From s.haeffner at isk.rwth-aachen.de Mon Aug 3 03:04:08 2009 From: s.haeffner at isk.rwth-aachen.de (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Sonja_H=E4ffner?=) Date: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:04:08 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Job: Research Assistant Message-ID: <4B75014F-62D6-4088-ACF5-B9CB4B7A535B@isk.rwth-aachen.de> Our Profile ?Anthropological universals ? cultural differences? is an interdisciplinary project funded by the Federal Ministry of education and Research. In the project involved are Prof. Dr. Christian Stetter (Institute for Language and Communication Studies, project leader), Prof. Dr. Walter Huber (Section Neurolinguistic at the Department of Neurology) and Prof. Dr. Martina Ziefle (Humtec). The aim of the project is to compare the writing systems of German alphabetic writing and Japanese Kanji as well as their cognitive processing. Thereby developing an empirically appropriate cognitive model for single word recognition that is based upon a coherent theory of writing systems is developed. Your responsibilities You will have to program and analyse full artificial, neuronal networks of single-word recognition and of lexical determination in German and Japanese (Kanji). Besides you will derive word-meanings from text-corpora. You have to cooperate closely with the researchers of the other sub-projects. Your profile You have got a scientific degree in the field of informatics, computer linguistics or neurosciences. We expect experiences in modelling and analyzing neuronal networks as well as good programming skills. You?re a good team player and eager to explore writing theoretic and cognitive ways of thinking. Basic knowledge of the German language is desirable. Our offer The candidate will be employed as a regular employee. The position is to be filled as soon as possible and is for a fixed term limited to May 31st, 2011. This is a half-time vacancy. The option of undertaking a PhD can be provided. Salary is according to TV-L (E13, 50%). The application period is limited to September 15th, 2009. RWTH Aachen University has been rewarded with the ?Total-E-Quality- Award? for its efforts with respect to gender equality. Applications from female candidates are explicitly welcome. In cases of equal qualification, aptitude and expertise of the applicants, female applicants will be given preferential treatment for those salary groups and careers in which females are underrepresented, unless there are preponderant reasons to give preference to another applicant. Please refer to ? 8 Article 6 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Equal Opportunities Act (Landesgleichstellungsgesetz NW). RWTH Aachen University has been rewarded with the title ?disability- friendly? (?Pr?dikat behindertenfreundlich?) for its efforts with respect to training and employment of severely disabled people. Applications from severely disabled people with appropriate suitability are explicitly welcome. This also applies to people with equal opportunities in accordance with ? 2 SGB IX (Social Code). Contact Institute for Language and Communication Studies Sonja H?ffner RWTH Aachen University Eilfschornsteinstr. 15 52056 Aachen Germany s.haeffner at isk.rwth-aachen.de +49 (0) 241 80 96441 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090803/f7fd6643/attachment.html From byronyu at stanford.edu Mon Aug 3 12:53:56 2009 From: byronyu at stanford.edu (Byron Yu) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 09:53:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Connectionists: Cosyne 2010 -- Call for Workshops Message-ID: __________________________________________________________________________ ? ? ? ? ? Cosyne10 - CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? March 1-2, 2010 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Snowbird, Utah ? ? ? ? http://cosyne.org/wiki/Cosyne_10_workshops __________________________________________________________________________ PROPOSAL DEADLINE: Preference will be given to proposals received by 15 September 2009; proposals received by 30 October 2009 will be considered, if space is available. 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. __________________________________________________________________________ SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Deadline: ?Preference will be given to proposals received by 15 September 2009; proposals received by 30 October 2009 will be considered, if space is available. Format: ? ?plain text only -- please no attachments email to: ?cosyne10workshops at gmail.com (Adam Kohn, Mark Laubach) 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 brief 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 speakers are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. ?One complementary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with 2 organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. _________________________________________________________________________ COSYNE 2010 WORKSHOP CHAIRS: Adam Kohn (Einstein), Mark Laubach (Yale) QUESTIONS: email: cosyne10workshops at gmail.com ------- Byron Yu Cosyne 2010 Publicity / Publications Chair From announce at ccnconference.org Wed Aug 5 11:54:29 2009 From: announce at ccnconference.org (ccnc-announce) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:54:29 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: CCNC 2009 Online Registration OPEN Message-ID: <200908050954.29845.announce@ccnconference.org> ~ CCNC Online Registration is Now Open ~ 4th CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE www.ccnconference.org To be held in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, MA. CCN CONFERENCE DATES: Wed-Thu November 18 & 19, 2009 All three of our previous meetings have been a great success, two as satellites to Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (2005, 2007) and in 2006 with Psychonomics. Attendance has ranged from 115-250. ____________________________________________________________________________ * ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN at: http://www.ccnconference.org/page5.html * EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: Tuesday, August 15, 2009 Abstracts are to be submitted online via the website: www.ccnconference.org. As in past years, there will be two categories of submissions: -Poster only -Poster, plus short talk (15 min) to highlight the poster Abstracts should be limited to 250 words. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Reviewing of posters will be inclusive and only to ensure appropriateness to the meeting. Short talks will be selected on the basis of research quality, relevance to conference theme, and expected accessibility in a talk format. Abstracts not selected for short talks will still be accepted as posters as long as they meet appropriateness criteria. * NOTIFICATION OF POSTER ACCEPTANCE: Approx. August 31, 2009 * CONTRIBUTED SHORT TALK SELECTION: Approx. September 15, 2009 __________________________________________________________________________ Program: * 2009 Keynote Speakers: Neil Burgess, University College London Josh Tenenbaum, MIT * Three symposia, each including a mixture of modelers and non-modelers and focused on a common theme or issue: ** Top-Down Mechanisms of Visual Attention Moderator: Steven Bressler, Florida Atlantic University ** Our Vision for the Word: Modeling Orthographic Processing Moderators: Carol Whitney, University of Maryland, College Park Jonathan Grainger, CNRS, France ** Context, Memory, and the Brain Moderators: Michael Hasselmo, Boston University Ken Norman, Princeton University * Approximately 12 short talks will be chosen featuring selected posters. * Poster sessions * We are again planning another special issue of Brain Research for selected papers from this meeting -- no need to indicate interest with your abstract submission at the present time. * We plan to award a limited number of competitive travel fellowships for students -- look for a notice by late summer. We especially encourage applications from members of underrepresented minorities. * Registration fees: $175 ($75 for students). ____________________________________________________________________________ 2009 Planning Committee: Suzanna Becker, McMaster University Carlos Brody, Princeton University Nathaniel Daw, New York University Michael Hasselmo, Boston University David Noelle, University of California, Merced Ken Norman, Princeton University Maximilian Riesenhuber, Georgetown University Ex officio: Randall O'Reilly, University of Colorado, Boulder Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University Executive Organizer: Thomas Hazy, University of Colorado, Boulder For more information and to sign up for the mailing list visit: www.ccnconference.org From julian at togelius.com Tue Aug 4 05:43:00 2009 From: julian at togelius.com (Julian Togelius) Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:43:00 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Mario AI Competition 2009 Message-ID: <230e463e0908040243u7df586d8md89e325131717c78@mail.gmail.com> The Mario AI Competition is about creating the best controller (agent) for a version of the classic Super Mario Bros game. The best controller is the one that manages to take Mario jumping, shooting and running through as many levels as possible. This is a challenging problem, and we expect that learning and optimization algorithms (such as evolutionary computation and TD-learning) will be useful in creating a winning controller. But we welcome controllers of any type, including completely hand-coded controllers, as long as they can interface to the Java software provided with the competition. The competition is being run in two phases, each in association with an IEEE conference: the Games and Innovation Conference (and ICE-GIC) and the Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG). Sessions will be held at both conferences presenting the results of the competition phase, where authors of winning controllers will be invited to present their contributions. Cash prizes will also be awarded to the authors of the best controllers submitted in time for each conference. At ICE-GIC, the three best controllers will be awarded USD 200, 100 and 50 respectively; at CIG, the winner will be awarded USD 500. (The prize money will be awarded to the best contributor that has registered at and attends the conference; however, it is possible to win the competition phase and receive a certificate for this without attending the conference.) The deadline for submitting a controller to the ICE-GIC phase of the competition is August 18, and the deadline for the CIG phase is September 3. It is possible to enter each phase of the competition separately, but controllers entered to the ICE-GIC phase will by default also be entered into the CIG phase; competitors will have the opportunity to update their submissions after the results of the first phase are announced. At the end of the full competition, source code of all controllers will be published on the competition website. Four source code, sample controllers and further instructions see: http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009 -- Julian Togelius IT University of Copenhagen Rued Langgaards Vej 7 2300 Copenhagen S Denmark julian at togelius.com http://julian.togelius.com +46-705-192088 From bower at uthscsa.edu Wed Aug 5 11:22:51 2009 From: bower at uthscsa.edu (james bower) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:22:51 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CNS 2010 announcement Message-ID: Moderator. sorry, would you mind adding to the posting I just sent "interested in staying abreast of meeting developments you can follow: http://twitter.com/cns2010sa" sorry, forgot to include that thanks Jim Dr. James M. Bower Professor of Computational Neurobiology Research Imaging Center University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Texas Department of Biology University of Texas - San Antonio Phone: 210 382 0553 Email: bower at uthscsa.edu Web: www.bower-lab.org CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE: The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. This information is only for the viewing or use of the intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of, or the taking of any action in reliance upon, any of the information contained in this e- mail, or any of the attachments to this e-mail, is strictly prohibited and that this e-mail and all of the attachments to this e-mail, if any, must be immediately returned to the sender or destroyed and, in either case, this e-mail and all attachments to this e-mail must be immediately deleted from your computer without making any copies hereof and any and all hard copies made must be destroyed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by e-mail immediately. