimo Scanziani (Biology): Neural circuits in the somotosensory cortex; physiology of synaptic transmission; inhibitory mechanisms. * Terrence Sejnowski (Salk Institute/Neurobiology): Computational neurobiology; physiological studies of neuronal reliability and synaptic mechanisms. Director, Institute for Neural Computation * Tanya Sharpee (Salk): Statistical physics and information theory approach to understanding sensory processing. Statistical properties of natural auditory and visual environments. * Gabriel Silva (Bioengineering): Functional dynamics of retinal and cortical neural networks, glial signaling physiology, neural engineering * Nicholas Spitzer (Neurobiology): Regulation of ionic channels and neurotransmitters in neurons; effects of electrical activity in developing neurons on neural function. Chair of Neurobiology * Charles Stevens (Salk Institute): Synaptic physiology; theoretical models of neuroanatomical scaling. * Emmanuel Todorov (Cognitive Science): Motor control, stochastic optimal control, sensorimotor loops * Roger Tsien (Chemistry): Second messenger systems in neurons; development of new optical and MRI probes of neuron function, including calcium indicators and caged neurotransmitters On-line applications: http://neurograd.ucsd.edu/admissions/index.html The deadline for completed application materials, including letters of recommendation, is December 15, 2008. From alexwade at gmail.com Mon Jul 7 17:30:28 2008 From: alexwade at gmail.com (Alex Wade) Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 14:30:28 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Cosyne 2009 - Call for Workshops Message-ID: <76eaaa9a0807071430k59bd90ccrd7d678dc21b931b1@mail.gmail.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cosyne09 - CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS March 2-3, 2009 Snowbird, Utah http://cosyne.org/wiki/Cosyne_09_workshops --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 15 Sept 2008 A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting (http://cosyne.org/). The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at cosyne.org). Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; multisensory integration; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; dendritic processing; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. ________________________________________________________________ WORKSHOP DETAILS: -- There will be 4-8 workshops/day, running in parallel. -- Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people. -- The workshops will be split into morning (8:00-11:00 AM) and afternoon (4:30-7:30 PM) sessions. -- Workshops will be held at Snowbird, a ski resort located 30 miles (typically less than an hour) from the Salt Lake City airport. -- Buses from the main conference will be provided. -- Descriptions of previous workshops may be found at http://cosyne.org/wiki/Cosyne_09_workshops ________________________________________________________________ SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Deadline: September 15th, 2008 Format: plain text only -- please no attachments email to: cosyne09workshops at gmail.com (Alex Huk & Adam Kohn) Proposals should include: - Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2 organizers per session, please). A primary contact should be designated. -- A title. -- A description of: what the workshop is to address and accomplish, why the topic is of interest, who the targeted group of participants is. -- Names of potential invitees, with indication of which speakers are confirmed. Preference will be given to workshops with the most confirmed speakers. -- Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs 2 days, please explain why. -- A *brief* resume of the workshop organizer along with a *brief* list of publications (about half a page total). ________________________________________________________________ WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS RESPONSIBILITIES: -- Coordinate workshop participation and content. -- Moderate the discussion. ________________________________________________________________ SUGGESTIONS: Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30 + 15 minutes), and have plenty of breaks. Also, when it comes to the number of talks, in the words of Jerry Brown, less is more. We recommend fewer than 10 talks. ________________________________________________________________ WORKSHOP COSTS: Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available at http://cosyne.org/ Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. All workshop participants are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. Cosyne does provide free workshop registration for workshop organizers. ________________________________________________________________ COSYNE 2009 WORKSHOP CHAIRS: Alex Huk (UT Austin), Adam Kohn (Yeshiva U.) QUESTIONS: email: cosyne09workshops at gmail.com (Alex Huk & Adam Kohn) From terry at salk.edu Mon Jul 7 17:59:18 2008 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:59:18 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - August, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 20, Number 8 - August 1, 2008 3-D Axon Structure Extraction and Analysis in Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy Images Yong Zhang, Xiaobo Zhou, Ju Lu, Jeff Lichtman, Donald Adjeroh, and Stephen Wong Optimizing One-Shot Learning With Binary Synapses Sandro Romani, Daniel Amit, and Yali Amit Stochastic Synchrony of Chaos in a Pulse Coupled Neural Network with Both Chemical and Electrical Synapses among Inhibitory Neurons Takashi Kanamaru and Kazuyuki Aihara Can Spike Coordination be Differentiated from Rate Covariation? Benjamin Staude, Stefan Rotter, and Sonja Gruen Recoding Patterns of Sensory Input: Higher Order Features and the Function of Nonlinear Dendritic Trees Paul Rhodes Oscillations and Spiking Pairs: Behavior of a Neuronal Model with STDP Learning Xi Shen, and Xiaobin Lin, Philippe De Wilde Dynamic Moment Analysis of the Extracellular Electric Field of a Biologically Realistic Spiking Neuron Joshua Milstein and Christof Koch Sensitivity Derivatives for Flexible Sensorimotor Learning Douglas Tweed, Mohamed Abdelghani, and Timothy Lillycrap Algorithms for Sparse Non-negative Tucker Decompositions Morten MA Lars Kai Hansen, and Sidse Arnfred ----- ON-LINE - http://neco.mitpress.org/ SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2008 - VOLUME 20 - 12 ISSUES Electronic only USA Canada* Others USA Canada* Student/Retired $60 $63.60 $123 $54 $57.24 Individual $110 $116.60 $173 $99 $104.94 Institution $849 $899.94 $912 $756 $801.36 * includes 6% GST MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu http://mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp ----- From g.goodhill at uq.edu.au Wed Jul 16 21:39:27 2008 From: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au (Geoffrey Goodhill) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:39:27 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position: modelling brain development Message-ID: Dear Connectionists, A postdoc position is available from September 1st 2008 as part of a recently funded HFSP grant entitled " Self-Organized Wiring of the Cerebral Cortex through Thalamocortical Growth Cones: An Integrated Approach". This position is in the laboratory of Associate Professor Geoffrey Goodhill (http://cns.qbi.uq.edu.au) at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The grant is a collaboration with Guillemina Lopez-Bendito (Alicante, Spain), Ole Paulsen (Oxford, UK), and Tomomi Shimogori (RIKEN, Japan). The role of this postdoc is to model data regarding how thalamic axons find and instruct cortical targets. Applicants should have a track record of successful mathematical modelling in a biological context, and a keen interest in engaging with detailed neuroscientific data on brain development. Some background information can be found in the following two recent review papers (see cns.qbi.uq.edu.au/pubs.html): Goodhill, G.J. (2007). Contributions of theoretical modelling to the understanding of neural map development. Neuron, 56, 301-311 Mortimer, D. et al (2008). Growth Cone Chemotaxis. Trends in Neurosciences, 31, 90-98. The Queensland Brain Institute (http://qbi.uq.edu.au) is based in a new state-of-the-art facility and houses 24 Principal Investigators with research interests ranging from the molecular to cognitive level. It is one of the largest neuroscience institutes in the world dedicated to understanding the mechanisms underlying brain function, and is supported by substantial funding from State, Federal and philanthropic sources. Brisbane is a cosmopolitan coastal city of 2 million people providing a vibrant cultural environment, a subtropical climate, and easy access to world-class beaches, rainforests, and the Great Barrier Reef. To apply please send a CV, cover letter and contact information for at least 3 referees to Dr Geoff Goodhill (g.goodhill at uq.edu.au). The current starting salary for postdocs at the University of Queensland is about AU$60,000, currently equivalent to about US$59,000. From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Tue Jul 1 05:36:21 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (INCF - Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:36:21 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Post Doc Position for Development of PET Imaging Reconstruction Software Message-ID: <4869FAFF.50905@incf.org> *Stockholm Brain Institute* offers state-of-the-art facilities for PET imaging with the High Resolution Research Tomograph (HRRT) scanner and state-of-the-art analysis possibilities with its IBM Blue Gene supercomputer located at PDC, KTH. This two year full-time position will develop advanced analysis tools to enhance the accuracy of quantification and to optimize the temporal resolution of brain PET studies. The implementation of such tools will be achieved through the use of parallel programming on the Blue Gene in collaboration with IBM. *Qualification* Candidates should have a background in computer science or a closely related field and have experience with high-performance parallel computing, PET reconstruction techniques, and image analytics. Candidates interested in disseminating high-performance computing techniques to other users within SBI will be preferred. *Employment* Form of employment: Two year temporary position. Start date: According to agreement KTH aims to employ a diversity of talent and thus welcomes applicants who will add to the variety of the University, especially as concerns its gender structure. *About us*: KTH is the largest technical university in Sweden. At KTH education and research cover a broad spectrum within natural sciences and engineering, as well as architecture, industrial engineering and management, urban planning, work science and environmental engineering. There are circa 12,000 full-year undergraduate students, 1,400 postgraduate students and 3,100 employees. CSC is one of Sweden?s most advanced and successful research and education institutions in Information Technology. We work with education and research in Numerical Analysis, Computer Science, Media Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Speech Technology, Music Acoustics and Languages at KTH and at Stockholm University (SU). For more information see http://www.csc.kth.se PDC is a major Swedish high-performance computing center located at CSC. PDC is also one of the members of Stockholm Brain Institute (SBI) a new brain research institute formed jointly between Karolinska institutet, KTH, and Stockholm University in the area of cognitive and computational neuroscience. For more information please note our web-pages: about KTH: www.kth.se about PDC: www.pdc.kth.se and about SBI: www.stockholmbrain.se *Application* The application -including CV and two letters