From christos.dimitrakakis at gmail.com Sun Jun 1 15:40:12 2014 From: christos.dimitrakakis at gmail.com (Christos Dimitrakakis) Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 21:40:12 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: AISec 2014 Message-ID: <538B819C.1090506@gmail.com> Call For Papers AISec 2014 7th ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security Held in Conjunction with ACM CCS 2014 http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~aikmitr/AISec2014.html November 7, 2014 The Scottsdale Plaza Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA The relation of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data mining to security and privacy problems is ever-more critical, with AI algorithms controlling important infrastructure, such as electrical grids, road networks and healthcare applications. More generally, AI and ML are increasingly important for autonomous real-time analysis and decision-making in domains with a wealth of data or that require quick reactions to ever-changing situations. Particularly, these intelligent technologies offer new solutions to security problems involving Big Data analysis, which can be scaled through cloud-computing. Further, the use of learning methods in security sensitive domains creates new frontiers for security research, in which adversaries may attempt to mislead or evade intelligent machines. The 2014 ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security (AISec) provides a venue for presenting and discussing new developments in this fusion of security/privacy with AI and machine learning. We invite original research papers describing the use of AI or machine learning in security, privacy and related problems. We also invite position and open problem papers discussing the role of AI or machine learning in security and privacy. Submitted papers of these types may not substantially overlap papers that have been published previously or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or conference/workshop proceedings. Finally we again welcome a `systematization of knowledge' category of papers, which should distill the AI or machine learning contributions of a previously published series of security papers. Regular research, systematization of knowledge, and open/position paper submissions must be at most 10 pages in double-column ACM format (note: pages must be numbered) excluding the bibliography and well-marked appendices, and at most 12 pages overall. Committee members are not required to read the appendices, so the paper should be intelligible without them. Submissions need not be anonymized. We recommend the use of the ACM SIG Proceedings templates for submissions. The ACM format is the required template for the camera-ready version. Accepted papers will be published by the ACM Digital Library and/or ACM Press. --------------------------------------------- Important Dates Paper submissions due: 25 July 2014 Acceptance notification: 25 August 2014 Camera ready (FIRM DEADLINE): 9 September 2014 Workshop: 7 November 2014 --------------------------------------------- Submissions Submissions can be made through EasyChair at: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aisec2014 -------------------------------------------- Topics Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Theoretical topics related to security - Adversarial Learning - Robust Statistics - Learning in stochastic games - Online learning - Differential-privacy Security Applications - Computer Forensics - Spam detection - Phishing detection & prevention - Botnet detection - Intrusion detection and response - Malware identification - Authorship Identification - Big data analytics for security Security-related AI problems - Distributed inference and decision making for security - Secure multiparty computation and cryptographic approaches - Privacy-preserving data mining - Adaptive side-channel attacks - Design and analysis of CAPTCHAs - AI approaches to trust and reputation - Vulnerability testing through intelligent probing (e.g. fuzzing) - Content-driven security policy management & access control - Techniques and methods for generating training and test sets - Anomalous behavior detection (e.g. for the purpose of fraud detection, authentication) --------------------------------------------- Program Chairs - Christos Dimitrakakis, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Katerina Mitrokotsa, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Benjamin I. P. Rubinstein, The University of Melbourne, Australia Program Committee: (To be updated) - Battista Biggio, University of Cagliari, Italy - Alex Kantchelian, UC Berkeley, CA, USA - Kamalika Chaudhuri, University of California at San Diego, CA, USA - Rachel Greenstadt, Drexel University, PA, USA - Guofei Gu, Texas A&M University, TX, USA - Daniel Lowd, University of Oregon, OR, USA - Pratyusa Manadhata, HP Labs, USA - Konrad Rieck, University of Goettingen, Germany - J. Doug Tygar, UC Berkeley, CA, USA From p.geurts at ulg.ac.be Mon Jun 2 08:18:10 2014 From: p.geurts at ulg.ac.be (Pierre Geurts) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 14:18:10 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP - MLSB14, the 8th Machine Learning in Systems Biology workshop Message-ID: <1ADE4AA4-9219-417E-97BD-844CD9B6CDDA@ulg.ac.be> [Apologizes for cross-posting] 2nd Call for contributions MLSB14, the eighth International Workshop on Machine Learning in Systems Biology http://www.mlsb.cc Organized in conjunction with ECCB 2014 Strasbourg, France, September 6-7, 2014. Submission deadline: *** June 11, 2014 *** WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION MLSB14, the Eighth International Workshop on Machine Learning in Systems Biology, is a workshop of the ECCB 2014 conference. It aims to contribute to the cross-fertilization between the research in machine learning methods and their applications to systems biology by bringing together method developers and experimentalists. We are soliciting submissions bringing forward methods for discovering complex structures (e.g. interaction networks, molecule structures) and methods supporting genome-wide data analysis Please see the workshop website http://www.mlsb.cc for more details. SUBMISSIONS INSTRUCTIONS We invite you to submit an extended abstract of up to 4 pages in PDF format describing new or very recently published results. Submissions will be reviewed by the scientific programme committee. They will be selected for oral or poster presentation according to their originality and relevance to the workshop topics. KEY DATES Submission deadline: June 11, 2014 Author notification: July 15, 2014 Early registration deadline ECCB14: August 2, 2014 Workshop: September 6-7, 2014 CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS Pierre Baldi, UCI University, California, USA Karsten Borgwardt, Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, Germany CONTACT For further information, please contact chairsmlsb2014 at gmail.com CHAIRS Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Liege, Belgium) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Markus Heinonen (University of Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Liege, Belgium) V?n Anh Huynh-Thu (University of Edinburgh, UK) Nizar Touleimat (Centre National de g?notypage, CEA, Evry, France) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Chlo?-Agathe Azencott (CBIO, Mines ParisTech, Institut Curie, INSERM, France) Karsten Borgwardt (MPI Tubingen, Germany) Sa?o D?eroski (Jo?ef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) Mohamed Elati (Universite d'Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Li?ge, Belgium) Markus Heinonen (University of Evry, France) Van Anh Huynh-Thu (University of Edimburgh, UK) Ross King (Aberystwyth University, UK) Stefan Kramer (University of Mainz, Germany) Yves Moreau (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) Sach Mukherjee (Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands) Mahesan Niranjan (University of Southampton, UK) Uwe Ohler (Duke University, USA) John Pinney (Imperial College London, UK) Simon Rogers (University of Glasgow, UK) Juho Rousu (University of Helsinki, Finland) Yvan Saeys (University of Ghent, Belgium) Peter Sykacek (BOKU University, Austria) Nizar Touleimat (Centre National de Genotypage, CEA, France) Koji Tsuda (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) Jean-Philippe Vert (Ecole des Mines de Paris, France) Filip Zelezny (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic) From karthikmaheshv at gmail.com Mon Jun 2 12:27:24 2014 From: karthikmaheshv at gmail.com (Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 18:27:24 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [meetings] [ECCV2014] CfP: Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis (in conjunction with ECCV 2014) Message-ID: ========================================================================== *Call for Papers- Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis* (in conjunction with ECCV 2014), September 7, 2014, Zurich, Switzerland http://affordances.info/workshops/ECCV.html ========================================================================== The workshop seeks to address key challenges in computer vision and applications such as robotics with regard to functional form descriptions, which are termed as "affordances". Based on the Gibsonian principle of defining objects by their function, "affordances" have been studied extensively by psychologists and visual perception researchers, resulting in the creation of numerous cognitive models. These models are being increasingly revisited and adapted by computer vision researchers to build visual perception and behavioral algorithms in recent years. This workshop attempts to explore this nascent, yet rapidly emerging field of affordance based cognitive vision (recognition of objects, activities, scenes etc.) while integrating the efforts and language of affordance communities not just in computer vision, but also psychophysics and neurobiology by creating an open affordance research forum, feature framework and ontology called AfNet (theaffordances.net). In particular, the workshop will focus on emerging trends in affordances and other human-centered function/action features that can be used to build computer vision algorithms leading to various intelligent applications. The workshop will also feature contributions from researchers involved in traditional theories to affordances, especially from the point of view of psychophysics and neuro-biology. Avenues to aiding research in these fields using techniques from computer vision and cognitive robotics will also be explored. Primary topics addressed by the workshop include the following among others - Affordances in visual perception models - Affordances as visual primitives, common coding features and symbolic cognitive systems - Affordances for object recognition, search, attention modulation, functional scene understanding and classification - Object functionality analysis - Affordances from appearance and touch based cues - Haptic adjectives - Functional-visual categories for transfer learning - Actions and functions in object perception - Human-object interactions and modeling - Motion-capture data analysis for object categorization - Affordances in human and robot grasping - Affordance learning - Affordance ontologies - Knowledge bases for affordances and affordance modeling Understanding various challenges in the field of affordances and building a common language and framework for communication across the varied affordance communities are the key goals of the proposed workshop. Through the course of the workshop, we also envisage the establishment of a working group for AfNet. *Paper Submissions* Paper contributions to the workshop are solicited in four different formats. This departure from the regular format is intended to promote greater contribution and cater to the needs of affordance communities from various disciplines such as Knowledge Representation, Psychology, Psychophysics, Neuroscience, Kinematics, Ontologies besides traditional audience such as from Cognitive/ Computer Vision and Robotics. - *Conceptual papers* (2 pages): Authors are invited to submit original ideas on approaches to address specific problems in the targeted areas of the workshop. While a clear presentation of the proposed approach and the expected results are essential, specifics of implementation and evaluations are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at exchange and evaluation of ideas prior to implementation/ experimental work as well as to open up collaboration avenues. - *Design papers* (6 pages): Authors submitting design papers are required to address key issues regarding the problem considered with detailed algorithms and preliminary or proof-of-concept results. Detailed evaluations and analyses are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at addressing late-breaking and work in progress results as well as fostering collaboration between research and engineering groups. - *Experimental papers* (6 pages): Experimental papers are required to present results of experiments and evaluation of previously published algorithms or design frameworks. Details of implementation and exhaustive test case analyses are key to this format. These papers are geared at benchmarking and standardizing previously known approaches. - *Full papers* (14 pages): Full papers must be self-inclusive contributions with a detailed treatment of the problem statement, related work, design methodology, algorithm, test-bed, evaluation, comparative analysis, results and future scope of work. Submission of original and unpublished work is highly encouraged. Since the goal of this workshop is to bring together the various affordance communities, extended versions/ summary reports of recent research published elsewhere, as adapted to the goals of the workshop, will also be accepted. These papers are required to clearly state the relevance to the workshop and the necessary adaptation. The program will be composed of oral as well as Pecha-Kucha style presentations. Each contribution will be reviewed by three reviewers through a single-blind review process. The paper formatting should follow the ECCV formatting guidelines (Templates: LaTeX ). All contributions are to be submitted via Microsoft Conference Management Tool in PDF. Please adhere to the following strict deadlines. In addition to direct acceptance, early submissions may be conditionally accepted, in which case submission of a revised version of the paper based on reviewer comments, prior to the late submission deadline is necessary. The final decision on acceptance of such conditionally accepted papers will be announced along with the decisions for the late submissions. Hence, while early submissions will have a better chance of acceptance than late submissions, submission to either (or both) rounds is equally encouraged. *Important Dates* - Initial submissions (Early): 23:59:59 PDT *Jun 10*, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Early submissions): June 20, 2014 - Initial submissions (Late): 23:59:59 PDT June 25, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Late submissions): July 15, 2014 - Submission of publication-ready version: July 25, 2014 - Workshop date: September 7, 2014 *Organizers* Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan (varadarajan(at) acin.tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien Alireza Fathi (alireza(at)cs.stanford.edu), Stanford Juergen Gall (gall(at) iai.uni-bonn.de), Univ. Bonn Markus Vincze (vincze(at)tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien *Speakers and Participants* (To be updated) Fei-Fei Li (Affordances in Computer Vision), Stanford University, USA Abhinav Gupta (Affordances in Computer Vision), Carnegie Mellon University, USA Derek Hoiem (Affordance Semantics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Ashutosh Saxena (Affordances in Cognitive Robotics), Cornell University, USA Aaron Bobick (Affordances in Robotics), GeorgiaTech, USA *Program Committee* Irving Biederman (USC) Aude Oliva (MIT) Martha Teghtsoonian (Smith College) Barbara Caputo (Univ. of Rome, IDIAP) Song-Chun Zhu (UCLA) Antonis Argyros (FORTH) Tamim Asfour (KIT) Trevor Darrell (UC. Berkeley) Michael Beetz (TUM) Norbert Krueger (Univ. of Southern Denmark) Sven Dickinson (Univ. of Toronto) Erhan Oztop (Ozegin Univ.) Diane Pecher (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam) Jason Corso (UB New York) Juan Carlos Niebles (Universidad del Norte) Tamara Berg (UNC Chapel Hill) Moritz Tenorth (Univ. Bremen) Dejan Pangercic (Robert Bosch) Roozbeh Mottaghi (Stanford) Xiaofeng Ren (Amazon) David Fouhey (CMU) Tucker Hermans (Georgia Tech) Tian Lan (Stanford) Amir Roshan Zamir (UCF) Hamed Pirsiavash (MIT) Walterio Mayol-Cuevas (Univ. of Bristol) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From n.lepora at sheffield.ac.uk Tue Jun 3 06:20:21 2014 From: n.lepora at sheffield.ac.uk (Nathan F Lepora) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 11:20:21 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [meetings] Living Machines III: Call for Participation in Conference, Demos and Workshops Message-ID: _____________________________________________________________ Call for Participation in Conference, Demos and Workshops Living Machines: The 3rd International Conference on Biomimetic Robotics and Biohybrid Systems. A Convergent Science Network Event 29th July to 1st August 2014 Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia, Leonardo Da Vinci Milano http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines/conf2014 ______________________________________________________________ News & Highlights * Deadline for early registration, June 30th, 2014. * Book on time accommodation for good value and availability. see LM2014 for suggestions http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines/conf2014/accommodation * Main conference programme now online, 6 plenary talks, 1 invited talk, 18 single-track oral presentations, 10 poster spotlights, 40 posters. * 4 satellite workshops also available for registration as separate events, topics include autonomous locomotion systems, the robot self, emergent social behavior, and biomimetics in design. * Bring a demo, be it a robot or an installation, for an exhibition on biomimetic robots, biohybrid computer art, live robot performance or videos. * If you wish to bring a demo please contact us. info.csnetwork at upf.edu * If you need help with transporting your demo to Milano contact us at info.csnetwork at upf.edu * You can book the social dinner as a separate event. Contact info.csnetwork at upf.edu for all enquiries. ABOUT LIVING MACHINES 2014 The 3rd International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid systems comprises 4 days of events including 3 days of single-track oral presentations with 6 plenary speakers; a 1-day with five satellite workshops on themes ranging from autonomous robots to robot ?selves? to biomimetics in design and social impacts of living machines. On Wednesday there will be a reception offered by the Tailor & Francis group http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/ and, on Thursday there will be the LM2014 banquet. We hope you will join us for this exciting programme! The conference registration site is open. Please register soon to take advantage of early registration?deadline June 30th ***From every accepted paper at least 1 author must be registered and present at the Conference*** CONFERENCE PROGRAMME **Program now available online** http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines/conf2014/programme The main conference will take the form of a single-track oral presentation programme, 30th July to midday 1st August 2014 that will include 6 plenary lectures from leading international researchers in biomimetic and biohybrid systems. Agreed speakers are: Mandyam Srinivasan Queensland Brain Institute, Australia Insect-inspired cognition and vision Andrew Schwartz University of Minnesota, Pittsburgh, USA Neural control of prosthetics Sarah Bergbreiter University of Maryland, USA Microrobotics Darwin Caldwell Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy Legged Locomotion Ricard Sole Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Evolution of complex networks Minoru Asada Osaka University, Japan Cognitive and Affective Developmental Robotics There will also be 18 regular talks of 30 min, 1 invited talk on Thursday at midday on Biomimetics in Design by Franco Lodato, 10 Poster Spotlights of 5 min and 2 poster sessions of 90 mins each (midday of July 30st and August 1st) featuring 40 posters. Particular themes include: Soft Robotics Neuromechanics Social Robotics Locomotion Biohybrid Brain-based Active Sensing WORKSHOPS In addition to the main conference there is one further day of workshops, each with their own full program that will be available soon on the Living Machines website. Monday 29th July Embodied Interaction and Internal Models: Key Features of Autonomous Locomotion Systems - Organisers: Volker D?rr, Biological Cybernetics, Bielefeld University, Germany, Paolo Arena, Electrical Engineering, University of Catania, Italy The Robot Self - Organizers: Tony Prescott, University of Sheffield, UK; Paul Verschure Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, CSNII Emergent social behaviours in bio-hybrid systems - Organizers: Jos? Halloy: Universite Paris Diderot. Thomas Schmickl: Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Stuart Wilson, University of Sheffield Rotational Geometry and the Creation of Bionic Models. - Organizers: Pino Trogu, San Francisco State University, USA, Franco Lodato, Creative Director VSN Mobil with Istituto Europeo di Design, Milano Neuro-chip interfaces and Neuroprostheses - Organizers: Stefano Vassanelli, University of Padova, Italy Attendance at workshops will attract a small fee intended to cover the costs of the meeting. We have reserved meeting rooms at the Italian Institute of Technology in Milan each with capacity for up to 40 people. Please book early. Separate registration for satellite events is possible. ABOUT THE VENUE The organisers are delighted to have secured the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia, Leonardo Da Vinci Milano as the main venue for our conference. The museum is a centre dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci a symbol of the connection between artistic and scientific-technological cultures, two complementary expressions of human creativity. KEY DATES June 30th 2014 Deadline for early registration July 30th - August 1st 2014 Conference We are looking forwards to seeing you in Milano. ORGANISING COMMITTEE Tony Prescott (co-chair) Paul Verschure (co-chair) Armin Duff (programme chair) Roberto Cingolani (local organizer) Barbara Mazzolai (workshops) Nathan Lepora (communications) Anna Mura (communications and web-site) Contact and Conference Secretariat: Info.csnetwork at upf.edu living-machines at sheffield.ac.uk From neumann at cbs.mpg.de Tue Jun 3 08:50:21 2014 From: neumann at cbs.mpg.de (Jane Neumann) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:50:21 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position in computational modelling In-Reply-To: <538DC469.8050600@cbs.mpg.de> References: <538DC469.8050600@cbs.mpg.de> Message-ID: <538DC48D.7040109@cbs.mpg.de> The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig and the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1052 "Obesity mechanisms" at the Leipzig University Hospital are offering a PhD studentship in computational modelling. Within the project, computational modelling is used to investigate leaning and decision-making in humans. The project is aimed at the multi-modal integration of available and newly acquired behavioral, structural/functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), PET and genetic data towards comprehensive computational and neurocognitive models of cognitive control over behavior. Work will be carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig under the supervision of Dr Jane Neumann and Dr Annette Horstmann. Both Leipzig's long tradition in conducting neuroscientific research and the ultra-modern equipment at the Max Planck Institute provide an environment that offers new perspectives in neuroimaging research. Further, the position will be part of the CRCs Integrated Research Training Group. This graduate program offers interdisciplinary qualification in various research methods and transferable skills, and provides support in career planning and in establishing an own scientific network. Applicants should hold a Master's degree (or equivalent) in one of the following disciplines: computational or cognitive neuroscience, computer science, maths, psychology, biology, cognitive science or related. Prior experience in the fields of computational neuroscience and/or neuroimaging are of great advantage. Sound knowledge of statistics and excellent programming skills are essential. A good command of written and spoken English is requested of all applicants. Please send your application as a single pdf-file to neumann at cbs.mpg.de referring to 'Modelling SFB 1052'. Complete applications include cover letter, CV, letter(s) of recommendation, and copies of university degrees and additional certificates. Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Jane Neumann (+49 (0) 341 99 40 26 21). For meeting Dr. Neumann and Dr. Horstmann at *OHBM 2014*, please send an email to neumann at cbs.mpg.de or horstmann at cbs.mpg.de including days and times when you are available during the conference. The salary is based on the German E 13 TV-L salary scale. In order to increase the proportion of female staff members, applications from female scientists are particularly encouraged. Disabled applicants are preferred if qualification is equal. Deadline for application: until position is filled Further details about the project can also be found at www.o-brain-project.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurent.perrinet at univ-amu.fr Tue Jun 3 04:40:19 2014 From: laurent.perrinet at univ-amu.fr (Laurent Perrinet) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 10:40:19 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [PhD] Natural scene statistics and visual motion processing in humans and non-human primates Message-ID: <05B09DC9-31C1-41B3-B390-11C29DE3646B@univ-amu.fr> Dear List, Applications are invited for 3 PhD positions funded by the PhD program in Integrative and Clinical Neurosciences (http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/PhD-Program-in-Integrative-and), as described in: http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/IMG/pdf/List_of_research_projects.pdf among which the following ---at the Institute of Neurosciences, Timone in Marseille, France--- may be of interest to the list. Deadline for applications is June 15th. Cheers, Laurent -- Laurent Perrinet - INT (UMR 7289)/CNRS http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet Title: Natural scene statistics and visual motion processing in humans and non-human primates Supervisor: Guillaume MASSON Laboratory: Institute of Neurosciences, Timone (INT) State of the art: The mammalian visual system is tuned to process the complex, high-dimension statistics of natural scenes. For instance, neuronal responses to natural inputs are more ?nely tuned, more temporally precise and more sparse. A major challenge is to understand how such complex information is integrated to measure perceptual quantities such as object motion in a crowded environment. From a theoretical perspective, this implies to understand how the cascade of cortical processing steps extracts the relevant dimensions through linear (e.g. ?ltering) and nonlinear (e.g. gain control, contextual modulation) mechanisms. From an experimental perspective, the challenge implies to design behavioural tasks that can dissect out these mechanisms. The classical approach is to compare classic, low-dimension stimuli such as gratings or dots with natural images. However, it is almost impossible to parametrize natural scenes in a useful way. We [1], and others [2], have designed and begun to use naturalistic stimuli as static or dynamic textures of which mean and variance along each parameter space is manipulated to demonstrate how sensory systems sense and represent information. We have recently shown in Nature Neuroscience3 that richer textures drive more accurate and reliable ocular tracking responses. This is the ?rst demonstration that naturalistic inputs processing can be probed using sensorimotor tasks. Objectives: Our objective is to demonstrate that in human and non-human primates, estimating direction and speed of a moving object requires to integrate information from the multiple spatial and temporal scales existing in natural scenes. We will investigate how different spatiotemporal frequency channels are nonlinearly combined to drive faster and more precise tracking eye movements. In particular, we will extend our previous study [3] by studying how richness of visual motion information reduces the variability of motor responses, within and across trials. We will also study how the geometric organization of the texture input impacts performance, opening the door to understanding the link between low-level motion processing and the perceptual organization of complex scenes. Methods: The approach is based on probing low-level visual processing through the dynamics of re?exive eye movements. Ocular following responses exist in both humans and non-human primates and over the last 15 years we, and others have shown how they can probe low-level motion mechanisms. The PhD will work in non-human primates to conduct behavioural experiments using random phase textures and recording eye movements with the scleral search coil technique. Behavioural performance will be assessed through kinematics (acceleration, latency?) as well as through detection and discrimination tasks (i.e. comparison between responses for two stimuli). Expected results: A ?rst step will be to reproduce the main observation made in humans: richness of the inputs improves precision and decreases variability. Then we will characterize the nonlinear interactions between spatiotemporal channels underlying speed estimation through motion energy and their temporal dynamics. Feasibility: This project is supported by an ANR project (SPEED) that started in October 2013. The PhD student will work in close collaboration with a PD fellow working in humans as we expect the ?rst series of experiments to be identical in both species. A non-human primate set-up is available and a research assistant (F Barthelemy) will daily supervise the lab work. The InViBe team has strong expertises in modelling and electrophysiology so that the project will open the door for collaborative work in texture synthesis and speed processing modelling with Laurent Perrinet and recording of population activity evoked with dense, naturalistic textures with Fred Chavane. 