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090805/17893327/attachment.html From bower at uthscsa.edu Wed Aug 5 11:14:29 2009 From: bower at uthscsa.edu (james bower) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:14:29 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CNS*2010 to be held in San Antonio Texas in July 2010 Message-ID: <196B2282-B1AA-4352-AE07-068BE50D2975@uthscsa.edu> NEWS FLASH: CNS*2010 will be held in San Antonio Texas in July 2010 The Organization for Computational Neurosciences (http:// www.cnsorg.org) announces that the 19th annual CNS meeting will be held July 25th - 29th in San Antonio Texas. The meeting will be organized locally by Drs. James M. Bower, Charles Wilson, and Todd Troyer. Following the highly successful CNS*2009 meeting in Berlin Germany, where more than 675 conference participants engaged in a day of tutorials, 3 days of formal meetings, and more than 15 formal and informal workshops, OCNS anticipates that CNS*2010 will be as exciting and successful, as it kicks off the 20th year of the CNS meeting series. Further information on the meeting can be found at http://www.cnsorg.org/2010/ We look forward to welcoming you to beautiful San Antonio Jim Bower Charles Wilson Todd Troyer Dr. James M. Bower Professor of Computational Neurobiology Research Imaging Center University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Texas Department of Biology University of Texas - San Antonio Phone: 210 382 0553 Email: bower at uthscsa.edu Web: www.bower-lab.org CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE: The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. This information is only for the viewing or use of the intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of, or the taking of any action in reliance upon, any of the information contained in this e- mail, or any of the attachments to this e-mail, is strictly prohibited and that this e-mail and all of the attachments to this e-mail, if any, must be immediately returned to the sender or destroyed and, in either case, this e-mail and all attachments to this e-mail must be immediately deleted from your computer without making any copies hereof and any and all hard copies made must be destroyed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by e-mail immediately. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090805/e21afb26/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CNS-gif.gif Type: image/gif Size: 886768 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090805/e21afb26/CNS-gif-0001.gif From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Thu Aug 6 09:10:43 2009 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:10:43 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: 2-3 PhD/Post-doc positions in Reinforcement Learning Message-ID: <4A7AD653.5050407@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> We have openings for 2-3 PhD/Post-doc positions in the area of hierarchical reinforcement learning. The positions are in the context of a new four year, eight partner EU-project, IM-CLeVeR (Intrinsically Motivated Cumulative LEarning VErsatile Robots), which spans neurobiology, psychology, computational neuroscience, machine learning and robotics (http://www.im-clever.eu/). Our goal will be to develop algorithms that learn hierarchical control architectures based on intrinsic motivations, curiosity drives, and abstraction and modularization abilities. The positions will be based at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro). Generous funds are available for extended visits to other project partners. Candidates should have a keen interest in the areas of computational neuroscience, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, control theory, intelligent robotics, or related disciplines. Positions are available immediately with highly competitive salary. Required application materials comprise: * Complete Curriculum Vitae * Statement of research achievements and interests * Contact information for 2-3 references * Copy of Masters or Diploma certificate * Copy of PhD certificate, if applicable and should be sent to Ms Gaby Schmitz: schmitz at fias.uni-frankfurt.de. Best regards, Jochen Triesch -- Prof. Dr. Jochen Triesch Johanna Quandt Research Professor Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Web: http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~triesch/ Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47531 Fax: +49 (0)69 798-47611 From marcus.hutter at gmx.net Thu Aug 6 19:54:58 2009 From: marcus.hutter at gmx.net (Marcus Hutter) Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 09:54:58 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: Several PhD positions in Machine Learning Message-ID: <020401ca16f1$5ed865d0$6801a8c0@crl174ml1s> A number of PhD scholarships are available in the area Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, broadly understood, at the Australian National University and the National ICT of Australia. Their research interests include but are not limited to: o Document Analysis and Understanding o Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition o Reinforcement Learning and Planning o Kernel Methods and Statistics o Sequential Prediction and Information Theory o Learning Theory Please have a look at the following page for details: http://sml.nicta.com.au/ Students should have an honor's or master's degree in physics, mathematics, computer sciences, engineering, or related field. The PhD will be awarded by the Australian National University. Scholarships will be from the ANU or NICTA or jointly. The total value of scholarships is typically $20'000-$30'000 per year, plus fee waiver. The PhD program is 3-4 years. For further information and application forms, see: * general graduate study at the college http://cecs.anu.edu.au/students/future/graduate * summary of scholarships available http://www.anu.edu.au/graduate/scholarships/all.php#_ANU_PHD * NICTA PhD program at ANU http://nicta.com.au/education/scholarships/canberra_research_lab Closing Dates for - International PhD students: 31 August 2009 - Australian PhD students: 31 October 2009 For administrative questions, please contact student.services at cecs.anu.edu.au or call +61 2 6125 067. For questions regarding PhD topic and supervision, please contact Marcus.Hutter at anu.edu.au or Wray.Buntine at nicta.com.au. We are looking forward to your application, Marcus Hutter and Wray Buntine ______________________ Australian National University National ICT of Australia Canberra ACT 0200, Australia --------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT ANU. The Australian National University (ANU) is located in the city of Canberra, the Federal Capital of Australia. The ANU consistently ranks top among all Universities in the southern hemisphere, third in the Asia/Pacific region, and in the top 50 worldwide. ABOUT NICTA. The National ICT (Information & Communication Technology) Australia with about 300 researchers across the country plays a major role in the Australian Government's policy to promote science and innovation. It is capitalizing on Australia's and international extensive ICT talent through world-class research, commercialization, education, and industry collaboration. ABOUT CANBERRA. With a population of about 300'000, Canberra is a very clean and quiet city, surrounded by bush land and parks, and with Lake Burley Griffin in its geographical centre. It is a three-hour drive from Sydney, surfing beaches, and Australia's ski resorts. From legi at igi.tugraz.at Fri Aug 7 05:36:02 2009 From: legi at igi.tugraz.at (Legenstein Robert) Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:36:02 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Positions for two Phd-students for research on large-scale brain models and learning in Graz Message-ID: <4A7BF582.9030704@igi.tugraz.at> In the research group of Wolfgang Maass and Robert Legenstein at the Graz University of Technology in Austria (http://www.igi.tugraz.at/maass/) there are openings for two PhD students for research on large-scale brain models, synaptic plasticity, and learning and self-organization in networks of spiking neurons. A keen interest in understanding brain function as well as knowledge in machine learning, and programming skills are expected. These two PhD Students will be funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Facets-ITN http://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/ITN/. They will receive a strongly interdisciplinary training including extended stays in several partner laboratories from the project. Applicants for these positions in Graz should apply at http://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/ITN/ ,marking TUG as the preferred partner. The application deadline is 20 August 2009. For further questions, please correspond with Robert Legenstein: robert.legenstein at igi.tugraz.at (The rules of the Marie Curie Network demand that applicants for the positions in Austria must be of non-Austrian nationality and have spent less than 12 months during the last 3 years in Austria.) -- ---------------------------------------- Dr. Robert Legenstein Institut f?r Grundlagen der Informationsverarbeitung Technische Universit?t Graz Inffeldgasse 16b/I, 8010 Graz, Austria ++43/316/873-5824 ---------------------------------- From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Fri Aug 7 06:58:15 2009 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:58:15 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: 2nd International Workshop on Nature inspired Reasoning for the Semantic Web (NatuResS09) Message-ID: <4A7C08C7.1070002@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second International Workshop on Nature inspired Reasoning for the Semantic Web (NatuResS09) http://natures.few.vu.nl/2009 October 26, 2009 @ 8th international Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2009), Washington, DC BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES ================================ The Semantic Web (SW) carries out the vision of a Web of data usable for both human and machines. This web, consisting of inter-connected instance data annotated with possibly expressive ontologies, promises a huge opportunity for Web-based applications in many domains. In this web the vision of distributed reasoning has replaced the myth of a commonly agreed upon ontology every data provider would rely on. However, existing reasoning techniques often fail to this live up to this distributed vision of knowledge on the web. Reasoner may not be able to cope with the high number of instances and/or the expressiveness of the ontologies describing them (scalability problem) or fail to deal with a sometimes unreliable network, lack of maintenance of information or the variety in quality (robustness problem). The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from the Semantic Web community with more Nature inspired communities, such as the people interested in Computational Intelligence (CI), Neural Networks and to discuss on current trends in Semantic Web. The workshop will feature invited talks from experts in the corresponding areas as well as contributed talks presenting submitted papers. TOPICS OF INTEREST ================================ We encourage the submission of papers investigating the use of nature inspired techniques to address knowledge representation and reasoning problems. Those problems includes (but are not restricted to) the following topics : * Data storage and retrieval: how to efficiently create and manage a repository of potentially billions