of recommendations- should be sent via ordinary post to: KTH, CSC Att: Susanne Bergman 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Applications via email to: susanneb at csc.kth.se Deadline for applications: 2008-08-25 Quote the following reference number: D-2008-0267. *More information* Please contact: Gert Svensson, PDC; KTH Phone: +46 8 790 78 84 * gert at pdc.kth.se or Andrea Varrone, KI, Phone: +46 8 517 750 43. * andrea.varrone at ki.se From B.Kappen at science.ru.nl Tue Jul 1 12:37:01 2008 From: B.Kappen at science.ru.nl (Bert Kappen) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:37:01 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: Tenure track position DCN References: Message-ID: Dear all, I would like to announce a tenure track position at the Donders Centre for Neuroscience. In addition to experimental neuroscience, applications from candidates with expertise in theoretical neuroscience, machine learning and artificial intelligence are also welcome. Please see www.ru.nl/dcn for further information. Bert Kappen > > Arjan Vink. > *************************************** > Dr. A.P. (Arjan) Vink > Managing Director > Donders Centre for Neuroscience > Radboud University Nijmegen (Medical Centre) > Postal Address: > PO Box 9101//126 > 6500 HB NIJMEGEN > The Netherlands > Visiting address: > Geert Grooteplein-Noord 21 > route: 142, room: 0.32 > 6525 EZ NIJMEGEN > tel.: 024-3668578 > e-mail: a.vink at science.ru.nl > *************************************** > > > > > > Het UMC St Radboud staat geregistreerd bij de Kamer van Koophandel > in het handelsregister onder nummer 41055629. > The Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre is listed in the > Commercial Register of the Chamber of Commerce under file number > 41055629. > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: fellow expression of interest DCN.doc Type: application/msword Size: 794112 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080701/190e8ed9/fellowexpressionofinterestDCN-0001.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Flyer Donders Centre.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 364855 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080701/190e8ed9/FlyerDondersCentre-0001.pdf -------------- next part -------------- From rsun at rpi.edu Tue Jul 1 16:50:53 2008 From: rsun at rpi.edu (Professor Ron Sun) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:50:53 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: A New book from Cambridge U. Press: The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology Message-ID: <8D430E96-1915-4730-87D3-397385923B3C@rpi.edu> The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology edited by Ron Sun published by Cambridge U. Press see: http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp? isbn=9780521857413 This book is a definitive reference source for the growing, increasingly more important, and interdisciplinary field of computational cognitive modeling, that is, computational psychology. It combines breadth of coverage with definitive statements by leading scientists in this field. Research in computational cognitive modeling (or, simply, computational psychology) explores the essence of cognition and various cognitive functionalities through developing detailed, process-based understanding by specifying computational mechanisms, structures, and processes. Given the complexity of the human mind and its manifestation in behavioral flexibility, process- based computational models may be necessary to explicate and elucidate the intricate details of the mind. The key to understanding cognitive processes is often in fine details. Computational models provide algorithmic specificity: detailed, exactly specified, and carefully thought-out steps, arranged in precise yet flexible sequences. These models provide both conceptual clarity and precision at the same time. This book substantiates this approach through overviews and many examples. Table of Contents ------------------------------------------ Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1. Introduction to Computational Cognitive Modeling. Ron Sun Part 2: Cognitive Modeling Paradigms Chapter 2. Connectionist Models of Cognition. Michael Thomas and James McClelland Chapter 3. Bayesian Models of Cognition. Thomas Griffiths, Charles Kemp, and Joshua Tenenbaum Chapter 4. Dynamical Systems Approaches to Cognition. Gregor Schoener Chapter 5. Declarative/Logic-Based Computational Cognitive Modeling. Selmer Bringsjord Chapter 6. Constraints in Cognitive Architectures. Niels Taatgen and John Anderson Part 3: Computational Modeling of Various Cognitive Functionalities and Domains Chapter 7. Computational Models of Episodic Memory. Kenneth Norman, Greg Detre, and Sean Polyn Chapter 8. Computational Models of Semantic Memory. Timothy Rogers Chapter 9. Models of Categorization. John Kruschke Chapter 10. Micro-Process Models of Decision Making. Jerome Busemeyer and Joseph Johnson Chapter 11. Models of Inductive Reasoning. Evan Heit Chapter 12. Mental Logic, Mental Models, and Simulations of Human Deductive Reasoning. Philip Johnson-Laird and Yingrui Yang Chapter 13. Computational Models of Skill Acquisition. Stellan Ohlsson Chapter 14. Computational Models of Implicit Learning. Axel Cleeremans and Zoltan Dienes Chapter 15. Computational Models of Attention and Cognitive Control. Nicola De Pisapia, Grega Repovs, Todd Braver Chapter 16. Computational Models of Developmental Psychology. Thomas Shultz and Sylvain Sirois Chapter 17. Computational Models of Psycholinguistics. Nick Chater and Morten Christiansen Chapter 18. Computational Models in Personality and Social Psychology. Stephen Read and Brian Monroe Chapter 19. Cognitive Social Simulation. Ron Sun Chapter 20. Models of Scientific Explanation. Paul Thagard and Abninder Litt Chapter 21. Cognitive Modeling for Cognitive Engineering. Wayne Gray Chapter 22. Models of Animal Learning and Their Relations to Human Learning. Francisco Lopez and David Shanks Chapter 23. Computational Modeling of Visual Information Processing. Pawan Sinha and Benjamin Balas Chapter 24. Models of Motor Control. Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi and Sara Solla Part 4: Concluding Remarks Chapter 25. An Evaluation of Computational Modeling in Cognitive Science. Margaret Boden Chapter 26. Putting the Pieces Together Again. Aaron Sloman ----------------------------------------------------- To order, go to: http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521857413 or http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Handbook-Computational-Psychology/dp/ 0521674107/ref=ed_oe_p ======================================================== Professor Ron Sun Cognitive Science Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A Troy, NY 12180, USA phone: 518-276-3409 fax: 518-276-3017 email: rsun at rpi.edu web: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun ======================================================= From mjhealy at ece.unm.edu Tue Jul 1 20:22:37 2008 From: mjhealy at ece.unm.edu (mjhealy@ece.unm.edu) Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:22:37 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: New technical report available Message-ID: <49372.69.49.165.126.1214958155.squirrel@webmail.ece.unm.edu> A new University of New Mexico technical report is available on DSpace, ECE-TR-08-0010. It describes an experiment in cognitive psychology that tests a (mathematical) category-theoretic model of categorization by humans. The model is part of a comprehensive theoretical model of the declarative semantics of neural networks. The report can be obtained by going to DSpaceUNM, or directly to http://hdl.handle.net/1928/6724 . Questions and comments are welcome. Mike Healy Electrical and Computer Engineering University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM USA Abstract Categorization and the judgement of similarity are fundamental in cognition. We propose that these and other activities are based upon an underlying structure of knowledge, or concept representation, in the brain. Further, we propose that this structure can be represented mathematically in a declarative form via category theory, the mathematical theory of structure. We test the resulting mathematical model in an experiment in which human subjects provide judgements of similarity for pairs of line drawings using a numerical scale to represent degrees of similarity. The resulting numerical similarities are compared with those derived from the category-theoretic model by comparing diagrams. The diagrams represent distributed concept structures underlying the line drawings. To compare with a more conventional analysis technique, we also compare the human judgements with those provided by a two-dimensional feature space model equipped with a distance metric for the line drawings. The results are equally favorable for both models. Because of this and the putative explanatory power of the category-theoretic model, we propose that this model is worthy of further exploration as a mathematical model for cognitive science. Keywords categorization, (mathematical) category, cognition, colimit, concept, diagram, feature, morphism, similarity, theory From researcher2 at fatronik.com Wed Jul 2 04:06:43 2008 From: researcher2 at fatronik.com (researcher2) Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:06:43 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: job offers in research center in Spain Message-ID: Fatronik is a private Research Center based in San Sebastian, Spain. It?s a member of Tecnalia, the only spanish Technology Corporation that belongs to EARTO (European Research and Technology Organisations). The mission of Fatronik?s Health Unit is to generate new technologies and services that will improve the quality of life of elderly and disabled people. We are opening up and promoting a new Department of Neuroengineering within the Health Unit. This involves high-impact combination of technology with neuroscience. We are looking for 3 RESEARCHERS (PhD would be an asset) with a strong career interest in Neuroengineering, especially in technological approaches such as brain communication interfaces and neuroprosthetics. The following fields of expertise or experience are considered important pluses: NEURO CLINICAL RESEARCHER (FIK S09): Background in medical or health science related work: - Medical diagnosis. - Dementia (e.g. Alzheimer's). - Clinical trials. - Relations with medical professionals. - Market research in patient populations. - Health-care institutions and regulations. - Brain-computer interfaces (non-invasive or invasive), neuroprosthetics. NEURO NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCHER (FIK S10): With a background in computational, theoretical or cognitive neuroscience or a related work: - The biological basis of cognitive decline - Brain-computer interfaces (non-invasive or invasive), neuroprosthetics. - Artificial Intelligence (decision making, pattern recognition) NEURO TECHNICAL (FIK S11): - Medical data acquisition, e.g. EEG, MEG, (f)MRI, PET. - Data analysis. - Knowledge system engineering. - Artificial intelligence (decision making, pattern recognition). - Database design. - Interface design. - Product testing. - Brain-computer interfaces, neuroprosthetics. - Portable devices. The following qualifications would be particularly valued for the 3 positions: - Biomedical Engineering - Computer Science - Neurosciences - Mathematics In addition to research and prototype development, the research scientists are expected to participate in the promotion and expansion of the neuroengineering network, through scientific publications and presentations. The successful candidates will work in an interdisciplinary and multinational team. In this regard, ability to perform alone and