1 Sanz-L?on et al. (2012) J Neurophysiol http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet/Publications/Sanz12 2 Freeman et al. (2013) Nature Neuroscience 3 Simoncini et al. (2012) Nature Neuroscience http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet/Publications/Simoncini12 Listed as Research project #18 in: http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/IMG/pdf/List_of_research_projects.pdf More Guidelines: In 2014, the PhD program in Integrative and Clinical Neurosciences will fund three PhD scholarships to excellent Master graduates from non-French top ranked universities The selection process includes the following steps : Nineteen research projects of excellence from AMU laboratories have been selected by the board of the PhD program. Applicants have to select and rank two research projects and motivate their choice The selection committee will shortlist 10 students that will be individually interviewed in June The final decision will be known in July and the three successful candidates will start their PhD in October. Guidelines for students The scholarships are open to high performing Master graduates from top ranked non-French universities. Applicants must provide the following documents : A first e-mail should be sent by you to edsvs-neuroscience-phd-program at univ-amu.fr with the subject "PhD Application, YourName" [1] and three documents in the appropriate format : a Curriculum Vitae. This document should be named "YourName_CV.doc" a document highlighting the adequacy between the applicant?s background and the selected research projects (to be download here). Please use the following template to be download here. This document should be named "YourName_ResearchProjects.doc" . a one page letter of motivation (500 words). This document should be named "YourName_motivation_letter.doc" . two letters of recommendation will have to be sent directly to edsvs-neuroscience-phd-program at univ-amu.fr with the subject "Recommendation, YourName" , using the following template to be download here. This document should be named "YourName_Evaluation.doc". Closing date for applications : Sunday, June 15th, at midnight (French time). Scholarship value : Net monthly salary : 1,368 ?. Expenses : applicants will pay their annual tuition fee (around 500 ?) and, when needed, their visa fee. Tenure of award : 3 years General rules Any incomplete application will not be considered How and when do students learn about the decision ? Offers of PhD scholarships will be made soon after the final individual interview, early July. Because some applicants may decline a scholarship, it is possible that some applicants receive their notification of selection a week after the final decision What conditions are attached to acceptance of this award ? Scholarship recipients must sign a Postgraduate Scholarships Contract agreeing to abide by the attached regulations. Recipients will be required to devote themselves full-time to their program of research during the tenure of the scholarship Selection committee : members of the PhD program board and members of the AMU neuroscience community. None of them will be the supervisor of a proposed research project -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pmgr at idiap.ch Tue Jun 3 05:43:58 2014 From: pmgr at idiap.ch (Idiap Research Institute) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 11:43:58 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open Senior Researcher position @ Idiap Research Institute (Switzerland) Message-ID: <538D98DE.7080606@idiap.ch> *Permanent Senior Researcher position @ Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland* To register and/or more information at http://www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs/job-10156 *Description: * Idiap invites applications for a permanent Senior Researcher position. The main focus of this search is for highly qualified candidates, with evidence of strong research, PhD student supervision, and project management capabilities. We particularly encourage those candidates committed to novel theories and applications of machine learning and signal processing, while contributing to the diversification of Idiap's activities and bringing expertise in new application areas. Topics of particular interest include (but are not limited to) environmental monitoring and risk management, health, biotechnologies, energy management, and smart cities. The successful candidate is expected to initiate independent, creative research programs at the Idiap Research Institute, possibly in collaboration with EPFL. As part of our affiliation with EPFL, duties could also include the participation in undergraduate and graduate teaching in Lausanne. Given the links between Idiap and EPFL, academic careers can also be considered for exceptional candidates. Internationally competitive salaries and benefits are offered. *About Idiap: * Idiap is an independent, non-profit research institute recognized and supported by the Swiss Government, and affiliated with the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL). It is located in the town of Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exciting recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Geneva and Lausanne. Although Idiap is located in the French part of Switzerland, English is the working language. Free French lessons are provided. Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions at all levels in a young, dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is an equal opportunity employer and is actively involved in the "Advancement of Women in Science" European initiative. The Institute seeks to maintain a principle of open competition (on the basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provides equal opportunity for all candidates, and equally encourage both genders to apply. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From birgit.ahrens at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Wed Jun 4 06:29:40 2014 From: birgit.ahrens at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Birgit Ahrens) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:29:40 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: BCF/NWG course "Analysis and Models in Neurophysiology" 2014 at the Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany Message-ID: <538EF514.1070307@bcf.uni-freiburg.de> BCF/NWG-Course "Analysis and Models in Neurophysiology" /Sunday, October 5 - Friday, October 10, 2014 / /Bernstein Center Freiburg, Hansastra?e 9a, 79104 Freiburg, Germany/ *Aim of the course:* The course is intended to provide advanced Diploma/Masters and PhD students, as well as young researchers from the neurosciences with approaches for the analysis of electrophysiological data and the theoretical concepts behind them. *The course includes various topics such as*: * Systems and Signals (Prof. Stefan Rotter) * Local field potentials (Prof. Ulrich Egert) * Neural Coding (Dr. Robert Schmidt) * Neural Decoding (Prof. Carsten Mehring) The course will consist of lectures in the morning and and matching exercises using Matlab, Mathematica and Python in the afternoon. Experience with these software packages will be helpful but is not required for registration. The participants should have a basic understanding of scientific programming. This course is designated especially for advanced diploma/master-students and PhD-students (preferentially in their first year). *Application:* Please apply by sending one pdf document containing your CV and a meaningful letter of motivation to nwg-course at bcf.uni-freiburg.de. The letter of motivation should refer to the following points: * Reasons for wanting to take this course * Background in mathematics * Experience in using Matlab/Python/Mathematica * Background in neuroscience The course is limited to 20 participants. *Course fees:* NWG members - 50EUR, others - 125EUR *Application deadline: *June 30, 2014 *More information: *http://www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de/events/conferences-workshops/20141005-nwgcourse *-- Dr. Birgit Ahrens --* Teaching & Training Coordinator Bernstein Center Freiburg University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From giacomo.cabri at unimore.it Thu Jun 5 10:52:49 2014 From: giacomo.cabri at unimore.it (Giacomo Cabri) Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:52:49 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CfP: 2nd FoCAS Workshop on Fundamentals of Collective Adaptive Systems @SASO 2014 Message-ID: <53908441.1090803@unimore.it> 2nd FoCAS Workshop on Fundamentals of Collective Adaptive Systems Monday 8th September @ SASO 2014, London, UK Workshop Best Student Paper Award: Prize 500EUR! Submission hard deadline is 11 July 2014 (**no extensions given**) Paper Acceptance Notification: July 31, 2014 Camera Ready: 6 August, 2014 Workshop website: www.focas.eu/saso-2014 CFP Collective Adaptive Systems (CAS) is a broad term that describes large scale systems that comprise of many units/nodes, each of which may have their own individual properties, objectives and actions. Decision- making in such a system is distributed and possibly highly dispersed, and interaction between the units may lead to the emergence of unexpected phenomena. CASs are open, in that nodes may enter or leave the collective at any time, and boundaries between CASs are fluid. The units can be highly heterogeneous (computers, robots, agents, devices, biological entities, etc.), each operating at different temporal and spatial scales, and having different (potentially conflicting) objectives and goals, even if often the system has a global goal that is pursued by means of collective actions. Our society increasingly depends on such systems, in which collections of heterogeneous ?technological? nodes are tightly entangled with human and social structures to form ?artificial societies?. Yet, to properly exploit them, we need to develop a deeper scientific understanding of the principles by which they operate, in order to better design them. This workshop solicits papers that address new methodologies, theories and principles that can be used in order to develop a better understanding of the fundamental factors underpinning the operation of such systems, so that we can better design, build, and analyse such systems. We welcome inter-disciplinary approaches. Suggested Topics (but not limited to): -Novel theories relating to operating principles of CAS -Novel design principles for building CAS systems -Insights into the short and long term adaptation of CAS systems -Insights into Emergent Properties of CAS -Insights into general properties of large scale, distributed CAS -Methodologies for studying, analysing and building CAS -Frameworks for analysing or developing CAS Case studies -Scenarios that can be used to investigate CAS properties Invited contributions from the workshop will be published in a Special Issue of the Journal of Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience: http://scpe.org/ Submission deadline is 11 July 2014 FoCAS Best Student Paper Award The FoCAS Coordination Action is also presenting a best student paper award. The prize is worth 500 EUR to reimburse travel and accommodation costs associated with attending the workshop. This Best Student Paper Award is open to any student who is first author of a paper submitted to the FoCAS workshop at SASO 2014. Winning announcements will be made on 8 September at the workshop and posted at www.focas.eu. The submission deadline is 11 July 2014 Program Chairs Emma Hart (Edinburgh Napier University): e.hart at napier.ac.uk Giacomo Cabri (University of Modena & Reggio Emilia: giacomo.cabri at unimore.it Full workshop details are available at: www.focas.eu/saso-2014 -- |----------------------------------------------------| | Prof. Giacomo Cabri - Ph.D., Associate Professor | Dip. di Scienze Fisiche, Informatiche e Matematiche | Universita' di Modena e Reggio Emilia - Italia | e-mail giacomo.cabri at unimore.it | tel. +39-059-2058320 fax +39-059-2055216 |----------------------------------------------------| From demian.battaglia at univ-amu.fr Fri Jun 6 06:48:13 2014 From: demian.battaglia at univ-amu.fr (Demian Battaglia) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 12:48:13 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?ECML_Workshop__-___=93Neural_Con?= =?windows-1252?q?nectomics=3A_From_Imaging_to_Connectivity=94?= Message-ID: <7A295510-9E0E-4D21-B694-2D8FE1C41014@univ-amu.fr> ECML Workshop - ?Neural Connectomics: From Imaging to Connectivity? September 15, 2014 - Nancy, France Paper submission deadline: June 20, 2014 Description: Systematic extraction of connectivity information is gaining growing importance for the understanding of the general functioning of the brain and its learning capabilities, as well as for designing biomarkers for diagnosis, prediction and prevention in neuropathologies. At the neural level, recovering the exact wiring of the brain (connectome) including nearly 100 billion neurons, having on average 7000 synaptic connections to other neurons, is a daunting task. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in machine learning and neuroscience to discuss progress and remaining challenges in this exciting and rapidly evolving field. We aim to attract machine learning and computer vision specialists interested in learning about a new problem, as well as computational neuroscientists who may be interested in modeling connectivity data. We will discuss also the results of the First ChaLearn Neural Connectomics Challenge, who attracted over 100 participants, many of them advancing considerably the state-of-the-art. Topics of interest to the workshop include, but are not limited to: ? building connectomes from EM data ? building connectomes from fMRI data ? building connectomes from neurophysiology data ? bridging neuroanatomy and neurophysiology ? connectomics and learning ? neuroimaging technology advances ? network reconstruction algorithms ? causality in time series ? feature selection vs. causal discovery ? generative vs. discriminative modeling ? sharing data ? sharing code ? organizing new challenges ? establishing ground truth, benchmarking ? quantitative metrics of evaluation ? theoretical understanding Important dates: o Paper submission: June 20, 2014 o Notification of acceptance: July 05, 2014 o Camera-ready: July 25, 2014 o ECML Workshop: September 15, 2014 Important - Submission Guidelines: We encourage contributions in any of these areas. We welcome 2-page short-form submissions and 6-page long-form submissions. Submissions should be formatted using JMLR Workshop and Proceedings format, style files for which are available at: http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/jmlr.html. We also encourage submissions of previously-published material that is closely related to the workshop topic (for presentation only). Everybody can attend the workshop even if he does not participate in the challenge (http://connectomics.chalearn.org/). Challenge participants are encouraged to contribute a paper on their results and also submit papers for presentation on the topics of the workshop. The papers have to be submitted via Easy Chair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ncw2014 From joerg.luecke at uni-oldenburg.de Fri Jun 6 05:20:26 2014 From: joerg.luecke at uni-oldenburg.de (=?windows-1252?Q?J=F6rg_L=FCcke?=) Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 11:20:26 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: REMINDER: Two PhD Positions and one Postdoc Position in Machine Learning / Sensory Data Processing In-Reply-To: <535E2567.2030804@uni-oldenburg.de> References: <535E2567.2030804@uni-oldenburg.de> Message-ID: <539187DA.1070600@uni-oldenburg.de> Dear researchers, There is a bit more than one week left until the deadline for the positions. If you have already applied, please see the end of this e-mail for more details on the required application documents. The given information is in response to some questions we got. Best wishes, J?rg L?cke On 28.04.2014 11:54, J?rg L?cke wrote: > The Machine Learning research group at the University of Oldenburg is > seeking to fill > > Two PhD Research Positions and one (postdoctoral) Research Associate > Position > > All positions are part of the Machine Learning group which develops > learning and inference technology for sensory data. We pursue basic > research, develop new technology, and apply our approaches to > different tasks. Our research hereby combines modern probabilistic > data descriptions, modern computer technology and insights from the > neurosciences. We contribute to the improvement of current methods for > computer hearing, pattern recognition and computer vision as well as > to the understanding of biological and artificial intelligence. > Research will be conducted in close collaboration with leading > international and national research labs. Our research field can be > considered as part of the Data Sciences, Computational Sciences, or > Big Data approaches (to name some terms recently used in the media). > > Salary levels of the positions are based on the TV-L scale of the > German public sector (?ffentlicher Dienst). After the deduction of > health insurance, pension tax and other taxes, the salary for the PhD > positions amounts to approximately 1600 EUR per month, and to about > 2000 EUR per month for the (postdoctoral) Research Associate Position. > Depending on the experience of the candidates, the salary can be > higher. But please note that the only definite sources for all > information on the positions including salary, job description and > application/selection procedure are the central websites of the > University of Oldenburg. > > For the PhD positions see: > http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/stellen/?stelle=63323 > For the postdoc position see: > http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/stellen/?stelle=63322 > > Depending on the