of (RDF) triples. * Data integration: how to find correspondences among the different ontologies (alignments). * Complex reasoning: how to find implicit information efficiently in large, expressive, or distributed ontologies. The suggested keywords are * Neural Networks * Evolutionary computing (EA and others) * Swarm intelligence (Ants, PSO, flocking birds) * Potential field methods * Simulated annealing * Artificial immune systems * Epidemic protocols (Gossiping) * Ontology alignment * Reasoning * Distributed Knowledge Management System * Peer data management system (PDMS) * Complex systems * Data integration * Semantic Web * RDF SUBMISSIONS ================================ Submitted paper should not exceed 16 pages and must be written in English. Submissions must be formatted in the style of the Springer Publications format for Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Full instructions are available at http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-2-72376-0 All papers should be submitted in electronic format (pdf version) using the following link: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=natures09 IMPORTANT DATES ================================ * Submission deadline: August 10 * Acceptance notification: August 30 * Camera ready papers: October 2 * Workshop: October 26 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ================================ * Christophe Gu?ret, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam * Pascal Hitzler, Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University, Dayton, OH * Stefan Schlobach, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam PROGRAM COMMITTEE ================================ * ?zalp Babaoglu, University Bologna, Italy * J?rgen Branke, Universit?t Karlsruhe (TH), Karlsruhe, Germany * Bernardo Cuenca Grau, Oxford, UK * Artur Garcez, City University London, UK * Barbara Hammer, Clausthal, Germany * Frank van Harmelen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands * Kai-Uwe K?hnberger, University of Osnabr?ck, Germany * Nicolas Monmarch?, Polytech'Tours, France * Axel Polleres, DERI Galway, Ireland * Sebastian Rudolph, Universit?t Karlsruhe (TH), Karlsruhe, Germany * Christoph Schmitz, 1&1 Internet AG Karlsruhe, Germany * Lael Schooler, MPI Berlin, Germany * Martijn Schut, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands * Peter Tino, University of Birmingham, UK * Spyros Voulgaris, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands SPONSORS ================================ The second international workshop on Nature inspired Reasoning for the Semantic Web (NatuReS09) is sponsored by the EU funded Large Knowledge Collider LarKC. More information available on the LarKC website : http://www.larkc.eu/ -- PD Dr. Pascal Hitzler pascal at pascal-hitzler.de http://www.pascal-hitzler.de Semantic Web Textbook: http://www.semantic-web-book.org From a.cichocki at riken.jp Sat Aug 8 04:38:40 2009 From: a.cichocki at riken.jp (A. Cichocki) Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:38:40 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: New Monograph about Multiway Analysis and Blind Signal Processing In-Reply-To: <44E867AB.2070105@riken.jp> References: <44E867AB.2070105@riken.jp> Message-ID: <4A7D3990.2070903@riken.jp> Dear Connectionists, I would like to announce a new book (research monograph) related to Multi-way Blind Source Separation: *Nonnegative Matrix and Tensor Factorizations: Applications to Exploratory Multi-way Data Analysis and Blind Source Separation, John Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-74666-0, (504 pages), September 2009, by A. Cichocki, R. Zdunek, A.-H. Phan, and S. Amari: *Selected material (preprint) are available at http://www.bsp.brain.riken.jp/%7Ecia/NMF_NTF_book/NMF-NTF-book-Chapter1_2-contents.pdf For details, see also our web pages and http://as.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470746661.html Key features: * Acts as a single source reference guide to NMF, NTF, NTD, PARAFAC, TUCKER models collating information that is widely dispersed in current literature, including the authors' own recently developed techniques in the subject area. * Uses generalized cost functions such as Bregman, Alpha and Beta divergences, to present practical implementations of several types of robust algorithms, in particular Multiplicative, Alternating Least Squares, Projected Gradient and Quasi Newton algorithms. * Includes pseudo codes and optimized MATLAB source codes for almost all nonlinear algorithms presented in the book. * Provides some potential applications in various areas including neuroscience, BCI, data mining, text mining, email surveillance, musical instrument classification, face recognition, handwritten digit recognition, texture classification, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, hyper-spectral imaging, chemical shift imaging, and gene expression classifications. Andrzej Cichocki ================= Laboratory for Advanced Brain Signal Processing, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, JAPAN http://www.bsp.brain.riken.jp/ http://www.bsp.brain.riken.jp/~cia/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090807/a1ad280a/attachment.html From m.montemurro at manchester.ac.uk Mon Aug 10 08:26:36 2009 From: m.montemurro at manchester.ac.uk (Marcelo Montemurro) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:26:36 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Manchester Workshop on Neural Coding and Computation Message-ID: Dear All, this is the second announcement of the upcoming workshop on Neural Coding and Computation that will take place at the University of Manchester (UM). The event will bring together a number of leading international speakers to present cutting edge research on neural coding. The date, time, and venue for the workshop are as follows: 8 September 2009, from 10:00 to 17:00 The University of Manchester Faculty of Life Sciences Smith Building, Lecture Theatre The confirmed Invited speakers are the following: Matteo Carandini (UCL) Steve Coombes (University of Nottingham) Jason Kerr (Max Planck, Tuebingen) Marcelo Magnasco (Rockefeller University) Magnus Richardson (University of Warwick) Mark Van Rossum (University of Edinburgh) Some travel support will be available (priority will be given to PhD students and postdocs). The event is funded by the Mathematical Neuroscience Network, the Neuroscience Research Institute (UM), and the Faculty of Life Sciences (UM). Registration and attendance are free of charge. Please, register by filling in the form at the workshop web page ( http://www.neuroscience.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/events/CompNeuroscieneWorkshop ) Regards, Rasmus Petersen (r.petersen at manchester.ac.uk)Marcelo Montemurro ( m.montemurro at manchester.ac.uk) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090810/966b0f6d/attachment.html From dsgreer at gmanif.com Mon Aug 10 09:57:29 2009 From: dsgreer at gmanif.com (Douglas S. Greer) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:57:29 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Neural modeling article Message-ID: <4A802749.7010200@gmanif.com> The following article, which describes a new chemical model of neural computation where neurotransmitters store information like molecules of ink in a photograph, is now available at http://www.gmanif.com/pubs/TCS_ISANTF.pdf Greer, D.S. Images as Symbols: An Associative Neurotransmitter-Field Model of the Brodmann Areas Transactions on Computational Science V, pp. 38?68, 2009. The Java code used for the digital simulations of the computational manifold automata is available free of charge to academic and nonprofit research institutes (See http://www.gmanif.com). ABSTRACT The ability to associate images is the basis for learning relationships involving vision, hearing, tactile sensation, and kinetic motion. A new architecture is described that has only local, recurrent connections, but can directly form global image associations. This architecture has many similarities to the structure of the cerebral cortex, including the division into Brodmann areas, the distinct internal and external lamina, and the pattern of neuron interconnection. The images are represented as neurotransmitter fields, which differ from neural fields in the underlying principle that the state variables are not the neuron action potentials, but the chemical concentration of neurotransmitters in the extracellular space. The neurotransmitter cloud hypothesis, which asserts that functions of space, time and frequency, are encoded by the density of identifiable molecules, allows the abstract mathematical power of cellular processing to be extended by incorporating a new chemical model of computation. This makes it possible for a small number of neurons, even a single neuron, to establish an association between arbitrary images. A single layer of neurons, in effect, performs the computation of a two-layer neural network. Analogous to the bits in an SR flip-flop, two arbitrary images can hold each other in place in an association processor and thereby form a short-term image memory. Just as the reciprocal voltage levels in a flip-flop can produce a dynamical system with two stable states, reciprocal-image pairs can generate stable attractors thereby allowing the images to serve as symbols. Spherically symmetric wavelets, identical to those found in the receptive fields of the retina, enable efficient image computations. Noise reduction in the continuous wavelet transform representations is possible using an orthogonal projection based on the reproducing kernel. Experimental results demonstrating stable reciprocal-image attractors are presented. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: dsgreer.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 200 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090810/791f55b9/dsgreer.vcf From mail at mkaiser.de Mon Aug 10 14:09:45 2009 From: mail at mkaiser.de (mail@mkaiser.de) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:09:45 +0200 (MEST) Subject: Connectionists: PostDoc positions in Neuroinformatics and Brain Connectivity Analysis (Seoul National University) Message-ID: <200908101809.n7AI9jcg005678@post.webmailer.de> Dear all, Two PostDoctoral (this call) and several PhD positions (call later this year) are available for my lab at Seoul National University in the newly formed Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS, http://bcs.snu.ac.kr/ ). We are seeking talented and enthusiastic postdoctoral research assistants and research fellows with a PhD awarded in physics, mathematics, engineering, or computer science; prior postdoctoral experience in the neurosciences is desirable but not necessary. Our lab links network features of neural systems (e.g. Cereb Cortex, 2009; PLoS Comput Biol, 2006) with dynamics and behaviour (New J Phys, 2007; Frontiers Neurosci, 2008). The fellowship positions will involve either: network and time series analysis of experimental data (MEA and fMRI) or large-scale simulations of brain activity based on anatomical connectivity (see http://www.biological-networks.org/ ). The BCS Department is generously funded by the World Class University (WCU) project of the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. BCS faculty and laboratories are housed in newly constructed space on the main SNU campus. State-of-the-art equipment includes: a dedicated 3T human MRI (128-channel head coil, sMRI, fMRI, DTI, MRS etc), 128 channel high-density EEG system (including Curry system), two-photon microscopy, visually-guided patch-clamp rigs, in vivo electrophysiological apparatus and high-performance computing plus molecular biological and biochemical facilities. Seoul is a vibrant city and Seoul National University is #50 in the Times World University Rankings. English is the official language of the BCS. Applications, including CV, list of publications, contact details of three referees, and statement of future interests should be sent via email to Jiheun Haylie Kim (bcs at snu.ac.kr). Informal enquiries can be sent to Dr Marcus Kaiser (m.kaiser at ncl.ac.uk). You may also meet me directly at the following meetings: INCF Neuroinformatics 2009 meeting, MICCAI 