From zhaoping at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Thu Jul 1 18:59:50 2010 From: zhaoping at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Dr Zhaoping Li) Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 23:59:50 +0100 (BST) Subject: Connectionists: Symposium Program and call for participation for 2nd Beijing International symposium on computational neuroscience July 22nd. Message-ID: Dear All, The schedule and program, for this international symposium on computational neuroscience, to be held in Tsinghua University in Beijing, on July 22nd, are now ready. See http://cns.med.tsinghua.edu.cn/biscon10/program We have an exciting program, with four very interesting oral presentations by leading scientists Larry Abbott, Wu Li, Dan Kersten, Peter Dayan in the field, and about 30 poster contributions from researchers coming from computational and/or experimental backgrounds. The symposium is organized such that, in addition to oral presentations, there will be plenty of opportunities for participants to communicate with each other informally, through tea/coffee, poster sessions, on-site lunch, open panel discussions, (informal) banquet and other social events. The topics in the presentations include vision, audition, neural circuits and networks, neural coding, reinforcement learning, experimental data analysis, etc. Symposium participation is free (other than the optional banquet) but space for participation is limited by the size of the venue. For participation, please register as soon as possible at http://cns.med.tsinghua.edu.cn/biscon10/registration For other information regarding travel, accommodation and the symposium organization, see symposium homepage: http://cns.med.tsinghua.edu.cn/biscon10/home Li Zhaoping on behalf of the organizing committee. From jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi Fri Jul 2 12:16:15 2010 From: jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi (jaakko.peltonen@tkk.fi) Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 19:16:15 +0300 (EEST) Subject: Connectionists: Call for papers: WSOM 2011, 8th Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps Message-ID: =================================================================== First Call for Papers for WSOM 2011, 8th WORKSHOP ON SELF-ORGANIZING MAPS 13 - 15 June 2011, Espoo, Finland Aalto University School of Science and Technology and Dipoli Conference Center Website: http://www.cis.hut.fi/wsom2011 IMPORTANT DATES: Submission of full papers: January 14, 2011 Notification of acceptance: March 1, 2011 Camera-ready paper and author registration: April 1, 2011 Advance registration before: April 15, 2011 =================================================================== GENERAL INFORMATION WSOM 2011 will bring together researchers and practitioners in the field of self-organizing systems, with a particular emphasis on the self-organizing maps. It will highlight key advances in these and closely related fields. WSOM 2011 is the eighth conference in a series of bi-annual international conferences started with WSOM'97 in Helsinki. The event will be co-located with the ICANN 2011 conference that will be organized from 14th to 17th of June, 2011. Conference programmes, registrations and fees will be coordinated. PUBLICATION It is planned that papers accepted for the WSOM 2011 Proceedings will be published in the Springer series, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Registered authors will receive a hard copy proceedings volume, and the proceedings will be available also in full-text electronic format via Springer's internet platform www.springer.com . VENUE WSOM 2011 will take place at the Aalto University School of Science and Technology (former Helsinki University of Technology) and Dipoli Conference Center. They are located in Espoo, in the close vicinity of the Helsinki capital area. The area is one of the ICT research and development hot spots in Europe as well as known for its beautiful and easily accessible nature. The time of the year is particularly suitable for visiting Finland. TOPICS in THEORY, METHODS and APPLICATIONS We expect contributions related to the theoretical and methodological aspects of the self-organizing map including: * Data analysis and visualization with a special topic of modeling dynamic phenomena * Various mathematical approaches including information theory and mathematical statistics * Software and hardware implementations * Architectural solutions including hierarchical and growing networks, ensemble models and special metrics * Neuro-cognitive studies that compare modeling and empirical results at different levels We also call for scientific and practice-oriented papers that describe the use of self-organizing maps with variants in different application areas including but not limited to: * Data mining * Pattern recognition * Signal processing * Knowledge management * Time series processing * Industrial applications * Bioinformatics * Biomedical applications * Telecommunications * Financial analysis * Cognitive modeling * Robotics and intelligent systems * Image processing and vision * Speech processing * Language modeling * Text and document analysis ORGANIZERS * Honorary chair Teuvo KOHONEN Academy of Finland * General chair Timo HONKELA Aalto University School of Science and Technology * Program chair Jorma LAAKSONEN Aalto University School of Science and Technology * Local chair Olli SIMULA Aalto University School of Science and Technology * Publicity chair Jaakko PELTONEN Aalto University School of Science and Technology STEERING COMMITTEE * Teuvo KOHONEN * Marie COTTRELL * Pablo ESTEVEZ * Timo HONKELA * Jose PRINCIPE * Helge RITTER * Takeshi YAMAKAWA * Hujun YIN PROGRAM COMMITTEE * Guilherme BARRETO * Yoonsuck CHOE * Jean-Claude FORT * Tetsuo FURUKAWA * Colin FYFE * Barbara HAMMER * Samuel KASKI * Krista LAGUS * Amaury LENDASSE * Ping LI * Thomas MARTINETZ * Risto MIIKKULAINEN * Klaus OBERMAYER * Jaakko PELTONEN * Marina RESTA * Udo SEIFFERT * Olli SIMULA * Heizo TOKUTAKA * Carme TORRAS * Alfred ULTSCH * Marc VAN HULLE * Michel VERLEYSEN * Thomas VILLMANN * Lei XU ====== See http://www.cis.hut.fi/wsom2011 for more details! ======= From ianfasel at mplab.ucsd.edu Sun Jul 4 17:25:46 2010 From: ianfasel at mplab.ucsd.edu (Ian Fasel) Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 14:25:46 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Call For Participation: IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning 2010 Message-ID: <60FBBC6E-AAF7-4252-A919-79F56AC44B63@mplab.ucsd.edu> Call For Participation IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING 2010 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor USA 18-21 August 2010, Ann Arbor, USA http://www.icdl-2010.org This is an invitation to attend the Ninth IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning 2010. The conference will be composed of a single track with 4 keynote addresses, 24 oral paper presentations, 30 full paper posters, and poster highlights. ICDL-2010 will be held at the Rackham Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, 18-21 August 2010. Registration is required to attend. See below for: A. General Information B. Topical Scope C. Registration Information D. Student Travel Scholarships for Full-Time Students E. Keynote Addresses F. Detailed Congress Schedules/Programs G. Location of ICDL 2010 H. List of Co-Sponsors of ICDL 2010 We look forward to seeing you in August. General Co-Chairs Professor Benjamin Kuipers, University of Michigan Professor Thomas Shultz, McGill University Program Co-Chairs Professor Alexander Stoytchev, Iowa State University Professor Chen Yu, Indiana University http://www.eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/committee.html A. General Information: http://www.icdl-2010.org B. Topical Scope: The goal of the Ninth IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning is to bring together leading researchers in robotics, machine learning, neuroscience, and developmental psychology, in order to gain new insights about learning and development in natural organisms and robots. The scope of developmental processes to be considered is broad, including cognitive, social, emotional, and many other skills exhibited by humans and other animals. C. Registration Information: http://eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/registration.htm D. Financial Assistantship for full-Time Students: http://eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/grants.html Thanks to a generous gift from Microsoft Research, we can offer up to eight (8) student travel scholarships of $200 each, for graduate students attending ICDL-2010. (If additional funds become available, we may make more and/or larger awards.) The awards will be made, and funds distributed, at the conference. To apply, please send a hardcopy letter to Prof. Benjamin Kuipers, University of Michigan, Computer Science & Engineering Division, 2260 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. The letter should be on your university letterhead. Please provide: - your name - mailing address - email address - whether you are the author of a paper or poster to be presented - your estimated travel expenses for attending ICDL - a signed endorsement by your advisor The letter must be received by July 20, 2010. E. Keynote Addresses: http://www.icdl-2010.org F. Detailed Conference Schedules/Programs: http://eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/program.html G. Location of ICDL: http://eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/venue.html H. List of Co-Sponsors of ICDL 2010: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/icdl-2010/home.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100704/8b47d5f2/attachment-0001.html From p.husbands at sussex.ac.uk Mon Jul 5 10:03:30 2010 From: p.husbands at sussex.ac.uk (Phil Husbands) Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 15:03:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Workshop on synthetic neuroethology Sussex University, Sept. 9-10, 2010 Message-ID: Workshop on Synthetic Neuroethology University of Sussex, 9-10 September 2010 Synthetic Neuroethology refers to the use of computational and robotic models in the study of the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of behaviour in animals. This one and a half day workshop brings together researchers involved in this and related fields in order to review progress and debate prospects. Timing: 13:00hr, 9th September -- 16:00hr, 10th September Speakers include: Roland Baddeley (Bristol University) Bart Baddeley (University of Sussex) Neil Burgess (UCL) Volker Duerr (Bielefeld University) Paul Graham (University of Sussex) Owen Holland (University of Sussex) Thomas Nowotny (University of Sussex) Tony Prescott (Sheffield University) Barbara Webb (Edinburgh University) With more to be announced .. Poster Session: The workshop will include a poster session for which submissions are sought. Contributions from research students are particularly encouraged. To submit to the poster session email a short abstract of the work to be presented in the poster to: synthneuro at sussex.ac.uk by the closing date of 13th August. Schedule The schedule will include invited talks, poster session and panel discussions. Full details to follow. Journal Special Issue A special issue of a leading journal will be dedicated to the work presented at the workshop. Authors of the best posters will be invited to submit full papers to the special issue. Fees and Registration In order to contribute towards costs a small fee will be charged for attendance at the workshop. Students: 20 GB pounds, non-students: 40 GB pounds. Registered attendees will be provided with refreshments on both days and lunch on Friday. The number of places at the workshop is limited so early registration is encouraged. To register follow the instruction on the workshop website http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/philh/snworkshop.htm Accommodation Brighton is a busy resort town with many hotels; those requiring overnight accommodation should refer to the workshop website http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/philh/snworkshop.htm Contact information For general queries: synthneuro at sussex.ac.uk Local organisation: Bart Baddeley, Paul Graham, Phil Husbands, Andy Philippides (Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics) Important dates Poster abstract submission deadline: 13th August Notification of accepted posters: 20th August Workshop dates: 9th -10th September 2010 (workshop starts at 13:00 on 9th and finishes at 16:00 on 10th) Sponsored by The University of Sussex. From jose at psychology.rutgers.edu Fri Jul 2 11:58:31 2010 From: jose at psychology.rutgers.edu (Stephen =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jos=E9?= Hanson) Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:58:31 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: POSTDOC-- RUMBA LABs Message-ID: <1278086311.2564.84.camel@max> POSTDOC POSITION: COMPUTATIONAL NEUROIMAGING -RUMBA LABS 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 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/20100702/20385efd/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/20100702/20385efd/sig-0001.jpg From kstanley at eecs.ucf.edu Mon Jul 5 18:50:22 2010 From: kstanley at eecs.ucf.edu (Kenneth Stanley) Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 18:50:22 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Announcing HyperNEAT: A New Neuroevolution Algorithm that Exploits Geometry Message-ID: <004101cb1c94$7657e380$6307aa80$@ucf.edu> Dear Connectionists, Hypercube-based NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (HyperNEAT) is a step beyond traditional neural network evolution (i.e. neuroevolution) algorithms towards evolving more brain-like structures through evolutionary algorithms. In particular, neural networks evolved by HyperNEAT feature topography in addition to topology. That is, neurons exist at spatial locations just as they do in real brains, which means that connectivity patterns evolve that can be analyzed for emergent topographic map-like characteristics. In addition, the ability to encode and evolve large connectivity patterns with regularities means that HyperNEAT can evolve larger networks than past approaches, with up to millions of connections. The cover picture on the July 2010 issue of Neural Computation journal is a HyperNEAT network being constructed: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/action/showLargeCover?issue=40049392 In the past three years, a significant body of research from a growing HyperNEAT community has emerged. Many of these publications, source code, and a short online introduction to the technique are available at the HyperNEAT Users Page: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/hyperNEATpage/HyperNEAT.html Links to three comprehensive articles in Neural Computation journal, Artificial Life journal, and the Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR) follow. --Kenneth O. Stanley (kstanley at eecs.ucf.