From jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk Mon Aug 2 06:44:04 2010 From: jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk (James A. Bednar) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 11:44:04 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: UK PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <19542.41332.44566.332219@lodestar.inf.ed.ac.uk> PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, Edinburgh ADDITIONAL STUDENTSHIPS NOW AVAILABLE; APPLY BY 15 AUGUST! 2010-2011 applications for fully-funded PhD studentships at the University of Edinburgh Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience are now being considered. The DTC is a world-class centre for research at the interface between neuroscience and the engineering, computational, and physical sciences. A small number of places remain open for exceptional candidates to start in September 2010. Our four-year programme is ideal for students with strong computational and analytical skills who want to employ cutting-edge methodology to advance research in neuroscience and related fields. The first year consists of courses in neuroscience and informatics, as well as lab projects. This is followed by a three-year PhD project done in collaboration with one of the many departments and institutes affiliated with the DTC. The DTC focuses on research into understanding the brain and the nervous system using computational models and experiments, and also includes applying findings from neuroscience to build better software and hardware (e.g. robots and microcircuits), and using advanced methods to improve data handling and analysis, including clinical diagnosis. PhD topics fall into five main areas: * Computational neuroscience: Using analytical and computational models, potentially supplemented with experiments, to gain quantitative understanding of the nervous system. Current projects focus on the development and function of sensory and motor systems, including neural coding, learning, and memory. * Biomedical imaging algorithms and tools: Using advanced data analysis techniques, such as machine learning and Bayesian approaches, for imaging-based diagnosis and research. * Cognitive science: Studying human cognitive processes and analysing them in computational terms. * Neurorobotics and VLSI: Using insights from neuroscience to help build better hardware, such as neuromorphic VLSI circuits and robots that perform robustly under natural conditions. * Software systems and applications: Using discoveries from neuroscience to develop software that can handle real-life data. Edinburgh has a world-class research community in these areas and leads the UK in creating a coherent programme in neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Edinburgh has often been voted 'best place to live in Britain', and has many exciting cultural and student activities. Students with a strong background in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering are particularly welcome to apply. Highly motivated students with other backgrounds will also be considered. Up to 12 full studentships (including stipend of 13,320-16,400 UK pounds/year) are available to UK citizens or permanent residents for entry in 2010. EU students can be funded for tuition and fees, but will need to provide evidence of external funding for living costs. Other overseas students can be accepted only with full external funding. Further information and application forms can be obtained from: http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/dtc For consideration for entry in September 2010, the final deadline for complete applications is August 15th. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. From geoffrey.hinton at gmail.com Sun Aug 1 22:22:37 2010 From: geoffrey.hinton at gmail.com (Geoffrey Hinton) Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2010 22:22:37 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: How to train Restricted Boltzmann machines Message-ID: A practical guide on how to set all of the various meta-parameters when training a Restricted Boltzmann Machine is now available at http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/absps/guideTR.pdf Geoff Hinton From alexei at bicasymposium.com Sun Aug 1 23:31:36 2010 From: alexei at bicasymposium.com (Alexei Samsonovich) Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2010 23:31:36 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: BICA 2010 abstracts (Nov 12-14 Washington DC) Message-ID: Greetings, At this time we solicit short (~150 words) abstracts for publication in the BICA 2010 Proceedings by IOS Press and for presentation at BICA 2010 (http://bicasymposium.com : November 12-14, Washington DC, collocated with AAAI FSS; "BICA" stands for Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, i.e. inspired by the human brain-mind). This is an opportunity for those who missed the paper submission deadline. If you are interested, please email your abstract simultaneously to samsonovich at cox.net and kamillarj at gmail.com together with the title, keywords, author names, affiliations, addresses and contact information, not later than within a week. In addition, we are planning to publish in the BICA 2010 Proceedings a CATALOG OF IMPLEMENTED COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURES, intended as a general reference. All contributors will be listed as co-authors of this publication, provided they agree. The catalog will be based on the current comparative table (http://bicasymposium.com/cogarch). In order for your cognitive architecture to be included in the catalog, it needs to be entered into the table. All you need for this to happen is to prepare a column describing your architecture following instructions at the above site and email the resultant xls file to me (samsonovich at cox.net, alexei at bicasymposium.com) within 2 weeks. If you are planning to attend BICA 2010 with or without a presentation, please keep in mind that the current room rate at the conference site, Holiday Inn for the days of BICA 2010 is $109.99 (http://www.holidayinn.com/washarlington), and the current low registration fee is still $200 USD, which includes the reception on Nov 12, hard copies of Proceedings and IJMC Special Issue on BICA (you can register online at http://members.cox.net/bica2010/registration/). Finally, every BICA 2010 participant is invited to present a cognitive robotic demo, or any physical demo relevant to BICA. Please notify me if you plan to bring a robot, unless you did so already. I am looking forward to an extremely synergistic and productive BICA meeting. Cheers, -Alexei -- Alexei V. Samsonovich, BICA 2010 Co-Chair Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University 4400 Univeristy Drive MS 2A1, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 You are receiving this email because of your expressed interest in BICA 2010 or your previous engagement in related events. If you no longer wish to receive BICA-related announcements, please reply to this message with the subject line UNSUBSCRIBE. Sorry for duplicates. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100802/ceaaf0fd/attachment-0001.html From baolshausen at berkeley.edu Tue Aug 3 01:01:22 2010 From: baolshausen at berkeley.edu (Bruno Olshausen) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 23:01:22 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Santa Fe Institute Workshop on Perception and Action Message-ID: <54215C67-C8E6-4FE3-B63B-44FE5203BEB5@berkeley.edu> Workshop announcement: ------------------------------------ Perception & Action - an Interdisciplinary Approach to Cognitive Systems Theory September 14-16, 2010 Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico Organizers: Nihat Ay, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Ray Guillery, Oxford University Bruno Olshausen, University of California, Berkeley Murray Sherman, University of Chicago Fritz Sommer, University of California, Berkeley Invited speakers: Ehud Ahissar, Weizmann Institute of Science Andy Clark, University of Edinburgh Ralf Der, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Carol Colby, University of Pittsburgh Keyan Ghazi-Zahedi, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Jeff Hawkins, Numenta Yasuo Kuniyoshi, University of Tokyo Christopher Moore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich Daniel Polani, University of Hertfordshire Kevin O'Regan, CNRS Paris Marc Sommer, Duke University Naftali Tishby, The Hebrew University The goal of this workshop is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of theorists, roboticists, and neuroscientists to focus on sensorimotor integration as an important basis of cognition. The workshop will consider three particular themes: 1) thalamo-cortical relationships and their role in sensorimotor integration, 2) robotics and the far-reaching implications of the fact that cognitive systems are embodied and situated agents, and 3) systems-theoretic aspects of sensorimotor integration in the context of theory and philosophy (representation, relevance of information, prediction, regulation, and control). We invite applications from students and postdocs interested in attending the meeting. A small number of travel grants may be available to defray costs, but participants are otherwise responsible for covering expenses for travel and accommodations. Applications consist of a CV, statement of interest (less than 500 words), and reference letter from the research supervisor and should be sent to Murray Sherman (msherman at bsd.uchicago.edu) by August 15. --------------------------------------- Bruno A. Olshausen Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute & School of Optometry Director, Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience UC Berkeley 575A Evans hall, MC 3198 Berkeley, CA 94720-3198 (510) 642-7250 / 2-7206 (fax) http://redwood.berkeley.edu/bruno From terry at salk.edu Thu Aug 5 23:44:07 2010 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:44:07 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - September, 2010 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 22, Number 9 - September 1, 2010 LETTERS Tractable Multivariate Binary Density Estimation and the Restricted Boltzmann Forest Hugo Larochelle, Yoshua Bengio, and Joseph Turian A Two-Layer Model of Natural Stimuli Estimated with Score Matching Urs Koster and Aapo Hyvarinen Individual Differences in Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Receptors Predict Development of Addiction-Like Behavior: A Computational Approach Payam Piray, Mohammad Mahdi Keramati, Amir Dezfouli, Caro Lucas, and Azarakhsh Mokri Extracting State Transition Dynamics from Multiple Spike Trains Using Hidden Markov Models with Correlated Poisson Distribution Kentaro Katahira, Jun Nishikawa, Kazuo Okanoya, and Masato Okada Sound Retrieval and Ranking Using Sparse Auditory Representations Richard F. Lyon, Martin Rehn, Samy Bengio, Thomas C. Walters, and Gal Chechik A Grouped Ranking Model for Item Preference Parameter Hideitsu Hino, Yu Fujimoto, and Noboru Murata Topographic Mapping of Large Data Sets Barbara Hammer and Alexander Hasenfuss The MEE Principle in Data Classification: A Perceptron-Based Analysis Luis M. Silva, J. Marques de Sa and Luis Alexandre Bayesian Online Learning of the Hazard Rate in Change-Point Problems Robert C. Wilson, Matthew R. Nassar, and Joshua I. Gold ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2010 - VOLUME 22 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $65 $128 $60 Individual $115 $178 $107 Institution $962 $1,025 $860 Canada: Add 5% GST to USA prices MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu http://mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp ----- From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Tue Aug 3 09:56:41 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 15:56:41 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD-Position at the Bernstein Center Freiburg Message-ID: <009301cb3313$b3a21450$1ae63cf0$@uni-freiburg.de> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% %% %% Ph.D.-Position %% %% "Multielectrode arrays with adjustable stiffness" %% %% %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Laboratory for Biomedical Microtechnology (www.imtek.de/bmt) Electrodes can only be inserted into the tissue in parallel to the needle axis. Therefore, a minimum critical stiffness is necessary. These electrodes are not flexible and cannot adapt to curvature of anatomical structures and pulsatile changes of position. Research focuses on different strategies to improve the tissue-material interface: geometrical variations like lattices structures, tubular substrates with resorbable cores, surface modifications, and hydrogel coatings on stiff substrates. However, with these state of the art developments the basic problems in penetrating microelectrodes are not solved. We will develop novel concepts for penetrating multichannel microelectrodes in which the mechanical stiffness can be adjusted to match the different requirements during insertion and chronic recording. The successful applicant has a second degree (M.Sc, Diploma or equivalent) in neuroscience, biology, or medicine and has a solid background in electrical engineering and systems neuroscience as well as a strong interest in interdisciplinary research. He/she will perform acute and chronic recordings in rodents to test the biocompatibility and long-term functionality of new electrodes. Additionally, histological and immunohistochemical test will be performed to quantify the reaction of the nervous tissue. The Bernstein Center Freiburg concentrates research in Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. The projects are highly interdisciplinary and span from mathematical-theoretical approaches on the function and dynamics of neuronal networks over neuroanatomy and experimentally driven neurophysiology up to the development of technologies for medical application. The position is open immediately until filled. Contact: Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz Biomedical Microtechnology Department of Microsystems Engineering University of Freiburg - IMTEK Georges-Koehler-Allee 102 79110 Freiburg, Germany stieglitz at imtek.uni-freiburg.de From gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Fri Aug 6 18:02:58 2010 From: gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk (Gert Westermann) Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:02:58 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post doc for modeling reading of Kanji (Germany/UK) Message-ID: <4C5C8692.8030004@brookes.ac.uk> This job ad may be of interest to readers of this list - please also forward it to suitable PhD students/post docs. Post-doctoral Research Assistant Connectionist reading model *Our Profile * "Anthropological universals -- cultural differences" is an interdisciplinary project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Principal investigators are Prof. Dr. Christian Stetter (Institute for Language and Communication Studies, project leader), Prof. Dr. Walter Huber (Section Neurolinguistics at the Department of Neurology) and Prof. Dr. Martina Ziefle (Human Technology Centre, eHealth). We closely cooperate with Prof. Gert Westermann (Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, UK). The project compares the German writing system with Japanese Kanji as well as their cognitive processing. The aim of the project is to create an empirically appropriate connectionist cognitive model for single word recognition. *Your responsibilities* You will be responsible for programming and analysing an artificial neural network of single word recognition and lexical decision in Japanese (Kanji). You will cooperate closely with the researchers of the other sub-projects. Half of the time you will stay in Oxford (UK) at the lab of Gert Westermann. *Your profile* You should hold a PhD in the field of computer science, cognitive sciences or a closely related field and have experience in programming (C/C++/Matlab), preferably with connectionist networks. You should be highly motivated and eager to explore psycho-linguistic questions with computational modelling. *Our offer * We offer an interdisciplinary and international work environment in the heart of Europe. 