2009 in London, and SfN 2009 in Chicago. Funding is available for 2 years in the first instance, starting any time in 2009 or 2010. Decisions concerning these positions will be made as applications are received. See http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/jobs/101922-Postdoctoral-Research-Fellow-positions-Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences for more details. Best, Marcus -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K. Phone: +44 191 222 8161 Fax: +44 191 222 8232 http://www.biological-networks.org/ From sharpee at salk.edu Mon Aug 10 15:07:39 2009 From: sharpee at salk.edu (Tatyana Sharpee) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:07:39 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Position in Systems Neuroscience Message-ID: <4A806FFB.1000704@salk.edu> A full-time postdoctoral position is available on a collaborative project in the Systems and Computational Neuroscience Laboratories of Drs. John Reynolds and Tatyana Sharpee at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The goal of the project is to use natural stimuli to understand high-level visual processing, and how it is modulated by attention. The ideal candidate would have a strong background in computational neuroscience and either experience in neurophysiological recording techniques or a strong interest in learning and then applying these techniques. Working knowledge of Matlab, C++, as well as parallel computing would be a plus. Completion of the PhD degree in computational neuroscience, physics, or a related field is required before the start date. The initial appointment will be for 1 year, and is renewable. The Salk Institute, together with nearby University of California at San Diego, offers a highly collaborative first-class training and research environment in computational and systems neuroscience. At the Salk Institute, 14 laboratories conduct research on the visual system ranging from the work to understand its development and plasticity, the neural mechanisms of processing visual stimuli, and the link between visual perception and behavior. To apply, please send a cv, brief statement of research interests by email to sharpee at salk.edu in PDF or text format. Please also arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent to the same address. From hans.ekkehard.plesser at umb.no Tue Aug 11 08:46:25 2009 From: hans.ekkehard.plesser at umb.no (Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:46:25 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Towards Reproducible Descriptions of Neuronal Network Models Message-ID: <4A816821.8040502@umb.no> Dear Colleagues! We would like to draw your attention to our recent review of the sorry state of neuronal network descriptions in the literature, including a proposal for a Good Model Description Practice: Nordlie E, Gewaltig M-O, Plesser HE (2009). Towards reproducible descriptions of neuronal network models. PLoS Comput Biol 5(8):e1000456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000456. You'll find a summary below. The Good Model Descriptions Practice proposes standardized tables to provide a concise overview over your model. To make it easier for you to include these tables in you own papers, we provide the LaTeX code for one of the tables at http://www.nest-initiative.org/images/a/af/NordlieGewaltigPlesserPLoS2009Fig5.tex We sincerely hope that you will find our proposal useful. Best regards, Hans Ekkehard Plesser Author Summary -------------- Scientists make precise, testable statements about their observations and models of nature. Other scientists can then evaluate these statements and attempt to reproduce or extend them. Results that cannot be reproduced will be duly criticized to arrive at better interpretations of experimental results or better models. Over time, this discourse develops our joint scientific knowledge. A crucial condition for this process is that scientists can describe their own models in a manner that is precise and comprehensible to others. We analyze in this paper how well models of neuronal networks are described in the scientific literature and conclude that the wide variety of manners in which network models are described makes it difficult to communicate models successfully. We propose a good model description practice to improve the communication of neuronal network models. -- Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser Associate Professor Dept. of Mathematical Sciences and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences Phone +47 6496 5467 Fax +47 6496 5401 Email hans.ekkehard.plesser at umb.no Home http://arken.umb.no/~plesser From mjhealy at ece.unm.edu Tue Aug 11 14:18:51 2009 From: mjhealy at ece.unm.edu (mjhealy@ece.unm.edu) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:18:51 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Connectionists: Towards Reproducible Descriptions of Neuronal Message-ID: <47a43f70e061441cfe0f1a374a7d59b4.squirrel@webmail.ece.unm.edu> Dear Dr. Plesser, I have forwarded your message to my colleague Tom Caudell. He will give you some information about the latest version of the eLoom neural network simulation language and system (version 2.0 is under development). The eLoom 1 system was described in Caudell, T. P., Xiao, Y., and Healy, M.J., ?eLoom and Flatland: specification, simulation, and visualization engines for the study of arbitrary hierarchical neural architectures?, Neural Networks, V. 16, Nos. 5-6, pp. 617-624 (July 2003). Regards, Mike Healy > > Dear Colleagues! > > We would like to draw your attention to our recent review of the sorry state of neuronal network > descriptions in the literature, including a proposal for a Good Model Description Practice: > > Nordlie E, Gewaltig M-O, Plesser HE (2009). > Towards reproducible descriptions of neuronal network models. > PLoS Comput Biol 5(8):e1000456. > http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000456. > > You'll find a summary below. > > The Good Model Descriptions Practice proposes standardized tables to provide a concise overview > over your model. To make it easier for you to include these tables in you > own papers, we provide > the LaTeX code for one of the tables at > > http://www.nest-initiative.org/images/a/af/NordlieGewaltigPlesserPLoS2009Fig5.tex > > We sincerely hope that you will find our proposal useful. > > Best regards, > Hans Ekkehard Plesser > > > Author Summary > -------------- > > Scientists make precise, testable statements about their observations and > models of nature. > Other scientists can then evaluate these statements and attempt to reproduce or extend them. > Results that cannot be reproduced will be duly criticized to arrive at better interpretations of > experimental results or better models. Over time, this discourse develops > our joint scientific > knowledge. A crucial condition for this process is that scientists can describe their own models > in a manner that is precise and comprehensible to others. We analyze in this paper how well > models of neuronal networks are described in the scientific literature and > conclude that the > wide variety of manners in which network models are described makes it difficult to communicate > models successfully. We propose a good model description practice to improve the communication > of neuronal network models. > > -- > Dr. Hans Ekkehard Plesser > Associate Professor > > Dept. of Mathematical Sciences and Technology > Norwegian University of Life Sciences > > Phone +47 6496 5467 > Fax +47 6496 5401 > Email hans.ekkehard.plesser at umb.no > Home http://arken.umb.no/~plesser > From terry at salk.edu Tue Aug 11 20:11:23 2009 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:11:23 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - September, 2009 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 21, Number 9 - September 1, 2009 ARTICLE Sequential Effects in Two-Choice Reaction Time Tasks: Decomposition and Synthesis of Mechanisms Juan Gao, KongFatt Wong-Lin, Philip Holmes, Patrick Simen, and Jonathan D. Cohen LETTERS Computation with Spikes in a Winner-Take-All Network Matthias Oster, Rodney Douglas, and Shih-Chii Liu Automatic Spike Sorting Using Tuning Information Valerie Ventura Belief-Propagation in Networks of Spiking Neurons Andreas Steimer, Wolfgang Maass and Rodney Douglas Stochastic Properties of Coincidence-Detector Neural Cells Ram Krips and Miriam Furst Constraint on the Number of Synaptic Inputs to a Visual Cortical Neuron Controls Receptive Field Formation Shigeru Tanaka and Masanobu Miyashita Orientation Disparity: A Cue for 3D Orientation? Hal S. Greenwald and David C. Knill A Model for Learning Topographically Organized Parts-Based Representations of Objects in Visual Cortex: Topographic Nonnegative Matrix Factorization Kenji Hosoda, Masataka Watanabe, Heiko Wersing, Edgar Korner, Hiroshi Tsujino Hiroshi Tamura, and Ichiro Fujita Evaluation of Trajectory Planning Models for Arm-Reaching Movements Based on Energy Cost J. Nishii and Y. Taniai Filtering out Deep Brain Stimulation Artifacts out Using a Nonlinear Oscillattory Model Tatiana Aksenova, Dimitri Nowicki, and Alim-Louis Benabid Limited Stochastic Meta-Descent for Kernel-Based Online Learning Wenwu He A Bound on Modeling Error in Observable Operator Models and an Associated Learning Algorithm Ming-Jie Zhao, Herbert Jaeger and Michael Thon ----- ON-LINE - http://neco.mitpress.org/ SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2009 - VOLUME 21 - 12 ISSUES USA/Canada Others Electronic only Student/Retired $60 $123 $54 Individual $110 $173 $99 Institution $849 $912 $756 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 pillaiaj at mail.nih.gov Wed Aug 12 12:51:38 2009 From: pillaiaj at mail.nih.gov (Ajay Pillai) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:51:38 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: POSTDOCTORAL POSITION at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA Message-ID: <4A82F31A.2030501@mail.nih.gov> POSTDOCTORAL POSITION at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA The Brain Imaging and Modeling Section directed by Barry Horwitz of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIH, is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to work on functional brain imaging projects. The position would be initially for 2 years, with extension for several more years possible. The Brain Imaging and Modeling Section performs studies using fMRI, MEG and computational neural modeling. The emphasis in the laboratory is on studies of audition, speech and language processing. This laboratory has pioneered the use of network analysis methods and the use of biologically realistic neural modeling for understanding neuroimaging data. The successful applicant will have a Ph.D and/or MD in a relevant field, and experience with neuroimaging and/or neural modeling. Knowledge of experimental design, connectivity analysis methods, and time series analysis techniques would be particularly welcomed. MATLAB expertise and familiarity with Linux preferred. The position could start as early as Oct. 1, 2009. The search will continue until the position is filled. Salary will be commensurate with experience. The position is on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, a suburb of Washington, DC. Applicants should respond with an email to Dr. Barry Horwitz, horwitzb at mail.nih.gov; include a CV and a cover letter stating one?s research interests. See http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/research/scientists/horwitzb.asp for further information about our research group. -- Ajay S. Pillai, Ph.D. Brain Imaging and Modeling Section NIDCD, National Institutes of Health Rm 8S235B, 10 Center Dr. Bethesda MD 20892-1407 Tel. +1 301-435-5141 FAX +1 301-480-5625 pillaiaj at mail.nih.gov From kk at northwestern.edu Wed Aug 12 10:57:38 2009 From: kk at northwestern.edu (Konrad Koerding) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:57:38 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago In-Reply-To: <22d2b4c00908120748s3fe7f91bif3cbd001cbe1ad7d@mail.gmail.com> References: <22d2b4c00908060803t8721cdciea52cbd2df7b7165@mail.gmail.com> <22d2b4c00908120748s3fe7f91bif3cbd001cbe1ad7d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <22d2b4c00908120757s7e92fae5s7a60b113e6ab37e0@mail.gmail.com> An enthusiastic and well-qualified post-doctoral researcher is required to work in the wide area of computational sensorimotor integration in the laboratory of Konrad Koerding at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, Chicago. Current research in the laboratory focuses on the question of decoding of neural signals, cue combination and motor control. These projects require probabilistic models and supervised as well as unsupervised learning techniques. We also test which algorithms are used by the human brain. A successful applicant is expected to bring together machine learning skills with neuroscience problems. Applicants should have a PhD and skills relevant to machine learning, Bayesian statistics or computational neuroscience and an interest in the way the nervous system solves computational problems; however applicants with a strong background in psychophysics who wish to learn computational approaches will also be considered. Experience with Matlab would be very advantageous. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) boasts a large concentration of researchers that address various questions about movement in healthy and patient populations. The department of physiology hosts many scientists probing the neural basis of movement. Informal inquiries can be addressed by email to Professor Konrad Koerding (konrad at koerding.com). For more information about the environment see the Web Pages of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (www.ric.org), the Northwestern Department of Physiology (www.physio.northwestern.edu) and the Northwestern Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (www.northwestern.edu/pmr/). The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is an Affirmative Action - Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants are considered for all positions, and employees are treated during employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, marital or veteran status, the presence of a non-job-related medical condition, disability, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status to the extent required by law. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago embraces diversity in its work force. Applicants should supply: - one-page statement of research interests - Copy of CV (two if sent by post) - Names and contact details of three references -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090812/a6b36287/attachment-0001.html From dglanzma at mail.nih.gov Wed Aug 12 12:08:29 2009 From: dglanzma at mail.nih.gov (Glanzman, Dennis (NIH/NIMH) [E]) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:08:29 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium -- Dynamical Disease In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <0EE5F9DA83318D47B16FB45A5CBA4A4A0512151C@nihcesmlbx2.nih.gov> CALL FOR POSTERS CALL FOR POSTERS CALL FOR POSTERS 17th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium - "Dynamical Disease" (Preceding the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience) Thursday and Friday, October 15-16, 2009 The Buckingham Ballroom of the Allerton Hotel, 701 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois The concept of dynamical diseases has been in existence for over 30 years, with numerous re-views drawing attention to disorders that are characterized by the recurrence of certain symptoms, or exhibit oscillations that appear in the intensity of an ongoing nervous system disease. Neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases exhibiting periodicity or cyclicity include Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Klein-Levin Syndrome, Sleep Disorders, Binging, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Jet-Lag and Headache. The time course of the disorders can range from seconds and minutes to months and years. This symposium will examine a number of dynamical disorders of the nervous system, with the aim of providing an overarching perspective into potential underlying mechanisms, detection, prevention and treatment strategy. Confirmed Speakers: Bard Ermentrout, Leon Glass, Isabela Granic, Suzanne Haber, Nancy Kopell, Marc Lewis, Alfred Lewy, Haim Sompolinsky, Peter Tass, Jonathan Victor and Miles Whittington Keynote Address: Winner of the 2nd Annual Swartz Prize in Computational Neuroscience Symposium Organizers: Nicholas Schiff, Weill Cornell Medical Center, and Dennis Glanzman, NIMH/NIH For programmatic information, please contact: Dennis Glanzman National Institute of Mental Health Telephone: (301) 443-1576 To register for the meeting and to submit a poster, please contact: Nakia Wilson The Dixon Group Telephone: (877) 772-9111 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090812/614ba77e/attachment-0001.html From hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de Thu Aug 13 14:48:05 2009 From: hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de (Hecke) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:48:05 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [deadline approaching] CNS fall course in Goettingen, Germany Message-ID: <89513112-2FEE-4782-942D-E399E137526E@nld.ds.mpg.de> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Registration Deadline Approaching! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Applications are invited for the seventh fall course on COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE in Goettingen, Germany September 21 - 25, 2009 organized by H. Schrobsdorff The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with working knowledge of theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. The course includes tutorials and lectures of the following researchers: * Michele Giugliano: In vivo-like, noisy stimulation paradigms in in vitro cellular electrophysiology * Robert G?tig: (working title) Spike-timing based sensory coding and processing * Jason Kerr: Population imaging in vivo: from the awake to the anesthetized * Benjamin Lindner: Interspike interval statistics and response properties of neurons in the fluctuation driven regime * Gianluigi Mongillo: Collective dynamics of recurrent networks with short-term synaptic plasticity. The course takes place at the Department of Nonlinear Dynamics of the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Selforganization, Bunsenstr. 10, D-37073 Goettingen. A course fee of 100 Euro includes participation in the tutorials, study materials, and part of the social events. The number of participants is limited to about 30. Course language is English. To apply please fill out the application form at: http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/events-1/cns-course by August 15, 2009. Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you in Goettingen Hecke -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090813/179bf999/attachment.html From bajajketan at yahoo.com Fri Aug 14 06:00:27 2009 From: bajajketan at yahoo.com (Ketan Bajaj) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:00:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Connectionists: PhD thesis: "Adaptation-induced plasticity in V1: adapting and anti-adapting neurons" Message-ID: <424403.13278.qm@web55704.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Dear All, I'm pleased to announce the availability of my PhD thesis, "Adaptation-induced plasticity in V1: adapting and anti-adapting neurons". The thesis develops a model that predicts how long duration adaptation while causing a decrease in excitability of adapting neurons can cause an increase in excitability of 'anti-adapting' neurons, even without any synaptic interactions between these groups of neurons..and discusses various implications.. Available online at: http://www.ketanbajaj.com/Home/phd_thesis Abstract: http://www.ketanbajaj.com/Home/phd_thesis/abstract Best Regards, Ketan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090814/36b6a47e/attachment.html From ala at csc.kth.se Fri Aug 14 11:12:38 2009 From: ala at csc.kth.se (Anders Lansner) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:12:38 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open PhD positions at KTH Stockholm Message-ID: <014501ca1cf1$a9d253b0$fd76fb10$@kth.se> In the research group of Anders Lansner at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, http://www.csc.kth.se/forskning/cb/cbn/ there are now openings for two PhD students for research on modelling of neural systems, including computational neuroscience, software for multi-scale neural simulation, and experiments with large scale neuromorphic hardware systems. Functions in focus are cortical associative memory and information processing in the early olfactory system. The group collaborates closely with experimentalists at Karolinska Institutet and is currently partner of the Stockholm Brain Institute as well as hosts the Swedish INCF (International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility) node. Specifically targeted areas in for these positions are: . Low-frequency, balanced oscillatory activity and spike synchrony in a layered attractor memory model of neocortex . Attractor formation and memory recall in a dynamically sparse cortex-sized recurrent neuronal network model . Functionality and performance of a cortex-inspired network model combining layer 4 self-organization and feature extraction with holistic processing in layers 2/3-5. A keen interest in understanding brain function and brain-inspired computing as well as good programming skills is expected. These two PhD Students will be funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Facets-ITN http://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/ITN/. They will receive a strongly interdisciplinary training including extended stays in several partner laboratories from the project. Applicants for these positions at KTH should apply at http://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/ITN/ marking KTH as the preferred partner. The application deadline is 20 August 2009. For further questions, please correspond with Anders Lansner: ala at kth.se (The rules of the Marie Curie Network demand that applicants for the positions in Sweden must be of non-Swedish nationality and have spent less than 12 months during the last 3 years in Sweden.) ------------------------------------------ Dr Anders Lansner Dept of Computational biology, KTH and Stockholm University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090814/6c93981a/attachment.html From tatsuno at uleth.ca Fri Aug 14 16:49:00 2009 From: tatsuno at uleth.ca (Tatsuno, Masami) Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:49:00 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: POSTDOCTORAL and GRADUATE STUDENT POSITIONS in Integrative Experimental and Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <885DC6261BD3EF4FB36431DB03AA4BA8014058DA@EXCHCL2.uleth.ca> A new Integrative Experimental and Computational Neuroscience Program in The Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience ( http://ccbn.uleth.ca/ ) at The University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral and Graduate Student positions. The program was established under the sponsorship of a $20M Polaris Award from The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. The faculty members of the program include Bruce McNaughton, David Euston, Artur Luczak, Masami Tatsuno and Aaron Gruber. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to) information coding and self-organization of neural systems, memory consolidation, decision making and reward systems, neural network modelling, neural activity imaging, brain dynamics and information processing in sleep and waking, brain - machine interface, psychiatric illness, aging of the brain and other conditions that affect learning and memory systems (for sample research see: Takehara-Nishiuchi K, McNaughton BL. Science. 2008; Euston DR, Tatsuno M, McNaughton BL. Science. 2007; Guzowski et al. Nature Neuroscience 2, 1120-1124; Gruber AJ et al. J Comput Neurosci. 