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Introducing HyperNEAT from a neural computation perspective: AUTONOMOUS EVOLUTION OF TOPOGRAPHIC REGULARITIES IN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS Jason Gauci and Kenneth O. Stanley Neural Computation journal 22(7): pages 1860-1898. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Manuscript: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/publications/2010/gauci.nc10.html Abstract: Looking to nature as inspiration, for at least the last 25 years researchers in the field of neuroevolution (NE) have developed evolutionary algorithms designed specifically to evolve artificial neural networks (ANNs). Yet the ANNs evolved through NE algorithms lack the distinctive characteristics of biological brains, perhaps explaining why NE is not yet a mainstream subject of neural computation. Motivated by this gap, this article shows that when geometry is introduced to evolved ANNs through the Hypercube-based NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (HyperNEAT) algorithm, they begin to acquire characteristics that indeed are reminiscent of biological brains. That is, if the neurons in evolved ANNs are situated at locations in space (i.e. if they are given coordinates), then, as experiments in evolving checkers-playing ANNs in this paper show, topographic maps with symmetries and regularities can evolve spontaneously. The ability to evolve such maps is shown in this paper to provide an important advantage in generalization. In fact, the evolved maps are sufficiently informative that their analysis yields the novel insight that the geometry of the connectivity patterns of more general players is significantly more smooth and contiguous than less general ones. Thus, the results in this paper reveal a correlation between generality and smoothness in connectivity patterns. This result hints at the intriguing possibility that, as NE matures as a field, its algorithms can evolve ANNs of increasing relevance to those who study neural computation in general. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A more basic introduction: A HYPERCUBE-BASED ENCODING FOR EVOLVING LARGE-SCALE NEURAL NETWORKS Kenneth O. Stanley, David B. D'Ambrosio, and Jason Gauci Artificial Life journal 15(2): pages 185-212. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009 Manuscript: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/publications/2009/stanley.alife09.html Research in neuroevolution, i.e. evolving artificial neural networks (ANNs) through evolutionary algorithms, is inspired by the evolution of biological brains. Because natural evolution discovered intelligent brains with billions of neurons and trillions of connections, perhaps neuroevolution can do the same. Yet while neuroevolution has produced successful results in a variety of domains, the scale of natural brains remains far beyond reach. This paper presents a method called Hypercube-based NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (HyperNEAT) that aims to narrow this gap. HyperNEAT employs an indirect encoding called connective Compositional Pattern Producing Networks (connective CPPNs) that can produce connectivity patterns with symmetries and repeating motifs by interpreting spatial patterns generated within a hypercube as connectivity patterns in a lower-dimensional space. The advantage of this approach is that it can exploit the geometry of the task by mapping its regularities onto the topology of the network, thereby shifting problem difficulty away from dimensionality to underlying problem structure. Furthermore, connective CPPNs can represent the same connectivity pattern at any resolution, allowing ANNs to scale to new numbers of inputs and outputs without further evolution. HyperNEAT is demonstrated through visual discrimination and food gathering tasks, including successful visual discrimination networks containing over eight million connections. The main conclusion is that the ability to explore the space of regular connectivity patterns opens up a new class of complex high-dimensional tasks to neuroevolution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In this last paper, HyperNEAT enables a novel representation for the challenging RoboCup Keepaway benchmark: EVOLVING STATIC REPRESENTATIONS FOR TASK TRANSFER Phillip Verbancsics and Kenneth O. Stanley Journal of Machine Learning Research 11: pages 1737-1769. Brookline, MA: Microtome, 2010. Courtesy of JMLR: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/publications/2010/verbancsics.jmlr10.html An important goal for machine learning is to transfer knowledge between tasks. For example, learning to play RoboCup Keepaway should contribute to learning the full game of RoboCup soccer. Previous approaches to transfer in Keepaway have focused on transforming the original representation to fit the new task. In contrast, this paper explores the idea that transfer is most effective if the representation is designed to be the same even across different tasks. To demonstrate this point, a bird's eye view (BEV) representation is introduced that can represent different tasks on the same two-dimensional map. For example, both the 3 vs. 2 and 4 vs. 3 Keepaway tasks can be represented on the same BEV. Yet the problem is that a raw two-dimensional map is high-dimensional and unstructured. This paper shows how this problem is addressed naturally by an idea from evolutionary computation called indirect encoding, which compresses the representation by exploiting its geometry. The result is that the BEV learns a Keepaway policy that transfers without further learning or manipulation. It also facilitates transferring knowledge learned in a different domain, Knight Joust, into Keepaway. Finally, the indirect encoding of the BEV means that its geometry can be changed without altering the solution. Thus static representations facilitate several kinds of transfer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Software, demos, and many other HyperNEAT publications from our own group and others are available through: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/hyperNEATpage/HyperNEAT.html From vcut at bu.edu Wed Jul 7 13:42:03 2010 From: vcut at bu.edu (Cutsuridis, Vassilis) Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 13:42:03 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: 3rd Call for Papers - Special issue on "Neural models of brain disorders" Message-ID: ==================== 3rd CALL FOR PAPERS ==================== ---------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Neural Networks Journal (Elsevier) on "Neural models of brain disorders" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) Ciska Heida, University of Twente, The Netherlands (t.heida at utwente.nl) Wlodek Duch, Nicolaos Copernicus University, Poland (wduch at is.umk.pl) Kenji Doya, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan (doya at oist.jp) -------- Scope -------- Recent decades have witnessed dramatic accumulation of knowledge about the genetic, molecular, pharmacological, neurophysiological, anatomical, imaging and psychological characteristics of brain disorders. Despite these advances, however, experimental brain science has offered very little insight into the theoretical framework for integrating neurobiological and psychological data. Surgical treatment of neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, dystonia and epilepsy were until recently mainly based on applying lesions at specific parts of the brain. While these procedures nowadays have been replaced by more reversible neurostimulation methods, most therapies for brain disorders are still based on trial-and-error and effective mechanisms remain unknown. Mathematical and neurocomputational models play an instrumental role in bridging the gap between the brain and behavior, and may help to unravel the underlying mechanisms of therapy and to simulate and test new therapeutic strategies. The goal of the special issue is to provide a snapshot and a resume of the current state-of-the-art of the ongoing research avenues concerning the neural basis of brain disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, dementia, psychosis, affective disorders, anxiety, autism, dyslexia, Altzheimer's disease, epilepsy, etc. The emphasis will be on computational models that are tightly grounded on experimental data. --------------- Specific Aims --------------- The special issue specifically aims at providing insights in neuronal network processes and interactions underlying normal and abnormal behavior based on computational models. These models may describe network behavior at a microscopic (cellular) or macroscopic (system) level. The usefulness of the models in understanding neural organization and behavior will be emphasized. The neuroanatomical and neurophysiological principles that are included in the models are clearly stated including the simplifications that are adopted. Experimental data is presented that form the basis for the acceptance of the model and its reductions both in describing normal and abnormal behaviour. Therapeutic methods based on medication as well as targeted electrical or magnetic stimulation of the brain may be explored using these models. Existing therapeutic methods may be challenged while the outcome of novel (neurostimulation) methods may be predicted. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- Submission deadline: September 1st, 2010 Review deadline: December 1, 2010 Revised submission deadline: February 1, 2011 Final decision: March 1, 2011 Appearance in journal: ~April, 2011 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submission instructions for the Neural Networks journal can be found under http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/ Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Neural Models of Brain Disorders". From yann.renard at irisa.fr Thu Jul 8 10:42:46 2010 From: yann.renard at irisa.fr (Yann Renard) Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:42:46 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: New release of OpenViBE 0.7.0 Message-ID: <4C35E3E6.1060704@irisa.fr> New release of *OpenViBE* 0.7.0 "Summer edition" is now available for download at : === Overview ========================================= OpenViBE is an opensource platform that enables to design, test and use Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Broadly speaking, OpenViBE can be used in many real-time Neuroscience applications. The OpenViBE platform stands out for its high modularity. It addresses the needs of different types of users (programmers and non-programmers) and proposes a user-friendly graphical language which allows non-programmers to design a BCI without writing a single line of code. OpenViBE is portable, independent of hardware or software targets, can run under Windows and Linux and is entirely based on free and open-source software. OpenViBE is compatible with MATLAB programming. OpenViBE comes with preconfigured scenarios and runs already existing applications such as : * BCI based on motor imagery * P300 speller * Neurofeedback * Real-time visualization of brain activity in 2D or 3D OpenViBE is available under the terms of the LGPL-v2+. The whole software is developed in C++. It consists of a set of software modules that can be integrated easily and efficiently to design BCI applications such as for Virtual Reality interaction. === Where to get more information ==================== If you want more details, check these links : *Website* *Quick introduction video* : *Software download* : *One-hour training session video* : *Screenshots and videos* : === What changed since 0.6.0 ? ======================= In this new release, you will find the following modifications (+ for adds, * for modifications, - for removes) : + Matthieu Goyat contributed the Univariate Statistics box + We added a new driver : Neurosky Mindset + We added the possibility to comment scenarios in the designer + We added some control over the player execution from the boxes + We added a box that is able to control the player execution + We added more configuration possibilities with the configuration file tokens + We added many small "user oriented" features in the designer such as left/right scroll with mouse wheel and better overview of renamed boxes + We added a lot of great features to the Simple DSP box - see documentation and sample scenarios * The acquisition server is now smarter on CPU use * We reviewed and commented all the box-tutorials and xDAWN p300 speller / motor imagery scenarios * We alphabetically sorted the stimulations for quicker configuration of the boxes * We restored automatic filename extension/filtering when loading/saving a scenario * We corrected a bug on the k-fold test in the classifier trainer * We updated the online documentation and tutorials * We updated many documentation pages * We fixed lots of bugs ! A more detailed list of the changelog can be found on the dedicated topic of the forum. === What's coming in the next release(s) ============= Here is a snapshot of what we are currently doing and what you can expect from the next release(s) : + An EGI acquisition driver + More tools dedicated to plugins developpers (base classes, code generators etc...) + More tools dedicated to authors / designer users + Hopefully, we should support Visual C++ express 2010 and Windows 7 ... === Closing words ==================================== We want to thank Matthieu Goyat for his contribution to the Univariate Statistics box. We also want to thank all the forum and bug tracker participants who help in making the software better every day. Feel free to join us and to contribute as Matthieu and others are doing... ! Looking forward to hearing your feedback, we hope you'll enjoy working with OpenViBE as we do. The whole team wishes you a nice summer... Best regards, The OpenViBE consortium *Contact* : Project Leader : Anatole L?cuyer, INRIA (anatole.lecuyer at irisa.fr) Lead Software Engineer : Yann Renard, INRIA (yann.renard at irisa.fr) From Thomas.McTavish at yale.edu Thu Jul 8 16:18:20 2010 From: Thomas.McTavish at yale.edu (Tom McTavish) Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 16:18:20 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURON + Python Hands-On Tutorial Message-ID: Apologies for duplicate messages, but I wanted to send a reminder notice of our San Diego tutorial before SfN registration opens next week.... Interest has been strong and there are only two seats remaining. ============================================== NEURON + Python Hands-On Tutorial 8am ? 