within a team, strong communication skills and capacity to balance multiple concurrent tasks are essential. The working language of the Health Unit is English. Please send applications to researcher2 at fatronik.com, specifying the reference code FIK S09, FIK S10 or FIK S11 on the mail subject. See webpage for more information (www.fatronik.com) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080702/7b265e9c/attachment-0001.html From vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk Thu Jul 3 10:35:29 2008 From: vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 15:35:29 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Perception-action cycle workshop - official euCognition event Message-ID: Dear colleagues, An euCognition-sponsored workshop on "Adaptive Mechanisms of the Perception-Action Cycle" will be held held in Prague, Czech Republic, in September 6th, in connection with the ICANN conference (www.icann2008.org). The goal of the workshop is to provide an international, interdisciplinary forum on the topic of adaptive mechanisms of the perception-action cycle, with the purpose to advance our understanding of the state-of-the-art on bottom-up and top-down approaches to artificial cognitive systems development. Presentations and papers on perception, attention, memory, learning, decision making, reasoning, conflict resolution, motivation and action will be presented. The manner in which attention is involved (initially to consciously guide the visual and motor processing and then to let it run on automatic until error signals bring attention focus back to the source of the problem and attempt its resolution) are considered highly relevant to the workshop. The perception-action cycle is an important aspect by which to enter a larger domain associated with the construction of autonomous machines. The latter require the perception-action cycle as a basis for development of an embodied system able to learn (by trial and error or observational learning) how to be increasingly effective in the given environment of the machine. More detailed information about the workshop is available at: http://www.icann2008.org/workshop.php http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/ICANN2008.html Best regards, John Taylor, Amir Hussain & Vassilis Cutsuridis (workshop organizers) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Department of Computing Science and Mathematics University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA SCOTLAND Tel: +44 1786 467422 Fax: +44 1786 464551 Email: vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk Web: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/ -- Academic Excellence at the Heart of Scotland. The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080703/883dd433/attachment-0001.html From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Fri Jul 4 04:03:12 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:03:12 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Accommodation for Neuroinformatics congress Message-ID: <486DD940.4020106@incf.org> *1st INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics: Databasing and Modeling the Brain Stockholm, September 7 - 9, 2008* Register before July 9th to have your hotel room booked through us. Possibility to book your hotel room upon registration available only until July 9th. All pre-booked hotel rooms are in high-standard hotels, across the street from the congress venue. After July 9th, we will not be able to help with this matter and due to the shortage of hotel rooms in central Stockholm, you should expect difficulties in finding other accommodation at a reasonable distance from the venue. Register now and chose your hotel at the same time: https://www.stocon.se/weraform/receive.csp?kgid=816&lang=2 More information about the congress can be found here: http://www.neuroinformatics2008.org/ -- Elli Chatzopoulou, Ph.D. Scientific Information and Public Relations Officer International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden Email: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Phone: +46 8 524 87491 Mobile: +46 7 614 87491 Fax: +46 8 524 87150 web: www.incf.org From steven.lemm at first.fraunhofer.de Fri Jul 4 04:22:55 2008 From: steven.lemm at first.fraunhofer.de (Steven Lemm) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:22:55 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: 4th BCI competition launched Message-ID: <486DDDDF.1020403@first.fhg.de> [/ Appologies for multiple messages /] Dear collegues, we are happy to announce July 3rd 2008 as the start of the - BCI Competition IV - on classifying electrical brain signals in the context of brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. For more information please visit http://ida.first.fhg.de/projects/bci/competitions and follow the link to Competition IV The competition organizers, [Berlin] Benjamin Blankertz, Carmen Vidaurre, Klaus-Robert Mueller [Graz] Alois Schloegl, Robert Leeb, Clemens Brunner, Gert Pfurtscheller [Freiburg/Tuebingen] Stephan Waldert, Carsten Mehring, Ad Aertsen, Niels Birbaumer [Washington/Albany] Kai J. Miller, Gerwin Schalk with kind regards, Steven Lemm From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Fri Jul 4 08:54:18 2008 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:54:18 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CfP Journal Special Issue on Recurrent Neural Networks Message-ID: <486E1D7A.2060300@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> Final Call for Papers: Journal Special Issue on == Perspectives and Challenges for Recurrent Neural Networks == Guest Editors: Marco Gori, Barbara Hammer, Pascal Hitzler, Guenther Palm Special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622851/description = SCOPE = Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) enable flexible machine learning tools which can directly process spatiotemporal and other structured data and which offer a rich dynamic repertoire as time dependent systems. They promise to be efficient signal-processing models which are biologically plausible and optimally suited for a wide range of industrial applications on the one hand, and an explanation of cognitive phenomena of the human brain on the other hand. Despite these facts, however, the design of efficient training methods for RNNs as well as their mathematical investigation with respect to reliable information representation and generalization abilities when dealing with complex data structures is still a challenge. It has led to diverse approaches and architectures including echo and liquid-state-machines, long short term memory, recursive and graph networks, core neuro-symbolic integration, etc. Interestingly, very heterogeneous domains are included, such as logic, chaotic systems, and biological networks. The aim of the special issue is to bring together recent work developed in the field of recurrent information processing, which bridges the gap between different approaches and which sheds some light on canonical solutions or principled problems which occur in the context of recursive information processing when considered across the disciplines. = TOPICS = We particularly encourage submissions connected to the following non-exhaustive list of topics: - new learning paradigms of RNNs such as unsupervised learning or reservoire learning - biologically plausible methods - integration of RNNs and symbolic reasoning - universal approaches for general data structures such as sets or graphs - methods which address the generalization ability of RNNs - challenging applications which have the potential to be benchmark problems - visionary papers concerning the future of RNNs = SUBMISSIONS = Deadline for submissions is 18th of July, 2008. Submissions shall follow the guidelines laid out for the Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic, which can be found under . Submissions shall be sent as pdf to Pascal Hitzler, hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de = EDITORIAL BOARD = Guilherme da Alencar Barreto, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Brasil Monica Bianchini, University of Siena, Italy Howard Blair, Syracuse University, USA Hendrik Blockeel, KU Leuven, Belgium Mikael Boden, University of Queensland, Australia Matthew Cook, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland Artur d'Avila Garcez, City University London, UK Luc de Raedt, KU Leuven, Belgium Steffen Hoelldobler, TU Dresden, Germany Herbert Jaeger, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Stefan C. Kremer, University of Guleph, Canada Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger, University of Osnabrueck, Germany Alessio Micheli, University of Pisa, Italy Barak Pearlmutter, NUI Maynooth, Ireland Juergen Schmidhuber, TU Munich, Germany Alessandro Sperduti, University of Padova, Italy Jochen Steil, University of Bielefeld, Germany Peter Tino, University of Bermingham, UK Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy Thomas Wennekers, University of Plymouth, UK This Call for Papers is available online under http://www.neural-symbolic.org/RNN_CfP.txt -- PD 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 mccallum at cs.umass.edu Fri Jul 4 10:46:57 2008 From: mccallum at cs.umass.edu (Andrew McCallum) Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 10:46:57 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc opening at UMass Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Postdoctoral Fellowship in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Information Extraction, Information Integration & Data Mining We are seeking one or two highly creative and motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellows to join the Information Extraction and Synthesis Laboratory (McCallum's Lab) in the Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst. We are especially interested in people with expertise in statistical machine learning, graphical models including Markov random fields, Bayesian methods, MCMC, and other forms of approximate inference. Previous experience applying these techniques to problems in text data is not necessary. This is an opportunity to exercise your machine-learning know-how on real data and real problems. Project opportunities include: * information extraction, integration and analysis of massive bibliographic databases of research papers, authors, institutions and venues; * social network analysis of various sociological, political and bibliographic data using Bayesian latent variable models (topic models)---in collaboration with various social science faculty; * probabilistic modeling of natural language dialog, designing methods that will do joint, unified inference all the way from natural language understanding, through dialog pragmatics, to perception and action in a shared world; * machine learning for natural language understanding with minimal supervision, learning alignments, and semi-supervised learning. UMass offers an attractive environment for research at the intersection of machine learning and textual information---with significant strength in information retrieval, machine learning, their intersection, and other related areas. We also have strong ties to our statistics department, and other nearby universities. We have large staff and computing infrastructure to support significant projects. Ranked among the top AI groups in the U.S., UMass has an exciting and highly collaborative CS department. UMass is located in bucolic western New England, surrounded by five other colleges, and also within day-trip range of both Boston and New York. Prospective candidates should email both Andrew McCallum , and Jean Joyce about your interest. If you are attending the ICML 2008 conference please feel free to contact Andrew about these positions at the conference. The University of Massachusetts