2006; Luczak A et al. Neuron 2009). Preference for positions will be given to candidates with demonstrated quantitative skills and/or with experience in electrophysiological recordings. Successful candidates will be expected to play a major role in experimental projects with electrophysiological (50-200 simultaneously recorded neurons) and/or optical imaging recordings and the analysis of forthcoming data. Candidates should email a letter of interest describing their research career goals, skills and experience, their C.V., and the names of three references (please do not have reference letters sent unless requested) to the search coordinator, Masami Tatsuno ( tatsuno at uleth.ca ). Applicants should put "CCBN Polaris recruitment" in the header of their email. Salary scales will be competitive with NIH standards for postdoctoral and graduate trainees. Lethbridge is located two hours from Calgary (see http://www.hbi.ucalgary.ca/ ), 90 minutes from the Canadian Rockies ( http://www.watertonpark.com/ ; http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/index_e.asp ) and is a safe, family friendly environment. From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Sun Aug 16 05:07:05 2009 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:07:05 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 101, issue 1 --- Table of Content Message-ID: <4A87CC39.6090301@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 101, issue 1 --- Table of Content BC Forum "The Wilson?Cowan model, 36 years later" Alain Destexhe, Terrence J. Sejnowski. Page 1 -2 http://www.springerlink.com/content/72315122217u73h3/ Original Paper "Spatiotemporal dynamics of pattern formation in the primary visual cortex and hallucinations" H. Henke, P. A. Robinson, P. M. Drysdale, P. N. Loxley. Page 3 - 18 http://www.springerlink.com/content/943380407111j88g/ "Robust path integration in the entorhinal grid cell system with hippocampal feed-back" D?vid Samu, P?ter Ero"s, Bal?zs Ujfalussy, Tam?s Kiss. Page 19 - 34 http://www.springerlink.com/content/a6002xn630417g78/ "Optimal motor control may mask sensory dynamics" Sean G. Carver, Tim Kiemel, Noah J. Cowan, John J. Jeka. Page 35 - 42 http://www.springerlink.com/content/u4h202vm7tg5m07t/ "Activity patterns in networks stabilized by background oscillations" Frank Hoppensteadt. Page 43 - 47 http://www.springerlink.com/content/487430xuw3157276/ "Energy efficient walking with central pattern generators: from passive dynamic walking to biologically inspired control" B. W. Verdaasdonk, H. F. J. M. Koopman, F. C. T. van der Helm. Page 49 - 61 http://www.springerlink.com/content/g80112r7t27v7581/ "Complementary responses to mean and variance modulations in the perfect integrate-and-fire model" Joanna Pressley, Todd W. Troyer. Page 63 - 70 http://www.springerlink.com/content/6x722632325h18k5/ "Short-window spectral analysis using AMVAR and multitaper methods: a comparison" Hariharan Nalatore, Govindan Rangarajan. Page 71 - 80 http://www.springerlink.com/content/w310t38urr6u4qh4/ Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From S.M.Bohte at cwi.nl Tue Aug 18 05:14:35 2009 From: S.M.Bohte at cwi.nl (Sander Bohte) Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:14:35 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open PhD position Reinforcement Learning at CWI Amsterdam Message-ID: <186418b00908180214u2e661880j84db27855f504ca8@mail.gmail.com> The Netherlands Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) invites applications for the position of a PhD position (OIO): biologically plausible distributed reinforcement learning. The opening is a research position within the field of computational neuroscience/neuroinformatics. Research Background In this project, we aim to refine our understanding of reinforcement learning in the brain, in particular where top-down attention is involved. Attention, in the form of backpropagating activity modulation of neurons involved, is believed to play a critical role in solving the spatial and temporal credit-assignment problem inherently found in large neuronal systems upon receiving an external reward. Work in this area includes for example the AGREL framework [Roelfsema & Van Ooyen, 2005]. At the same time, it is widely believed that populations of neurons in the cortex can represent probability distributions, and, in this context, attention-driven top-down modulation adapt the visual system to the statistics of the environment [e.g. Mozer & Fan, 2008]. And, finally, all these processes are actually carried out by spiking neurons [Paugam-Moisy & Bohte, 2009]. Research will focus on expanding this line of attention-gated learning and processing, and develop underlying learning models of the populations of spiking neurons involved. Job Description The prospective PhD student will work on developing models of learning and information processing in biologically plausible neuronal systems, with an emphasis on techniques from statistical machine learning and in particular reinforcement learning. The project will collaborate intensively with existing experimental and computational neuroscience efforts in the Netherlands. Requirements Required education/skills: University Graduate (MSc). Candidates are expected to have an affinity with mathematical modeling and a keen interest in biological neural systems. A university degree (MSc) is required, preferably in mathematics, physics, or computer science, or a similar discipline. In addition, good communication skills, in written as well as spoken English are needed, and knowledge of statistical machine learning is a strong plus. Location The research will take place in the Life Sciences group of the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam. Within the context of learning and information processing in biologically plausible systems, the group develops quantitative and predictive models and computer simulations in collaboration with experimental neuroscience groups. Conditions of employment The salary and terms of employment are in accordance with the Dutch "CAO-onderzoeksinstellingen". The initial salary for a Ph.D. student is EUR 2005,- gross per month (as per CAO WVOI 1/1/2009), increasing to EUR 2569,- in the fourth year. Moreover CWI offers attractive working conditions, including flexibility and help with housing for foreigners. Additional Information Direct requests for information and applications before September 15, 2009 to: Dr Sander Bohte, sbohte at cwi.nl / +31-6-24854184, also see: http://www.cwi.nl. Application Applications must include a motivation letter, a curriculum vitae, and the names and addresses of at least two persons that can be approached to obtain further information. You can apply for this job until 15 September 2009 by sending your application to: Afdeling Personeel & Organisatie CWI Science Park 123 1098 XG Amsterdam The Netherlands From A.Cangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk Tue Aug 18 13:19:07 2009 From: A.Cangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk (Angelo Cangelosi) Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:19:07 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 13 PhD Studentships and 3 Postdocs in Developmental Robotics (RobotDoc ITN) Message-ID: <1038F6B357C5004FA619C32FB3DB9957569DB4AF10@ILS130.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> 13 PhD Studentships and 3 Postdocs in Developmental Robotics (RobotDoc ITN) To start 1st January 2010 RobotDoc (Robotics for Development of Cognition) is a multi-national doctoral training network for the interdisciplinary training on developmental cognitive robotics. The RobotDoc network consists of an excellent balance of academic and industrial partners, and of European and international laboratory leaders in developmental cognitive robotics. The network activities will have a significant impact on the career perspectives of the Fellows through training opportunities on industrial and academic research projects and skills. This network is funded by the European Union Marie Curie program ITN Initial Training Network. The PhD students (called ESR: Early Stage Researchers) will develop advanced expertise of domain-specific cognitive robotics research skills and of complementary transferrable skills for careers in academia and industry. They will acquire hands-on experience through experiments with the open-source humanoid robot iCub, complemented by other existing robots available in the network's laboratories. Each PhD student will be employed by one of the RobotDoc partner institutions, and will also be expected to spend a study period in at least one of the other partner sites. For further information contact Professor Angelo Cangelosi (acangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk), the RobotDoc network coordinator, or email directly the partner leaders for the specific institution/country you intend to apply. See details below Partner institutions and positions available: UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH, UK: 2 PhD studentships and 1 two-year postdoc (contact Prof Angelo Cangelosi acangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk) UNIVERSITY OF Z?RICH, Switzerland: 2 PhD studentships (contact Prof Rolf Pfeifer pfeifer at ifi.uzh.ch) ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Italy: 1 PhD studentship and 1 two-year postdoc (contact Prof Giorgio Metta Giorgio.metta at iit.it) UNIVERSITY OF SK?VDE, Sweden, 2 PhD studentships (contact Prof Tom Ziemke tom.ziemke at his.se) BIELEFELD UNIVERSITY, Germany, 2 PhD studentships (contact Prof. Britta Wrede bwrede at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de) UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND, UK, 2 PhD studentships (contact Prof. Stefan Wermter stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk) UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, Sweden, 2 PhD studentships (contact Prof. Claes von Hofsten claes.von_hofsten at psyk.uu.se) TELEROBOT Srl, Italy, 1 two-year postdoc (contact Dr Francesco Becchi francesco.becchi at telerobot.it) Associate partner institutions (where PhD students can spend part of their studies) RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan (Prof Jun Tani) Yale University, USA (Prof Brian Scassellati) National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Prof Jerry Lin) Honda European Research Institute, Germany (Dr Christian Goerick) BARA British Automation and Robot Association, UK (Dr Paul Robinson) Application deadline: We aim to have all PhD students starting on 1 January 2010. Application deadlines vary between institutions, and you are advised to contact each partner as soon as possible, possibly before the end of September. The following international mobility conditions apply: Posts are open to candidate of all nationalities. Applicants must not be nationals of the country of the institution in which they are applying to. They must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country there are applying to, for longer than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Early-Stage Researchers are defined as those who are, at the time of selection, in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. This is measured from the date when they obtained the degree which would formally entitle them to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the research training is provided, irrespective of whether or not a doctorate is envisaged. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090818/8afb94e8/attachment-0001.html From ommer at eecs.berkeley.edu Wed Aug 19 08:53:07 2009 From: ommer at eecs.berkeley.edu (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Ommer?=) Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:53:07 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PostDoc & PhD Position in Computer Vision - University of Heidelberg, GER Message-ID: <4A8BF5B3.5020103@eecs.berkeley.edu> PostDoc & PhD Position in Computer Vision at the University of Heidelberg The Computer Vision group at the Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) headed by Prof. Bj?rn Ommer has an opening for a fully funded PostDoc and PhD position. We are seeking applicants with a strong interest in performing cutting edge research in a very active and exciting research area. We work in the attractive surroundings of the HCI, which is part of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) at the University of Heidelberg. The mission of the HCI is to conduct basic research with the aim of providing innovative solutions to basic image analysis and computer vision problems. We are also integrated within the interdisciplinary research area Transcultural Studies in the Humanities. The open positions are situated within the group's core research area of Visual Object Recognition and provide opportunities for fundamental and interdisciplinary research. The research topics are in the field of category-level recognition with particular emphasis on shape analysis. The primary application area of this work will be in gesture classification for which we have gathered novel, comprehensive datasets. The PostDoc salary is TV-L13 for one year with an optional extension of up to two more years. The PhD salary is equivalent to TV-L13 3/4 with adequate supervision and support to enable completion of the thesis within 3 years. Ideal candidates will have an excellent degree (Diploma, M.Sc. or equivalent for the PhD position; PhD for the PostDoc position) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field. They will have a strong mathematical background, solid programming experience in C++ and Matlab, and above all a strong motivation and desire to learn. Prior experience in computer vision and machine learning is desired and fluency in English is required (both written and spoken). If you are interested in joining a young and dynamic group to pursue exciting research that has impact within and beyond your direct field of research then please send your complete application (including motivation letter, complete curriculum vitae, score records, and a recommendation letter or names of two academic references) until October 15, 2009 by Email. The screening process will already start before this deadline, so early submissions are strongly encouraged. Email: bjoern [dot] ommer [at] iwr [dot] uni-heidelberg [dot] de Prof. Dr. Bj?rn Ommer Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) Universit?t Heidelberg Speyerer Strasse 6 D-69115 Heidelberg Web: http://hci.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/people/bommer/ From a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk Fri Aug 21 14:18:18 2009 From: a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk (Anil Seth) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:18:18 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Doctoral research studentship available at Sussex University Message-ID: <4A8EE4EA.1030207@sussex.ac.uk> *Self-modelling for Control, Cognition, and Consciousness* *Closing date for applications: September 14th 2009 Expected start date: October 1st 2009* Funding is available from Autumn 2009 for a full-time DPhil (PhD) in the area of self-modelling for control, cognition, and consciousness, supervised by Prof. Owen Holland and Dr. Anil Seth. The studentship is part of the EU FP7 project ECCEROBOT: Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot (www.eccerobot.org ). Self-modelling, particularly of the body, is a powerful strategy for controlling the movements and actions of natural and artificial embodied agents. It is also involved at many levels in the development and functioning of cognition, and plays a role in several theories of consciousness. We are seeking a research student to investigate and demonstrate the use of self-modelling for control and cognition in a sophisticated humanoid robot, and to extend the approach in the direction of functions associated with consciousness. For more details, and for instructions on how to apply, see http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/FK878/Research_Studentship/. -- Anil Seth, D.Phil. Reader, EPSRC Leadership Fellow, Dept of Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK W: www.anilseth.com, T: +44 1273 678549, From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Sun Aug 23 17:34:49 2009 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:34:49 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 101, issue 2 --- Table of Content Message-ID: <4A91B5F9.1010609@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 101, issue 2 --- Table of Content "Emergence of network structure due to spike-timing-dependent plasticity in recurrent neuronal networks. I. Input selectivity?strengthening correlated input pathways" Matthieu Gilson, Anthony N. Burkitt, David B. Grayden, Doreen A. Thomas, J. Leo van Hemmen Page 81 - 102 http://www.springerlink.com/content/8441p585w93u0576/ "Emergence of network structure due to spike-timing-dependent plasticity in recurrent neuronal networks. II. Input selectivity?symmetry breaking" Matthieu Gilson, Anthony N. Burkitt, David B. Grayden, Doreen A. Thomas, J. Leo van Hemmen Page 103 - 114 http://www.springerlink.com/content/1731u1wv847x7xn5/ "Modelled temperature-dependent excitability behaviour of a generalised human peripheral sensory nerve fibre" Jacoba E. Smit, Tania Hanekom, Johan J. Hanekom Page 115 - 130 http://www.springerlink.com/content/u0v2g8424844l672/ "Predictive feedback in human simulated pendulum balancing" Peter Gawthrop, Ian Loram, Martin Lakie Page 131 - 146 http://www.springerlink.com/content/x5126211472w3502/ "Stability switches, oscillatory multistability, and spatio-temporal patterns of nonlinear oscillations in recurrently delay coupled neural networks" Yongli Song, Valeri A. Makarov, Manuel G. Velarde Page 147 - 167 http://www.springerlink.com/content/r447k4rg5283j71l/ Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From randy.oreilly at colorado.edu Wed Aug 26 03:13:37 2009 From: randy.oreilly at colorado.edu (Randall O'Reilly) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:13:37 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Emergent version 5.0.0 available Message-ID: <927B7EC8-2B5A-452F-849F-EE63008EE0EE@colorado.edu> A major new release of the Emergent neural network simulation software is now available for download: http://grey.colorado.edu/emergent/index.php/Main_Page It contains many new features and fixes, as described here: http://grey.colorado.edu/emergent/index.php/Changes_5.0.0 Including: Undo/Redo, efficient threading, integrated web browser for documentation and help, screencast tutorials, improved 3D viewer, improved virtual 3D environment simulator, improved gui-based programming environment, and many bug fixes. Emergent projects from the "Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience" textbook (O'Reilly & Munakata, 2000, MIT Press) are available for the new version at: http://grey.colorado.edu/CompCogNeuro/index.php/CECN1_Projects - Randy From hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de Wed Aug 26 08:26:56 2009 From: hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de (hecke) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:26:56 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [still 6 places] CNS fall course in Goettingen, Germany Message-ID: <4A952A10.2070608@nld.ds.mpg.de> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Still 6 places available ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Applications are invited for the seventh fall course on COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE in Goettingen, Germany September 21 - 25, 2009 organized by H. Schrobsdorff The course is intended to provide graduate students and young researchers from all parts of neuroscience with working knowledge of theoretical and computational methods in neuroscience and to acquaint them with recent developments in this field. The course includes tutorials and lectures of the following researchers: * Michele Giugliano: In vivo-like, noisy stimulation paradigms in in vitro cellular electrophysiology * Robert G?tig: (working title) Spike-timing based sensory coding and processing * Jason Kerr: Population imaging in vivo: from the awake to the anesthetized * Benjamin Lindner: Interspike interval statistics and response properties of neurons in the fluctuation driven regime * Gianluigi Mongillo: Collective dynamics of recurrent networks with short-term synaptic plasticity. The course takes place at the Department of Nonlinear Dynamics of the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Selforganization, Bunsenstr. 10, D-37073 Goettingen. A course fee of 100 Euro includes participation in the tutorials, study materials, and part of the social events. The number of participants is limited to about 30. Course language is English. To apply please fill out the application form at: http://www.bccn-goettingen.de/events-1/cns-course by August 15, 2009. Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you in Goettingen Hecke -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: hecke.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 416 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090826/3dfbe04e/hecke.vcf From m.lukosevicius at jacobs-university.de Thu Aug 27 11:08:31 2009 From: m.lukosevicius at jacobs-university.de (Mantas Lukosevicius) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:08:31 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Review article: Reservoir computing approaches to recurrent neural network training Message-ID: <4A96A16F.5060607@jacobs-university.de> A comprehensive survey article "Reservoir computing approaches to recurrent neural network training" has been published in Computer Science Review by M. Lukosevicius and H. Jaeger. Preprint: http://www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/hjaeger/pubs/2261_LukoseviciusJaeger09.pdf Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2009.03.005 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: m_lukosevicius.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 459 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090827/35c5ac6d/m_lukosevicius.vcf From shimon.whiteson at gmail.com Thu Aug 27 04:34:30 2009 From: shimon.whiteson at gmail.com (Shimon Whiteson) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:34:30 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Machine Learning Journal Special Issue: Empirical Evaluations in Reinforcement Learning Message-ID: <2E6D2042-53D0-453E-B40F-30D21DF7FDA1@gmail.com> Call For Papers: Machine Learning Journal Special Issue Empirical Evaluations in Reinforcement Learning Submission Deadline: February 26, 2010 Guest Editors: Shimon Whiteson and Michael Littman The continuing development of a field requires a healthy exchange between theoretical advances and experimental observations. The purpose of this special issue is to assess progress in empirical evaluations of reinforcement-learning algorithms and to encourage the adoption of effective experimental methodologies. The last several years have seen new trends in uniform software interfaces between environments and learning algorithms, community comparisons and competitions, and an increased interest in experimenting with reinforcement learning in embedded systems. We enthusiastically solicit papers on relevant topics such as: * The design and dissemination of standardized frameworks and repositories for algorithms, methods, and/or results. * Experience of organizers and participants in reinforcement-learning competitions and bake-offs. * Novel evaluation methodologies or metrics. * Careful empirical comparisons of existing methods. * Novel methods validated with strong empirical results on existing benchmarks, especially those used in recent RL Competitions (see http://www.rl-competition.org/) . * Applications of reinforcement-learning approaches to real-life environments such as computer networks, system management and robotics. * Theoretical work such as sample complexity bounds that can be used to guide the design of benchmarks and evaluations. The emphasis of the special issue is not on the development of novel algorithms. Instead, papers will be assessed in terms of the insights they provide about how best to assess performance in reinforcement learning, i.e., the "meta" problem of evaluating the evaluation methodologies themselves. In particular, papers presenting empirical results should also discuss what those results reveal about the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation methodology. Similarly, papers describing real-life applications should make clear what limitations the application exposes in 'off-the-shelf' methods, how the employed method had to be modified to address real-world complications, and what the results show that could not be learned from experiments in 'toy' domains. Papers proposing new evaluation methodologies should include illustrative empirical results offering insights that would be difficult to obtain with conventional methodologies. Finally, papers proposing new evaluation methodologies should also compare and contrast with methodologies in related areas, e.g. supervised learning, explaining why such methodologies are not adequate and what ideas, if any, can be borrowed from them. For more details see: http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/CFP_10994_2009826.