12pm, Saturday, November 13, 2010 San Diego Training and Conference Center 350 10th Ave. Suite 950 San Diego, CA 92101 Organizers: Thomas McTavish, Michael Hines, Thomas Morse, Ted Carnevale, Gordon Shepherd On Saturday morning before the Society for Neuroscience meeting, we will lead a hands-on course for coding in Python using NEURON. In this 4-hr course, we will cover fundamental NEURON concepts and core Python commands to interface with NEURON. We will also demonstrate various Python tools for facilitating model development and libraries for data visualization and analysis. Additionally, we will demonstrate how we are exploiting the Python interface to NEURON to add features to the ModelDB database allowing NEURON models to be more extensively explored online. These enhancements increase the utility of contributing one?s models to ModelDB. The course will consist of a number of tutorials operating through a SAGE server that permits participants to enter Python commands into a web browser and save their notes and code in a digital lab notebook. In these tutorials, we will build and visualize properties of single- and multi-compartment models. We will also build a network model. With these models, we will run simulations and visualize results that are ready to print. In addition to covering essential Python commands, we will exploit parts of Scipy (Numpy, Matplotlib, Mayavi). We will also demonstrate how to contribute and share code through this server to foster collaborations. Participants may bring their own laptops or use the computers at the facility, which is just blocks away from the San Diego Convention Center. Registration is FREE, but space is limited. A continental breakfast will be provided. To register, email Thomas.McTavish at yale.edu. ----- Thomas S. McTavish, Ph.D. Thomas.McTavish at yale.edu Department of Neurobiology Yale University School of Medicine P.O. Box 208001 New Haven, CT 06520-8001 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100708/2e43b132/attachment.html From pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr Fri Jul 9 10:52:17 2010 From: pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr (Pierre-Yves Oudeyer) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 16:52:17 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [jobs] 2 engineer positions in humanoid robotics at INRIA, France In-Reply-To: <1B7A4582-25DF-4564-B056-73986499FD53@inria.fr> References: <1B7A4582-25DF-4564-B056-73986499FD53@inria.fr> Message-ID: <6F51631D-1F67-4BC3-B9F0-A513D3E34898@inria.fr> Open position: software engineer Domain: Humanoid robotics, motor control Duration: 24 months Where: INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, FLOWERS team, France The FLOWERS team, in INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, is looking for a highly qualified software engineer to work in humanoid and developmental robotics. In particular, he will participate in the elaboration of software libraries dedicated to real-time motor control and motor learning, based on the algorithms developped in the team. These libraries will be used in the context of a project on semi-passive dynamic walking in humanoid robots. The candidate should be proficient in one or several of the following areas: C, C++, Matlab, numerical optimization techniques, embedded programming. The candidate should have obtained its latest university degree in 2009 or 2010. More info on the activities of the team: http://flowers.inria.fr Application should be sent to pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr ============================================= Open position: Mechanical/mechatronic engineer Domain: Humanoid robotics, morphological computation Duration: 24 months Where: INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, FLOWERS team, France The FLOWERS team, in INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, is looking for a highly qualified mechanical engineer to work in humanoid and developmental robotics. In particular, the candidate will contribute to the elaboration of the mechanical design of humanoid robots targeted at powered passive dynamic walking. The candidate may also participate to the modelling and simulation of such powered passive dynamic walkers. The candidate should be proficient in one or several of the following areas: mechanical design, mechatronics, Matlab, morphological computation. The candidate should have obtained its latest university degree in 2009 or 2010. More info on the activities of the team: http://flowers.inria.fr Application should be sent to pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr Pierre-Yves Oudeyer Head of FLOWERS team INRIA, France http://www.pyoudeyer.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100709/808727b4/attachment-0001.html From opossumnano at gmail.com Fri Jul 9 09:00:43 2010 From: opossumnano at gmail.com (Tiziano Zito) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 15:00:43 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?=5BANN=5D_Autumn_School_=22Advanced_Sci?= =?utf-8?q?entific_Programming_in_Python=22_in_Trento=2C_Italy?= Message-ID: <20100709130043.1DC4C2494DF@mail.bccn-berlin> Advanced Scientific Programming in Python ========================================= an Autumn School by the G-Node, the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences and the Fondazione Bruno Kessler Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have evolved, only few scientists actually use them. As a result, instead of doing their research, they spend far too much time writing deficient code and reinventing the wheel. In this course we will present a selection of advanced programming techniques with theoretical lectures and practical exercises tailored to the needs of a programming scientist. New skills will be tested in a real programming project: we will team up to develop an entertaining scientific computer game. We'll use the Python programming language for the entire course. Python works as a simple programming language for beginners, but more importantly, it also works great in scientific simulations and data analysis. Clean language design and easy extensibility are driving Python to become a standard tool for scientific computing. Some of the most useful open source libraries for scientific computing and visualization will be presented. This school is targeted at Post-docs and PhD students from all areas of science. Competence in Python or in another language such as Java, C/C++, MATLAB, or Mathematica is absolutely required. A basic knowledge of the Python language is assumed. Participants without prior experience with Python should work through the proposed introductory materials. Date and Location ================= October 4th?8th, 2010. Trento, Italy. Preliminary Program =================== Day 0 (Mon Oct 4) ? Software Carpentry & Advanced Python ? Documenting code and using version control ? Object-oriented programming, design patterns, and agile programming ? Exception handling, lambdas, decorators, context managers, metaclasses Day 1 (Tue Oct 5) ? Software Carpentry ? Test-driven development, unit testing & Quality Assurance ? Debugging, profiling and benchmarking techniques ? Data serialization: from pickle to databases Day 2 (Wed Oct 6) ? Scientific Tools for Python ? Advanced NumPy ? The Quest for Speed (intro): Interfacing to C ? Programming project Day 3 (Thu Oct 7) ? The Quest for Speed ? Writing parallel applications in Python ? When parallelization does not help: the starving CPUs problem ? Programming project Day 4 (Fri Oct 8) ? Practical Software Development ? Efficient programming in teams ? Programming project ? The Pac-Man Tournament Every evening we will have the tutors' consultation hour: Tutors will answer your questions and give suggestions for your own projects Applications ============ You can apply on-line at http://www.g-node.org/python-autumnschool Applications must be submitted before August 31th, 2010. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by September 4th, 2010. No fee is charged but participants should take care of travel, living, and accommodation expenses. Candidates will be selected on the basis of their profile. Places are limited: acceptance rate in past editions was around 30%. Prerequisites ============= You are supposed to know the basics of Python to participate in the lectures! Look on the website for a list of introductory material. Faculty ======= ? Francesc Alted, author of PyTables, Castell? de la Plana, Spain ? Pietro Berkes, Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, USA ? Valentin Haenel, Berlin Institute of Technology and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany ? Zbigniew J?drzejewski-Szmek, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Poland ? Eilif Muller, The Blue Brain Project, Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, Switzerland ? Emanuele Olivetti, NeuroInformatics Laboratory, Fondazione Bruno Kessler and University of Trento, Italy ? Rike-Benjamin Schuppner, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany ? Bartosz Tele?czuk, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin, Germany ? Bastian Venthur, Berlin Institute of Technology and Bernstein Focus: Neurotechnology, Germany ? St?fan van der Walt, Applied Mathematics, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa ? Tiziano Zito, Berlin Institute of Technology and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany Organized by Paolo Avesani for the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences and the Fondazione Bruno Kessler , and by Zbigniew J?drzejewscySzmek and Tiziano Zito for the German Neuroinformatics Node of the INCF. Website: http://www.g-node.org/python-autumnschool Contact: python-info at g-node.org From thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk Mon Jul 12 05:52:53 2010 From: thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:52:53 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd Call -- COLAMN 2010 -- Workshop on Cortical Microcircuits and Neuromorphic Hardware Message-ID: <201007121052.53557.thomas.wennekers@plymouth.ac.uk> COLAMN 2010 -- 2nd Call >From Cortical Microcircuits to Brain-Inspired Computing Hardware 1/2 September 2010 in Plymouth/UK http://helen.pion.ac.uk/colamn2010 This workshop aims at exploring novel computing architectures for cognitive systems based on the microcircuitry of the neocortex. This approach serves two major goals: Firstly, to understand better the structure and functioning of cortical circuits, and, secondly, to exploit computational principles found in the brain in cognitive software and neuromorphic hardware. These grand challenges require integrating scientists across different disciplines -- experimental neuroscience, computational modelling, and electrical engineering. Accordingly, at the workshop we will have a mix of presentations regarding Neuroanatomy of the laminar cortical architecture Neurophysiology of cortical microcircuits Advanced data analysis methods Large-scale computer models of cortical function Models of synaptic plasticity and learning Cognitive modelling using large-scale spiking neuron networks Neuromorphic hardware design Speakers (mostly confirmed) Vincenzo Crunelli (University of Cardiff) Sue Denham (University of Plymouth) Piotr Dudek (University of Manchester) Yves Fregnac (UNIC CNRS) Steve Furber (University of Manchester) Michael Haeusser / Arnd Roth (Wolfson Institute, UCL) Marcelo Montemurro / John Giggs (University of Manchester) David Willshaw / Mark van Rossum (University of Edinburgh) Jan Schnupp (University of Oxford) Alex Thomson (University of London) Thomas Wennekers / Gleb Basalyga (University of Plymouth) Further Details Date and time 1 Sept 2010 9:00 to 2. Sept 1 17:00 Venue Jury's Inn, Plymouth, United Kingdom http://plymouthhotels.jurysinns.com/ Registration fee There will a fee of 80 GBP for this meeting which will include morning and afternoon refreshments, buffet lunch on both days, and the workshop dinner Registration To register, please send an email to thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk For further information regarding registration, travel, and accommodation please see the workshop website http://helen.pion.ac.uk/colamn2010 Contact: Thomas Wennekers Centre for Robotic and Neural Systems The University of Plymouth PL4 8AA Plymouth, United Kingdom Tel: +44 1752 584917 Email: thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk Support: This workshop is an open meeting of the UK-wide research cluster COLAMN. COLAMN is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC. From andrea.green at umontreal.ca Mon Jul 12 21:42:24 2010 From: andrea.green at umontreal.ca (Andrea Green) Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:42:24 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Graduate studies in the neuroscience of spatial motion estimation and motor planning Message-ID: Graduate studies in the neuroscience of spatial motion estimation and motor planning D?partement de physiologie, Universit? de Montr?al. Applications are invited for doctoral and postdoctoral studies in systems neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Andrea Green. The successful applicant will join a multidisciplinary research group studying how the brain integrates multisensory cues to create estimates of our spatial motion and how such estimates are used for perception and motor planning. Research in my laboratory involves computational models of the nervous system, behavioral and neural recording experiments in non-human primates as well as human behavioral studies. Depending on the applicant's qualifications and interests, they will help to design and conduct behavioral and/or neurophysiological experiments, analyze data, develop theoretical models of neural systems, prepare manuscripts for publication, and participate in international conferences. While students with a strong background in biological sciences, engineering, mathematics, or computer science, are particularly encouraged to apply, all motivated students with an interest in understanding the brain will be considered. The successful applicant will receive a competitive salary in accordance with university guidelines. For further information, please contact Dr. Andrea Green (andrea.green at umontreal .ca) Applicants are asked to submit a curriculum vita, a transcript of previous studies, and the contact information for two references, to: Dr. Andrea Green andrea.green at umontreal.ca Tel: 514-343-6111 x3301 D?partement de physiologie, Universit? de Montr?al C.P 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville Montr?al, QC H3C 3J7, CANADA Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. A preliminary interview at the Society for Neuroscience meeting is possible ____________________________________ Montr?al is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities and has been called "Canada's Cultural Capital". It has the highest number of university students per capita in the entire continent. More than 17,000 foreign students from some 150 countries benefit from among the lowest tuition fees in North America. Compared to other cities of similar stature, the cost of living in Montr?al is very reasonable, particularly in terms of housing. Montr?al has a vibrant neuroscience community spanning four major universities (Universit? de Montr?al, McGill University, Concordia University, and the Universit? de Qu?bec ? Montr?al) and the Montr?al Neurological Institute. The Universit? de Montr?al, with its two affiliated schools, the ?cole Polytechnique and the HEC Montr?al, is the largest university in Qu?bec and the second largest in Canada, with over 55,000 students from around the world and some 10,000 employees. Deeply rooted in Montr?al and dedicated to its international mission, the Universit? de Montr?al is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. The Universit? de Montr?al is a French-speaking institution, and most of the courses are given in French. However, the work environment is bilingual and the MSc or PhD thesis can be written in French or English. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100713/d1b9f504/attachment.html From alexei at bicasymposium.com Tue Jul 13 13:23:49 2010 From: alexei at bicasymposium.com (Alexei Samsonovich) Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:23:49 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: BICA 2010 deadline Message-ID: <510B652A-2652-482B-B5AF-EB16FE381CAF@bicasymposium.com> Dear Colleagues, The deadline to submit a paper to BICA 2010 is Saturday, July 24, 2010 (more info at http://roboticslab.dinfo.unipa.it/bica2010/). We solicit three categories of submissions: research papers (up to 6 pages), position papers (up to 4 pages), and extended abstracts (1 or 2 pages). To be considered for publication in BICA 2010 Proceedings, papers and abstracts must be within the scope of the conference outlined in the CFP (http://bicasymposium.com/bica2010_cfp.pdf) and must be prepared using the IOS Press template (available at http://www.iospress.nl/authco/instruction_crc.html). Submissions should be sent via email simultaneously to both BICA 2010 co-Chairs: Kamilla Johannsdottir and Alexei Samsonovich. No previous submission of an abstract is required. We are looking forward to a very exciting and productive conference, Kamilla Johannsdottir and Alexei Samsonovich (co-chairs) -- Kamilla Run Johannsdottir, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Social Sciences University of Akureyri, Iceland ph. 1-613-822-3072 www.unak.is -- Alexei V. Samsonovich, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University 4400 Univeristy Drive MS 2A1, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 http://mason.gmu.edu/~asamsono/ 703-993-4385(o),-4325(fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100713/d7bf2bc0/attachment.html From hava at cs.umass.edu Wed Jul 14 09:33:21 2010 From: hava at cs.umass.edu (Hava Siegelmann) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:33:21 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Hiring Postdoc (and also a programmer and 2 grads) Message-ID: <4C3DBCA1.5080609@cs.umass.edu> Postdoctoral Positions Available at the BINDS Lab, Dept. of Computer ScienceUMass starting Summer and Early Fall The BINDS lab, headed by Professor Hava Siegelmann, focuses on biologically inspired neural systems, - seeking a profoundunderstanding of biological systems in an effort to advance artificial intelligence and its applications in the real world. This will be an exciting year; we will be merging our developments of memory and cognitive architecture and implementing the resultant system in a robotic test bed. Emphasis will be placed on developing the system's inferential capabilities: decision making, associative capabilities and autonomy as well as inter-robot cooperation and robotic/human communication. We are seeking post docs with specializations in the fields of computer science, machine learning and robotics with knowledge in neuroscience. Successful candidates will have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Engineering or a related field. Excellent programming skills in C++ and Matlab are sought along with a knowledge of machine learning mathematics and control and the ability to deeply analyze and connect disparate areas encompassed by our program. Knowledge of robotics is beneficial. Initial appointmentsare for one year, renewable based on performance. Applicants should send a cover letter, CV, representative publications and a minimum of three appropriate references to: hava (followed by @) then,cs.umass.edu . -- Hava T. Siegelmann http://www.cs.umass.edu/~hava/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100714/4b8c5c22/attachment-0001.html From Yaochu.Jin at surrey.ac.uk Wed Jul 14 14:11:39 2010 From: Yaochu.Jin at surrey.ac.uk (Yaochu.Jin@surrey.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:11:39 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Research Fellow (Postdoc) Position Opening, University of Surrey Message-ID: Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Computing Research Fellow (Ref: 7692) Salary: Up to ?28,983 per annum (subject to qualifications and experience) We are seeking a Research Fellow to work on a cross-disciplinary research project in the fields of computational neuroscience, systems biology, machine learning and engineering sciences. You will work in the Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group within the Computing Department. You will have a PhD (or equivalent) in computer science, computational neuroscience, mathematics, or electrical engineering and a strong interest in computational biology for solving real-world problems. Expertise in computational modelling of spiking neural networks and / or gene regulatory networks are expected, experience in human behaviour recognition, financial data mining or evolutionary computation is a plus. Programming skills in C/C++ and Matlab is also highly desirable. Start date: 1 October 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. The appointment is for two years with an extension possibility depending on the availability of further funding. Informal enquires to Prof. Yaochu Jin (e-mail: yaochu.jin at surrey.ac.uk, tel: +44 (0) 1483 686037). For an application pack and to apply on-line please go to our website: www.surrey.ac.uk/vacancies If you are unable to apply on-line please contact Miss Karen Truss, HR Assistant on Tel: +44 (0) 1483 686060 or email k.truss at surrey.ac.uk. Please quote Post Ref No. 7692 Closing date for applications is Friday, 6 August 2010 For further information about the University of Surrey, please visit www.surrey.ac.uk We acknowledge, understand and embrace cultural diversity --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professor Yaochu Jin Head of the Nature-Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group Department of Computing, University of Surrey Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom Room 35 BB02 Phone: +44(0)1483 686037 Fax: +44(0)1483 686051 Email: yaochu.jin at surrey.ac.uk http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/computing/people/yaochu_jin/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk Thu Jul 15 06:28:46 2010 From: z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk (Zoe Kourtzi) Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:28:46 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doc and PhD positions in Visual Neuroscience In-Reply-To: <53D56CCF-47E4-4A04-A4A4-AB292B968DE4@bham.ac.uk> References: <53D56CCF-47E4-4A04-A4A4-AB292B968DE4@bham.ac.uk> Message-ID: Post-doc and PhD positions in Visual Neuroscience 1 Post-doc and 1 PhD position are available to work on human visual cognition and neuroscience at Zoe Kourtzi?s lab in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK. Our work combines psychophysics, multimodal brain imaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS), modeling and advanced computational analyses to understand the neural basis of visual perception and learning. The projects are based in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham that has a state-of-the-art Imaging Centre (3T MRI scanner), EEG systems, TMS systems and access to screened neuropsychological patients. The School is one of the UK?s top 3 research departments and has strong groups in Behavioural Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience and Vision Science. There are strong interdisciplinary links with Computer Science, Engineering and a number of international partners through a Marie Curie Initial Training Network that brings together researchers from across Europe. This offers exciting opportunities for advanced training, collaboration with international centres of excellence, interdisciplinary exchange and industrial secondments. For more information see http://cnil.bham.ac.uk and www.optimaldecisions.org. Candidates should have a background in Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology Computer Science, Engineering, Physics or a related field. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C) and experience with psychophysics, brain imaging and signal processing methods are highly desirable. Above all candidates should be enthusiastic to learn new techniques and to contribute to new experiments. Enquiries should be addressed to z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Fri Jul 16 09:54:16 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:54:16 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Position for experienced Postdoc in Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg In-Reply-To: <625286585FC74EB0B5446A96FECA5FB1@janina> References: <625286585FC74EB0B5446A96FECA5FB1@janina> Message-ID: <008301cb24ee$61d97a10$258c6e30$@uni-freiburg.de> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% %% %% Junior Scientist Position (Research Associate) %% %% at the Laboratory for Biomicrotechnology, %% %% Dept. of Microsystems Engineering,? %% %% Faculty of Engineering %% %% University of Freiburg, Freiburg %% %% %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The Laboratory for Biomicrotechnology (Prof. Ulrich Egert) offers a scientist position (A13, up to 4 years) for a biologist (Postdoc) with expertise on electrophysiology, cell culture of neuronal networks, neurophysiology in acute brain slices and/or Ca-imaging. We are interested in the mechanisms and structures underlying the activity dynamics in neuronal networks and the processing of neuronal activity within the network. In joint projects with computational neuroscientists we investigate how the biological neuronal networks process incoming stimuli, what determines intrinsic activity, how pathological dynamics arise and how to contain them. To address these questions we use acute brain slices, cell cultures and animal models with a variety of techniques. A central technology is extracellular recording the neuronal activity with microelectrode arrays to analyze the spatio-temporal structure of activity. Recordings with these arrays are combined with paired intracellular recordings, calcium imaging, microstimulation and advanced data analyses. New technical and analysis tools are developed as needed in collaborations with microsystems engineers. This work is embedded in the Bernstein Center Freiburg (www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de). The successful candidate is expected to contribute to the teaching and training program. Candidates should have outstanding academic records and an interest in translational neuroscience and neurotechnology. The position is open immediately until filled. For further information, please contact Prof. Ulrich Egert (Head of laboratory) (www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de/people/details/egert) or Dr. Janina Kirsch (Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs) (www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de/people/details/kirsch). -- Dr. Janina Kirsch -- Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 Email:?kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Web: www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de ? From ishii at is.aist-nara.ac.jp Fri Jul 16 00:56:06 2010 From: ishii at is.aist-nara.ac.jp (Shin Ishii) Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:56:06 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Neural Networks Special Issue on Multi-scale, Multi-modal Neural Mode, ling and Simulation Message-ID: <4C3FE666.1080608@is.aist-nara.ac.jp> ************************************************************************ CALL FOR PAPERS 2011 Special Issue of Neural Networks Multi-Scale, Multi-Modal Neural Modeling and Simulation ************************************************************************ Genuine understanding of brain function requires integration of knowledge at multiple levels, from the whole brain network to local circuits, single neurons, genes and molecules. Recent advances in high-throughput measurement and selective manipulation, such as optical imaging, computerized anatomy, proteome and transcriptome, cell-type specific gene manipulation and optogenetic stimulation provide rich data prompting us to build quantitative models of many kinds. Yet it still remains a big challenge to link findings form different levels, such as predicting how a certain genetic variation increases the risk of some cognitive disorders. Coherent understanding of the brain function requires integration of heterogeneous models, such as large-scale network models, compartmental single neuron models, intracellular signaling cascades and gene networks, that work in difference spatial and temporal scales with different governing equations. The goal of this special issue is to bring together the latest advances in integration of neural models at different levels and to promote application of methods and concepts derived in one level to other levels. Specific topics include, but not limited to: 1) how to interface models describing different physical processes, such as network dynamics, cellular electric activities, molecular reactions, and morphological changes; 2) how to efficiently compute combined models working in different temporal and spatial scales; 3) how to build a simplified model that abstracts the essential features of a finer-scale model; 4) how to estimate unknown parameters, validate the predictive power of a complex model, and analyze its behaviors systematically. Papers addressing not only technical advances but also novel insights gained from multi-scale, multi-modal model integration are encouraged. Guest Editors: Shin Ishii (Kyoto University) Marcus Diesmann (RIKEN Brain Science Institute) Kenji Doya (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) Submission instructions can be found at: http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/ Important Dates Submission deadline: December 1st, 2010 Revised submission deadline: March 1st, 2011 Final decision: June 1st, 2011 Publication: fall 2011 Contact: Neural Networks Okinawa Office e-mail: nneo at oist.jp From frank.ritter at psu.edu Thu Jul 15 18:31:40 2010 From: frank.ritter at psu.edu (Frank Ritter) Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:31:40 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: CogModel notes: ICCM10/BRIMS11/CogSci10/BICA10/Book/Positions Message-ID: This is based on the International Cognitive Modeling Conference mailing list, which I maintain. I forward messages about twice a year, a few more close to ICCMs. (this is the last one for ICCM 2010) The first two announcements are driving this email, the announcement of the papers and tutorials. If you would like to be removed, please just let me know. I maintain it by hand to keep it small. I am trying new software this time to make it easier to maintain. cheers, Frank Ritter frank.e.ritter at gmail.com http://acs.ist.psu.edu http://www.frankritter.com 1. ICCM 2010, Program, 5-8 August 2010, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/AdvanceProgram.pdf Proceedings of 2009 available online. 