Connectionists: NIPS 2011 Call For Workshops

[Chris Hiestand]

NIPS 2011 Call For Workshops
Natural and Synthetic NIPS*2011 Post-Conference Workshops
December 16 and 17, 2011 Hotel Meliá Sol y Nieve and Sierra Nevada, 
Granada, SPAIN

Following the regular program of the Neural Information Processing Systems 
2011 conference in Granada, Spain, workshops on a variety of current topics 
in neural information processing will be held on December 16 and 17, 2011, 
in Sierra Nevada, Spain. We invite researchers interested in chairing one 
of these workshops to submit proposals for workshops. The goal of the 
workshops is to provide an informal forum for researchers to discuss 
important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open 
problems, and comparisons of competing approaches are not only encouraged 
but preferred as workshop topics. Representation of alternative viewpoints 
and panel-style discussions are also particularly encouraged.

Potential workshop topics include, but are not limited to:
Active Learning, Attention, Audition, Bayesian Networks, Bayesian 
Statistics, Benchmarking, Biophysics, Brain-Machine Interfaces, Brain 
Imaging, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 
Computational Complexity, Control, Genetic/Evolutionary Algorithms, Graph 
Theory, Graphical Models, Hippocampus and Memory, Human-Computer 
Interfaces, Implementations, Kernel Methods, Mean-Field Methods, Music, 
Natural Language Processing, Network Dynamics, Neural Coding, Neural 
Plasticity, Neuromorphic Systems, On-Line Learning, Optimization, 
Perceptual Learning, Robotics, Rule Extraction, Self-Organization, Signal 
Processing, Social Networks, Spike Timing, Speech, Supervised/Unsupervised 
Learning, Time Series, Topological Maps, and Vision. 

Detailed descriptions of previous workshops may be found at:
http://nips.cc/Conferences/2010/Program/schedule.php?Session=Workshops

There will be seven hours of workshop meetings per day, split into morning 
and afternoon sessions, with free time between the sessions for ongoing 
individual exchange or outdoor activities. Selected workshops may be 
invited to submit proceedings for publication in the post-NIPS workshops 
monographs series published by the MIT Press.

Workshop organizers have several responsibilities, including:
*Coordinating workshop participation and content, including arranging short 
 informal presentations by experts, arranging for expert commentators to
 sit on discussion panels, formulating discussion topics, etc.
*Providing the program for the workshop in a timely manner for the 
 workshop booklet.
*Moderating the discussion, and reporting its findings and conclusions to 
 the group during the evening plenary sessions.
*Writing a brief summary and/or coordinating submitted material for 
 post-conference electronic dissemination.

Submission Instructions
A nips.cc account is required to submit the Workshops application. Please 
follow the url below and check the required format for the application well 
before the deadline for workshop proposals. You can edit your application 
online right up until the deadline.

Interested parties must submit a proposal by 23:59 UTC on July 1st, 2011. 
Proposals should be submitted electronically at the following URL:

https://nips.cc/Workshops/

Preference will be given to workshops that reserve a significant portion of 
time for open discussion or panel discussion, as opposed to a pure 
"mini-conference" format.

We suggest that organizers allocate at least 50% of the workshop schedule 
to questions, discussion, and breaks. Past experience suggests that 
workshops otherwise degrade into mini-conferences as talks begin to run 
over. For the same reason, we strongly recommend that each workshop include 
no more than 12 talks per day.

This year we'd like to attempt to partially unify the NIPS workshop 
important dates across all of the workshops. Therefore, please consider 
using the following date guidelines for your workshop:
* Your workshop call should be publicized on or before August 30th, 2011.
* Submission deadline should be on or before September 23rd, 2011.
* Acceptance decisions mailed out on or before October 15th, 2011.

We stress that these are not mandatory, rather suggestions. If there are 
circumstances that would make your workshop difficult using these dates, 
you may use other dates. Also a call for contributions is not required and 
is orthogonal to the decision about workshop acceptance.

NIPS does not provide travel funding for workshop speakers. In the past, 
some workshops have sought and received funding from external sources to 
bring in outside speakers. In any case, the organizers of each accepted 
workshop can name two individuals to receive free registration for the 
workshop program.

Jeff Bilmes and Fernando Perez-Cruz
NIPS*2011 Workshops Chairs
Web URL: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2011/CallForWorkshops