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 September 15, 2011. Salary is according to TV-L (E13) (3.064-3.403 EUR gross, depending on experience). 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 (Landesgleichstellungs-gesetz NRW). RWTH Aachen University has been rewarded with the title "disability-friendly" ("Pr?dikat behinderten-freundlich") 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 * Closing date for applications: September 3rd, 2010. Please send your application documents (CV, list of publications, 2 letters of reference) to: Institute for Language and Communication Studies Dr. Sonja H?ffner RWTH Aachen University Eilfschornsteinstr. 15 52056 Aachen Germany s.haeffner at isk.rwth-aachen.de http://kanji.isk.rwth-aachen.de -- ===================================================================== Dr. Gert Westermann gwestermann at brookes.ac.uk Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP Tel +44 (0)1865 483772 Fax: +44 (0)1865 483887 http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/scientificstaff/gert/ ===================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100806/38f16fae/attachment-0001.html From jose at psychology.rutgers.edu Mon Aug 9 14:22:20 2010 From: jose at psychology.rutgers.edu (Stephen =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jos=E9?= Hanson) Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:22:20 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: PostDoc Postion Rutgers University -- Computational Neuroimaging. Message-ID: <1281378140.1627.53.camel@max> POSTDOC POSITION: COMPUTATIONAL NEUROIMAGING --Rutgers University. We seek a postdoctoral applicant for a position at Rutgers University - Newark in New Jersey in the RUBMA Lab (Rutgers Brain/Mind Analysis; www.rumba.rutgers.edu) Applicants should have a background in one, and preferably several, of the following area: statistical learning methods, neural signal processing, neuroimaging (EEG and/or fMRI), , cognitive neuroscience. A Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience or Computational Neuroscience, Computer Science, Engineering is preferred. Our lab was one of the first development sites for new methods and techniques related to "brain reading" including premier tools such as pyMVPA. Our Cognitive/Perceptual research is focused on learning and memory, specifically in terms of language supporting functions and modularity: Categorization, representation (are there brain modules?), sequential learning, event cognition etc. Our Computational research areas includes multivariate classifiers for fMRI, graph modeling of large scale brain interactivity (Ramsey et al 2010; intrinsic/extrinsic networks) as well as spatial brain clustering (Dense Mode Clustering; Hanson et al 2008, MRI) and inter-brain synchrony metrics (Eigen-Value-Synchrony methods- Hanson et al, 2009, Comp. Neuroscience). We are located in beautiful downtown Newark, 13 miles outside of New York City. See http://www rumba.rutgers.edu for more information) Position could start in summer or fall of 2010. This is a two year postdoctoral position with possible third year renewal. Note: Applicants must be US Citizens or green card holders. Interested applicants should send a current CV, names of potential recommenders To jose at psychology.rutgers.edu WITH SUBJECT HEADING: Postdoc Position Rutgers University is an equal opportunity employer. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100809/a912d8c3/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: sig.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 41099 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100809/a912d8c3/sig-0001.jpg From frank.jaekel at tuebingen.mpg.de Fri Aug 13 05:11:02 2010 From: frank.jaekel at tuebingen.mpg.de (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Frank_J=E4kel?=) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:11:02 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Doctoral Position in Cognitive Modeling at University of Osnabrueck Message-ID: <991e7e63c77448c2efc4f64e222b7d4c@tuebingen.mpg.de> The Cognitive Modeling Group of the interdisciplinary Institute of Cognitive Science (IKW) at the University of Osnabr?ck (Germany) seeks applicants for a three-year doctoral position (50%) (salary level E13 TV-L) The position involves participation in the research activities of the Cognitive Modeling Group in the areas of categorization, concept formation, and visual perception as well as teaching Cognitive Science courses (the weekly teaching load is two hours, teaching language is English). The position offers the possibility of further academic qualification. Applicants are expected to have an excellent academic degree (Master/Diploma) in either Cognitive Science, Psychology, Computer Science or another discipline relevant to Cognitive Science. Prior experience with at least one of the following fields is required: Mathematical modeling, machine learning or experimental psychology. The University of Osnabr?ck is an equal opportunity employer. Women are therefore especially encouraged to submit their applications and will be preferentially considered provided they are equally qualified. Disabled candidates with equal qualifications will be given preference. Applications with the usual documentation (CV, list of publications, and the names of two referees) should be submitted no later than September 9th, 2010 to the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabr?ck, Albrechtstra?e 28, 49076 Osnabrueck. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Frank J?kel (fjaekel at uos.de). -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1678 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100813/f5247288/attachment.bin From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Fri Aug 13 19:40:15 2010 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:40:15 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 103, issue 3 -- open access Message-ID: <4C65D7DF.3010100@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 103, issue 3 --- Table of Content All open access Original papers: "A nonlinear dynamics model for simulating long range correlations of cognitive" Norbert F?rstenau http://www.springerlink.com/content/n016418h77053j88/ "Recovery of surface pose from texture orientation statistics under perspective" Paul A. Warren & Pascal Mamassian http://www.springerlink.com/content/c275u0170031h076/ "Bayesian networks and information theory for audio-visual perception modeling" Patricia Besson, Jonas Richiardi, Christophe Bourdin, Lionel Bringoux, Daniel R. Mestre & Jean-Louis Vercher http://www.springerlink.com/content/117355648774v4vp/ "Enhancement of information transmission of sub-threshold signals applied to distal positions of dendritic trees in hippocampal CA1 neuron models with stochastic" Hiroyuki Mino & Dominique M. Durand http://www.springerlink.com/content/k2825504m62t1x43/ Review: "What do the basal ganglia do? A modeling perspective" V. S. Chakravarthy, Denny Joseph & Raju S. Bapi http://www.springerlink.com/content/5958227w0255l527/ ---- Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From silvio.sabatini at unige.it Sun Aug 15 13:17:43 2010 From: silvio.sabatini at unige.it (Silvio Sabatini) Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:17:43 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Studentship, 3D Dynamic Perception, Genoa, Italy Message-ID: <1281892663.4c6821379396c@webmail.unige.it> Applications are invited for one full-time PhD studentship for a period of 3 years, starting Jan 2011, at ?The Physical Structure of Perception and Computation? lab of the Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering, University of Genoa, Italy. The proposed PhD research project will be focused on ?Self-learning paradigms for sensorimotor integration in active binocular vision in the peripersonal space?, on the ground of the European Commission FP7-ICT grant ?EYESHOTS ? Heterogeneous 3D perception across visual fragments?. (www.eyeshots.it). The project will provide the opportunity to work on neural modeling, visual psychophysics, robotics, or a combination of them. Experimental, modeling, and theoretical approaches might be pursued with a different accent according to personal attitude. Ongoing cooperation, at international level, with research groups of different disciplines, and at local level, with the Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences of the Italian Institute of Technology will ensure a highly interdisciplinary and stimulating environment. Successful applicants will have at their disposal state-of-the-art sw and hw: a 3D VR simulator environment, a 3D laser scanner (Vivid 919, Konica-Minolta), a large-scale CPU/GPU-based neuromorphic architecture for joint stereo and motion cortical representation, and an iCub 6dof binocular robot head. Binocular eye tracking equipment will be specifically purchased for this project. Stipend is EUR 1,072 (tax free) per month, in accordance with the Italian University regulation for academic personnel. Granting of additional top-up funds will be commensurate with commitment. Applicants are expected to have a good honors degree in computer science, engineering, physical sciences, cognitive science, or related disciplines. An open mind and enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research is required. Expressions of interests are encouraged as soon as possible, but by 20th September 2010 at the latest. Please send your CV, background concerning your research interests, and the names and e-mail addresses of 2-3 referees to: Silvio P. Sabatini Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering University of Genoa Via Opera Pia 11a I-16145 Genova Italy Tel: +39-010-3532092 Fax: +39-010-3532289 e-mail: silvio.sabatini at unige.it Official applications should be sent according to the guidelines indicated in the administrative documentation ?Bando di concorso?, downloadable from the following link: http://www.studenti.unige.it/postlaurea/dottorati/XXVI/generale/en/ The strict deadline is 24th September, 2010. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Silvio P. SABATINI - PSPC Research Group DIBE - University of Genova | e_mail: silvio.sabatini at unige.it Via Opera Pia, 11A | phone: +39 010 3532092/3532289 I-16145 Genova (ITALY) | fax: +39 010 3532289/3532777 URL: http://pspc.dibe.unige.it/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From hermann.neuro at gmail.com Mon Aug 16 05:28:08 2010 From: hermann.neuro at gmail.com (Hermann) Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:28:08 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Release of the TREES toolbox for MATLAB Message-ID: <4c690552.078fd80a.5f7f.ffff8ceb@mx.google.com> Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the release of the TREES toolbox for Matlab, freely available at: http://www.treestoolbox.org/ The TREES toolbox is a large Matlab (Mathworks, Natick, MA) software package based on the following paper, published recently in PLoS Computational Biology: ?One rule to grow them all: A general theory of neuronal branching and its practical application?, PLoS Comput Biol 6(8):e1000877. http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000877 Here we present a reduced but powerful description of neuronal morphology using graph theory, and based on the idea that dendritic and axonal branching optimizes total wiring and conduction distances. The TREES toolbox provides: 1. Tools to automatically reconstruct neuronal branching from microscopy image stacks (including an extensive user interface) and to generate synthetic axonal and dendritic trees. 2. The basic tools to edit, visualize and analyze dendritic and axonal trees. 3. Methods for quantitatively comparing branching structures between neurons. 4. Tools for exploring how dendritic and axonal branching depends on local optimization of total wiring and conduction distances. We hope that other groups will benefit from this package and that they will add their own code to the TREES toolbox based on their own specific applications. The code is therefore freely distributed. Best regards, Hermann Cuntz, Friedrich Forstner, Alexander Borst, Michael H?usser Support statement: This work was supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Max-Planck Society. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100816/925e85c3/attachment.html From geoffrey.hinton at gmail.com Tue Aug 17 15:38:32 2010 From: geoffrey.hinton at gmail.com (Geoffrey Hinton) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:38:32 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral fellowship in vision and learning Message-ID: The attached advertisement is for a two-year Junior Fellowship in the program on Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Applicants should have a PhD in Computer Science, Computational Neuroscience, or a related discipline, and already have an exceptional track record of original research. The Junior Fellow will pursue his or her own research program, which should be related to computational approaches to how visual systems can be learned, preferably with some relevance to biological visual systems. The Junior Fellowship will be held in conjunction with a university postdoctoral appointment and is tenable at any of the Canadian universities where Fellows in the NCAP Program are based. These are: University of Montreal (Yoshua Bengio) Queens University (Niko Troje) York University (Hugh Wilson) University of Toronto (David Fleet, Brendan Frey, Aaron Hertzmann, Geoff Hinton, Rich Zemel) University of British Colombia (Nando de Freitas, David Lowe) The application deadline is September 1 2010. Geoff Hinton (Program Director) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: JuniorFellowAdvert.