2. ICCM 2009 Conference Tutorials, 5 August 2010, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/tutorials.html 3. BRIMS 2010, proceedings available online http://brimsconference.org/archives/2010/toc.htm 4. BRIMS 2011, 22-25 March 2011 at Sundance, Utah http://brimsconference.org/ 5. Cogsci tutorials and workshops http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2010/tutorials.html http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2010/workshops.html 6. Bio. Inspired Cog Arch. 2010 workshop, Wash., DC, 13-14 Nov 2010 http://roboticslab.dinfo.unipa.it/bica2010/ 7. Multitasking mind book, with 20% discount http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/CognitivePsychology/?view=usa&ci=9780199733569 8. Post doctoral position(s) at CMU 9. Post doctoral position at NRL 10. Opportunities in health care systems engineering at Virginia *************************************************** 1. ICCM 2009 Conference Program available, 5-8 August 2009, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/AdvanceProgram.pdf ICCM is the premier international conference for research on computational models and computation-based theories of human behavior. ICCM is a forum for presenting, discussing, and evaluating the complete spectrum of cognitive models, including connectionism, symbolic modeling, dynamical systems, Bayesian modeling, and cognitive architectures. ICCM includes basic and applied research, across a wide variety of domains, ranging from low-level perception and attention to higher-level problem-solving and learning. The proceedings of the 2007 conference are available from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/iccm2007.org/iccm_2007_proceedings_and_papers A copy of proceedings of the 2009 conference are available from http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/iccm2009.pdf *************************************************** 2. ICCM 2009 Conference Tutorials, 5 August 2010, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/tutorials.html The CLARION Cognitive Architecture: A Tutorial Half-day tutorial (0900-1215) Nicholas Wilson, Cognitive Science Dept. Michael Lynch, Dept. of Language, Literature and Communication, RPI This tutorial introduces participants to the CLARION cognitive architecture and presents a detailed description, as well as simulation examples, advanced topics, and demonstrations. It will combine conceptual (psychological), theoretical, and implementation aspects of the architecture. Both basic and advanced topics related to cognitive modeling using CLARION will be covered. Participants in the tutorial are encouraged to ask questions throughout the presentation to clarify any ideas described. ==================== Multi-Agent Activity Modeling with the Brahms Environment Half-day tutorial (1345-1700) Maarten Sierhuis, Ph.D. PARC More and more people are interested in in developing "day in the life" models and simulations of people's behavior at the second and longer timeframe, the interaction between groups of people and systems, as well as the movement and interaction with the environment. Cognitive modeling tools (e.g., Soar, ACT-R) focus on detailed modeling of individual cognitive tasks at the sub-second level. In contrast, activity modeling focuses on higher-abstraction behaviors that enable modeling of people's daily activities and enable a focus on how informal, circumstantial, and located behaviors of a group of individuals occur and where communication and synchronization happen, such that the task contributions of people and machines flow together to accomplish goals. This is referred to as "work practice modeling." The tutorial will provide an overview of the Brahms multi-agent activity modeling language by considering a simple 'day in the life' scenario. There will be hands-on experience with Brahms. Brahms includes an activity-oriented Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) language, a compiler and virtual machine for executing Brahms models, as well as an Eclipse plug-in and a post-execution viewer of agent execution, communication and interaction. Brahms enables the creation of multi-agent models that include aspects of reasoning found in cognitive models, task execution, plus the impact of interaction and geography, such as agent movement and physical changes in the environment. Brahms is currently used to automate the work of a flight controller in NASA's International Space Station's Mission Control Center (ISS MCC). This system, called OCAMS, has been in production in the ISS MCC, 24x7, since July of 2008, and is based on a Brahms model of the work practices of the flight controllers. OCAMS is a distributed Multi-Agent System. Maarten Sierhuis recently joined PARC as area lead for the new Knowledge, Language and Interaction area. Before this, he was at NASA Ames for over twelve years, working on and applying Brahms at NASA. He is a Co-Principal Investigator for the Brahms multi-agent environment. He is also a visiting professor at the Man-Machine Interaction group at Delft University of Technology, where he teaches a graduate course using Brahms, called Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation of Organizations and Work Practice. He has a Ph.D. in Social Science Informatics from the University of Amsterdam and an engineering degree in Informatics from the Polytechnic University in The Hague, The Netherlands. He has presented invited lectures and tutorials on both Brahms and Compendium, and has published widely in these areas. ****************************************************************** 3. BRIMS 2010, proceedings available http://www.brimsconference.org The proceedings from last year's conference is available at: http://brimsconference.org/archives/2010/toc.htm BRIMS (Behavior Representation in Modeling Simulation) enables human behavior representation (HBR) modeling and simulation research scientists, engineers, application users and technical communities to meet, share ideas and experiences, identify gaps in current capabilities, discuss new research directions, highlight promising technologies, and showcase applications. It is in its 20th year and continues to reach an ever widening military, government, academic, and industry community in the U.S. and internationally. ****************************************************************** 4. BRIMS 2011, 22-25 at Sundance Utah http://brimsconference.org/ The 20th Behavior Representation in Modeling & Simulation (BRIMS) Conference 2011 will be held March 21-24, 2011 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. *************************************************** 5. Cogsci tutorials and workshops http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2010/tutorials.html The tutorial program of the conference allows participants to gain new insights, knowledge, and skills from a broad range of topics in the field of cognitive science. Tutorials cover a well-established and recognized topic in cognitive science, and are delivered by an authoritative figure in the area. Tutorials are held on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, which is the day before the main program begins. http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2010/workshops.html The conference workshop program gives an opportunity for in-depth discussion of a specific topic important to cognitive science. Workshops concentrate on emerging research or cross-disciplinary topics. Some workshops also focus on application issues and research methods. Workshops are held on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, which is the day before the main program begins. *************************************************** 6. Bio. Inspired Cog Arch. 2010 workshop, Wash., DC, 13-14 Nov 2010 http://roboticslab.dinfo.unipa.it/bica2010/ This workshop is still accepting abstracts and some papers. Contact Alexei Samsonovich if you would like to contribute. The challenge of creating a real-life computational equivalent of the human mind requires that we better understand at a computational level how natural intelligent systems develop their cognitive and learning functions. In recent years, biologically inspired cognitive architectures (BICA) have emerged as a powerful new approach toward gaining this kind of understanding (here "biologically inspired" is understood broadly as "brain-mind inspired"). Still, despite impressive successes and growing interest in BICA, wide gaps separate different approaches from each other and from solutions found in biology, preventing us from solving the challenge. The narrow focus on the challenge brings together four schools of thought: (1) computational neuroscience, that tries to understand how the brain works in terms of connectionist models; (2) cognitive modeling, pursuing higher-level computational description of human cognition; (3) human-level artificial intelligence, aiming at generally intelligent artifacts that can replace humans at work; (4) human-like learners: artificial minds that can be understood by humans intuitively, that can learn like humans, from humans and for human needs. The comparative table created by panelists of the BICA 2009 forum clearly demonstrates that a joined discussion of the four schools is possible and can be highly productive and synergistic (http://members.cox.net/bica2009/cogarch/). The intended spotlight in 2010 is on (4). *************************************************** 7. Multitasking mind [book] with 20% discount http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/CognitivePsychology/?view=usa&ci=9780199733569 For 20% off, visit http://www.oup.com/us and enter promo code 29051. Multitasking is all around us: the office worker interrupted by a phone call, the teenager texting while driving, the salesperson chatting while entering an order. When multitasking, the mind juggles all the many tasks we're doing this second, this hour, this week, and tries to perform them together-sometimes with great ease, sometimes with great difficulty. We don't often stop to think about how exactly we accomplish these feats of multitasking great and small. How do we switch from one task to another? What types of multitasking are disruptive, and when are they most disruptive? And ultimately, how can we take advantage of the benefits of multitasking while alleviating its negative effects in our daily lives? This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind's processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance. The book describes the implications of threaded cognition theory across three traditionally disparate domains: concurrent multitasking (doing multiple tasks at once), sequential multitasking (interrupting and resuming tasks), and multitask skill acquisition (learning and practicing multiple tasks). The work stresses the importance of unifying basic and applied research by alternating between in-depth descriptions of basic research phenomena and broader treatments of phenomena in applied domains, such as driver distraction and human-computer interaction. The book also includes practical guidelines for designers of interactive systems intended for multitasking contexts. *************************************************** 8. Post-doctoral position(s) at CMU [sent to act-r mailing list 6 june 2010, may be out of date] Applications are welcome for research positions in the Psychology Department at Carnegie Mellon University under the direction of Dr. Christian Lebiere. Positions include two postdoctoral researchers and a research programmer. The goals of the projects are to investigate the application of hybrid cognitive architectures consisting of symbolic, statistical and neural processes and representations to robotic control systems. The projects are funded by multi-year grants from the Army Research Laboratories (ARL) and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to: 1) Integrating symbolic and neural cognitive architectures. 2) Integrating symbolic reasoning and statistical learning processes. 3) Applying hybrid cognitive architectures to robotic control problems including autonomy and mixed human-robot teams. 4) Applying cognitive architectures to human-robot interaction problems including operator situation awareness and human-guided learning in robots. 5) Integrating computational and cognitive techniques for understanding complex visual scenes. Postdoctoral candidates should have a doctorate in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, or robotics, with a background in computational modeling and a strong interest in both basic research in cognitive science and its practical applications. Research programmer candidates should have a BS in computer science (MS preferred) or equivalent experience, with a background in modeling and simulation preferred. All candidates should submit their CV to the address below, and postdoctoral candidates should also include a letter describing their research interests and goals, and at least 2 letters of recommendation. These positions are open immediately and offer competitive salary and benefits. Carnegie Mellon University offers a stimulating research environment in livable Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To apply or obtain additional information, contact: Dr. Christian Lebiere Psychology Department Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Tel: 412-268-6028 Email: cl at cmu.edu ****************************************************************** 9. Post-doctoral position at NRL Greg Trafton (trafton at itd.nrl.navy.mil) at the Navy Research Lab may have openings for a post-doctoral researcher. Please contact him directly. *************************************************** 10. Opportunities in health care systems engineering at Virginia for postdoctoral research fellows, Ph.D. graduate study, and short-term mentored research at the University of Virginia [from Ellen J. Bass ] The Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia is seeking applications to fill two positions in each of the following categories: Ph.D. graduate study, postdoctoral research fellow and short-term mentored research experience, all in the area of healthcare systems engineering. See below for details on each of these opportunities. 