is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Sun Jul 6 11:09:53 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Jan Ijspeert) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:09:53 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Review article on CPGs for locomotion control in animals and robots Message-ID: <4870E041.80402@epfl.ch> Dear Connectionists, Researchers in the neural control of movement might be interested in the following review paper on central pattern generators for locomotion control in animals and robots that will appear in Neural Networks (~200 citations). Best regards, Auke Auke Jan Ijspeert. Central pattern generators for locomotion control in animals and robots: a review. /Neural Networks/, 21(4):642-653, 2008. Abstract: The problem of controlling locomotion is an area in which neuroscience and robotics can fruitfully interact. In this article, I will review research carried out on locomotor central pattern generators (CPGs), i.e. neural circuits capable of producing coordinated patterns of high-dimensional rhythmic output signals while receiving only simple, low-dimensional, input signals. The review will first cover neurobiological observations concerning locomotor CPGs and their numerical modelling, with a special focus on vertebrates. It will then cover how CPG models implemented as neural networks or systems of coupled oscillators can be used in robotics for controlling the locomotion of articulated robots. The review also presents how robots can be used as scientific tools to obtain a better understanding of the functioning of biological CPGs. Finally, various methods for designing CPGs to control specific modes of locomotion will be briefly reviewed. In this process, I will discuss different types of CPG models, the pros and cons of using CPGs with robots, and the pros and cons of using robots as scientific tools. Open research topics both in biology and in robotics will also be discussed. Preprint: http://birg2.epfl.ch/publications/fulltext/ajIjspeert08a.pdf Official paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2008.03.014 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Auke Jan Ijspeert SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation) Assistant Professor School of Computer and Communication Sciences, EPFL EPFL-IC-ISIM-GRIJ EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne Station 14 CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Office: INN 237 Tel: +41 21 693 2658, Fax: +41 21 693 3705 www: http://birg.epfl.ch Email: Auke.Ijspeert at epfl.ch Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California ----------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080706/e072550c/attachment-0001.html From risi at cs.columbia.edu Sun Jul 6 21:19:03 2008 From: risi at cs.columbia.edu (Imre Risi Kondor) Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 02:19:03 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Training Fellowship in Machine Learning at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK Message-ID: Postdoctoral Training Fellowship - Machine Learning Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/ The Gatsby Unit invites applications for a postdoctoral training fellowship in machine learning and related areas. The Unit is especially interested in researchers working in interdisciplinary areas at the interface of machine learning with mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, signal processing or computer vision. The Unit is a centre for theoretical neuroscience and machine learning, focusing on the interpretation of neural data, population coding, perceptual processing, neural dynamics, neuromodulation, and learning. The Unit has significant interests across a range of areas in machine learning. Machine learning research is led by Yee Whye Teh and Risi Kondor. For further details of our research please see: http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/research.html The Unit provides a unique environment in which a critical mass of theoreticians interact closely with each other and with other world- class research groups in related departments at UCL. A cross-faculty Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning opened at UCL in 2006, spanning the departments of Computer Science, Statistical Science and the Gatsby Unit. The Unit's visitor and seminar programmes enable staff and students to engage with leading researchers from across the world. Candidates must have a strong analytical background and demonstrable interest and expertise in statistical machine learning. Candidates with a strong background in mathematics are preferred. Salary is competitive, based on experience and achievement. Funding for the position is available for an initial period of between one and two years. Applicants should send in pdf, plain text or Word format a CV, a statement of research interests, and the names and full contact details (including e-mail addresses) of three referees to: asstadmin at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Applicants are directed to further particulars about the position available from: http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies/. Academic enquiries can be directed to: risi at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk The closing date for applications is 17 August 2008. From emmanuel.vincent at irisa.fr Thu Jul 10 14:20:51 2008 From: emmanuel.vincent at irisa.fr (Emmanuel Vincent) Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:20:51 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Community-based Signal Separation Evaluation Campaign Reminder In-Reply-To: <4818B327.7020704@irisa.fr> References: <4818B327.7020704@irisa.fr> Message-ID: <48765303.5000903@irisa.fr> Dear colleagues, We would like to remind you the July 25th deadline for evaluation proposals to be run as part of the 1st Community-based Signal Separation Evaluation Campaign (SiSEC 2008). Two evaluations for audio data have been proposed so far on http://sisec.wiki.irisa.fr/. We encourage you to - have your say about these proposals and tell us if you plan to participate - propose evaluations for other types of data (e.g. biomedical, images, telecoms, etc) For more information, see http://sisec.wiki.irisa.fr/. Best regards, Emmanuel Vincent, Shoko Araki and Pau Bofill > *** FIRST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *** > > 1st Community-based Signal Separation > Evaluation Campaign > (SiSEC 2008) > > http://sisec.wiki.irisa.fr/ > > Evaluation proposal deadline: July 25, 2008 > > > Do you have an algorithm for source separation of e.g. audio, > biomedical, astromomical or image data? Or are you interested in this > challenging issue? Then you should take part in the first > community-based endeavor for the evaluation of source separation > algorithms. > > Building upon previous initiatives, this campaign aims to let > researchers discuss and agree over all aspects of evaluation, including > datasets and evaluation criteria. We organizers will address the > time-consuming issues of collecting and evaluating the results submitted > by all participants. > > As a first step, we are issuing a call for evaluation proposals. A > second call for the submission of separation results will follow. > > A proposal should consist of at least: > - a title > - suggestions for relevant data (including how they might be obtained > and possible copyright issues) > - a short description of the task(s) to be addressed, with reference > software blocks for each task if available, so as to help newcomers > participate > - suggestions for evaluation criteria > - a list of potential participants (names, email addresses) > > Two audio datasets are already proposed as a starting point. All > proposals should be disseminated and discussed with potential > participants before July 25, 2008. > > Interested individuals are encouraged to join the SiSEC mailing list at > https://listes.irisa.fr/sympa/info/sisec. For more information about the > campaign, see http://sisec.wiki.irisa.fr/. > > Best regards, > > Emmanuel Vincent, Shoko Araki and Pau Bofill From a.silver at ucl.ac.uk Fri Jul 11 03:58:54 2008 From: a.silver at ucl.ac.uk (Angus Silver) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:58:54 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Studentship - Neural Networks - at UCL Message-ID: <000b01c8e32b$f7308470$350fa8c0@AngusOffice> PhD Studentship investigating signal processing in neural networks with biologically realistic models at University College London Applications are invited for a 3 year PhD Studentship in Computational Neuroscience in Professor Silver's Laboratory, Research Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, UK. The studentship covers fees and provides a stipend for UK and EU nationals. The project will explore signal processing in cortical networks using biologically realistic models. This will involve using an advanced software tool, neuroConstruct created in the Silver Lab, for constructing biologically realistic neural networks in 3D space (http://www.neuroConstruct.org ). Development of large scale network models will also require software development, particularly in a parallel computing environment. The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team of experimental biologists, physicists and computational biologists. Related papers include: 1) Gleeson, P. Steuber, V. and Silver, R.A. (2007). neuroConstruct: A tool for modeling networks of neurons in 3D space. Neuron, 54, 219-35 2) Mitchell SJ, Silver RA. (2003) Shunting inhibition modulates neuronal gain during synaptic excitation. Neuron. 38, 433-45. 3) Steuber, V., Mittmann, W., Hoebeek, F.E., Silver, R.A., De Zeeuw, C.I., Hausser, M. and De Schutter, E. (2007). Cerebellar LTD and pattern recognition by Purkinje cells. Neuron 54, 121-136. 4) Traub RD, Contreras D, Cunningham MO, Murray H, LeBeau FE, Roopun A, Bibbig A, Wilent WB, Higley MJ, Whittington MA. Single-column thalamocortical network model exhibiting gamma oscillations, sleep spindles, and epileptogenic bursts. J Neurophysiol. 2005, 93(4):2194-232. Applicants should have excellent software development skills and a good degree in mathematics, computer science, physics or biological sciences. Previous experience in neuroscience is not required but would be an advantage. Applications should include a CV, the contact details of two referees and a short statement of research interests. These should be sent by email to Angus Silver (a.silver at ucl.ac.uk) by the 4th August. R. Angus Silver Professor of Neuroscience, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London. WC1E 6BT Tel: +44 207 679 7830 http://www.physiol.ucl.ac.uk/research/silver_a/index.