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-791198-p35726603 From pmandal at postoffice.utas.edu.au Thu Aug 27 04:40:38 2009 From: pmandal at postoffice.utas.edu.au (Paras Mandal) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:40:38 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: AISAT 2009: papers submission extended to September 15, 2009 Message-ID: <0KP1007OP1FRI490@mmp-sby1.its.utas.edu.au> >THE 3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON >ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY >AISAT 2009 >http://www.eng.utas.edu.au/conferences/AISAT/aisat2009.html >THE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA, >HOBART, AUSTRALIA > >22 ? 25 November 2009 > > > > > > (Hosted by the School of Engineering in partnership with the Institution of Engineers, Australia.) > >Reminder: >Submission of papers has been extended to September 15, 2009 >http://www.eng.utas.edu.au/conferences/AISAT/aisat2009.html > >Over the last four decades the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly developed and diversified in both its conceptual advancement and applications. These advances have initiated several research areas in neuroscience, cognitive science, physics, philosophy and engineering. This multi-disciplinary problem has developed versatile tools for intelligent decision making over the years of advancement, while raising more philosophical questions than available answers. The nature of investigation varies significantly depending on the discipline and scope. Therefore, the investigations have varied anything from the neuro-correlates of consciousness to individual application of AI. This conference on artificial intelligence in science and technology is an international multi-disciplinary conference that will bring several areas of expertise to tackle common problems. > > >Venue: >The Conference will be held at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, between 22?25 November 2009. The University of Tasmania is one of Australia?s oldest universities. Founded in Hobart in 1890 it was the fourth university to be established in Australia. In the ensuing one hundred years it has gained a reputation for solid academic achievement. The university is within walking distance of the city of Hobart, Tasmania?s capital city. Hobart has modern facilities, extensive shopping, restaurants, and cultural and entertainment opportunities. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia. Hobart has a moderate climate, coupled with the second lowest rainfall for an Australian capital city. > > >Conference Themes: > >Basic Research in AI >? knowledge and reasoning >? representation and search >? knowledge-based systems >? machine learning >? neural networks >? fuzzy logic >? genetic algorithms >? neuro-fuzzy systems >? soft computing and hybrid systems >? data mining >? automated reasoning and codes > > >Neuro-Cognitive Science >? modeling the brain >? memory and learning >? neural information processing >? visual perception >? sensory systems >? studies of consciousness >? quantum theory of consciousness >? cellular and sub-neural process >? biophysics and living processes >? cognitive engineering > > >Application Domains >? manufacturing >? electrical and power engineering >? civil and mechanical engineering >? biomedical engineering >? telecommunication >? control engineering >? environmental engineering >? business and management >? medicine >? geography > >The scope of the conference is recent and original research in the area of artificial intelligence applications in science and technology. The list of topics shown give guidelines for possible contributions. Papers on other related topics will also be accepted if they fall within the objectives of the conference. > > > > > >Paper Submission: > > >Authors are invited to submit full papers in English. All submissions will be peer-reviewed based on originality and technical quality. Each paper is limited to 6 pages. The submission must include the author(s) name, organisation and full address for correspondence, including telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address. The file format for your paper or abstract should be PDF. All authors must submit their papers before the closing date of 1 September 2009. Please forward submissions to the AISAT?2009 Secretariat via the online conference web link ? see below. > > > > > >Invited Sessions and Tutorials: > > >Prospective organisers of Invited Sessions and Tutorials are invited to submit their proposals by 1 August 2009. A prospective Invited Session organizer should send a proposal, including a session title, a short synopsis, a bio of the organizer with a publication list for the last 5 years, to the AISAT?2009 Secretariat via the online web link below. > > > > > >Exhibition Facilities: > > >Mini-exhibition facilities will be available for those firms or organisations wishing to display products, services, hardware, software, literature relating to the theme of the conference. The space may also be used for free standing units. Please contact the Conference Secretariat for details. > > >Important dates: >Proposals for Invited Sessions and Tutorials 1 August 2009 >Proposals for tutorials and exhibitions 1 August 2009 >Receipt of full papers 1 September 2009 >Notification of acceptance of full papers 1 October 2009 > > > > > > >Registration: > > >Those interested in attending the conference are requested to complete the preliminary registration form and e-mail, mail or fax it to the Secretariat as soon as possible. Authors must register and present their papers at the conference. Failure to pay the registration fee will exclude the paper from the conference proceedings. > >The full registration fee will be AU$800 per participant. However an early bird discount fee of AU$650 is available. A special rate of AU$500 per participant is available for full time students with an early bird discount rate of AU$400. Registration includes a copy of the proceedings, lunches, morning and afternoon tea and a welcome reception. A conference dinner will be held at a cost of AU$75 per person, in addition to the registration fee. > > >Organising Committee: >General and Technical Program Chair: >Professor Michael Negnevitsky (The University of Tasmania) > >Members of the Local Organising Committee: > * Prof Larry Forbes (Mathematics and Physics) > * Dr Tim Gale (Biomedical Engineering) > * A/Prof Quang Ha (Control and Robotics) > * Mr Geoff Harper (IEAust Tasmanian Division) > * A/Prof Byeong-ho Kang (Artificial Intelligence) > * Dr Andrei Kelarev (Mathematics) > * Prof Christopher Lueg (Computer Science) > * Prof Jeff Malpas (Philosophy) > * Dr Paras Mandal (Prediction Models) > * Dr Cameron Potter (Optimization and Forecasting) > * Prof Leon Reznik (Fuzzy Control) > * Prof Jeff Summers (Psychology) > * Dr Greg Timms (IEEE) > > >Conference Secretariat: >For enquiries regarding registration and technical papers contact: > >Phil Holmes >AISAT?2009 Secretariat >Convention Wise >Victoria Dock, Hobart Tasmania 7000 >Australia >Tel: +61 3 6234 1424 Fax: +61 3 6281 9601 >E-mail: Phil.Holmes at conventionwise.com.au >Home page: http://www.eng.utas.edu.au/conferences/AISAT/aisat2009.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090827/744ebaee/attachment-0001.html From alorincz at axelero.hu Sun Aug 30 14:53:51 2009 From: alorincz at axelero.hu (Andras Lorincz) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:53:51 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Hippocampal formation: information-theoretical model Message-ID: Dear All: I would like to draw your attention to a recent information-theoretically motivated model of the entorhinal-hippocampal (ECHC) loop [1]. I also present a general representational architecture that links the computational functions of the ECHC loop in association with sensory processing and reinforcement learning [2]. Related publications can be found here http://nipg.inf.elte.hu [1] @article{lorincz09here, author = {A. Lorincz and G. Szirtes}, title = {Here and now: how time segments may become events in the hippocampus}, journal = {Neural Networks}, year = {2009}, volume = {22}, pages = {738-747}, url = {http://nipg.inf.elte.hu/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=27&func=file info&id=179}, } Abstract: The hippocampal formation is believed to play a central role in memory functions related to the representation of events. Events are usually considered as temporally bounded processes, in contrast to the continuous nature of sensory signal flow they originate from. Events are then organized and stored according to behavioral relevance and are used to facilitate prediction of similar events. In this paper we are interested in the kind of representation of sensory signals that allows for detecting and/or predicting events. Based on new results on the identification problem of linear hidden processes, we propose a connectionist network with biologically sound parameter tuning that can represent causal relationships and define events. Interestingly, the wiring diagram of our architecture not only resembles the gross anatomy of the hippocampal formation (including the entorhinal cortex), but it also features similar spatial distribution functions of activity (localized and periodic, 'grid-like' patterns) as found in the different parts of the hippocampal formation. We shortly discuss how our model corresponds to different theories on the role of the hippocampal formation in forming episodic memories or supporting spatial navigation. We speculate that our approach may constitute a step toward a unified theory about the functional role of the hippocampus and the structure of memory representations. [2] @incollection{lorincz09learning, author = {A. Lorincz}, title = {Learning and Representation: From Compressive Sampling to the 'Symbol Learning Problem'}, booktitle = {Handbook of Large-Scale Random Networks}, year = {2009}, editor = {B. Bollobas and R. Kozma and M. Dezso}, volume = {18}, series = {Bolyai Society Mathematical Studies}, pages = {445-488}, address = {Berlin, Germany}, publisher = {Springer}, url = {http://nipg.inf.elte.hu/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=27&func=file info&id=176}, } Abstract: In this paper a novel approach to neurocognitive modeling is proposed in which the central constraints are provided by the theory of reinforcement learning. In this formulation learning is (1) exploiting the statistical properties of the system's environment, (2) constrained by biologically inspired Hebbian interactions and (3) based only on algorithms which are consistent and stable. In the resulting model some of the most enigmatic problems of artificial intelligence have to be addressed. In particular, considerations on combinatorial explosion lead to constraints on the concepts of state-action pairs: these concepts have the peculiar flavor of determinism in a partially observed and thus highly uncertain world. We will argue that these concepts of factored reinforcement learning result in an intriguing learning task that we call the symbol learning problem. For this task we sketch an information theoretic framework and point towards a possible resolution. Andras Lorincz ECCAI Fellow Department of Software Technology and Methodology E?tv?s Lor?nd University Email: andras.lorincz at elte.hu Group: http://nipg.inf.elte.hu Personal: http://people.inf.elte.hu/lorincz -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20090830/0c4b2c4e/attachment.html