1. Predoctoral: The Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia is seeking applications for Ph.D. graduate study in the area of healthcare systems engineering. Two candidates are sought to conduct research toward the development modeling and simulation tools to support human-automation interaction in the healthcare domain. This research is part of a multi-year training program that draws together researchers with expertise in systems engineering (formal methods, control theory, algorithm development, human factors engineering, haptics, modeling, simulation and training), with mentors in the healthcare field (including pediatrics, internal medicine, urology, emergency medicine, diabetes, cancer, global health, and nursing). Candidates are expected to complete all Ph.D. degree requirements, including graduate coursework and the successful completion of a set of mentored Ph.D. research activities. The bulk of the candidate's funding is supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine with supplemental funding from a number of additional sources. Minimum requirements: The applicant must have received their B.S. in systems engineering, industrial engineering, computer science, computer engineering, cognitive science, or a closely related discipline and be a US citizen or permanent resident. The ideal candidates will also have a M.S. in one of the previous fields, strong software development skills, excellent writing skills, and a demonstrated ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaborations. The initial appointment will be for one year with the option to renew for four additional years. Annual Stipend: $21,180 plus $2000/year travel support, full tuition, and health insurance coverage. Review of applications will begin in July 2010 and will continue until the positions are filled, likely starting date in Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. Interested candidates should fill out the Department of Systems and Information Engineering pre-application form. However, official candidates must apply through the regular graduate engineering admission process for the Department of Systems and Information Engineering (found here) and should clearly indicate their desire to participate in this medical informatics training program in their essay. Applicants must complete a Candidate Profile on-line and attach a statement of interest and description of past research experience (if applicable), GRE scores, transcript(s) from the candidate's institution granting their degree(s), and three references who are familiar with the candidate's aptitude for or experiences in research. 2. Postdoctoral: The Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia is seeking applications for postdoctoral research scientists in the area of healthcare systems engineering. Two candidates are sought to conduct research toward the development modeling and simulation tools to support human-automation interaction in the healthcare domain. This research is part of a multi-year training program that draws together researchers with expertise in systems engineering (formal methods, control theory, algorithm development, human factors engineering, haptics, modeling, simulation and training), with mentors in the healthcare field (including pediatrics, internal medicine, urology, emergency medicine, diabetes, cancer, global health, and nursing). Candidates are expected to conduct mentored research and have the option to take graduate coursework as applicable or to teach courses or modules in their area of expertise. The bulk of the candidate's funding is supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (Stephanie Guerlain, PI), with supplemental funding from a number of additional sources. Minimum requirements: The applicant must have received their Ph.D. in systems engineering, industrial engineering, computer science, computer engineering, cognitive science, or a closely related discipline (or have an M.D. or Ph.D. in a healthcare-related field with a strong aptitude for engineering) and be a US citizen or permanent resident. The ideal candidates will also have a demonstrated track record in research, strong software development skills, excellent writing skills, and the ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaborations. The initial appointment will be for one year with the option to renew for two additional years. Salary: Competitive, based on qualifications and experience. Includes a travel stipend, full tuition (as applicable), and health insurance coverage. Review of applications will begin in July 2010 and will continue until the positions are filled, likely starting date in Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. Interested candidates should send a CV along with a statement of interest and description of past research experience, transcript(s), and three references who are familiar with the candidate's aptitude and experience in conducting research. 3. Short-term: The Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia is seeking applications for short-term (three months, full-time) research internships in the area of healthcare systems engineering. Two candidates from under-served populations are sought to conduct mentored research to support human-automation interaction in the healthcare domain. This opportunity is part of a multi-year training program that draws together researchers with expertise in systems engineering (formal methods, control theory, algorithm development, human factors engineering, haptics, modeling, simulation and training), with mentors in the healthcare field (including pediatrics, internal medicine, urology, emergency medicine, diabetes, cancer, global health, and nursing). Candidates are expected to conduct mentored research and have the option to take a course as part of their training. These positions are supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine, with supplemental funding from a number of additional sources. Minimum requirements: The applicant must be enrolled in or have received their bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in systems engineering, industrial engineering, computer science, computer engineering, cognitive science, medicine, nursing, or a closely related discipline and be a US citizen or permanent resident from an underserved population (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander). The ideal candidates will also have software development skills, excellent communication skills, and the ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaborations. The length of appointment is for three months. Salary: $5,295. Includes tuition to take one course (as applicable). Review of applications will begin in July 2010 and will continue until the positions are filled. Interested candidates should fill out the Department of Systems and Information Engineering pre-application form and should clearly indicate their desire to participate in this short-term medical informatics training program in their essay. Applicants must attach a statement of interest and description of past research experience (if applicable), transcript(s), and the names, email addresses, and title of three references who are familiar with the candidate's aptitude for or experiences in research. For further information regarding these positions, please contact: Ellen J. Bass Department of Systems and Information Engineering P.O. Box 400747 151 Engineer's Way Charlottesville, VA 22904 434-243-5531 http://www.sys.virginia.edu/ejb/ *************************************************** -30- From fleischer at nsi.edu Fri Jul 16 19:00:29 2010 From: fleischer at nsi.edu (Jason Fleischer) Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:00:29 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral opportunities at The Neurosciences Institute Message-ID: The Neurosciences Institute (http://www.nsi.edu) is seeking postdoctoral researchers in computational neuroscience to join an exciting, ongoing project to understand the biological bases of brain function. Successful candidates will be working with a multi-disciplinary team to create large scale spiking models of the mammalian nervous system incorporated into robotic devices. Neural systems addressed in this project include: sensory processing, neuromodulation, thalamocortical interaction, motor control, learning and memory, and cognitive aspects of decision making. Candidates should have a background in neuroscience and strong programming skills. Previous modeling experience will be favorably considered. The Neurosciences Institute is an independent, not-for-profit scientific research organization led by Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman. The Institute hosts thirty to forty scientists engaged in theoretical and experimental neurobiology. It is located within walking distance of other major centers of neuroscience, including The Scripps Research Institute, The Salk Institute, and the University of California San Diego. Salary is dependent upon relevant experience; a full benefit package is available. Send C.V. and cover letter to Dr. W.E. Gall, The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, California 92121 or e-mail them to jobs-postdoc at nsi.edu. Jason G. Fleischer, Ph.D. The Neurosciences Institute http://www.nsi.edu/users/fleischer 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive Tel: (858) 626-2069 San Diego, CA 92121 USA Fax: (858) 626-2099 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100716/7641b526/attachment.html From dglanzma at mail.nih.gov Mon Jul 19 10:27:31 2010 From: dglanzma at mail.nih.gov (Glanzman, Dennis (NIH/NIMH) [E]) Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:27:31 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Posters - 18th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Meeting Message-ID: <87A69598824B3D4EBF14080B3F0906BE031612CF3B@NIHMLBX12.nih.gov> 18th Annual Dynamical Neuroscience Satellite Symposium The Resting Brain: Not At Rest! Preceding the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Thursday and Friday, November 11-12, 2010 The San Diego Convention Center or a nearby hotel, San Diego, CA The theme of this year's meeting emphasizes the role of endogenous, ongoing activity (and noise) in determining behavior. The concept of "the brain at rest" has received much current interest as technologies have evolved which allow measuring electrical and physiological activity during periods when the subject is not engaged in pursuing any active physical or cognitive activities. In addition to being active at rest, the brain continuously monitors both internal and external environments, processes information, and alters its activity enabling it to orchestrate specific behaviours regard-less of ongoing tasks. As an example, considerable recent research activity has been devoted to examining how the phase of ongoing EEG oscillations influence ensuing perception or motor activities. Other areas focus on how correlations of activity across brain regions during rest are related to memory for recent experiences. Resting state functional connectivity shows characteristic changes in various psychiatric and neurological disorders, and a better understanding of the relationship between brain state and its induced activity due to task demands would broaden our understanding of how alterations in this relationship may be relevant to these illnesses. Invited Speakers Kwabena Boahen, Lila Davachi, Michael Fee, Michael Hasselmo, Vinod Menon, Earl Miller, Tirin Moore, Yarom Nir, Sheila Nirenberg, Patricio O'Donnell, Marcus Raichle, Matthew Wilson Keynote Address Winner of the 3rd Annual Swartz Prize in Computational Neuroscience Symposium Organizers Jonathan Victor, Weill Cornell Medical College and Dennis Glanzman, NIMH/NIH For logistical information please contact Nakia Wilson, The Dixon Group, Inc., (202)-281-2825, nwilson at dixongroup.com For programmatic information, please contact Dennis Glanzman, NIMH/NIH, (301) 443-1576, glanzman at nih.gov Register for the meeting and submit a poster at this website: http://neuro.dgimeetings.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100719/f3fd47c8/attachment.html From vcut at bu.edu Wed Jul 21 13:30:13 2010 From: vcut at bu.edu (Cutsuridis, Vassilis) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:30:13 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: 4th Call for Papers & **New** Submission deadline - Special issue on "Neural modelsof brain disorders" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ==================================== 4th CALL FOR PAPERS & NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE ==================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Neural Networks Journal (Elsevier) on "Neural models of brain disorders" ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************** * NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE : October 1st, 2010 * **************************************************** Guest Editors Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) Ciska Heida, University of Twente, The Netherlands (t.heida at utwente.nl) Wlodek Duch, Nicolaos Copernicus University, Poland (wduch at is.umk.pl) Kenji Doya, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan (doya at oist.jp) -------- Scope -------- Recent decades have witnessed dramatic accumulation of knowledge about the genetic, molecular, pharmacological, neurophysiological, anatomical, imaging and psychological characteristics of brain disorders. Despite these advances, however, experimental brain science has offered very little insight into the theoretical framework for integrating neurobiological and psychological data. Surgical treatment of neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, dystonia and epilepsy were until recently mainly based on applying lesions at specific parts of the brain. While these procedures nowadays have been replaced by more reversible neurostimulation methods, most therapies for brain disorders are still based on trial-and-error and effective mechanisms remain unknown. Mathematical and neurocomputational models play an instrumental role in bridging the gap between the brain and behavior, and may help to unravel the underlying mechanisms of therapy and to simulate and test new therapeutic strategies. The goal of the special issue is to provide a snapshot and a resume of the current state-of-the-art of the ongoing research avenues concerning the neural basis of brain disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, dementia, psychosis, affective disorders, anxiety, autism, dyslexia, Altzheimer's disease, epilepsy, etc. The emphasis will be on computational models that are tightly grounded on experimental data. --------------- Specific Aims --------------- The special issue specifically aims at providing insights in neuronal network processes and interactions underlying normal and abnormal behavior based on computational models. These models may describe network behavior at a microscopic (cellular) or macroscopic (system) level. The usefulness of the models in understanding neural organization and behavior will be emphasized. The neuroanatomical and neurophysiological principles that are included in the models are clearly stated including the simplifications that are adopted. Experimental data is presented that form the basis for the acceptance of the model and its reductions both in describing normal and abnormal behaviour. Therapeutic methods based on medication as well as targeted electrical or magnetic stimulation of the brain may be explored using these models. Existing therapeutic methods may be challenged while the outcome of novel (neurostimulation) methods may be predicted. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- **New** Submission deadline: October 1st, 2010 Review deadline: December 1, 2010 Revised submission deadline: February 1, 2011 Final decision: March 1, 2011 Appearance in journal: ~April, 2011 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submission instructions for the Neural Networks journal can be found under http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/ Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Neural Models of Brain Disorders". From mjhealy at ece.unm.edu Wed Jul 21 16:23:18 2010 From: mjhealy at ece.unm.edu (mjhealy@ece.unm.edu) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:23:18 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Connectionists: Temporal Sequencing via Colimits Message-ID: A new technical report available via DspaceUNM at https://repository.unm.edu/dspace/handle/1928/10424 and also on my website, http://www.ece.unm.edu/~mjhealy/, describes our initial work in applying category theory to the modeling of temporal sequences in neural memories. With our categorical neural semantic theory (CNST), we take an alternative to most current approaches dealing with temporal sequencing, for example in forming episodic memories. We model the buildup of temporal sequences as the adaptation of neural structures representing colimits from a concept category mapped to a neural category by a functor. A more advanced model would express diagrams of functors connected by natural transformations, discussed as a general modeling scheme in prior papers (also available on my website). Our initial temporal sequencing architecture incorporates ART networks for convenience, modified by the categorical colimit model to form what we call "supertemplates". These are templates that embrace multiple ART units in commutative diagrams. The terms used above such as "functor" are unfamiliar to many, but are explained in all of our papers on the CNST to date including the current technical report. An abstract and keyword list follows: M. J. Healy and T. P. Caudell (2010) "Temporal Sequencing via Supertemplates", UNM Technical Report EECE-TR-10-0001, DspaceUNM, University of New Mexico. Abstract A category-theoretic account of neural network semantics has been used to characterize incremental concept representation in neural memory. It involves a category of concepts and concept morphisms together with categories of objects and morphisms representing the activity in connectionist structures at different stages of weight adaptation. Colimits express the more specialized concepts as combinations of abstract concepts along shared subconcept relationships specified in diagrams. This provides a mathematical model of concept blending, in which designated relationships among concepts are preserved in a combination. Structure-preserving mappings called functors from the concept to neural categories provide a mathematical model of incremental concept representation through stages of adaptation. The work reported here extends these ideas to express temporal sequences of events, such as episodic memories. This requires an extended notion of neural morphism and a design principle for diagrams involving concepts in a temporal sequence. This is tested in a new architecture that involves a notion of supertemplates, which are ART network templates extending over a multi-level ART hierarchy with an interposed temporal integrator network. Keywords ART, category, colimit, concept, connection path, diagram, episode, event, functor, morphism, neural, semantics, temporal sequence, theory From ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu Wed Jul 21 22:22:42 2010 From: ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu (Ila Fiete) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:22:42 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2011: Call for workshop proposals Message-ID: <4C47AB72.40008@mail.clm.utexas.edu> Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2011 http://www.cosyne.org Main meeting: February 24, 2011 - February 27, 2011 Marriott, Downtown, Salt Lake City, Utah Workshops: February 28, 2011 - March 1, 2011 Snowbird Ski Resort, Snowbird, Utah ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS --------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROPOSAL DEADLINE: Preference will be given to proposals received by 15 September 2010; proposals received by 30 October 2010 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: 15 September 2010 Format: plain text only -- please no attachments email to: cosyne11workshops at googlegroups.com (Mark Laubach, Brent Doiron) 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 here 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: Mark Laubach (Yale), Brent Doiron (Pittsburgh) QUESTIONS: email: cosyne11workshops at googlegroups.com From yokoy at brain.riken.jp Thu Jul 22 04:10:55 2010 From: yokoy at brain.riken.jp (Yoko YAMAGUCHI) Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:10:55 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP: The 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics 2011 Hokkaido Message-ID: Dear Connectionists ML manager I would like to submit the following contents for announcement in your ML. Thank you for your help in advance. Sincerely, Yoko YAMAGUCHI Lab. for Dynamics of Emergent Intelligence & BTCC Rhythm-based Brain Computation Unit, RIKEN Brain Science Institute Subject---------------------------------- 2nd CFP: The 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics 2011 Hokkaido Text ------------------------------------- The 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics June 9-13, 2011 Hilton Niseko Village, Hokkaido, Japan http://iccn2011.com The 2nd Announcement and Call for Papers I. Aim, II. Topics III. Plenary Speakers IV. Important Dates V. Organizers and Sponsors VI. Organizing Committee VII. Paper Submission, Venue and Registration I. Aim Five decades of brain research have led to the emergence of a new field, which spans the entire spectrum of cognition from synaptic dynamics to social interactions, and which is combined by the conceptions of nonlinear neurodynamics operating simultaneously at and across all scales. A new kind of scientists is emerging, schooled in multiple academic disciplines, comfortable in working with data from different levels, and conversant with the mathematical and computational tools that are essential to cross boundaries. Cognition in its essence is dynamic and multilayered, and pursuit of new clues inevitably leads from one layer to the next, both reductionist and holistic. A trend to study cognition from the point of view of neurodynamics has emerged as a result of the current, rapid developments taking place in nonlinear dynamics and cognitive science. In order to promote the integration of cognitive science and neurodynamics as a whole, the 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics -2011 (ICCN2011) is held at Hilton Niseko Village, Hokkaido, Japan on June 9-13, 2011. The conference will provide a forum for scientists and engineers working in this exciting area and its related fields to review the latest progress and development, and to exchange their experience, progress and ideas. An Editorial Board Meeting of "Cognitive Neurodynamics" will also be held during the period. The conference will consist of three-day oral and poster presentation, discussion and social events. Within the days, a young researchers session will be organized in which internationally organized groups of young researchers discuss and plan their possible collaboration, and the plan will be commented by the senior researchers. The first day June 9 and the last day June 13 are set for reception and departure, respectively. II. Topics Topics include but are not limited to the following: 1. Microscopic cognitive neurodynamics 1.1 Molecular cognitive neurodynamics 1.2 Synaptic dynamics 1.3 Dynamic neural coding 1.4 Realistic Neural Network dynamics 2. Mesoscopic cognitive neurodynamics; Transitions between Levels 2.1 Population dynamics 2.2 Chaotic dynamics 2.3 Phase transitions in excitable media 2.4 Complexity theory applied to brain 2.5 Synergetics, metastability 2.6 Quantum Field Theory 2.7 Neuropercolation 2.8 Self-assembly, artificial life 3. Macroscopic cognitive neurodynamics 3.1 Brain imaging, EEG, MEG 3.2 Sensory Dynamics (including computational vision and audition) 3.3 Motor system dynamics 3.4 Navigation 3.5 Action planning and control 3.6 Learning and memory 3.7 Global cognitive functions (Object recognition, Attention, Intention, Language, neurolinguistics, semiotics, Decision Making, Reasoning and planning, Emotion, Consciousness etc.) 4. Applications 4.1 Neural Engineering 4.2 Neurocomputer 4.3 Neural computing 4.4 Advanced robotics 4.5 Behavior modification 4.6 Neuroinformatics 4.7 Cognitive function disorder III. Invited Speakers Plenary Talks Kay, Leslie M, University of Chicago, USA Lee, Soo-Young, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Mushiake, Hajime, Tohoku University, Japan Osumi, Noriko, Tohoku University, Japan Poeppel, Ernst, University of Munich, Germany Robinson, Peter, The University of Sydney, Australia Invited Lectures Amari, Shun-Ichi, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), Japan Freeman, Walter J., University of California, Berkeley, USA Tsukada, Minoru, Tamagawa University, Japan VI. Important Dates Sep 1 - Nov 1, 2010 Proposals for special session Dec 24 2010 - Jan 24, 2011 One Page Abstract Submission Apr 25, 2011 On-line Registration deadline Mar 10, 2011 Decision Notification Apr 20, 2011 Final Abstract and Proceedings Manuscript Submission May 15, 2011 Proposals for organizing the 4th ICCN 2013 May 20, 2011 Manuscript reviewing notification Jun 9 - 13, 2011 Conference Jun 30, 2011 Final Manuscript Submission Deadline Mar, 2012 Post-conference proceedings publication V. ORGANIZERS AND SPONSORS This conference is sponsored and organized by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas No. 4103 (Hokkaido University) RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) Tamagawa University Global Center of Excellence (GCOE) Sponsored by Springer FIRST, Aihara Innovative Mathematical Modelling Project (TBA) Co-Sponsored by Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS) International Neural Network Society (INNS) Chinese Society for Neuroscience The Japan Neuroscience Society (TBA) VI. Organizing Committee Honorary Chairs Amari, Shun-ichi, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), Japan Freeman, Walter J., University of California, Berkeley, USA Grossberg, Stephen, Boston University, USA Haken, Hermann, University of Stuttgart, Germany Richmond, Barry J., NIMH/NIH/DHHS, USA Taylor John, King?s College, UK Tsukada, Minoru, Tamagawa University, Japan General Chair Yamaguchi, Yoko, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), Japan General Co-Chairs Tsuda, Ichiro, Hokkaido University, Japan Hans, Liljenstrom, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden Wang, Rubin, East China University of Science and Technology, P.R. China International Advisory Committee Chairs Aihara, Kazuyuki, Tokyo University, Japan Duch, Wlodzislaw, Nicolaus Coperinicus University, Poland Guo, Aike, Chinese Academy of Science, P.R. China Koetter, Rolf, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherland Shoener, Gregor, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany Wang, Deliang, The Ohio State University, USA Usui, Shiro, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), Japan Program Committee Chair Omori, Takashi, Tamagawa University, Japan Program Committee Co-chairs Gu, Fanji, Shanghai Society for Biophysics/ Fudan University, P.R. China Ishikawa, Masumi, Kyusyu Institute of Technology, Japan Lawereyns, Jan, School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, Japan, and Kyushu University, New Zeeland Lee, Soo-Young, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Li, Guang, Zhejiang University, P.R. China Nara, Shigetoshi, Okayama University, Japan Rapp, Paul E, Drexel University College of Medicine, USA Sakagami, Masamichi, Tamagawa University, Japan Villa, Alessandro, Universit? de Lausanne, Switzerland Wang, Lipo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Publication chair Sato, Naoyuki, Future University - Haokodate, Japan Chairperson of Financial Affairs Sakaguchi, Yutaka, The university of Electro-Communications, Japan International Advisory Committee Borysyuk, Roman, Institute of Mathematical Problems in Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia/ University of Plymouth, UK Dress, Andreas, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. R. China Erdi, Peter, Institute for Complex Systems, Kalamazoo College, Michigan, USA/ Hungarian Academy of Science, Hungary Hayashi, Hatsuo, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan Hertz, John, NORDITA, Denmark Hojjat, Adeli, The Ohio State University, USA Jose C, Principe, University of Florida, USA Kopell, Nancy J., Boston University, USA Kamel, Mohamed, University of Waterloo, Canada Kaski, Samuel, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Koenig, Peter, University Osnabr?ck, Germany Li, Chaoyi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, P. R. China Maass, Wofgang, Technische Universit?t Graz, Austria Oldos, James L., George Mason University, USA Okada, Masato, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan Rabinovich, Mikhail I., University of California, San Diego, USA Shou, Tiande, Fudan University, P. R. China Siegei, Ralph Mitchell, Rutgers University, NJ Sporns, Olaf, Indiana University, USA Tang, Xiaowei, Zhejiang University, P. R. China Teich Malvin Carl, Boston University, USA Trappenberg, Thomas, Dalhousie University, Canada Van Leeuven, Cees, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan Ventriglia, Francesco, Institute of Cybernetics of CNR, Italy Wang, Xingyu, East China University of Science and Technology, P. R. China Wermter, Stefan, University of Hamburg, Germany Yang, Fusheng, UCLA, USA Zhu, Weiqiu, Zhejiang University, P. R. China VII. Paper Submission, Venue and Registration Session proposal: Proposals for organizing special sessions are welcomed and encouraged by Nov. 1, 2010, in which the names and affiliations of the organizers, title of the session, abstract for the title (about 200 words), and suggested speakers should be indicated. Papers suggested by the organizer must submitted on the same schedule with usual submission, and are also reviewed as usual. Proposals should be e-mailed to: iccn2011chair at brain.riken.jp Paper Submission: Prospective authors are invited to submit high-quality manuscripts written in English. The submission of a paper implies that the paper is original and has not been submitted elsewhere for possible publication. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field based on originality, significance, quality and clarity. Each paper must include an abstract (A4 one page) and a manuscript for proceedings (no longer than four A4 pages). The abstract is reviewed to appear in the conference program. The manuscript is to appear in post-conference proceedings, if accepted. Paper Format: Details about paper submission and paper format will be announced shortly in the conference homepage. Publication of the proceedings: Proceedings will be published by Springer Science + Business Media B.V. Furthermore, a selected number of authors will be invited to expand and revise their papers for possible inclusions in "Cognitive Neurodynamics", a peer-reviewed international journal published by Springer. Registration fees: The registration fee is Japanese Yen (JY) \40,000 for all regular participants and JY \20,000 for all students before the pre-registration deadline (Apr. 25, 2011) by credit card (VISA, AMEX. MASTER, DINERS and JCB), which includes a copy of the proceedings, reception, coffee break, daily meals, banquet, and social events. The registration fee of a member of any association listed as co-sponsors of this conference does not change before and after the online-registration deadline. Registration fee of non-member regular participants and students will be JY \45,000 after the deadline. Each paper must have 1 dedicated on-line registration with full payment for the paper to be included in the proceedings before the dead line. Otherwise, the submitted paper will not be included in the proceedings and the conference program. Venue: The conference is held at Hilton Niseko Village, Hokkaido, Japan. Niseko Town is located in the west of central Hokkaido, about two hours by car from Sapporo / New Chitose International Airport and also from Sapporo. It lies in a gently undulating basin with the 1,898m Mt. Yotei in the national park to the east and the 1,309m Mt. Niseko-Annupuri in the Quasi-National Park to the north. ?Niseko (nisekoan)? is an Ainu word meaning ?(river which runs around the bottom of) a sheer cliff?. http://www.niseko-ta.jp/index.php?id=157 Sapporo is the capitol as well as the economic center of Hokkaido. Hokkaido university lies near JR Sapporo station. http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/english/ Bus between Sapporo international airport and the hotel on June 9 for arrival and June 13 for departure will be prepared. Train, JR Hokkaido from Niseko town to Sapporo and to the international airport is also available. Accommodation: Hilton Niseko Village offers accommodation with special discount price for the participants. Details will be announced later. Awards: Young researcher awards and student travel awards will be announced later. Contact Us Payment methods for your registration fee and accommodation will be announced shortly. Please check our website from time to time to get the necessary information in time. Its address is: http://iccn2011.com Anyone who is interested in obtaining more information about ICCN2011 or has questions, please contact: Iccn2011 at ec-pro.co.jp From choe at cs.tamu.edu Sun Jul 25 02:11:32 2010 From: choe at cs.tamu.edu (Yoonsuck Choe) Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:11:32 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Connectionists: CNS*2010 Workshop on High-throughput Microscopy for Large-Scale Neural Circuits Message-ID: * Call for participation (apologies for cross-posting)* CNS*2010 Workshop High-throughput 3D microscopy and high-performance computing for multi-scale modeling and simulation of large-scale neuronal circuits July 30, 2010, San Antonio, TX 8:30am to 4:30pm Organizers: Yoonsuck Choe, John Keyser, and Louise C. Abbott, Texas A&M Univ. http://research.cs.tamu.edu/bnl/cns10/ Rapid advances in high-throughput, high-volume 3D microscopy technology is enabling the acquisition of neuronal-level data at the scale of whole small animal organs such as the mouse brain. Techniques that allow 3D molecular imaging and ultra high-resolution electron microscopy imaging provide a complementary perspective, where detailed local circuit function can be investigated. These microscopy technologies, together with high-performance computing power becoming available are enabling a data-driven, multi-scale modeling and simulation of large-scale neuronal circuits (such as the complete connectome of the mouse). This workshop will give a timely update on this burgeoning field and provide a forum for intensive discussion to shape the immediate and future direction of data-driven computational modeling and simulation of the brain. * This workshop is organized in memory of the late Bruce H. McCormick (1928-2007), inventor of the Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope and a pioneer in scientific visualization. Confirmed talks : Abstracts are now online. First authors will give the presentation. [8:30am] Introduction [8:40am] Louise C. Abbott, David Mayerich, and Yoonsuck Choe (Texas A&M University) High-throughput imaging of whole mouse brain using the Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope [9:05am] Kenneth J. Hayworth, Narayanan Kasthuri, Richard Schalek, Juan C. Tapia, Jeff Lichtman (Harvard University) Large Volume Neural Circuit Reconstruction Using the Tape to SEM Process [9:30am] Daniel Berger and H. Sebastian Seung (MIT) Semi-automatic SEM imaging and analysis of neuronal connectivity using ATLUM/ATUM slice stacks [9:55am] Brad Busse, Kristina Micheva, and Stephen J. Smith (Stanford University) Large scale synaptic analysis with Array Tomography [10:20am] Coffee break [10:45am] Pablo Blinder1, Philbert S. Tsai1, John Kaufhold2, and David Kleinfeld1 (University of California, San Diego1 and SAIC2) Reconstruction of the cortical vascular network in mouse [11:10am] Chris Bjornsson and Badri Roysam (RPI) Mapping the Glio-vascular Infrastructure of Brain Tissue [12:00pm] Lunch break [1:00pm] David Mayerich1, Yoonsuck Choe2, and John Keyser2 (1University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and 2Texas A&M University) Segmentation and Visualization of High-Throughput Microscopy Datasets [1:25pm] Randal Koene (Fatronic Tecnalia Foundation, San Sebastian, Spain) Using new in-vivo techniques to add function to reconstructions from high-throughput micrsocopy [1:50pm] Andrew Duchowski (Clemson University) Eye-tracking technology and its potential application to tracing and validation of microscopy data [2:15pm] Todd Huffman (3Scan) and Peter Eckersley (Electronic Freedom Foundation) Large-scale, collaborative scanning, and the role of commercialization (tentative title) [2:40pm] Yoonsuck Choe (Texas A&M University) Open issues in high-fidelity simulation of the connectome [3:05pm] Coffee break [3:30pm] Panel Sponsors: * 3Scan * Organization for Computational Neuroscience (OCNS) Thanks, Yoonsuck choe at tamu.edu Yoonsuck Choe, Ph.D. Dept. of Comp. Sci. & Engineering Associate Professor Texas A&M University Director, Brain Networks Laboratory 3112 TAMU Email: choe at tamu.edu, choe at cs.tamu.edu College Station, TX 77843-3112 WWW: http://faculty.cse.tamu.edu/choe Phone: +1-979-845-5466 Lab: http://research.cse.tamu.edu/bnl Fax: +1-979-847-8578 From terry at salk.edu Sun Jul 25 20:33:22 2010 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:33:22 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - August, 2010 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 22, Number 8 - August 1, 2010 ARTICLE A Spiking Neuron as Information Bottleneck Lars Buesing and Wolfgang Maass NOTE Estimating a State-Space Model from Point Process Observations: A Note on Convergence Ke Yuan and Mahesan Niranjan LETTERS A Computationally Efficient Method for Nonparametric Modeling of Neural Spiking Activity with Point Processes Todd Coleman and Sridevi Sarma How synaptic release probability shapes neuronal transmission: Information theoretic analysis in a cerebellar granule cell Angelo Arleo, Thierry Nieus, Michele Bezzi, Anna D'Errico, Egidio D'Angelo, and Olivier Coenen Reconciling the STDP and BCM Models of Synaptic Plasticity in a Spiking Recurrent Neural Network Daniel Bush, Andrew Philippides, Phil Husbands, and Michael O'Shea Multilayer Processing of Spatiotemporal Spike Patterns in a Neuron with Active Dendrites Yingxue Wang and Shih-Chii Liu Spectral Method and High-Order Finite Differences for the Nonlinear Cable Equation Ahmet Omurtag and William Lytton Competitive Layer Model of Discrete-Time Recurrent Neural Networks with LT Neurons Wei Zhou and Jacek Zurada Modeling Stereopsis via Markov Random Field Yansheng Ming and Zhanyi Hu ----- 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 fvn at uma.es Mon Jul 26 07:28:43 2010 From: fvn at uma.es (Francisco J. Veredas) Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:28:43 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE Symp on Foundations of Computational Intelligence Message-ID: <4C4D716B.9070109@uma.es> IEEE Symp on Foundations of Computational Intelligence April 11 ? 15, 2011 Paris, France Call for Papers Paris hosts the third IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (IEEE SSCI 2011). This international event brings together at one location several symposia running concurrently, each highlighting various aspects of computational intelligence, and will attract top researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world to discuss the latest advances in the field of computational intelligence. Computational intelligence techniques have proven useful after numerous applications in real world problems. However, there is much work to be done in order to fully understand the theoretical foundations of such techniques. IEEE FOCI'11, provides an ideal forum for those who are interested in the fundamental issues of computational intelligence to exchange their ideas and present their latest findings. IEEE FOCI?11 will focus on fundamental theoretical and practical foundations of computational intelligence, including but not limited to neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computation, and other machine learning methods. The symposium will put equal emphasis on theoretical and practical work as long as it addresses the foundations of computational intelligence. IMPORTANT DATES: Paper Submission: Oct 31, 2010 Notification to Authors: Dec 15, 2010 Camera-Ready Papers: Jan 15, 2011 Non-exclusive list of topics ? Non-standard fuzzy sets ? Granular computing ? Computing with words ? Aggregation/fusion ? Fuzzy sets and statistics ? Uncertainty ? Decision-making ? General theoretical issues ? Generalisation in learning (neural, fuzzy, evol.) ? Fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory ? Lattice theory and multi-valued logic ? Approximate reasoning ? Type-2 fuzzy logic ? Rough sets and random sets ? Fuzzy mathematics ? Fuzzy measure and integral ? Possibility theory and imprecise probability ? Neural computation ? Self-organizing maps ? Recurrent networks ? Multilayer perceptrons ? Recursive deterministic perceptrons ? Evolutionary neural networks ? Neural networks for pattern recognition ? Neural netwoks for prediction and optimization ? Neural networks for principal component anal. ? General regression neural networks ? Neural networks as/and fuzzy systems ? Radial basis functions ? Learning theory ? Reinforcement learning ? Generalization in neural networks ? Theory of Evolutionary Computation ? Methodolgical and Algorithmic Issues in EC ? Memetic Algorithms ? Hybridization and Cross-fertilization ? Parallel Evolutionary Computation ? Large-scale Evolutionary Optimization ? Multi-objective evolutionary optimization ? Interactive evolutionary computation ? Swarm Intelligence ? Statistical Analysis and Comparison of Evolutionary Algorithms and Other Approaches Honorary Chair: Lotfi Zadeh Programme Chairs: Carlos Cotta, U. M?laga Manuel Ojeda-Aciego, U. M?laga Francisco Veredas, U. M?laga Please visit www.ieee-ssci.org for submission information and additional details. -- Francisco J. Veredas Dpto. Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computaci?n ETSI de Telecomunicaci?n Universidad de M?laga Bulevar de Louis Pasteur, s/n 29071, M?laga, Spain From jwmbrown at indiana.edu Thu Jul 29 14:38:04 2010 From: jwmbrown at indiana.edu (Joshua Brown) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:38:04 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position available Message-ID: <718194757F714643B088E0011852FC85@ads.iu.edu> Computational Cognitive Neuroscience of Cognitive Control Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN The Cognitive Control lab at Indiana University is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to work on combined fMRI and computational cognitive neuroscience models of cognitive control. The successful candidate will join an ongoing fMRI research program looking at the interactions of the medial prefrontal cortex with related regions in tasks involving executive function and decision-making under risk, in both normal and substance-dependent populations. The applicant will be expected to contribute to fMRI projects as well as apply empirical results to constrain ongoing computational model development. Depending on background and interest, the position may also provide opportunity to collaborate on EEG, TMS, and combined neuroimaging genomics studies of cognitive control. Available facilities include a research-dedicated 3T Siemens Tim Trio fMRI scanner, high density EEG, and TMS, all within the building. Indiana University also provides a 1024 core high-performance computing cluster for computational model development. Information about the lab is available at http://www.indiana.edu/~cclab. A Ph.D. and background in cognitive neuroscience and computation, broadly defined, are required. Experience with computational modeling, including neural networks, machine learning, and/or computational neuroscience is preferred. Experience with Linux/unix, matlab, and c++ preferred. Prior experience with fMRI is also preferred. The position is available to start immediately, and applications will be accepted until the position is filled. To apply, send a CV, statement of research background and interests, and 3 letters of recommendation to: Joshua W. Brown, Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 E Tenth St., Bloomington, IN 47405. Inquiries may be directed to Prof. Josh Brown (jwmbrown at indiana.edu). Applications from women and minorities are encouraged. Indiana University is an equal opportunity employer.