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080711/97c8575b/attachment-0001.html From L.Berthouze at sussex.ac.uk Fri Jul 11 07:20:56 2008 From: L.Berthouze at sussex.ac.uk (Luc Berthouze) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:20:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Participation: Epigenetic Robotics 2008 Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------- Apologies for cross-posting ---------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION EPIGENETIC ROBOTICS 2008 www.epigenetic-robotics.org Eight International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics - Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems - ---------------------------------------------------- DATES: July 30-31, 2008 LOCATION: University of Sussex, Brighton, UK EARLY REGISTRATION: Register by July 15 and save! INVITED SPEAKERS: Eva Jablonka (Tel Aviv University, Israel) Epigenetic inheritance in heredity and evolution: A developmental perspective Susan Oyama (John Jay College, New York, USA) Development without roof, without walls, without ?oor Domenico Parisi (CNR, Rome, Italy) How behaviour becomes what it is Claudio Stern (University College London, UK) The magic of gastrulation: from cells to embryo, from molecules to models and back again ---------------------------------------------------- CONFERENCE THEME (for all other information regarding EpiRob'08 please visit www.epigenetic-robotics.org ) In the past 7 years, the Epigenetic Robotics annual conference has established itself as a unique place where original interdisciplinary research from developmental sciences, neuroscience, biology, cognitive robotics, and artificial intelligence is being presented. Psychological theory and empirical evidence is being used to inform epigenetic robotic models, and these models can be used as theoretical tools to make experimental predictions in developmental psychology. As a special feature, this year we are also highlighting a specific organizational theme: evolution and development as related processes of change. The particular focus of this theme is on the dynamic interplay between ontogeny and phylogeny. In other words, how do new abilities and skills that emerge during development influence the path of evolution, and how do subsequent evolutionary changes help to create new developmental trajectories? This is a question that fits well within the mission of epigenetic robotics, as it spans not only a wide range of research areas and academic disciplines (e.g., biology, psychology, AI and machine learning, linguistics, anthropology, etc.) but also a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales (e.g., neurons, brains, social communities, cultures, etc.). ---------------------------------------------------- Looking forward to meeting you at EpiRob'08! Dr Luc Berthouze, Senior Lecturer Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) Department of Informatics University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH, UK Tel: +44 1273 877206 Fax: +44 1273 877873 From Psycho.Comp at hunter.cuny.edu Fri Jul 11 15:16:57 2008 From: Psycho.Comp at hunter.cuny.edu (William Sakas) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:16:57 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Final Call for Participation: Psychocomputational Models of Human Language Acquisition Message-ID: <4877B1A9.5040305@hunter.cuny.edu> **** FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION **** Psychocomputational Models of Human Language Acquisition (PsychoCompLA-2008) July 23rd at CogSci 2008 - Washington, D.C. http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/ ** New: List of presentations ** ** Note that there is no registration fee for workshops at CogSci 2008. ** The Main Registration fee for CogSci 2008 covers workshops and tutorials. Apologies for multiple postings * Workshop Topic: The workshop is devoted to psychologically-motivated computational models of language acquisition. That is, models that are compatible with research in psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and linguistics. * Special Theme: Although the workshop program speaks to many facets of psychocomputational language acquisition modeling, the theme of the workshop this year is: Computational resources: How much is just right, and does it matter? The computational resources (e.g., number of calculations per input datum, size of memory store, etc.) employed by current psychocomputational modeling efforts vary tremendously from model to model. However, two important questions have rarely been addressed. How well do a particular acquisition model's resources parallel the resources employed by a human language learner? And, how relevant (or not) is it to establish such a relationship? * Invited Speakers: -- Rens Bod, Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam -- Damir Cavar, University of Indiana and Zadar University -- Jeffery Lidz, University of Maryland -- Gary Marcus, New York University -- Josh Tenenbaum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Presentations Towards Understanding the Role of Semantics in Natural Language Acquisition Dana Angluin and Leonor Becerra-Bonache, Yale University Evaluating constructivist theory via unsupervised Bayesian grammar induction Colin Bannard and Elena Lieven, Max Planck Institute For Evolutionary Anthropology Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute For Evolutionary Anthropology and School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester Modelling semantic property acquisition from single linguistic exposures Marco Baroni, University of Trento Alessandro Lenci, University of Pisa Brian Murphy and Massimo Poesio, University of Trento Incorporating phrase structure into an n-gram model of syntax acquisition Xu?n-Nga Cao-Kam, The Graduate Center, City University of New York Efficient learning of natural languages with lattice based representations Alexander Clark, Royal Holloway University of London Can Statistical Parsers WOW! You: A Cognitive Assessment Sandiway Fong, University of Arizona Robert C. Berwick, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bayesian Decision Theory, Iterated Learning and Portuguese Clitics Catherine Lai, University of Pennsylvania Computational Resources, How much is just right, and does it matter? William Gregory Sakas, Hunter College and The Graduate Center City University of New York Modeling Artificial Grammar Learning Results: Why Claims About Structural Cues Have Yet To Be Substantiated Sarah VanWagenen, Stanford University Empirical evidence for recursive hierarchical structure in child language Willem Zuidema, Leiden University and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amterdam * Workshop History: This is the fourth meeting of the Psychocomputational Models of Human Language Acquisition workshop following PsychoCompLA-2004, held in Geneva, Switzerland as part of the 20th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING-2004), PsychoCompLA-2005 as part of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL-2005) held in Ann Arbor, Michigan where the workshop shared a joint session with the Ninth Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL-2005), and PsychoCompLA-2007 held in Nashville, Tennessee as part of the 29th meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci-2007). * Workshop Description: The workshop will present research and foster discussion centered around psychologically-motivated computational models of language acquisition, with an emphasis on the acquisition of syntax. In recent decades there has been a thriving research agenda that applies computational learning techniques to emerging natural language technologies and many meetings, conferences and workshops in which to present such research. However, there have been only a few (but growing number of) venues in which psychocomputational models of how humans acquire their native language(s) are the primary focus. Psychocomputational models of language acquisition are of particular interest in light of recent results in developmental psychology that suggest that very young infants are adept at detecting statistical patterns in an audible input stream. Though, how children might plausibly apply statistical 'machinery' to the task of grammar acquisition, with or without an innate language component, remains an open and important question. One effective line of investigation is to computationally model the acquisition process and determine interrelationships between a model and linguistic or psycholinguistic theory, and/or correlations between a model's performance and data from linguistic environments that children are exposed to. * Topics and Goals: Research on the following topics will be presented: - Models that address the acquisition of word-order; - Models that combine parsing and learning; - Formal learning-theoretic and grammar induction models that incorporate psychologically plausible constraints; - Comparative surveys that critique previously reported studies; - Models that have a cross-linguistic or bilingual perspective; - Models that address learning bias in terms of innate linguistic knowledge versus statistical regularity in the input; - Models that employ language modeling techniques from corpus linguistics; - Models that employ techniques from machine learning; - Models of language change and its effect on language acquisition or vice versa; - Models that employ statistical/probabilistic grammars; - Computational models that can be used to evaluate existing linguistic or developmental theories (e.g., principles & parameters, optimality theory, construction grammar, etc.) - Empirical models that make use of child-directed corpora such as CHILDES. This workshop intends to bring together researchers from cognitive psychology, computational linguistics, other computer/mathematical sciences, linguistics and psycholinguistics working on all areas of language acquisition. Diversity and cross-fertilization of ideas is the central goal. * Workshop Organizer: William Gregory Sakas, City University of New York (sakas at hunter.cuny.edu) * Workshop Co-organizer: David Guy Brizan, City University of New York (dbrizan at gc.cuny.edu) * Program Committee: Rens Bod, Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands David Guy Brizan, City University of New York, USA Damir Cavar, University of Indiana, USA and Zadar University, Croatia Gary Marcus, New York University Nick Chater, University of College London, UK Alex Clark, Royal Holloway University of London, UK Rick Dale, University of Memphis, USA Jeffery Lidz, University of Maryland, USA Gary Marcus, New York University, USA Lisa Pearl, University of California, Irvine, USA William Gregory Sakas, City University of New York, USA Josh Tenenbaum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Charles D. Yang, University of Pennsylvania, USA * Contact: Psycho.Comp at hunter.cuny.edu with "PsychoCompLA-2008" somewhere in the subject line. -- William Gregory Sakas Associate Professor of Computer Science and Linguistics Hunter College and the Graduate Center City University of New York (CUNY) Email: sakas at hunter.cuny.edu Voice: 1 212 772.5211 Fax: 1 212 772.5219 David Guy Brizan Computer Science Graduate Center & Hunter College City University of New York (CUNY) Email: dbrizan at gc.cuny.edu From s.li.1 at bham.ac.uk Mon Jul 14 05:32:32 2008 From: s.li.1 at bham.ac.uk (Sheng Li) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:32:32 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Research Fellow in the perception of 3-D shape and surface reflectance, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Message-ID: <468E635F877FE94BBEFFC0309BCA1954E75DBC@psgfs4.adf.bham.ac.uk> SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK Research Fellow in the perception of 3-D shape and surface reflectance A Wellcome Trust funded position is available to work on a collaborative project between Dr Andrew Welchman (University of Birmingham), Dr Roland Fleming (Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany) and Prof. Andrew Blake (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK). The successful applicant will combine computational image analysis, psychophysical measurements and modelling to examine the perception of 3-D shape from specular highlights. The work makes use of state-of-the-art rendering techniques and provides the opportunity to work with a high dynamic range display. Research will be conducted within well-equipped labs that incorporate a range of bespoke equipment. The 5* School of Psychology provides an excellent working environment with a pronounced research focus and international expertise in Vision Science, Behavioural Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience. Facilities include an Imaging Centre with integrated equipment for the study of human brain and behaviour (3T scanner, EEG) as well as numerous virtual reality devices and eye trackers. Candidates should hold (or expect to hold) a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics or a related field. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C) are essential and experience with simulation, modelling and behavioural testing desirable. Informal enquiries should be directed to Dr Andrew Welchman (A.E.Welchman at bham.ac.uk). Details of salary and application procedures will shortly be available from: www.vacancies.bham.ac.uk/vacancies/ Quoting the reference H47002 Closing date for applications: 24th July 2008 Interviews are anticipated soon after the closing date with the position available from 1st September 2008 From David.Dowe at infotech.monash.edu.au Tue Jul 15 07:27:21 2008 From: David.Dowe at infotech.monash.edu.au (David L Dowe) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:27:21 +1000 (EST) Subject: Connectionists: Chris Wallace (1933-2004), Monash Fellowships Message-ID: <200807151127.m6FBRLCT015616@bruce.infotech.monash.edu.au> Hi, connectionists. I e-mail you now for essentially two main reasons. One is to mention the existence of a postdoc. fellowship here at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia for 2009 with a rapidly approaching deadline. To be eligible, applicants must have had their Ph.D. for at least approx. two years and at most approx. eight years. And another is to announce a tribute to Chris Wallace (1933-2004), whose (Computer J., 1968) paper saw both the beginning of the (Bayesian) Minimum Message Length (MML) principle and of its use in MML clustering and mixture modelling. I'll discuss the Chris Wallace tribute and then the Monash postdocs. First, re Chris Wallace (1933-2004), the Computer Journal (Oxford Univ. Press) has now placed online on its WWW site all the articles from the special issue in honour and memory of C. S. Wallace (1933 - 2004). The articles are interspersed in various places throughout the list at http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/papbyrecent.dtl , and they include my David L. Dowe, "Foreword re C. S. Wallace" (www.doi.org : 10.1093/comjnl/bxm117), in which I attempt to survey Chris Wallace's career and his work, with a particular focus on (Bayesian) Minimum Message Length [MML] and achievements. For those with a particular inference in MML neural nets, see, e.g., http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#BXM117C165 . For those interested in quantifying intelligence (with MML), see, e.g., sec. 0.2.5, text following on from http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#RFN177 . For those with an interest in Bayesian nets, discussion of MML Bayesian networks with decision trees in their internal nodes - a` la Comley & Dowe (2003) and Comley & Dowe (April 2005, MIT Press) [http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#BXM117C64 www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/David.Dowe.publications.html#ComleyDowe2003 and www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/David.Dowe.publications.html#ComleyDowe2005 http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#BXM117C65] - takes place in sec. 0.2.5. Footnote 18 (http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#FN18) gives examples of corrections to papers (and their coding schemes) where claims have been made - based on a variety of not-so-good coding schemes - that MML/MDL doesn't work. And anyone struggling to get the difference between Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) and MML is referred to footnote 158 (http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#FN158). And, amidst the surveying, there is some new original work there, too. Some of this includes my note on probabilistic classification, footnote 175 (http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/bxm117#FN175), which gives an apparent uniqueness result suggesting advantages and merits of log-loss over the likes of Area Under Curve (AUC) and ROC, etc. And all of the technical points in the ad below for the postdoc. fellowship also get at least a mention and some (quite) a discussion. POSTDOCS -------- And, last, re postdocs, David Dowe is looking for a postdoctoral fellow for collaborative work on (Bayesian) Minimum Message Length (MML) (and/or Kolmogorov complexity) applied to any of (e.g.) clustering, mixture modelling, hierarchical clustering and hierarchical mixture modelling, latent factor analysis, regression, time series, DNA microarray analysis, decision trees, decision graphs, support vector machines (SVMs), neural nets, classification, Bayesian nets, phylogenetic networks (or phylogenetic graphs), Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) and hybrids thereof, etc. The postdoc. fellowship(s) is/are at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia [and the deadline is slowly starting to get a little tight]. The relevant researcher should have between two and eight years of post-doctoral experience as of September 2008. A successful applicant will be appointed as Research Fellow (Level B) beginning January 2009, with a salary per annum up to Aus$82,951 (including superannuation) and Aus$50,000 additional research support for 5 years. More specific and detailed information is at www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/2009_DDowe_MML_MonashFellowships-guidelines.pdf (or is obtainable from David Dowe by e-mailing to me (David Dowe) [and not to the list]). The stated University deadline is Tuesday 5 August 2008, but Monash University's Faculty of I.T. will quite possibly have a much earlier internal deadline of approx. 1ish or 2ish weeks earlier - so we should try to aim for that. I would welcome any help you can provide in helping me to find a prospective applicant. If you are interested in applying for the abovementioned postdoc., please e-mail me, David Dowe, directly with a c.v., any questions and comments. Cheers and yours sincerely, David Dowe (www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld). From juergen at idsia.ch Wed Jul 16 12:27:19 2008 From: juergen at idsia.ch (Juergen Schmidhuber) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:27:19 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: IDSIA jobs: postdoc & developer in handwriting recognition Message-ID: <2d1bb9ce9f93135f3c1923804b21d13a@idsia.ch> We are seeking an outstanding postdoc and a developer in the fields of handwriting recognition / machine learning / image processing. Goal: to advance the state of the art in handwriting recognition, for example, by further improving the recent state-of-the-art recurrent net algorithms for connected handwriting. This is a collaboration with the Swiss company Lifeware. Salary: Postdoc ~ SFR 72,000/year ~ US$ 70,000 (10 July 2008) Developer: ~ SFR 62,000/year Start: now or soon To apply, please follow the instructions under http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/kti2008.html Juergen Schmidhuber About IDSIA: IDSIA is small but visible, competitive, and influential. For example, its ant colony optimization algorithms broke numerous benchmark records and are now widely used in industry for routing, logistics etc. (today entire conferences specialize on artificial ants). IDSIA is also the origin of the first mathematical theory of optimal universal artificial intelligence and self-referential universal problem solvers. And IDSIA's artificial recurrent neural networks learn to solve numerous previous unlearnable sequence processing tasks through gradient descent, artificial evolution and other methods. Research topics also include complexity and generalization issues, unsupervised learning and information theory, forecasting, learning robots. IDSIA was the smallest of the world's top ten AI labs listed in the 1997 "X-Lab Survey" by Business Week magazine, and ranked in fourth place in the category "Computer Science - Biologically Inspired". IDSIA's most important work was done after 1997 though. Switzerland is a good place for scientists. It is the origin of special relativity (1905) and the World Wide Web (1990), is associated with 105 Nobel laureates, and boasts the world's highest number of Nobel prizes per capita, the highest number of publications per capita, the highest number of patents per capita, the highest citation impact factor, the most cited single-author paper, etc. Switzerland also got the highest ranking in the list of happiest countries :-) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 2415 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080716/9ff9e94a/smime.bin From malchiodi at dsi.unimi.it Thu Jul 17 09:30:40 2008 From: malchiodi at dsi.unimi.it (Dario Malchiodi) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:30:40 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Book announcement: The Puzzle of Granular Computing References: <5191CBE0-FB33-11D7-A0ED-0003939B3D3E@dsi.unimi.it> Message-ID: Apologizing for cross-posting Dear Colleagues, It is our pleasure to announce the availability of our book The Puzzle of Granular Computing Springer, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 138 ISBN 978-3-540-79863-7 The goal of this book is to bring the fundamental issues of information granularity, inference tools and problem solving procedures into a coherent, unified, and fully operational framework. The objective is to offer the reader a comprehensive, self-contained, and uniform exposure to the subject. The strategy is to isolate some fundamental bricks of Computational Intelligence in terms of key problems and methods, and discuss their implementation and underlying rationale within a well structured and rigorous conceptual framework as well as carefully related to various application facets. The main assumption is that a deep understanding of the key problems will allow the reader to compose into a meaningful mosaic the puzzle pieces represented by the immense varieties of approaches present in the literature and in the computational practice. All in all, the main approach advocated in the monograph consists of a sequence of steps offering solid conceptual fundamentals, presenting a carefully selected collection of design methodologies, discussing a wealth of development guidelines, and exemplifying them with a pertinent, accurately selected illustrative material. The book can be ordered to Springer or on-line at amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Granular-Computing-Studies-Computational-Intelligence/dp/3540798633 Sincerely, B. Apolloni, W. Pedrycz, S. Bassis and D. Malchiodi From Volker.Roth at unibas.ch Thu Jul 17 09:09:37 2008 From: Volker.Roth at unibas.ch (Volker Roth) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:09:37 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?Three_PhD/postdoc_positions_in_?= =?windows-1252?q?=93Systems_modeling_of_Insulin_Resistance=94?