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 55273 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100817/01cad4d2/JuniorFellowAdvert-0001.pdf From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Mon Aug 16 11:04:59 2010 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:04:59 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 73 (issues 13-15) Message-ID: <4C69539B.8000707@science.ru.nl> Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 73 (issues 13-15) ----------- SPECIAL PAPERS (Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics) Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics (editorial) Madhu Chetty, Alioune Ngom, Elena Marchiori Development of knowledge-based system for predicting the stability of proteins upon point mutations Liang-Tsung Huang, Lien-Fu Lai, Chao-Chin Wu, M. Michael Gromiha Predicting SUMOylation sites in developmental transcription factors of Drosophila melanogaster Denis C. Bauer, Fabian A. Buske, Timothy L. Bailey, Mikael Bod?n DFS-generated pathways in GA crossover for protein structure prediction Md Tamjidul Hoque, Madhu Chetty, Andrew Lewis, Abdul Sattar, Vicky M. Avery A clustering based hybrid system for biomarker selection and sample classification of mass spectrometry data Pengyi Yang, Zili Zhang, Bing B. Zhou, Albert Y. Zomaya A modified Markov clustering approach to unsupervised classification of protein sequences L?szl? Szil?gyi, Lehel Medv?s, S?ndor M. Szil?gyi Finding optimal classifiers for small feature sets in genomics and proteomics Gregor Stiglic, Juan J. Rodriguez, Peter Kokol Gene and sample selection for cancer classification with support vectors based t-statistic Piyushkumar A. Mundra, Jagath C. Rajapakse Classifying proteins using gapped Markov feature pairs Xiaonan Ji, James Bailey, Kotagiri Ramamohanarao A hybrid LDA and genetic algorithm for gene selection and classification of microarray data Edmundo Bonilla Huerta, B?atrice Duval, Jin-Kao Hao Biomarker discovery for toxicity Cem Meydan, O. U?ur Sezerman Deterministic local alignment methods improved by a simple genetic algorithm Chengpeng Bi Optimal decoding and minimal length for the non-unique oligonucleotide probe selection problem Laleh Soltan Ghoraie, Robin Gras, Lili Wang, Alioune Ngom A neural network based modeling and validation approach for identifying gene regulatory networks S. Knott, S. Mostafavi, P. Mousavi ----------- SPECIAL PAPERS (Advances in Neural Control) Modeling and Adaptive Control with Fuzzy Neural Networks ? Selected Papers from the 6th International Symposium on Neural Networks (editorial) Wen Yu, Bao-Liang Lu Study on separation principles for T?S fuzzy system with switching controller and switching observer Shiyu Yan, Zengqi Sun Multiple model iterative learning control Li Xiaoli, Zhang Wen Multiple fuzzy neural networks modeling with sparse data Cruz Vega Israel, Wen Yu Indirect hierarchical FCMAC control for the ball and plate system Marco A. Moreno-Armend?riz, C?sar A. P?rez-Olvera, Floriberto Ortiz Rodr?guez, Elsa Rubio The development of fuzzy radial basis function neural networks based on the concept of information ambiguity Seok-Beom Roh, Su-Chong Joo, Witold Pedrycz, Sung-Kwun Oh Design of neural-fuzzy-based controller for two autonomously driven wheeled robot Kuo-Ho Su, Yih-Young Chen, Shun-Feng Su Soft sensing method for magnetic tube recovery ratio via fuzzy systems and neural networks Fenghua Wu, Tianyou Chai -------------- REGULAR PAPERS Direct adaptive NN control for a class of discrete-time nonlinear strict-feedback systems Yan-Jun Liu, Guo-Xing Wen, Shao-Cheng Tong Defining and applying prediction performance metrics on a recurrent NARX time series model Ryad Zemouri, Rafael Gouriveau, Noureddine Zerhouni Coarse scales are sufficient for efficient categorization of emotional facial expressions: Evidence from neural computation Martial Mermillod, Patrick Bonin, Laurie Mondillon, David Alleysson, Nicolas Vermeulen Synchronization of stochastic genetic oscillator networks with time delays and Markovian jumping parameters Yao Wang, Zidong Wang, Jinling Liang, Yurong Li, Min Du Chaotic time series prediction with residual analysis method using hybrid Elman?NARX neural networks Muhammad Ardalani-Farsa, Saeed Zolfaghari Novel delay-dependent robust stability criteria for neutral stochastic delayed neural networks Huabin Chen, Yong Zhang, Peng Hu Kernel based gene expression pattern discovery and its application on cancer classification Ruichu Cai, Zhifeng Hao, Wen Wen, Han Huang Linear discriminant analysis using rotational invariant L1 norm Xi Li, Weiming Hu, Hanzi Wang, Zhongfei Zhang Convolutive blind source separation by efficient blind deconvolution and minimal filter distortion Kun Zhang, Lai-Wan Chan The boundedness of high-order Hopfield neural networks with variable delays Hongxiao Hu, Haijun Jiang, Zhidong Teng The learning of moment neuronal networks Xuyan Xiang, Hui Ou, Yingchun Deng VQSVM: A case study for incorporating prior domain knowledge into inductive machine learning Ting Yu, Simeon Simoff, Tony Jan Constructive training of recurrent neural networks using hybrid optimization Niranjan Subrahmanya, Yung C. Shin Dynamical behavior of a class of nonsmooth gradient-like systems Sitian Qin, Xiaoping Xue Information-theoretic enhancement learning and its application to visualization of self-organizing maps Ryotaro Kamimura Dynamic phase synchronization characteristics of variable high-order coupled neuronal oscillator population Xiaodan Zhang, Rubin Wang, Zhikang Zhang, Jingyi Qu, Jianting Cao, Xianfa Jiao Stability analysis for stochastic neural networks of neutral type with both Markovian jump parameters and mixed time delays Quanxin Zhu, Jinde Cao Synchronization of linearly coupled neural networks with reaction?diffusion terms and unbounded time delays Xiwei Liu Stochastic stability analysis of neutral-type impulsive neural networks with mixed time-varying delays and Markovian jumping Huaguang Zhang, Meng Dong, Yingchun Wang, NingSun Locality preserving discriminant projections for face and palmprint recognition Jie Gui, Wei Jia, Ling Zhu, Shu-Ling Wang, De-Shuang Huang Shadow compensation based on facial symmetry and image average for robust face recognition Ping-Cheng Hsieh, Pi-Cheng Tung Bayesian variable selection for Gaussian process regression: Application to chemometric calibration of spectrometers Tao Chen, Bo Wang Tensor-based subspace learning and its applications in multi-pose face synthesis Xu Qiao, Xian-Hua Han, Takanori Igarashi, Keisuke Nakao, Yen-Wei Chen Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system based representative quality power factor for power quality assessment N. Rathina Prabha, N.S. Marimuthu, C.K. Babulal Efficient face recognition using tensor subspace regression Ziyu Guan, Can Wang, Zhengguang Chen, Jiajun Bu, Chun Chen Impulsive effect on the delayed Cohen?Grossberg-type BAM neural networks Yonghui Xia Nonnegative periodic dynamics of delayed Cohen?Grossberg neural networks with discontinuous activations Xiangnan He, Wenlian Lu, Tianping Chen Support vector machine optimal control for mobile wheeled inverted pendulums with unmodelled dynamics Zhijun Li, Yunong Zhang, Yipeng Yang On the P-critical dynamics analysis of projection recurrent neural networks Chen Qiao, Zongben Xu ------------- BRIEF PAPERS Interval time-varying delay stability for neural networks Fernando de Oliveira Souza, Reinaldo Martinez Palhares Conceptual collaborative filtering recommendation: A probabilistic learning approach Jae-won Lee, Han-Joon Kim, Sang-goo Lee ------------ JOURNAL SITE: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/neucom SCIENCE DIRECT: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5660-2010-999269986-2250752 From hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de Tue Aug 17 09:21:41 2010 From: hecke at nld.ds.mpg.de (hecke) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:21:41 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?iso-8859-1?q?places_left=3A_Fall_Course_on_Comp?= =?iso-8859-1?q?utational_Neuroscience_in_G=F6ttingen=2C_Germany?= Message-ID: <4C6A8CE5.6090309@nld.ds.mpg.de> *------------------------------* * still a few places available * *------------------------------* Applications are invited for the eighth fall course on COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE in G?ttingen, Germany September 20th - 24th, 2010 organized by Hecke 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: * Daniel A. Butts, University of Maryland, College Park * Sophie Deneve, Ecole Normale Superieur, Paris * Hansj?rg Scherberger, German Primate Center, G?ttingen * Elad Schneidman, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot * Susanne Still, University of Hawaii The course takes place at the Department of Nonlinear Dynamics of the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Bunsenstr. 10, D-37073 G?ttingen. 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 as soon as possible. Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you in G?ttingen Hecke From nando at cs.ubc.ca Mon Aug 16 13:37:36 2010 From: nando at cs.ubc.ca (Nando de Freitas) Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:37:36 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: CIFAR Postdoctoral Fellowship Message-ID: CIFAR?s Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception (NCAP) Program is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to fill a Junior Fellowship position beginning in or after January 2011. Applicants should have a PhD in Computer Science, Computational Neuroscience, or a related discipline, and already have an exceptional track record of original research. The Junior Fellow will pursue his or her own research program, which should be related to computational approaches to how visual systems can be learned, preferably with some relevance to biological visual systems. The Junior Fellowship will be held in conjunction with a university postdoctoral appointment and is tenable at any of the Canadian universities where Fellows in the NCAP Program are based. A list of these Fellows is provided below. Eligibility: Individuals who have completed their PhD in one of the above-mentioned disciplines within the past three years, or will complete their doctorate before January 2011, are eligible to apply. In addition to an outstanding record of accomplishment, the successful candidate will have excellent communication skills, strong potential to collaborate with program members and ability to contribute to the program?s mission. The candidate will also be interested in exploring the contributions of research to society in collaboration with their peers from other CIFAR programs. Duration: Two years. Value: $65,000 CDN/year for salary, plus benefit support, if needed $5,000 CDN/year for research support How to Apply: Applications will be submitted through an online application system. Instructions will be posted on or before July 5, 2010 at www.cifar.ca/JFA, with an application deadline of September 1, 2010. Visit today for more information about CIFAR and its Junior Fellow Academy. CIFAR is strongly committed to diversity within its community, and especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of sexual minority groups and others who may contribute to further diversification of ideas. ________________________________________________________________________________________ *Canada-based NCAP Program Fellows are listed below. For more information, please visit the researcher profiles posted on the CIFAR website. UBC: Nando de Freitas, David Lowe U of Toronto: David Fleet, Brendan Frey, Geoffrey Hinton, Richard Zemel Queen?s U: Nikolaus Troje York U: Hugh Wilson U de Montr?al: Yoshua Bengio -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100816/965a4f6e/attachment.html From BS.Bhattacharya at ulster.ac.uk Tue Aug 17 10:42:37 2010 From: BS.Bhattacharya at ulster.ac.uk (Bhattacharya Basabdatta) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:42:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Announcing a recent tnn paper based on rank-order codes in vision Message-ID: <5BEE8418A733624688A183865F7E22DC02E0046E@jnexc09.ad.ulster.ac.uk> Hi all - I would like to draw your kind attention to our paper published in the July issue of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks: B. Sen Bhattacharya and S. B. Furber , "Biologically-inspired means for rank-order encoding images: a quantitative analysis" Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on , vol.21, no.7, pp.1087-1099, July 2010. doi: 10.1109/TNN.2010.2048339 [Abstract ] URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5484611&isnumber =5504504 Kind regards - Basab Ms. Basabdatta Sen Bhattacharya, PhD Research Associate, Comp. Neurosc. Research Team Intelligent Systems Research Centre MS 017, Magee Campus, University of Ulster Northland Road, Derry BT48 7JL Northern Ireland, United Kingdom Tel(o): +44(0)28 713 754 49 url: http://isrc.ulster.ac.uk/Staff/BBhattacharya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100817/a3eb1614/attachment.html From m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk Tue Aug 24 14:44:16 2010 From: m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk (Marcus Kaiser) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:44:16 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Special issue on Hierarchy and Dynamics in Neural Networks Message-ID: Dear all, Hierarchy is a central feature in the organization of complex neural networks. This topic is an emerging key question in neuroscience, as well as generally in the field of network science, due to its links with concepts of control, efficiency, and development across scales. The contributed articles of our special issue on 'Hierarchy and Dynamics in Neural Networks' have now appeared in Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. For your information, these articles are listed below and a two-page overview can be found in the editorial ( http://www.biological-networks.org/pubs/Kaiser2010editorial.pdf ). Perception and hierarchical dynamics Stefan J Kiebel, Jean Daunizeau and Karl J Friston http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11.020.2009/full Hierarchical modularity in human brain functional networks David Meunier, Renaud Lambiotte, Alex Fornito, Karen Ersche and Edward T Bullmore http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11.037.2009/full Interplay between topology and dynamics in excitation patterns on hierarchical graphs Marc H?tt and Annick Lesne http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11.028.2009/full Signal propagation in cortical networks: a digital signal processing approach Francisco A Rodrigues and Luciano da F Costa http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11.024.2009/full Cortical hubs form a module for multisensory integration on top of the hierarchy of cortical networks Gorka Zamora-L?pez, Changsong Zhou and J?rgen Kurths http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11.001.2010/full Criteria for optimizing cortical hierarchies with continuous ranges Antje Krumnack, Andrew T Reid, Egon Wanke, Gleb Bezgin and Rolf K?tter http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/fninf.2010.00007/full Optimal hierarchical modular topologies for producing limited sustained activation of neural networks Marcus Kaiser and Claus C Hilgetag http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/fninf.2010.00008/full Extending stability through hierarchical clusters in Echo State Networks Sarah Jarvis, Stefan Rotter and Ulrich Egert http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/fninf.2010.00011/full Hierarchy and dynamics of neural networks (editorial) Marcus Kaiser, Claus C Hilgetag and Rolf K?tter http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/fninf.2010.00112/full Best, ?Marcus -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. Reader (Associate Professor) in Neuroinformatics School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK http://www.biological-networks.org/? From ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu Tue Aug 24 19:59:31 2010 From: ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu (Ila Fiete) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:59:31 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2011: Meeting Announcement and Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <4C745CE3.4090701@mail.clm.utexas.edu> ==================================================== Computational and Sytems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING WORKSHOPS 24 - 27 Feb, 2011 28 Feb - 1 Mar, 2011 Salt Lake City, Utah Snow Bird Ski Resort, Utah http://www.cosyne.org ==================================================== The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The MAIN MEETING is arranged in a single track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, computation with spiking networks. INVITED SPEAKERS: David Anderson Alison Barth EJ Chichilnisky Tom Clandinin Stan Dehaene David Kleinfeld Peter Latham Roberto Malinow Tirin Moore Anna Nobre Murray Sherman Anthony Zador ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 25 Nov 2010 When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting, due to space constraints. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anthony Zador (CSHL) Alexandre Pouget (U Rochester) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Anne Churchland (UWashington) and Bartlett Mel (USC) Program Chairs: Rachel Wilson (Harvard) and Jim DICarlo (MIT) Workshop Chairs: Mark Laubach (Yale) and Brent Doiron (U Pittsburgh) Publicity Chair: Ila Fiete (UT Austin) From oby at cs.tu-berlin.de Wed Aug 25 10:25:34 2010 From: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de (Klaus Obermayer) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:25:34 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: PhD / Postdoc position available Message-ID: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany Technische Universitaet Berlin, Department of EE and CS Postdoc or PhD Position COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE The successful candidate is expected to join a scientific collaboration between the Neural Information Processing Group at TU Berlin (Dr. Klaus Obermayer) and the Department of Psychiatry at the Charite Medical School (Dr. Andreas Heinz) on: "Reward-Motivated Learning and Memory across the Lifespan" Goal of this project is to construct computational models of reward related learning and decision making and to use these computational methods for the quantitative description of behavioural, neuroimaging, and genetic data obtained from human subjects. Brief project description: Human adaptive behavior is characterized by the interplay between cognitive processes and reward-related learning. It changes across the life-span, differs in subjects suffering from psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia and Alzheimers disease), and is strongly linked to the functioning of the dopaminergic system. Here we investigate how altered dopaminergic functioning specifically affects human memory and whether training programs can be devised to counterbalance some of the observed detrimental effects. We apply a reward-related memory task to subject groups with expected differences in dopaminergic function before and after application of a training program in order to specifically target relevant brain structures. Data interpretation and the design of the training program crucially depend on computational models of coupled brain structures, which are used to quantify differences and changes in behavioral performance, brain activation (fMRI), and genetic variations in the dopaminergic system. We expect observed changes to be linked to differential changes of hippocampal activation during reward-related encoding. Starting date: Immediate Salary level: BAT IIa The position is for initially three years. Candidates should hold a recent PhD-degree (Postdoc position) or Diplom-/Master-degree (PhD position) and should have excellent mathematical and programming skills. Candidates with good knowledge and research experience in Computational Neuroscience / Models of Reward Related Learning will be preferred. Application material (CV, list of publications, abstract of PhD thesis (if applicable), abstract of Diplom-/Master/Thesis, copies of certificates and two letters of reference) should be sent to: Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer, FR 2-1, Technische Universit?t Berlin, Franklinstrasse 28/29, 10587 Berlin, email: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de, preferably by email. All applications received before September 30th, 2010, will be given full consideration, but applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For further information see: http://ni.cs.tu-berlin.de/, http://www.bccn-berlin.de/, http://www.charite.de/psychiatrie/home_en.html. TUB seeks to increase the proportion of women and particularly encourages women to apply. Women will be preferred given equal qualification. Disabled persons will be preferred given equal qualification. From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Thu Aug 26 08:58:25 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:58:25 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Program "EuroSPIN" is inviting applications Message-ID: <002b01cb451e$5f46ec10$1dd4c430$@uni-freiburg.de> Neuroinformatics combines neuroscience and informatics research to develop and apply computational tools and approaches that are essential for understanding the structure and function of the brain. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% %% %% PhD-Positions %% %% Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Program "EuroSPIN" %% %% %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Program "EuroSPIN" (European Study Programme in Neuroinformatics) is inviting applications from students with a background in biology, mathematics, physics, computer science, or neuroscience (at the Master level or equivalent), in all cases with quantitative skills. Documented interest in research activities (e.g. demonstrated in the form of Master thesis work, or participation in research related activities) is of large importance. Fluency in English is mandatory. The four partners (Computational Biology Department, KTH, Sweden; National Centre for Biological sciences, Bangalore, India; Department of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK; Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany) are all research leaders in the Neuroscience field, with complementary strengths. In addition, two associated partners, the Honda Research Institute and Nordita, participate. Each student will spend most of the time in two of the partner universities, and receive a joint (or double) PhD degree following successful completion of the studies. The mobility periods, as well as the courses a student will follow, will be tailored individually. During the PhD period each student has one main supervisor from each of the two universities granting the PhD degree. In the application process, students are asked to indicate and motivate their preferences regarding the constellation of partners and project ideas/areas. Excellent scholarship are available for students accepted to an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate programme. A stipend or employment contract will be provided to all selected PhD students during the study time, which will be between 3-4 years. Application deadline for 2011 intake is November 15, 2010 (category A students) and March 30, 2011 (category B students) If you are interested, please visit our homepage: www.kth.se/eurospin From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Mon Aug 30 14:56:59 2010 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr Amir Hussain) Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:56:59 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: 2011 International Symposium on Neural Networks - ISNN 2011, May 29 - June 1, 2011, Guilin, China Message-ID: <2E9663CBC05E4B99B442E0BE62F3C1E9@cs.ad.stir.ac.uk> Dear all: Please see attached CFP & below, and circulate to interested colleagues.. Thank you in advance, Amir Hussain, PhD University of Stirling, Scotland, UK E-mail: amir at cs.stir.ac.uk www.springer.com/12559 -- Call for Papers 2011 International Symposium on Neural Networks May 29 - June 1, 2011, Guilin, China http://isnn2011.mae.cuhk.edu.hk/ Important dates: Special session proposals due: November 1, 2010 Paper submission