= Message-ID: <487F4491.5010102@unibas.ch> ETH Zurich / University of Basel (Switzerland): Three PhD/postdoc Positions in ?Systems modeling of Insulin Resistance? Applications are invited for three PhD/postdoc positions in the research program ?LiverX: Systems Biology of Hepatic Insulin Resistance? at the Competence Center for Systems Physiology and Metabolic Diseases (CC-SPMD) (http://www.ccspmd.ethz.ch/), which is part of SystemsX, the Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology (www.systemsx.ch). The ?LiverX? Project is an approved SystemsX RTD project with 13 research groups from ETH Zurich, the University Basel and the University Zurich working together towards understanding the mechanisms of insulin resistance by systematically collecting and analyzing quantitative and dynamic data of the involved hormonal and metabolic control networks at the level of single cells, organs and whole organisms. Together with clinical data of patients this knowledge will be used to develop mathematical models of insulin resistance. Within this Systems Biology Program, three positions are available for PhD students/postdoctoral fellows working at the following departments: (i) Computer Science Department, ETH Zurich (Prof. Joachim M. Buhmann); (ii) Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich (Prof. J?rg Stelling); (iii) Department of Computer Science, University of Basel (Prof. Volker Roth). Together with the group of Prof. P. B?hlmann (Statistics Seminar, Math Dept., ETH Zurich), these groups form the ?modeling? subdivision within the LiverX consortium. Close interaction with other scientists of the LiverX research consortium of CC-SPMD is an attractive feature of the project. The main focus of research concerns: 1. Establishing a network of causal dependencies among genes in regulatory/metabolic networks. On the Machine Learning side, this task includes the development of probabilistic models for inferring network structures from data and for detecting causal dependencies in these networks. Particular emphasis will be put on perturbation experiments for validating the inferred network topology. 2. Establishing a dynamical model for fatty acid subsystem in the liver. Based on dynamic measurements of key metabolites and metabolic fluxes, dynamic protein data and gene expression data, the goal is to identify a model for the dynamic control of the fatty acid synthesis. In a next step, this fatty acid model is planned to be extended to include causal dependencies relevant for the local control of lipid pools. Finally, the overall goal is a model for the whole-system dynamics of the liver system. On the modeling side, this approach will involve new developments of probabilistic methods for dynamic ODE-based biochemical networks. 3. On a conceptual level, the project addresses the complicated question how complex dynamical models of biological systems can be estimated based on sparse, time dependent data. How can we quantify uncertainty in the model structure and the model parameters? How can we develop a working feedback loop from computational biology modeling to experimental design of experiments? Applicants with an interest in these model design questions are particularly encouraged to apply. Candidates will have a Masters/PhD degree with background and experience in computer science, applied mathematics, physics or bioinformatics, interest to work in an interdisciplinary research environment and very good communication skills (English). For further inquiries, please contact Joachim M. Buhmann: jbuhmann at inf.ethz.ch J?rg Stelling: joerg.stelling at bsse.ethz.ch Volker Roth: volker.roth at unibas.ch Successful candidates will work in the international team and be awarded a fellowship with a competitive salary (64000 CHF/year). Applications with a full CV, list of publications, short statement of research interests and names of at least one referee should be submitted to: Ms. Rita Klute, ETH Zurich, Institute of Computational Science, CAB G 69.1, Universitaetstrasse 6, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland email: rita.klute at inf.ethz.ch -- ===================================================================== Volker Roth Computer Science Dept. Tel.: +41-(0)61-2670549 University of Basel Bernoullistr. 16, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland email: volker.roth at unibas.ch ===================================================================== From bressler at fau.edu Sun Jul 20 22:58:09 2008 From: bressler at fau.edu (Steven Bressler) Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:58:09 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position investigating connectivity and dynamics of large-scale brain networks Message-ID: <00f501c8eadd$9b5db1e0$331e5b83@opal> PHD POSITION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES CENTER FOR COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY Applications are currently being accepted for interdisciplinary PhD training under the joint mentorship of Drs. Steven Bressler (http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~bressler) and Viktor Jirsa (http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~jirsa). The program of training will take a theoretical approach to the study of neural and cognitive function. The position will focus on understanding the connectivity and dynamics of large-scale brain networks. It will emphasize: * the construction of artificial brain networks based on known anatomical connectivity * the generation of simulated network time-series data * functional connectivity and causality analysis of simulated time-series data in relation to the analysis of LFP, MEG, and fMRI time-series data The program offers competitive, multi-year stipends and tuition remission. Long-term research and training visits (up to six months) in partner institutions in France are optional and encouraged. The ideal candidate should have the following qualifications: * Quantitative training in physics, mathematics, computer science, or related fields * Programming experience (Matlab, C/C++, .) * English speaking and writing skills Previous experience in neuroscience is not required but would be an advantage. Interested students are encouraged to submit a CV, contact details of two referees, and a short statement of research interests to either Dr. Bressler (bressler at ccs.fau.edu) or Dr. Jirsa (jirsa at ccs.fau.edu). Please visit the Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences web site at http://www.ccs.fau.edu/. Committed to Equal Opportunities. The Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University is in Boca Raton, situated between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, with easy access to the beautiful beaches and rich cultural life of the Miami-Dade metropolitan area. From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Mon Jul 21 10:56:03 2008 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:56:03 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CfP Journal Special Issue on Recurrent Neural Networks *DEADLINE EXTENDED* Message-ID: <4884A383.6030501@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> *DEADLINE EXTENDED DUE TO MULTIPLE REQUESTS* Final Call for Papers: Journal Special Issue on == Perspectives and Challenges for Recurrent Neural Networks == Guest Editors: Marco Gori, Barbara Hammer, Pascal Hitzler, Guenther Palm Special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622851/description = SCOPE = Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) enable flexible machine learning tools which can directly process spatiotemporal and other structured data and which offer a rich dynamic repertoire as time dependent systems. They promise to be efficient signal-processing models which are biologically plausible and optimally suited for a wide range of industrial applications on the one hand, and an explanation of cognitive phenomena of the human brain on the other hand. Despite these facts, however, the design of efficient training methods for RNNs as well as their mathematical investigation with respect to reliable information representation and generalization abilities when dealing with complex data structures is still a challenge. It has led to diverse approaches and architectures including echo and liquid-state-machines, long short term memory, recursive and graph networks, core neuro-symbolic integration, etc. Interestingly, very heterogeneous domains are included, such as logic, chaotic systems, and biological networks. The aim of the special issue is to bring together recent work developed in the field of recurrent information processing, which bridges the gap between different approaches and which sheds some light on canonical solutions or principled problems which occur in the context of recursive information processing when considered across the disciplines. = TOPICS = We particularly encourage submissions connected to the following non-exhaustive list of topics: - new learning paradigms of RNNs such as unsupervised learning or reservoire learning - biologically plausible methods - integration of RNNs and symbolic reasoning - universal approaches for general data structures such as sets or graphs - methods which address the generalization ability of RNNs - challenging applications which have the potential to be benchmark problems - visionary papers concerning the future of RNNs = SUBMISSIONS = Deadline for submissions is 22nd of August, 2008. Submissions shall follow the guidelines laid out for the Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic, which can be found under . Submissions shall be sent as pdf to Pascal Hitzler, hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de = EDITORIAL BOARD = Guilherme da Alencar Barreto, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Brasil Monica Bianchini, University of Siena, Italy Howard Blair, Syracuse University, USA Hendrik Blockeel, KU Leuven, Belgium Mikael Boden, University of Queensland, Australia Matthew Cook, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland Artur d'Avila Garcez, City University London, UK Luc de Raedt, KU Leuven, Belgium Steffen Hoelldobler, TU Dresden, Germany Herbert Jaeger, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Stefan C. Kremer, University of Guleph, Canada Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger, University of Osnabrueck, Germany Alessio Micheli, University of Pisa, Italy Barak Pearlmutter, NUI Maynooth, Ireland Juergen Schmidhuber, TU Munich, Germany Alessandro Sperduti, University of Padova, Italy Jochen Steil, University of Bielefeld, Germany Peter Tino, University of Bermingham, UK Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy Thomas Wennekers, University of Plymouth, UK This Call for Papers is available online under http://www.neural-symbolic.org/RNN_CfP.txt -- PD 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 leibold at zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de Mon Jul 21 05:48:11 2008 From: leibold at zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de (Christian Leibold) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:48:11 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc Position (Computational Neuroscience) at University of Munich (LMU) Message-ID: <48845B5B.1090401@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de> Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience in the lab of Christian Leibold at the Department of Biology II of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. The position is at the level of an assistant (senior postdoc; 'akademischer Rat'). The group is located at the Biocenter Martinsried. The campus in Martinsried hosts a vivid and rapidly growing neuroscience community including the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, and the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences. The group is specialized on modelling of neuronal circuits with an emphasis on small recurrent networks and synaptic plasticity. The candidates are expected to have a PhD in physics or computer science or a related subject and ideally already have experience in theoretical/computational neuroscience. The successful candidate shall start developing an own independent research profile in modelling of neuronal systems. Moreover, he is expected to closely collaborate with local experimentalists. Possible topics of research are auditory processing, synaptic plasticity, learning and memory, and models of the hippocampal formation. For more information see: http://sci.bio.lmu.de/neuralcomputation/ http://www.bccn-muenchen.de/ http://www.zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de/institute/zi/abtlgn/neurobiologie/index.html To apply, please email your CV, list of publications, a short letter (1 page) of motivation, and the names two references to leibold at bio.lmu.de. Applications received until 31st of August 2008 