deadline: December 1, 2010 Notification of acceptance: January 1, 2011 The 8th International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN 2011) will be held in Guilin, China, as a sequel of ISNN 2004?2010. Guilin has a long history as the most beautiful place in China. It is famous for its wonderful scenery, rivers and karst peaks covered in lush greenery. ISNN 2011 aims to provide a high-level international forum for scientists, engineers, and educators to present the state of the art of neural network research and applications in diverse fields. The symposium will feature plenary lectures given by world renowned scholars, regular sessions with broad coverage, and some special sessions focusing on popular topics. Prospective authors are invited to submit full-length papers (6-8 pages normally and 10 pages maximum) by the submission deadline through the online submission system. All papers accepted by and presented at ISNN2011 will be published by Springer as multiple volumes of Lecture Notes in Computer Science which will be indexed by EI and ISTP. Selected papers will be published in special issues of several SCI journals. ISNN 2011 paper submission website is already open. http://isnn2011.mae.cuhk.edu.hk/ Potential organizers are invited to enlist five or more papers with cohesive topics to form special sessions. Please contact Special Sessions Chair "Jinhu Lu" for more details if you would like to organize special sessions. We look forward to seeing you in Guilin, China! General Chairs Marios M. Polycarpou Paul J. Werbos Steering Committee Chair Jun Wang Organizing Committee Chairs Derong Liu Huaguang Zhang Program Chairs Cesare Alippi Bhaskhar DasGupta Sanqing Hu Plenary Sessions Chairs Frank L. Lewis Changyin Sun Special Sessions Chairs Amir Hussain Jinhu Lu Stefano Squartini Liang Zhao Finance Chairs Hairong Dong Zeng-Guang Hou Cong Wang Zhigang Zeng Publicity Chairs Manuel Roveri Songyun Xie Nian Zhang Dongbin Zhao Publications Chairs Haibo He Wenlian Lu Yunong Zhang Registration Chairs Xiaolin Hu Zhigang Liu Qinglai Wei Local Arrangements Chairs Xuanju Dang Xiaofeng Lin Yong Xu Symposium Secretariat isnn2011 at gmail.com -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CFP-ISNN-2011-v7.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 195023 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100830/4e2751e3/CFP-ISNN-2011-v7-0001.pdf From datashare at sciencedb.net Sun Aug 29 13:20:11 2010 From: datashare at sciencedb.net (Science DB datashare) Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:20:11 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: Announcement : Neuroinformatics database hub Message-ID: <69d52435b6c3e2e03e7e8166a97f0d8f.squirrel@squirrel-webmail.surftown.com> Dear Connectionists, Data sharing is a great way to find new collaborators. We would like to announce a our new database hub for neuroinformatics related data on ScienceDB.net. The concept is simple: If you have a database to share you create a new topic in the neuroinformatics data share group?s forum, where you describe your data, and how you want to share it. Please go to : http://sciencedb.net/groups/neuroinformatics-data-share/forum/ ScienceDB.net is a non-profit portal for the scientific community. Our service is sponsored by ads and donations. If you have any suggestions or comments, please mail us at datashare at sciencedb.net. Kind regards, Science DB http://sciencedb.net/ From oby at cs.tu-berlin.de Tue Aug 31 09:55:34 2010 From: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de (Klaus Obermayer) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:55:34 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc / PhD position in CNS Message-ID: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin & Technische Universitaet Berlin, Department of EE and CS 1 Postdoc or PhD Position COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE The successful candidate is expected to join a German-US scientific collaboration between the Neural Information Processing Group at TU Berlin (Dr. Klaus Obermayer) and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT (Dr. Mrigangka Sur) on: "Role of astrocytes in cortical information processing" Goal of the "Berlin" part of the project is to construct and evaluate computational models of mouse and ferret visual cortical networks in order to understand the mechanisms through which astrocytes influence the response properties of neurons, guide the development of these properties during the critical period, and contribute to short-term plasticity with the release of "gliotransmitters". These activities will be pursued in close interaction with the MIT part of the project, in which properties of the neuron-astrocyte network will be investigated using electrophysiology and in-vivo two-photon microscopy in ferrets and transgenic mice. Starting date: Immediate Salary level: BAT IIa The position is for three years. Candidates should hold a recent PhD-degree (Postdoc position) or Diplom-/Master-degree (PhD position) and should have excellent mathematical and programming skills. Candidates with good knowledge and research experience in Computational Neuroscience / Network Models of Visual Cortex will be preferred. Application material (CV, list of publications, abstract of PhD thesis (if applicable), abstract of Diplom-/Master/Thesis, copies of certificates and two letters of reference) should be sent to: Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer, FR 2-1, Technische Universit?t Berlin, Franklinstrasse 28/29, 10587 Berlin, email: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de, preferably by email. All applications received before September 30th, 2010, will be given full consideration, but applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For further information see: http://ni.cs.tu-berlin.de/, http://www.bccn-berlin.de/, http://www.mit.edu/~msur/ TUB seeks to increase the proportion of women and particularly encourages women to apply. Women will be preferred given equal qualification. Disabled persons will be preferred given equal qualification. From cchrist at cs.ucy.ac.cy Tue Aug 31 18:52:12 2010 From: cchrist at cs.ucy.ac.cy (Chris Christodoulou) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 01:52:12 +0300 (MEDT) Subject: Connectionists: New Paper: Does high firing irregularity enhance learning? Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, I would like to announce the availability of the following paper that has been accepted and will appear in Neural Computation: Christodoulou, C. and Cleanthous, A. 'Does high firing irregularity enhance learning?', Neural Computation (in press). A preprint of the paper can be downloaded from: http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~cchrist/cc_ac_nc10_pprnt.pdf Abstract -------- In this paper, we demonstrate that the high firing irregularity produced by the leaky integrate-and-fire neuron with the partial somatic reset mechanism, which has been shown to be the most likely candidate to reflect the mechanism used in the brain for reproducing the highly irregular cortical neuron firing at high rates (Bugmann, Christodoulou & Taylor, Neural Comput. 9 (1997) 985; Christodoulou & Bugmann, Neurocomput. 38-40 (2001) 1141), enhances learning. More specifically, it enhances reward-modulated Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity with eligibility trace when used in spiking neural networks, as shown by the results when tested in the simple benchmark problem of XOR as well as in a complex multiagent setting task. -------- Kind regards, Chris Christodoulou * * * Dr Chris Christodoulou cchrist at cs.ucy.ac.cy Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus 75 Kallipoleos Ave, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus Tel. (+357) 22 892752, Fax (+357) 22 892701