are guaranteed full consideration. From vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk Tue Jul 22 11:37:05 2008 From: vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:37:05 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CfP Journal Special Issue on Neural Models of Cortical Microcircuits (correction) Message-ID: <530937473F2B49779E4317EF01988D18@cs.ad.stir.ac.uk> First Call for Papers: Journal Special Issue on == Neural Models of Cortical Microcircuits == Guest Editors: J.G. Taylor, T. Wennekers, B.P. Graham, I. Vida, V. Cutsuridis Special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Neural Networks http://helen.pion.ac.uk/microcircuits08 = SCOPE = To understand how perception, attention, action, learning and memory work, we need to gather data from multiple levels of complexity and from various brain states (normal and diseased) and integrate them at the brain-scale level. We need to identify the neuronal groups involved in these functions, their laminar distributions and their different types of neurons, draw detailed circuit diagrams, determine the forms of synaptic transmission and plasticity between different neurons and study the dynamics of the cortical microcircuits at the cellular and synaptic level that comprise these neuronal groups. Recent years have witnessed a dramatic accumulation of knowledge about the morphological, physiological and molecular characteristics, as well as the connectivity and synaptic properties of cortical neurons. Despite these advances, however, only limited insight was gained into the computational function of the neurons; in particular, the role of the various types of interneurons remains elusive. Mathematical and computational microcircuit models play an instrumental role in exploring microcircuit functions and facilitate the dissection the operations performed by diverse interneurons. The goal of the special issue is to provide a snapshot and a resum? of the current state-of-the-art of the ongoing research avenues concerning cortical microcircuits with particular emphasis on the functional roles of the various inhibitory interneurons in information processing within normal and diseased behavioural and cognitive states. The emphasis will be on computational models that are tightly grounded on experimental data = SPECIFIC AIMS = - The interaction between the local micro circuit activity and global processing to achieve the desired overall processing functionality observed, say in perception and action, attention, learning and memory - Microcircuit architectures: networks of principal and inhibitory inter-neurons within and between lamina, columns, mini-columns, modules, areas and/or across areas in the brain and their functional roles in the network. -- Neo-cortex -- Hippocampus -- Sensory and Motor Systems - Cross-comparison of architectures from different brain areas - Identified computations performed by each type of neuron in a network - Identified modes of operation of a neuronal type and how they are related potentially to behaviour and cognition - What synaptic plasticity rules are used = SUBMISSIONS = Deadline for submissions is December 1st, 2008. Electronic submissions for the Neural Networks journal can be found under http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/ Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Neural Models of Cortical Microcircuits" Regards, Vassilis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Department of Computing Science and Mathematics University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA SCOTLAND Tel: +44 1786 467422 Fax: +44 1786 464551 Email: vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk Web: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/ -- Academic Excellence at the Heart of Scotland. The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080722/b211317a/attachment-0001.html From mpolycar at ucy.ac.cy Sun Jul 27 14:59:22 2008 From: mpolycar at ucy.ac.cy (Marios M. Polycarpou) Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:59:22 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks; vol.19, no.7, July 2008 Message-ID: <0efe01c8f01a$e1b06970$08172ac2@IBM36165813261> Dear Colleagues, The following articles appear in the latest issue of IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks; vol.19, no.7, July 2008. The articles can be retrieved on IEEE Xplore: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=72 or directly by clicking the individual paper URL below. Marios M. Polycarpou IEEE-TNN Editor-in-Chief email: ieeetnn at ucy.ac.cy 1. Title: Just-in-Time Adaptive Classifiers-Part I: Detecting Nonstationary Changes Authors: Alippi, C.; Roveri, M. Page(s): 1145-1153 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04470009.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470009&arSt=1145&ared=1153&arAuthor=Alippi%2C+C.%3B+Roveri%2C+M. 2. Title: Distributed EM Algorithm for Gaussian Mixtures in Sensor Networks Authors: Gu, D. Pages: 1154-1166 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04558075.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4558075&arSt=1154&ared=1166&arAuthor=Gu%2C+D. 3. Title: Distributed Parallel Support Vector Machines in Strongly Connected Networks Authors: Lu, Y.; Roychowdhury, V.; Vandenberghe, L. Pages: 1167-1178 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04470008.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470008&arSt=1167&ared=1178&arAuthor=Lu%2C+Y.%3B+Roychowdhury%2C+V.%3B+Vandenberghe%2C+L. 4. Title: Fault-Tolerant Indirect Adaptive Neurocontrol for a Static Synchronous Series Compensator in a Power Network With Missing Sensor Measurements Authors: Qiao, W.; Harley, R. G.; Venayagamoorthy, G. K. Pages: 1179-1195 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04470007.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470007&arSt=1179&ared=1195&arAuthor=Qiao%2C+W.%3B+Harley%2C+R.+G.%3B+Venayagamoorthy%2C+G.+K. 5. Title: On Real-Time AER 2-D Convolutions Hardware for Neuromorphic Spike-Based Cortical Processing Authors: Serrano-Gotarredona, R.; Serrano-Gotarredona, T.; Acosta-Jimenez, A.; Serrano-Gotarredona, C.; Perez-Carrasco, J. A.; Linares-Barranco, B.; Linares-Barranco, A.; Jimenez-Moreno, G.; Civit-Ballcels, A. Pages: 1196-1219 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04490276.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4490276&arSt=1196&ared=1219&arAuthor=Serrano-Gotarredona%2C+R.%3B+Serrano-Gotarredona%2C+T.%3B+Acosta-Jimenez%2C+A.%3B+Serrano-Gotarredona%2C+C.%3B+Perez-Carrasco%2C+J.+A.%3B+Linares-Barranco%2C+B.%3B+Linares-Barranco%2C+A.%3B+Jimenez-Moreno%2C+G.%3B+Civit-Ballcels%2C+A. 6. Title: Stability and Almost Disturbance Decoupling Analysis of Nonlinear System Subject to Feedback Linearization and Feedforward Neural Network Controller Authors: Chien, T.-L.; Chen, C.-C.; Huang, Y.-C.; Lin, W.-J. Pages: 1220-1230 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04488045.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4488045&arSt=1220&ared=1230&arAuthor=Chien%2C+T.-L.%3B+Chen%2C+C.-C.%3B+Huang%2C+Y.-C.%3B+Lin%2C+W.-J. 7. Title: Dynamic Neural-Network-Based Model-Predictive Control of an Industrial Baker's Yeast Drying Process Authors: Yuzgec, U.; Becerikli, Y.; Turker, M. Pages: 1231-1242 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04488044.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4488044&arSt=1231&ared=1242&arAuthor=Yuzgec%2C+U.%3B+Becerikli%2C+Y.%3B+Turker%2C+M. 8. Title: Neurodynamic Programming and Zero-Sum Games for Constrained Control Systems Authors: Abu-Khalaf, M.; Lewis, F. L.; Huang, J. Pages: 1243-1252 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04488043.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4488043&arSt=1243&ared=1252&arAuthor=Abu-Khalaf%2C+M.%3B+Lewis%2C+F.+L.%3B+Huang%2C+J. 9. Title: Exchange Monte Carlo Sampling From Bayesian Posterior for Singular Learning Machines Authors: Nagata, K.; Watanabe, S. Pages: 1253-1266 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04483537.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4483537&arSt=1253&ared=1266&arAuthor=Nagata%2C+K.%3B+Watanabe%2C+S. 10. Title: A General Wrapper Approach to Selection of Class-Dependent Features Authors: Wang, L.; Zhou, N.; Chu, F. Pages: 1267-1278 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04531777.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4531777&arSt=1267&ared=1278&arAuthor=Wang%2C+L.%3B+Zhou%2C+N.%3B+Chu%2C+F. 11. Title: A Bioinspired Neural Network for Real-Time Concurrent Map Building and Complete Coverage Robot Navigation in Unknown Environments Authors: Luo, C.; Yang, S. X. Pages: 1279-1298 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04539807.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4539807&arSt=1279&ared=1298&arAuthor=Luo%2C+C.%3B+Yang%2C+S.+X. 12. Title: Delay-Distribution-Dependent Exponential Stability Criteria for Discrete-Time Recurrent Neural Networks With Stochastic Delay Authors: Yue, D.; Zhang, Y.; Tian, E.; Peng, C. Pages: 1299-1306 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04472266.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4472266&arSt=1299&ared=1306&arAuthor=Yue%2C+D.%3B+Zhang%2C+Y.%3B+Tian%2C+E.%3B+Peng%2C+C. 13. Title: Semisupervised Learning Based on Generalized Point Charge Models Authors: Wang, F.; Zhang, C. Pages: 1307-1311 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/72/4558069/04470010.pdf?isnumber=4558069&prod=JNL&arnumber=4470010&arSt=1307&ared=1311&arAuthor=Wang%2C+F.%3B+Zhang%2C+C. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080727/66b7a40c/attachment-0001.html From nips2008publicity at gmail.com Fri Jul 25 00:33:54 2008 From: nips2008publicity at gmail.com (Antonio Torralba) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:33:54 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NIPS Reminder: Workshop and Minisymposia Proposals Due August 1 Message-ID: This is just a reminder that workshop and minisymposia proposals are due by 23:59 PDT on August 1 2008. For more information, please see: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2008/CallForWorkshops Proposals or questions should be emailed as plain text to nips.workshop at gmail.com (please do not use attachments,Word, postscript, html, or pdf files). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080725/57e5be48/attachment-0001.html From Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu Thu Jul 31 19:17:44 2008 From: Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu (Brian) Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:17:44 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Comparison of Neural Network Simulators Message-ID: <9839a05c0807311617t2c8d6dden177c79ca3a05af9d@mail.gmail.com> In 1994, Josef Skrzypek wrote a book titled "Neural Network Simulation Environments." Unfortunately, there is no modern equivalent and you cant sort the simulators along multiple dimensions using javascript. To fill this gap I've started a GFDL-licensedproject to document a variety of modern neural simulators along a number of useful dimensions. Given the size of such a task I need your help! If you have experience with any simulator (especially those not listed), feel a dimension is missing, would like to elaborate in a sub-article or simply want to check facts, please feel free to edit, leave a comment on the discussion page or e-mail me. Basically, Wikipedia's Be Boldpolicy applies here. A very cool and useful wysiwyg editor is enabled, making it easy for anyone to contribute. Here is the comparison: http://grey.colorado.edu/emergent/index.php/Comparison_of_Neural_Network_Simulators See you there, -- Brian Mingus Professional Research Assistant University of Colorado at Boulder (Not sent from my iPhone:) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20080731/57a3bbb2/attachment.html