skills and interests of the candidates, the research > focus will be on the development of new probabilistic learning > algorithms and/or their applications to high-dimensional sensory data. > Projects can emphasize basic research for general purpose learning and > pattern recognition, or applications of algorithms to specific tasks. > > Candidates for the PhD positions have to hold a Master degree in > Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics or a closely related subject > (at the latest at the time when the contract is signed). > Analytical/mathematical skills and programming skills (e.g. python, > matlab, C++) are required for all candidates. Experiences with Machine > Learning algorithms are desirable. Experiences with acoustic data, > other types of sensory data, and an interest in the neurosciences are > a plus but are not strictly required. > > The candidates for the (postdoctoral) Research Associate position have > to hold a Master degree or (preferably) a PhD/Doctoral degree in > Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics or a closely related subject > (alternatively, a statement can be provided that a PhD/Doctoral degree > will be issued when the position is taken or shortly thereafter). > Analytical/mathematical skills, programming skills, and experience > with Machine Learning algorithms are required. Experiences with > acoustic data, other types of sensory data, and an interest in the > neurosciences are a plus but are not strictly required. The > (postdoctoral) Research Associate position is suitable for part-time > work. > > All positions can be filled immediately and are available for > initially two years with an option for extension. > > The appointed researchers will be part of a very new working > environment. The research group is currently established through a > strategic investment into Machine Learning technology at Oldenburg. > The group is located in a new building, and the Cluster of Excellence > Hearing4all is part of the German Excellence Initiative which funds > top-tier research in Germany. The cluster comprises many > interdisciplinary research groups that are currently set up or that > are extended. As a consequence, many new PhD, postdoc and faculty > positions allow for interesting collaboration opportunities and > provide an attractive scientific and social environment. The city of > Oldenburg is one of Germany's cities with the highest rated living > quality, it is close to the North See and near to the cities of Bremen > and Hamburg. > > For more information about the Machine Learning research group visit: > http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/ml/ > > For more information about the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all > visit: http://hearing4all.eu/EN/ > > The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increasing the percentage > of women in science. Therefore, female candidates are particularly > encouraged to apply. According to ? 21 III NHG (legislation governing > Higher Education in Lower Saxony) preference will be given to female > candidates in cases of equal qualification. > > Handicapped applicants will be given preference if equally qualified. > > Please send your application including the usual documents (including > contact details for reference letters) preferably electronically (PDF) > to J?rg L?cke or per mail to: Carl von > Ossietzky Universit?t Oldenburg, Fakult?t VI, Machine Learning, z.Hd. > Frau Jennifer K?llner, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany. Please use ?Research > Position (PhD)? as subject line for applications to the PhD positions, > and ?Research Associate Position (postdoc)? for applications to the > (postdoctoral) Research Associate position. > > The application deadline is 15 June 2014. Applications received after > this date are not guaranteed to enter the selection process. > > > MORE INFORMATION ON APPLICATION DOCUMENTS Note that detailed reviewing of the applications will start immediately after the deadline of June 15. We got some request asking for more information about application documents. Please be advised that the usual application documents include: - a scientific CV with education details including universities visited, degrees taken, final mark/rank (other skills, special courses and other interests are usually part of the CV) - if applicable (mainly postdoc applicants), a list of publications (can be part of the CV) - contact details of at least two researchers who can provide reference letters (you can also send the letters, or send one letter and one other reference) - scans of the original university degrees and translations to English if possible (unless they are in German) Some applicants also do provide a short research statement / statement of interest which can also be part of the cover letter or e-mail. It would also be interesting for us if you state when you could potentially start the position. If you have not provided all the documents stated above, please do provide them in time for the deadline of the position (15 June 2014). Please send an e-mail to Frau Jennifer K?llner with subject line ?Research Position (PhD) - additional documents? or ?Research Position (postdoc) - additional documents? -- J?rg L?cke (PhD) Associate Professor Machine Learning Lab and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics School of Medicine and Health Sciences University of Oldenburg 26111 Oldenburg Germany www.uni-oldenburg.de/ml From etienne.roesch at gmail.com Sat Jun 7 09:44:26 2014 From: etienne.roesch at gmail.com (Etienne B. Roesch) Date: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:44:26 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Method development for coupled EEG-fMRI (2x full EPSRC PhD studentships) Message-ID: <5393173A.1020202@gmail.com> Method development for coupled EEG-fMRI (2x full EPSRC PhD studentships) The goal of the project is to develop novel methods for the joint analysis of signals from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), when they are obtained concurrently. Technological advances of the last 10 years make it possible for scientists to record both modalities concurrently, in what is now known as coupled EEG-fMRI. By simultaneously recording these two modalities, scientists can potentially say where and when neural activity is occurring, whereas previously researchers had to settle for one or the other. This engineering feat, however, has not yet been met with the ability to make use of the combination of these signals to infer more knowledge than would otherwise be gathered in separate experiments. Filling this gap is the ambition of the present project. This is a method project, which requires skills and knowledge in neuroscience, applied mathematics/statistics/physics and programming. Candidates who have a strong background in at least two of these three fields are encouraged to apply, if they are enthusiastic about the third. Two full studentships are available, and we expect to appoint one candidate who is stronger in empirical work and a second who is stronger in analytics. Candidates are expected to have had some prior exposure to at least one of the two modalities, but will receive training in both. The two students will be supervised by Dr. Etienne Roesch and receive support from Dr. Michael Lindner and Prof. Tom Johnstone, with R&D support from Brain Products, one of the world?s leading manufacturers of MRI-compatible EEG systems. The group led by Dr. Roesch fosters interdisciplinary thinking, and students will have the opportunity to engage in ongoing empirical and modelling work related to perception and action. The Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) is host to a research-dedicated 3T Siemens TRIO, with a full license for sequence development, and a full suite of MR-compatible systems. Additionally, the students will be granted access to the cluster of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and other facilities at CINN, as well as at the Brain Embodiments Laboratory, in the School of Systems Engineering. The University of Reading is ranked as one of the UK?s 20 most research-intensive universities and as one of the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2013). Our campus was voted first in the Times Higher Education Student Experience survey and has a Green Flag Award. It is situated 25 minutes West of London. Reading University Students? Union was voted the 6th best in the UK (National Student Survey 2012). Essentials: Commitment to academic research and personal development; Ability to work collaboratively; Effective interpersonal and communication skills, including writing to a high standard, document preparation for technical notes and journal papers; Experience of work in interdisciplinary settings; Attention to details. Desirables: Self-guided work in developing statistical designs and approaches in research; Creative approach to problem solving; Ability to work independently; Experience in giving presentations and conveying complex ideas clearly. Eligibility: Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in a relevant subject. Please note that due to restrictions on the funding this studentship is for UK/EU applicants only. Funding Details: Studentship will cover Home/EU Fees, pay the Research Council minimum stipend (?13,863 in 2014/15) for up to 3 years and include funding for international conferences. How to apply: To apply for this studentship please submit an application for a PhD in Cybernetics (full time) to the University ? see http://www.reading.ac.uk/Study/apply/pg-applicationform.aspx . In the section ?Research proposal?, please upload or copy-paste your covering letter. When prompted as part of your online application, you should provide details of the funding you are applying for, quoting the reference GS14-68. Once you have submitted your application, you should receive an email to confirm receipt of your online application. Please forward this email, along with your covering letter and CV (as pdf), to Dr. Etienne B. Roesch, e.b.roesch at reading.ac.uk, by the application deadline. Application Deadline: Monday 14th July 2014 (interviews in August) Further Enquiries: Please contact Dr. Etienne B. Roesch, e.b.roesch at reading.ac.uk. ??? Dr. Etienne B. Roesch Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Cognitive Science University of Reading, UK http://doodle.com/MeetWithEtienne Too brief of an email? Here's why! http://emailcharter.org From steve at bu.edu Sat Jun 7 11:33:27 2014 From: steve at bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2014 11:33:27 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: an emerging neural theory of grid and place cell development and navigation: modules, spiking dynamics, cholinergic inactivation, oscillations, and attention Message-ID: <88A08AF7-CC1D-4553-9EBD-9CBFB6BC5DAF@bu.edu> The following articles summarize an emerging neural theory of how grid and place cells develop neurophysiological properties that support navigational behaviors, including properties of modular organization, spiking dynamics, effects of cholinergic inactivation, oscillations, and attention. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Grossberg, S., and Pilly, P. K. (2014). Coordinated learning of grid cell and place cell spatial and temporal properties: multiple scales, attention, and oscillations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B., 369, 20120524, http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1635/20120524.full.pdf+html Abstract. A neural model proposes how entorhinal grid cells and hippocampal place cells may develop as spatial categories in a hierarchy of self-organizing maps. The model responds to realistic rat navigational trajectories by learning both grid cells with hexagonal grid firing fields of multiple spatial scales, and place cells with one or more firing fields, that match neurophysiological data about their development in juvenile rats. Both grid and place cells can develop by detecting, learning, and remembering the most frequent and energetic co-occurrences of their inputs. The model?s parsimonious properties include: Similar ring attractor mechanisms process linear and angular path integration inputs that drive map learning; the same self-organizing map mechanisms can learn grid cell and place cell receptive fields; and the learning of the dorsoventral organization of multiple spatial scale modules through medial entorhinal cortex to hippocampus may use mechanisms homologous to those for temporal learning through lateral entorhinal cortex to hippocampus (?neural relativity?). The model clarifies how top-down hippocampus-to-entorhinal attentional mechanisms may stabilize map learning, simulates how hippocampal inactivation may disrupt grid cells, and explains data about theta, beta, and gamma oscillations. The article also compares the three main types of grid cell models in light of recent data. **************************************************************************************************************** Pilly, P.K., and Grossberg, S. (2013). Spiking neurons in a hierarchical self-organizing map model can learn to develop spatial and temporal properties of entorhinal grid cells and hippocampal place cells. PLOS ONE, http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060599 Abstract. Medial entorhinal grid cells and hippocampal place cells provide neural correlates of spatial representation in the brain. A place cell typically fires whenever an animal is present in one or more spatial regions, or places, of an environment. A grid cell typically fires in multiple spatial regions that form a regular hexagonal grid structure extending throughout the environment. Different grid and place cells prefer spatially offset regions, with their firing fields increasing in size along the dorsoventral axes of the medial entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. The spacing between neighboring fields for a grid cell also increases along the dorsoventral axis. This article presents a neural model whose spiking neurons operate in a hierarchy of self-organizing maps, each obeying the same laws. This spiking GridPlaceMap model simulates how grid cells and place cells may develop. It responds to realistic rat navigational trajectories by learning grid cells with hexagonal grid firing fields of multiple spatial scales and place cells with one or more firing fields that match neurophysiological data about these cells and their development in juvenile rats. The place cells represent much larger spaces than the grid cells, which enable them to support navigational behaviors. Both self-organizing maps amplify and learn to categorize the most frequent and energetic co-occurrences of their inputs. The current results build upon a previous rate-based model of grid and place cell learning, and thus illustrate a general method for converting rate-based adaptive neural models, without the loss of any of their analog properties, into models whose cells obey spiking dynamics. New properties of the spiking GridPlaceMap model include the appearance of theta band modulation. The spiking model also opens a path for implementation in brain-emulating nanochips comprised of networks of noisy spiking neurons with multiple-level adaptive weights for controlling autonomous adaptive robots capable of spatial navigation. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Pilly, P.K., and Grossberg, S. (2014) How does the modular organization of entorhinal grid cells develop? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.0037, http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00337/full Abstract. The entorhinal-hippocampal system plays a crucial role in spatial cognition and navigation. Since the discovery of grid cells in layer II of medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), several types of models have been proposed to explain their development and operation; namely, continuous attractor network models, oscillatory interference models, and self-organizing map (SOM) models. Recent experiments revealing the in vivo intracellular signatures of grid cells (Domnisoru et al., 2013; Schmidt-Heiber and Hausser, 2013), the primarily inhibitory recurrent connectivity of grid cells (Couey et al., 2013; Pastoll et al., 2013), and the topographic organization of grid cells within anatomically overlapping modules of multiple spatial scales along the dorsoventral axis of MEC (Stensola et al., 2012) provide strong constraints and challenges to existing grid cell models. This article provides a computational explanation for how MEC cells can emerge through learning with grid cell properties in modular structures. Within this SOM model, grid cells with different rates of temporal integration learn modular properties with different spatial scales. Model grid cells learn in response to inputs from multiple scales of directionally-selective stripe cells (Krupic et al., 2012; Mhatre et al., 2012) that perform path integration of the linear velocities that are experienced during navigation. Slower rates of grid cell temporal integration support learned associations with stripe cells of larger scales. The explanatory and predictive capabilities of the three types of grid cell models are comparatively analyzed in light of recent data to illustrate how the SOM model overcomes problems that other types of models have not yet handled. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Pilly, P.K., and Grossberg, S. (2013). How reduction of theta rhythm by medial septum inactivation may covary with disruption of entorhinal grid cell responses due to reduced cholinergic transmission. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, doi: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00173, http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncir.2013.00173/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Neuroscience-w46-2013 Abstract. Oscillations in the coordinated firing of brain neurons have been proposed to play important roles in perception, cognition, attention, learning, navigation, and sensory-motor control. The network theta rhythm has been associated with properties of spatial navigation, as has the firing of entorhinal grid cells and hippocampal place cells. Two recent studies reduced the theta rhythm by inactivating the medial septum (MS) and demonstrated a correlated reduction in the characteristic hexagonal spatial firing patterns of grid cells. These results, along with properties of intrinsic membrane potential oscillations (MPOs) in slice preparations of medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), have been interpreted to support oscillatory interference models of grid cell firing. The current article shows that an alternative self-organizing map (SOM) model of grid cells can explain these data about intrinsic and network oscillations without invoking oscillatory interference. In particular, the adverse effects of MS inactivation on grid cells can be understood in terms of how the concomitant reduction in cholinergic inputs may increase the conductances of leak potassium (K+) and slow and medium after-hyperpolarization (sAHP and mAHP) channels. This alternative model can also explain data that are problematic for oscillatory interference models, including how knockout of the HCN1 gene in mice, which flattens the dorsoventral gradient in MPO frequency and resonance frequency, does not affect the development of the grid cell dorsoventral gradient of spatial scales, and how hexagonal grid firing fields in bats can occur even in the absence of theta band modulation. These results demonstrate how models of grid cell self-organization can provide new insights into the relationship between brain learning and oscillatory dynamics. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Stephen Grossberg Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering Director, Center for Adaptive Systems http://cns.bu.edu/~steve steve at bu.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Jun 7 13:43:38 2014 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2014 19:43:38 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: BigDat 2015: June 23, 2014 - 1st registration deadline Message-ID: *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* ***************************************************** INTERNATIONAL WINTER SCHOOL ON BIG DATA BigDat 2015 Tarragona, Spain January 26-30, 2015 Organized by Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/bigdat2015/ ***************************************************** --- 1st registration deadline: June 23, 2014 --- ***************************************************** AIM: BigDat 2015 is a research training event for graduates and postgraduates in the first steps of their academic career. It aims at updating them about the most recent developments in the fast developing area of big data, which covers a large spectrum of current exciting research, development and innovation with an extraordinary potential for a huge impact on scientific discoveries, medicine, engineering, business models, and society itself. Renowned academics and industry pioneers will lecture and share their views with the audience. All big data subareas will be displayed, namely: foundations, infrastructure, management, search and mining, security and privacy, and applications. Main challenges of analytics, management and storage of big data will be identified through 5 keynote lectures and 23 six-hour courses, which will tackle the most lively and promising topics. The organizers believe outstanding speakers will attract the brightest and most motivated students. Interaction will be a main component of the event. ADDRESSED TO: Graduate and postgraduates from around the world. There are no formal pre-requisites in terms of academic degrees. However, since there will be differences in the course levels, specific knowledge background may be required for some of them. BigDat 2015 is also appropriate for more senior people who want to keep themselves updated on recent developments and future trends. They will surely find it fruitful to listen and discuss with major researchers, industry leaders and innovators. REGIME: In addition to keynotes, 3 courses will run in parallel during the whole event. Participants will be able to freely choose the courses they will be willing to attend as well as to move from one to another. VENUE: BigDat 2015 will take place in Tarragona, located 90 kms. to the south of Barcelona. The venue will be: Campus Catalunya Universitat Rovira i Virgili Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Yahoo! Research Labs, Barcelona), Big Data or Right Data? - to be confirmed - Ian Foster (Argonne National Laboratory), tba Geoffrey C. Fox (Indiana University, Bloomington), tba C. Lee Giles (Pennsylvania State University, University Park), tba William D. Gropp (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), tba COURSES AND PROFESSORS: Hendrik Blockeel (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), [intermediate] Decision Trees for Big Data Analytics Diego Calvanese (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano), [introductory/intermediate] End-User Access to Big Data Using Ontologies Jiannong Cao (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), [introductory/intermediate] Programming with Big Data Edward Y. Chang (HTC Corporation, New Taipei City), tba Ernesto Damiani (University of Milan), [introductory/intermediate] Process Discovery and Predictive Decision Making from Big Data Sets and Streams Gautam Das (University of Texas, Arlington), [intermediate/advanced] Mining Deep Web Repositories Maarten de Rijke (University of Amsterdam), tba Geoffrey C. Fox (Indiana University, Bloomington), tba Minos Garofalakis (Technical University of Crete, Chania) [intermediate/advanced], Querying Continuous Data Streams Vasant G. Honavar (Pennsylvania State University, University Park) [introductory/intermediate], Learning Predictive Models from Big Data Mounia Lalmas (Yahoo! Research Labs, London), [introductory] Measuring User Engagement Tao Li (Florida International University, Miami), [introductory/intermediate] Data Mining Techniques to Understand Textual Data Kwan-Liu Ma (University of California, Davis), [intermediate] Big Data Visualization Christoph Meinel (Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam), [introductory/intermediate] New Computing Power by In-Memory and Multicore to Tackle Big Data David Padua (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), [intermediate] Data Parallel Programming Manish Parashar (Rutgers University, Piscataway), [intermediate] Big Data in Simulation-based Science Srinivasan Parthasarathy (Ohio State University, Columbus), [intermediate] Scalable Data Analysis Vijay V. Raghavan (University of Louisiana, Lafayette), [introductory/intermediate] Visual Analytics of Time-evolving Large-scale Graphs Pierangela Samarati (University of Milan), [intermediate], Data Security and Privacy in the Cloud Peter Sanders (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), [introductory/intermediate] Algorithm Engineering for Large Data Sets Johan Suykens (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), [introductory/intermediate] Fixed-size Kernel Models for Big Data Domenico Talia (University of Calabria, Rende), [intermediate] Scalable Data Mining on Parallel, Distributed and Cloud Computing Systems Jieping Ye (Arizona State University, Tempe), [introductory/advanced] Large-Scale Sparse Learning and Low Rank Modeling ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Adrian Horia Dediu (Tarragona) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (Tarragona, chair) Florentina Lilica Voicu (Tarragona) REGISTRATION: It has to be done at http://grammars.grlmc.com/bigdat2015/registration.php The selection of up to 8 courses requested in the registration template is only tentative and non-binding. For the sake of organization, it will be helpful to have an approximation of the respective demand for each course. Since the capacity of the venue is limited, registration requests will be processed on a first come first served basis. The registration period will be closed and the on-line registration facility disabled when the capacity of the venue will be complete. It is much recommended to register prior to the event. FEES: As far as possible, participants are expected to stay full-time. Fees are a flat rate covering the attendance to all courses during the week. There are several early registration deadlines. Fees depend on the registration deadline. ACCOMMODATION: Suggestions of accommodation will be provided in due time. CERTIFICATE: Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance. QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: florentinalilica.voicu at urv.cat POSTAL ADDRESS: BigDat 2015 Lilica Voicu Rovira i Virgili University Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona, Spain Phone: +34 977 559 543 Fax: +34 977 558 386 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Universitat Rovira i Virgili --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From rli at cs.odu.edu Sun Jun 8 10:22:11 2014 From: rli at cs.odu.edu (rli) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2014 14:22:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: KDD workshop: BrainKDD Call for Papers Message-ID: <77A78D2D4678A2428E4D244F82B9FEF40123EA8CCA@relatum.cs.odu.edu> KDD workshop: BrainKDD Call for Papers [Apology for cross-postings] BrainKDD Call for Papers BrainKDD: International Workshop on Data Mining for Brain Science in conjunction with ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD'14) August 24, 2014, New York City https://sites.google.com/site/brainkdd/ Understanding brain function is one of the greatest challenges facing science. Today, brain science is experiencing rapid changes and is expected to achieve major advances in the near future. In April 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama formally announced the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, the BRAIN Initiative. In Europe, the European Commission has recently launched the European Human Brain Project (HBP). In the private sector, the Allen Institute for Brain Science is embarking on a new 10-year plan to generate comprehensive, large-scale data in the mammalian cerebral cortex under the MindScope project. These ongoing and emerging projects are expected to generate a deluge of data that capture the brain activities at different levels of organization. There is thus a compelling need to develop the next generation of data mining and knowledge discovery tools that allow one to make sense of this raw data and to understand how neurological activity encodes information. This workshop will focus on exploring the forefront between computer science and brain science and inspiring fundamentally new ways of mining and knowledge discovery from a variety of brain data. We encourage submissions in, but not limited to, the following areas: * Mining of in situ hybridization and microarray gene expression data * Mining of brain connectivity and circuitry data * Mining of structural and functional MRI data * Mining of EEG and related data * Mining of temporal developing brain data * Mining of spatial neuroimaging data * Integrative mining of multi-modality brain data * Mining of diseased brain data, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia * Segmentation and registration of neuroimaging data Important Dates: June 16nd, 2014: Paper Submission Due July 8th, 2014: Notification of Acceptance August 24th, 2014: Workshop Presentation Submission Instructions: Papers should be prepared using the ACM Proceedings Format http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates#aL2 and should be at most 9 pages long. Paper should be submitted in PDF format through the following link: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=brainkdd2014 Publication: Accepted workshop papers will be invited to a journal to be determined (subject to peer review). Invited Speakers: * Partha Mitra, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory * Hanchuan Peng, Allen Institute for Brain Science Program Committee Members: * Gal Chechik, Bar Ilan University * Leon French, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest * Junzhou Huang, University of Texas at Arlington * Shuai Huang, University of South Florida * Dean Krusienski, Old Dominion University * Jiang Li, Old Dominion University * Jing Li, Arizona State University * Yonggang Shi, University of Southern California * Lin Yang, University of Kentucky * Pew-Thian Yap, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Jiayu Zhou, Arizona State University Program Committee Chairs: Michael Hawrylycz Allen Institute for Brain Science Shuiwang Ji Old Dominion University Tianming Liu University of Georgia Dinggang Shen University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Publicity Chair: Rongjian Li Old Dominion University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From terry at salk.edu Mon Jun 9 00:45:28 2014 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 21:45:28 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - July 1, 2014 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents -- Volume 26, Number 7 - July 1, 2014 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/26/7 ----- Article Motor Cortex Microcircuit Simulation Based on Brain Activity Mapping George L Chadderdon, Ashutosh Mohan, Benjamin A Suter, Samuel A Neymotin, Cliff C Kerr, Joseph T Francis, Gordon MG Shepherd, and William W Lytton Letters Discovering Functional Neuronal Connectivity From Serial Patterns in Spike Train Data Casey Diekman, Kohinoor Dasgupta, Vijay Nair, and K.P. Unnikrishnan Risk-sensitive Reinforcement Learning Yun Shen, Michael J. Tobia, Tobias Sommer, and Klaus Obermayer On Criticality in High-dimensional Data Saeed Saremi, Terrence J Sejnowski Spiking Neural P Systems With Thresholds Xiangxiang Zeng, Xingyi Zhang, Tao Song, and Linqiang Pan Balanced Crossmodal Excitation and Inhibition Essential for Maximizing Multisensory Gain Osamu Hoshino Universal Approximation Depth and Errors of Narrow Belief Networks With Discrete Units Guido Francisco Montufar Multiple Tests Based on a Gaussian Approximation of the Unitary Events Method With Delayed Coincidence Count Christine Tuleau-Malot, Amel Rouis, Franck Grammont, and Patricia Reynaud-Bouret Intrinsic Graph Structure Estimation Using Graph Laplacian Atsushi Noda, Hideitsu Hino, Masami Tatsuno, Shotaro Akaho, and Noboru Murata Causal Discovery via Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space Embeddings Zhitang Chen, Kun Zhang, Laiwan Chan, and Bernhard Scholkopf ------------ ON-LINE -- http://www.mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2014 - VOLUME 26 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic Only Student/Retired $70 $193 $65 Individual $124 $187 $115 Institution $1,035 $1,098 $926 Canada: Add 5% GST MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902 Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu ------------ From H.Abbass at adfa.edu.au Mon Jun 9 08:59:35 2014 From: H.Abbass at adfa.edu.au (Hussein Abbass) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 12:59:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Scholarship on Real-time Big Data Mining of Brain and Physiological Data in Computationally Demanding Tasks Message-ID: 3-year PhD Scholarship on Real-time Big Data Mining of Brain and Physiological Data in Computationally Demanding Tasks The scholarship is open for International Students [CLOSING DATE: 5-August-2014 or until position is filled] [Start Date: Semester 1, 2015] Stipend $24,653 per annum tax free School of Engineering and Information Technology University of New South Wales - Canberra Campus About the topic The larger aim of our research is to design next generation intelligent systems where the human brain is seamlessly integrated with the computational in-silco decision making environment. An overview of our most recent experiment where we integrated brain data with the Air Traffic Control environment can be found at http://issuu.com/lesterpublications/docs/atca_journal_q2_2014_preview This PhD project aims at designing algorithms and models for analysing massive amount of EEG and physiological data in a real-time environment. There is a level of flexibility to adjust the scope and focus of the PhD project to fit a suitably qualified candidate. The ideal candidate for this PhD scholarship You must have the equivalent of a four-year Bachelor's degree with first or upper second class honours, or a three-year Bachelor's degree with a masters by research degree in one of the following specialities: Electrical Engineering (Signals), Psychology (neuro-science), Computer Science (Data Mining), or Mathematics (Time series analysis). The candidate must have excellent time-management skills, passion for interdisciplinary research, and the determination to produce high quality thesis accompanied with high quality publications. The topic requires a candidate with the impetus to perfect their knowledge in signal processing, time series analysis and neuro-science. Our Team The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is in the top 100 universities internationally and one of the top 8 research intensive universities (known as GO8) in Australia. The Canberra campus is located at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, the Capital of Australia. We enjoy a highly multi-cultural environment with students and staff from all over the world. We respect diversity and merit-based selection. The School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) has more than 170 PhD students. SEIT hosts one of the largest groups in Australia working on and using computational intelligence techniques. The team for this project is part of this group. We enjoy working at the interface between humans and machines, attempting to uncover some of the mystery in human dynamics using advanced computational tools. For additional information about this position, please contact Prof. Hussein Abbass [email hussein.abbass at gmail.com] ________________________________ THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES UNSW CANBERRA AT THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ACADEMY PO Box 7916, CANBERRA BC 2610, Australia Web: http://unsw.adfa.edu.au CRICOS Provider no. 00100G This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and are not necessarily the views of UNSW. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From H.Abbass at adfa.edu.au Mon Jun 9 11:06:01 2014 From: H.Abbass at adfa.edu.au (Hussein Abbass) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 15:06:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Scholarship on Real-time Big Data Mining of Brain and Physiological Data in Computationally Demanding Tasks In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Just a clarification about the start date for this scholarship. Semester 1 2015 at the University of New South Wales - Australia starts 2nd of March 2015. On 9 Jun 2014, at 8:59 pm, "Hussein Abbass" > wrote: 3-year PhD Scholarship on Real-time Big Data Mining of Brain and Physiological Data in Computationally Demanding Tasks The scholarship is open for International Students [CLOSING DATE: 5-August-2014 or until position is filled] [Start Date: Semester 1, 2015] Stipend $24,653 per annum tax free School of Engineering and Information Technology University of New South Wales ? Canberra Campus About the topic The larger aim of our research is to design next generation intelligent systems where the human brain is seamlessly integrated with the computational in-silco decision making environment. An overview of our most recent experiment where we integrated brain data with the Air Traffic Control environment can be found at http://issuu.com/lesterpublications/docs/atca_journal_q2_2014_preview This PhD project aims at designing algorithms and models for analysing massive amount of EEG and physiological data in a real-time environment. There is a level of flexibility to adjust the scope and focus of the PhD project to fit a suitably qualified candidate. The ideal candidate for this PhD scholarship You must have the equivalent of a four-year Bachelor?s degree with first or upper second class honours, or a three-year Bachelor?s degree with a masters by research degree in one of the following specialities: Electrical Engineering (Signals), Psychology (neuro-science), Computer Science (Data Mining), or Mathematics (Time series analysis). The candidate must have excellent time-management skills, passion for interdisciplinary research, and the determination to produce high quality thesis accompanied with high quality publications. The topic requires a candidate with the impetus to perfect their knowledge in signal processing, time series analysis and neuro-science. Our Team The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is in the top 100 universities internationally and one of the top 8 research intensive universities (known as GO8) in Australia. The Canberra campus is located at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, the Capital of Australia. We enjoy a highly multi-cultural environment with students and staff from all over the world. We respect diversity and merit-based selection. The School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) has more than 170 PhD students. SEIT hosts one of the largest groups in Australia working on and using computational intelligence techniques. The team for this project is part of this group. We enjoy working at the interface between humans and machines, attempting to uncover some of the mystery in human dynamics using advanced computational tools. For additional information about this position, please contact Prof. Hussein Abbass [email hussein.abbass at gmail.com] ________________________________ THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES UNSW CANBERRA AT THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ACADEMY PO Box 7916, CANBERRA BC 2610, Australia Web: http://unsw.adfa.edu.au CRICOS Provider no. 00100G This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and are not necessarily the views of UNSW. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu Mon Jun 9 13:29:11 2014 From: dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu (DeLiang Wang) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 13:29:11 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL NETWORKS, June 2014 Message-ID: <5395EEE7.2060208@cse.ohio-state.edu> Neural Networks - Volume 54, June 2014 http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks Letter: Interaction of feedforward and feedback streams in visual cortex in a firing-rate model of columnar computations Tobias Brosch, Heiko Neumann Articles: Learning invariant object recognition from temporal correlation in a hierarchical network Markus Lessmann, Rolf P. W?rtz Growing Neural Gas approach for obtaining homogeneous maps by restricting the insertion of new nodes Yuri Quintana-Pacheco, Daniel Ruiz-Fern?ndez, Agust?n Magrans-Rico An improved robust stability result for uncertain neural networks with multiple time delays Sabri Arik Solving the linear interval tolerance problem for weight initialization of neural networks S.P. Adam, D.A. Karras, G.D. Magoulas, M.N. Vrahatis Necessary and sufficient condition for multistability of neural networks evolving on a closed hypercube Mauro Di Marco, Mauro Forti, Massimo Grazzini, Luca Pancioni Stable locality sensitive discriminant analysis for image recognition Quanxue Gao, Jingjing Liu, Kai Cui, Hailin Zhang, Xiaogang Wang Global asymptotic stability analysis for delayed neural networks using a matrix-based quadratic convex approach Xian-Ming Zhang, Qing-Long Han Impulsive synchronization schemes of stochastic complex networks with switching topology: Average time approach Chaojie Li, Wenwu Yu, Tingwen Huang New criterion of asymptotic stability for delay systems with time-varying structures and delays Bo Liu, Wenlian Lu, Tianping Chen A systematic method for analyzing robust stability of interval neural networks with time-delays based on stability criteria Zhenyuan Guo, Jun Wang, Zheng Yan From schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de Tue Jun 10 03:04:14 2014 From: schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de (=?ISO-8859-15?Q?Kerstin_Schwarzw=E4lder?=) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:04:14 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience - Call for Nominations In-Reply-To: <5396ACDF.5070809@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> References: <5396ACDF.5070809@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Message-ID: <5396ADEE.4010506@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Dear Colleagues, Please let me remind you that the Bernstein Association for Computational Neuroscience invites nominations for the *Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience.* The award is biannually presented by the Bernstein Association to a scientist in recognition of outstanding research that contributes to our understanding of the functioning of the brain. The major criterion for the award is the impact or potential impact of the recipient's research on the field of brain science. In the spirit of Valentino Braitenberg's research, special emphasis is given to theoretical studies elucidating the functional implications of brain structures and their neuronal network dynamics. The crucial work should preferentially have been carried out in a European institution. The awardee receives a ?5.000 prize donated by the Autonome Provinz Bozen S?dtirol as well as complimentary participation (registration, travel, and hotel accomodation) in the Bernstein Conference 2014. Here, the prize is awarded together with a Golden Neuron pin badge in a special ceremony that includes the Valentino Braitenberg lecture given by the awardee. Nominations may be submitted by scientists working in the field of Computational Neuroscience and should include the following documents: * One-page laudation, in which the scientific work of the candidate is honored with regard to the award's criteria * CV and list of publications *Deadline for nominations is June 16, 2014* by e-mail to info at bcos.uni-freiburg.de The call for nominations can be found under the following URL: www.nncn.de/en/bernstein-association/valentino-braitenberg-award-for-computational-neuroscience For inquiries please contact info at bcos.uni-freiburg.de Best regards, Kerstin Schwarzw?lder -- Dr. Kerstin Schwarzw?lder Bernstein Coordination Site of the National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg Hansastr. 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany phone: +49 761 203 9594 fax: +49 761 203 9585 schwarzwaelder at bcos.uni-freiburg.de www.nncn.de Twitter: NNCN_Germany YouTube: Bernstein TV Facebook: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany LinkedIn: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: valentino-braitenberg-award_call.pdf Type: application/x-download Size: 1138790 bytes Desc: not available URL: From danko.nikolic at googlemail.com Tue Jun 10 11:01:53 2014 From: danko.nikolic at googlemail.com (Danko Nikolic) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:01:53 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: practopoiesis In-Reply-To: <5389DBF1.4040409@cse.msu.edu> References: <5385C13E.9060001@gmail.com> <5385D6EC.2040408@cse.msu.edu> <9B96C174-C36D-4792-B15E-C0898C2DD382@gmail.com> <5389DBF1.4040409@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <53971DE1.9000808@gmail.com> Dear John, Apologies for a delayed reply. I had a busy few days. I will gladly try answering your question on why your system using a Markov decision process is a T2-system: Simply put, your system interacts with the environment at two different levels: 1) At one level, the system deals with the current states and the decision of the next actions. At this level, the surrounding world affects the system in the form of states that the system takes. In other words, a Markov process with fixed probability distributions interacts with the world only at that one level and thus, has one traverse and this is what makes it a T1. 2) However, there is another important component of the system--the learning mechanism for the probability distributions. This part also interacts with the environment, but at a different level of generality. This part estimates the probability distributions from the past and therefore, makes the entire system to interact with the environment also at a more general level. As a result, the system interacts, in total, at two levels with its environment. And these two levels are organized into a "poietic" hierarchy. The processes at one level (learning; probability estimates) determine the properties of the other (states to actions), but not the other way around (e.g., Markov decision process does not act on its own learning rules, or on its own probability distributions). These two levels of interaction make the system a T2. I think that this is quite simple and does not require a formal mathematical proof. I suggest reading the manuscript on practopoiesis to get more insight. In general, all the intelligent algorithms that I know of, and all of the brain theories that I know of, are based on T2-systems. There is always one level that acts in response to sensory inputs, and there is another level that is responsible for learning of how to properly act (e.g., neural network + the plasticity mechanism). In contrast to those theories, I argue that a biological organism with a nervous system is in fact a T3-system. It has one more (third) level of interaction with the environment, and all the three levels are organized into a poietic hierarchy. This brings a lot of additional flexibility, which a T2-system cannot achieve. T3-systems are more adaptive than T-2 systems, much like T2-systems are more adaptive than T1-systems. See here for some accounts: http://www.danko-nikolic.com/distinction-between-t2-and-t3-systems/ Also, I argued that abductive reasoning can be achieved only by a T3-system. To illustrate what a third adaptive level could bring to a Markov process, imagine a system that can adaptively change its probability matrices, from situation to situation, as needed--not by representing the recent statistics of states, but by having a large depository of probability functions (e.g., thousands) that have been already acquired by some third mechanism and have been extracted from a much broader sample of states (lifetime long). Then, by looking at the history of the recent few states, the system decides which of the probability functions it will use now (which may be quite different than the recent statistics). This system would be a T3 because it would interact with the environment at the following three levels: 1) current state -> next action 2) recent history of states -> choice of probability functions from the depository 3) long-term statistics -> creation of the probability function depository Notice the strict poietic hierarchy among the three. I hope that this is clear enough and also enough of a teaser to learn more about practopoietic theory. With best regards, Danko On 31/05/14 15:41, Juyang Weng wrote: > > On 5/30/14 5:01 PM, Danko Nikolic wrote: >> Dear John, >> >> I just read your SASE paper to make a comparison to practopoiesis, >> as you asked. Interesting paper. Nice work. >> >> I like your succinct stile, formal and accurate. Your theorems make >> it clear what you mean by awareness, etc. >> >> Here is what I can conclude about "A theory of developmental >> architecture" by Juyang Weng: >> >> Markov decision process is a T2-system. It does not make a difference >> whether you have sensors that collect only outside information or you >> also have sensors collecting internal information. It remains a T2 >> system. The same holds for actions. Internal actions do not change a >> T2 into T3 either. > Then, you must have rigorous and precise definition so that you are > not the only God to say T2 or T3. > If your work is scientific, your detailed, rigorous and precise > definition but be able to be verified to be true or false by other > researchers. > Otherwise, your work is religion like. > > For example, in the above your writing, you do not say "why" SASE is > T2 this is necessary for a scientific work. > >> >> Therefore, according to practopoietic theory, your theory falls >> into the category of T2-systems. > You do not seem to have a verifiable theory yet. It appears to be > religion like to me. >> >> As you know, I laid out arguments that this is not enough to >> produce intelligent adaptive behavior that matches biological >> behaving systems. My suggestion would be to find ways to expand it >> into a T3. > Your arguments are too vague to be qualified as scientific work. In > religion, the God says "if you believe it, it is there. Otherwise, it > is not." > > -John >> With best regards, >> >> >> Danko >> >> >> >> >> On May 28, 2014, at 2:30 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: >> >>> Danko, thank you for the links. You might want to take a look at my >>> Self-Aware and Self-Effecting (SASE) >>> architecture. Your three-traverse idea has some similarity to it, >>> but your theory is not (yet?) supported by fully computational detail >>> as SASE. >>> >>> -John >>> >>> On 5/28/14 6:58 PM, Danko Nikolic wrote: >>>> Dear all, >>>> >>>> I made an effort to make practopoiesis more approachable to a wider >>>> audience: >>>> >>>> >>>> One: I wrote a short popular article on the implications of >>>> practopoiesis for artificial intelligence: >>>> >>>> http://www.singularityweblog.com/practopoiesis/ >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Two: I made a list of the key concepts with a brief explanation of >>>> each: >>>> >>>> http://www.danko-nikolic.com/practopoiesis#Concepts >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I hope that this will be helpful. >>>> >>>> With warm greetings from Germany, >>>> >>>> Danko Nikolic >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> -- >>> Juyang (John) Weng, Professor >>> Department of Computer Science and Engineering >>> MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program >>> 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 >>> Michigan State University >>> East Lansing, MI 48824 USA >>> Tel: 517-353-4388 >>> Fax: 517-432-1061 >>> Email: weng at cse.msu.edu >>> URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ >>> ---------------------------------------------- >>> >> >> -- >> >> Prof. Dr. Danko Nikoli? >> >> >> Web:http://www.danko-nikolic.com >> >> Mail address 1: >> Group Leader >> Department of Neurophysiology >> Max Planck Institute for Brain Research >> Deutschordenstr. 46 >> 60528 Frankfurt am Main >> GERMANY >> >> Mail address 2: >> Research Fellow >> Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies >> Wolfgang Goethe University >> Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1 >> 60433 Frankfurt am Main >> GERMANY >> >> ---------------------------- >> Office: (..49-69) 96769-736 >> Lab: (..49-69) 96769-209 >> Fax: (..49-69) 96769-327 >> danko.nikolic at gmail.com >> ---------------------------- >> >> >> >> >> > > -- > -- > Juyang (John) Weng, Professor > Department of Computer Science and Engineering > MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program > 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 > Michigan State University > East Lansing, MI 48824 USA > Tel: 517-353-4388 > Fax: 517-432-1061 > Email:weng at cse.msu.edu > URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ > ---------------------------------------------- > -- Prof. Dr. Danko Nikoli? Web: http://www.danko-nikolic.com Mail address 1: Department of Neurophysiology Max Planck Institut for Brain Research Deutschordenstr. 46 60528 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY Mail address 2: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Wolfgang Goethe University Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1 60433 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY ---------------------------- Office: (..49-69) 96769-736 Lab: (..49-69) 96769-209 Fax: (..49-69) 96769-327 danko.nikolic at gmail.com ---------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrea.green at umontreal.ca Tue Jun 10 16:27:20 2014 From: andrea.green at umontreal.ca (Andrea Green) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:27:20 -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 Neurosciences, 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 Neurosciences, Universit? de Montr?al C.P 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville Montr?al, QC H3C 3J7, CANADA Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michael.hallquist at gmail.com Tue Jun 10 16:22:21 2014 From: michael.hallquist at gmail.com (Michael Hallquist) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:22:21 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: 2015 postdoctoral position in clinical decision-making, University of Pittsburgh Message-ID: <8664274F-1604-4DB5-92A7-F68A0A3A5525@gmail.com> We are seeking applications for a two-year NIMH-supported postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Alex Dombrovski, M.D., and Michael Hallquist, Ph.D. The research fellow will work on NIMH-funded projects of decision-making in suicide and borderline personality disorder. Fellows will have ample opportunities to develop independent research projects and to publish empirical papers on suicide and BPD using existing data. Ideally, applicants should have experience with both functional neuroimaging and the development of reinforcement-learning or computational models of behavior. This position will require excellent quantitative and statistical skills, and successful candidates will have a track record of published high-quality research. Proficiency with MATLAB, R, AFNI, and Linux shell scripting is desirable. Experience with latent variable modeling is also preferred. The position will be available in the second half of 2015 and funding for a third year of postdoctoral training may be available depending on performance. Due to NIH restrictions, only US citizens or permanent residents are eligible for this position. To apply, please send a curriculum vitae and cover letter describing your research interests and experience to Michael Hallquist (hallquistmn at upmc.edu) and Alex Dombrovski (dombax at upmc.edu). Please also have three letters of recommendation emailed directly to Drs. Dombrovski and Hallquist. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kiebel at cbs.mpg.de Wed Jun 11 05:21:02 2014 From: kiebel at cbs.mpg.de (Stefan Kiebel) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:21:02 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: PhD position, computational neuroimaging, Dresden/Germany In-Reply-To: <543009479.2247.1402478442004.JavaMail.root@zimbra> Message-ID: <2139678102.2253.1402478462006.JavaMail.root@zimbra> Dear all, Please find attached an advert for a PhD position. The position is ideal for someone who would like to work at the interface between computational modelling and neuroimaging experiments. With best wishes, Stefan Kiebel --------- The Department of Psychology, Institute of General Psychology, Biopsychology and Methods of Psychology, Chair of Neuroimaging (Prof. Dr. Stefan Kiebel) invites applications for a Member of academic staff / PhD student (E 13 TV-L) with 50 % of the fulltime weekly hours. The position will start (ideally) on 01.10.2014. The PhD position is initially limited for 3 years. A contract extension for a fourth year is possible. The period of employment is governed by the Fixed Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - WissZeitVG). The main research goal is the development and experimental testing of novel computational models of decision making. The computational models typically employ Bayesian inference and experiments are performed using fMRI and EEG. The Chair of Neuroimaging has full access to all experimental facilities at the Neuroimaging Center at the TU Dresden. The Neuroimaging Center is equipped with a research-only MRI scanner (Siemens 3T TIM Trio), MRI-compatible EEG and eye tracking, and a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) unit. All experimental facilities are supported by experienced physics and IT staff. For computational work, the group has access to the TU Dresden high-performance computing clusters. The Chair of Neuroimaging will be newly established at the TU Dresden, and will move from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (http://www.cbs.mpg.de/depts/n-3/dyn/@@index.html) to Dresden. Tasks: The PhD student will work on a series of projects in the area of decision making using computational modelling of behavioural and neuroscientific data. Requirements: The candidate should have either (i) a university degree in psychology or cognitive neuroscience and a strong interest in computational modeling, or (ii) a university degree in mathematics, computational neuroscience, physics, or similar with a strong interest in performing neuroimaging experiments for testing computational models. The position is ideal for candidates interested in research at the interface between computational modeling and experimental neuroimaging. For questions or an informal discussion about this position please contact Prof. Stefan Kiebel (stefan.kiebel at tu-dresden.de). Applications from women are particularly welcome. The same applies to people with disabilities. Applicants should send their application documents (cover letter including a brief description of personal qualifications and future research interests, CV and contact details of two personal references) until 07.07.2014 (stamped arrival date of the university central mail service applies) - preferentially via e-mail as a single PDF-file - to julia.herdin at tudresden.de (Please note: We are currently not able to receive electronically signed and encrypted data.) or to TU Dresden, Fakult?t Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Fachrichtung Psychologie, Institut f?r Allgemeine Psychologie, Biopsychologie und Methoden der Psychologie, Professur f?r Neuroimaging, Herrn Prof. Dr. Stefan Kiebel, 01062 Dresden. -- Stefan Kiebel, Ph.D. Professor of Neuroimaging Dept of Psychology Technical University Dresden, Germany Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany http://www.cbs.mpg.de/~kiebel -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: PhD_Dresden_CompNeuroimaging.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 79958 bytes Desc: not available URL: From marco.signoretto at gmail.com Wed Jun 11 10:41:01 2014 From: marco.signoretto at gmail.com (Marco Signoretto) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 16:41:01 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP - TCMM 2014 - International Workshop on Technical Computing for Machine Learning and Mathematical Engineering 8 - 12 September, 2014 - Leuven, Belgium Message-ID: TCMM 2014 International Workshop on Technical Computing for Machine Learning and Mathematical Engineering 8 - 12 September, 2014 - Leuven, Belgium Workshop homepage: http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/tcmm2014/ The workshop will provide a venue for researchers and practitioners to interact on the latest developments in technical computing in relation to machine learning and mathematical engineering problems and methods (including also optimization, system identification, computational statistics, signal processing, data visualization, deep learning, compressed sensing and big-data). A special attention will be paid to implementations on high-level high-performance modern programming languages suitable for large-scale, parallel and distributed computing and capable to efficiently handle structured data. The emphasis is especially on the open-source alternatives, including but not limited to Julia, Python, Scala and R. The 3 days main event (8-10 September) will consist of invited and contributed talks as well as poster presentations. It will be followed by a 2 days additional event (11-12 September) including software demos and hands-on tutorials on selected topics. Attendees can register to the main event only or to the full workshop. Submission of extended abstracts are solicited for the main event. Accepted abstracts will be presented either in the format of poster presentation or as contributed talks. Submission of demo presentations will be solicited for the two days additional event. Topics of special interest: Grid/Cloud/GPUs for technical computing high-performance/parallel computing and use of related libraries (e.g., Theano) efficient handling of structured data and use of related libraries (e.g., Pandas) data visualization and related libraries methods for exploiting sparsity in implementations templates for customized solvers for (convex/distributed) optimization integration of high-level languages and use of related libraries (e.g., PyCall) implementation case studies: performance comparison of different high-level languages for technical computing application of machine learning methods on challenging problems (e.g., Kaggle challenges) libraries for machine learning and mathematical engineering Important dates: Deadline extended abstract/demo submission: 31 July 2014 Deadline for registration: 1 September 2014 Confirmed invited speakers: James Bergstra, Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo Jeff Bezanson, MIT Luis Pedro Coelho, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Stefan Karpinski, MIT Graham Taylor, School of Engineering, University of Guelph Ewout van den Berg, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Organizing committee: Marco Signoretto, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven Johan Suykens, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven Vilen Jumutc , Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven For further information (including Registration, Location and Venue) see http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/tcmm2014/ From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Wed Jun 11 13:47:22 2014 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr Amir Hussain) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 18:47:22 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Cognitive Computation journal (Springer): Table of Contents, Vol.6, No.2 / June 2014 Issue Message-ID: Dear Colleagues: (with advance apologies for any cross-postings) We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 6, No.2 / June 2014 Issue, of Springer's Cognitive Computation journal - www.springer.com/12559 The individual list of published articles (Table of Contents) for this Issue can be viewed here (and also at the end of this message, followed by an overview of the previous Issues/Archive listings): http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/ You may also be interested in the journal's seminal Special Issue (Sep 2013 Issue): In Memory of John G Taylor: A Polymath Scholar, by Guest Editors: Vassilis Cutsuridis and Amir Hussain (the Guest Editorial is available here: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12559-013-9226-z.pdf and full listing of articles can be found at: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/3/page/1) A list of the journal's most downloaded articles (which can always be read for FREE) can be found here: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559?hideChart=1#realtime Other 'Online First' published articles not yet in a print issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/121361/?Content+Status=Accepted All previous Volumes and Issues of the journal can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 ======================================================= NEW: ISI-SCI 5 year Impact Factor for Cognitive Computation: 1.137 ======================================================= As you will know, Cognitive Computation was selected for coverage in Thomson Reuter?s products and services in 2011. Beginning with V.1 (1) 2009, this publication is now indexed and abstracted in: ? Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch?) ? Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition ? Current Contents?/Engineering Computing and Technology ? Neuroscience Citation Index? Cognitive Computation also received its first Impact Factor of 1.0 (Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports? 2011) in 2011 0.867(Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports? 2011) in 2012 ============================================ Reminder: New Cognitive Computation "LinkedIn" Group: ============================================ To further strengthen the bonds amongst the interdisciplinary audience of Cognitive Computation, we have set-up a "Cognitive Computation LinkedIn group", which has over 700 members already! We warmly invite you to join us at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3155048 For further information on the journal and to sign up for electronic "Table of Contents alerts" please visit the Cognitive Computation homepage: http://www.springer.com/12559 or follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CognComput for the latest On-line First Issues. For any questions with regards to LinkedIn and/or Twitter, please contact Springer's Publishing Editor: Dr. Martijn Roelandse: martijn.roelandse at springer.com Finally, we would like to invite you to submit short or regular papers describing original research or timely review of important areas - our aim is to peer review all papers within approximately six-eight weeks of receipt. We also welcome relevant high quality proposals for Special Issues - four are already planned for 2014-15 (for CFPs, see: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559?detailsPage=press ) With our very best wishes to all aspiring readers and authors of Cognitive Computation, Professor Amir Hussain, PhD (Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) E-mail: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (University of Stirling, Scotland, UK) Professor Igor Aleksander, PhD (Honorary Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) (Imperial College, London, UK) http://www.springer.com/12559 Also consider your work for related Book Series: SpringerBriefs on Cognitive Computation: http://www.springer.com/series/10374 NEW: Springer Series on Socio-Affective Computing: http://www.springer.com/series/13199 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Alert -- Cognitive Computation Vol 6 No 2, June 2014 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decoding Word Information from Spatiotemporal Activity of Sensory Neurons Kazuhisa Fujita , Yusuke Hara , Youichi Suzukawa & Yoshiki Kashimori http://bit.ly/UteVVm Yes and No: Match/Mismatch Function in Cognitive Robots Pentti O. A. Haikonen http://bit.ly/1oNarUn Shape Description and Recognition Method Inspired by the Primary Visual Cortex Hui Wei & Hu Li http://bit.ly/1oNay28 A Computational Model of Semantic Memory Categorization: Identification of a Concept?s Semantic Level from Feature Sharedness Ana Teresa Santos , J. Frederico Marques & Lu?s Correia http://bit.ly/1l0GTCH Displaying and Regulating Different Social Response Patterns: A Computational Agent Model Jan Treur http://bit.ly/1mH53xC Novel Two-Stage Audiovisual Speech Filtering in Noisy Environments Andrew Abel & Amir Hussain http://bit.ly/1oTN5KV Model-Based Human Gait Recognition Via Deterministic Learning Wei Zeng , Cong Wang & Yuanqing Li http://bit.ly/TJegOW A New Hand Image Database Simultaneously Acquired in Visible, Near-Infrared and Thermal Spectrums Marcos Faundez-Zanuy , Jiri Mekyska & Xavier Font-Aragon?s http://bit.ly/1hOk0SE Classification of Music-Induced Emotions Based on Information Fusion of Forehead Biosignals and Electrocardiogram Mohsen Naji , Mohammd Firoozabadi & Parviz Azadfallah http://bit.ly/1oNbjrU A Meta-Cognitive Learning Algorithm for an Extreme Learning Machine Classifier R. Savitha , S. Suresh & H. J. Kim http://bit.ly/Syy8Tv Fast Face Recognition Via Sparse Coding and Extreme Learning Machine Bo He , Dongxun Xu , Rui Nian , Mark van Heeswijk , Qi Yu , Yoan Miche & Amaury Lendasse http://bit.ly/1n5CWtb --------------------------------------------------- Previous Issues/Archive: Overview: --------------------------------------------------- All previous Volumes and Issues can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 Alternatively, the full listing of the Inaugural Vol. 1, No. 1 / March 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited authoritative reviews by leading researchers in their areas - including keynote papers from London University's John Taylor, Igor Aleksander and Stanford University's James McClelland, and invited papers from Ron Sun, Pentti Haikonen, Geoff Underwood, Kevin Gurney, Claudius Gross, Anil Seth and Tom Ziemke): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/1/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 2 / June 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited reviews and original research contributions from leading researchers, including Rodney Douglas, Giacomo Indiveri, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Thomas Wennekers, Pentti Kanerva and Friedemann Pulvermuller): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/2/ The full listing of Vol.1, No. 3 / Sep 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/3/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 4 / Dec 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/4/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 1 / March 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/1/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 2 / June 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/2/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 3 / Aug 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/3/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 4 / Dec 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/4/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.1 / Mar 2011 (Special Issue on: Saliency, Attention, Active Visual Search and Picture Scanning, edited by John Taylor and Vassilis Cutsuridis), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/1/ The Guest Editorial can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/hu2245056415633l/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.2 / June 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/2/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 3 / Sep 2011 (Special Issue on: Cognitive Behavioural Systems, Guest Edited by: Anna Esposito, Alessandro Vinciarelli, Simon Haykin, Amir Hussain and Marcos Faundez-Zanuy), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/3/ The Guest Editorial for the special issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h4718567520t2h84/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 4 / Dec 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/4/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.1 / Mar 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/1/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.2 / June 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/2/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.3 / Sep 2012 (Special Issue on: Computational Creativity, Intelligence and Autonomy, Edited by: J. Mark Bishop and Yasemin J. Erden) can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/3/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.4 / Dec 2012 (Special Issue titled: "Cognitive & Emotional Information Processing", Edited by: Stefano Squartini, Bj?rn Schuller and Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/4/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.1 / March 2013 Special Issue titled: Computational Intelligence and Applications Guest Editors: Zhigang Zeng & Haibo He, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/1/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.2 / June 2013 Special Issue titled: Advances on Brain Inspired Computing, Guest Editors: Stefano Squartini, Sanqing Hu & Qingshan Liu, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/2/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.3 / Sep 2013 Special Issue titled: In Memory of John G Taylor: A Polymath Scholar, Guest Editors: Vassilis Cutsuridis & Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/3/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.4 / Dec 2013, which includes regular papers (including an invited paper by Professor Ron Sun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, titled: Moral Judgment, Human Motivation, and Neural Networks), and a Special Issue titled: Advanced Cognitive Systems Based on Nonlinear Analysis. Guest Editors: Carlos M. Travieso and Jes?s B. Alonso, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.1 / Mar 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/1/page/1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The University of Stirling is ranked in the top 50 in the world in The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 table, which ranks the world's best 100 universities under 50 years old. The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -- The University of Stirling has been ranked in the top 12 of UK universities for graduate employment*. 94% of our 2012 graduates were in work and/or further study within six months of graduation. *The Telegraph The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. From sandayci at rub.de Wed Jun 11 17:06:42 2014 From: sandayci at rub.de (Yulia Sandamirskaya) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 23:06:42 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder for NEURONAL DYNAMICS FOR COGNITIVE ROBOTICS Message-ID: Dear colleagues, the application deadline for summer school on NEURONAL DYNAMICS FOR COGNITIVE ROBOTICS is approaching and will be final on the June 15. We will start processing the received applications on the June 16. The EuCogIII fellowship for 18 students are confirmed by now and the travel and stay expenses will be covered for the selected students. Looking forward to welcome you in Bochum! Here is the announcement again: The Summer school ?Neuronal Dynamic for Cognitive Robotics? will be held on August 25-30, 2014 at the Institute for Neural Computation, Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Gregor Sch?ner. For more information see: www.robotics-school.org and the attached flyer. To apply, please send a CV and a short cover letter with background and motivation to mathis.richter at rub.de Best regards, Yulia -- Dr.Yulia Sandamirskaya Institut f?r Neuroinformatik Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum Bochum, Germany Tel.: +49-234-3229486 Mob.: +49-177-7890330 E-mail: yulia.sandamirskaya at ini.rub.de URL: www.sandamirkskaya.eu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: poster.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 164492 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Thu Jun 12 05:05:27 2014 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 11:05:27 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Helmut O. Maucher Endowment Junior (Assistant) Professorship (W1) for Systemic Risks Message-ID: <33357AA8-696E-41FF-8BA2-F0F62F763DE1@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> Dear colleagues, the following professorship at our institute may be of interest to some readers of this list. Regards, Jochen Triesch The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and the Institute of Computer Science of the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt invite applications for the following position, which we aim to fill at the earliest possible date: Helmut O. Maucher Endowment Junior (Assistant) Professorship (W1) for Systemic Risks In cooperation with the LOEWE-Center Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) the assistant professor analyzes finance data with regard to systemic risks. Here, game theory, data mining, machine learning and statistical analysis of complex systems provide important methods. Mechanisms of expectations shall be investigated using formal approaches from game theory and with regard to psychological aspects. Financial and economic aspects shall be compared and contrasted with other systems. We are seeking a distinguished candidate from computer science which has an excellent publication record in at least one of the areas mentioned above. Experience in cross-disciplinary cooperation and successful acquisition of third party funding are requested. The position comes with appropriate teaching obligations within the institute for computer science. The candidate is also expected to take part in some of the administration tasks required by the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics. The assistant professor will be initially hired for a period of three years, with the possibility of extension for another three years subject to a successful evaluation. For further information regarding the general conditions for professorship appointments, please see http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/aktuelles/ausschreibung/professuren/index.html. Internationally recognized academics with an excellent track record on research and teaching are invited to submit their application with curriculum vitae (scientific and professional experience), publication list, description of research plans, details of teaching experiences and copies of certificates until June 30, 2014 to the Dean of Computer Science and Mathematics, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, e-Mail: bewerbung at fb12.uni-frankfurt.de -- Prof. Dr. Jochen Triesch Johanna Quandt Research Professor Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~triesch/ Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47531 Fax: +49 (0)69 798-47611 From icais11 at cuas.at Wed Jun 11 12:54:09 2014 From: icais11 at cuas.at (icais11) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 16:54:09 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: [Extended submission deadline]: The 2014 International Conference on Adaptive & Intelligent Systems - ICAIS'14 September 08th - 10th, 2014 Bournemouth, UK Message-ID: <825BADE2E9C8674B82CEBD8B5F91F6474F5D93DB@EXMBX01.technikum.local> [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP] * * * SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED * * * Full paper submission: June 22, 2014 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * CALL FOR PAPERS * * * The 2014 International Conference on Adaptive & Intelligent Systems - ICAIS'14 September 08th - 10th, 2014 Bournemouth, UK http://computing.bournemouth.ac.uk/ICAIS/ icais at bournemouth.ac.uk Sponsored by - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society - The International Neural Network Society ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * PLENARY TALKS * * * Prof. Ludmila I Kuncheva, Bangor University, UK (Talk: Feature Extraction for Change Detection) Prof. Jo?o Gama, University of Porto Porto, Portugal (Talk: Distributed Data Stream Mining) Prof. Kurt Geihs, University of Kassel, DE (Talk: Music Lessons and Other Exercises) * * * AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE * * * The ICAIS'14 conference aims at bringing together international researchers, developers and practitioners from different horizons to discuss the latest advances in system learning and adaptation. ICAIS'14 will serve as a space to present the current state of the art but also future research avenues of this thematic. Topics of the conference cover three aspects: Algorithms & theories of adaptation and learning, Adaptation issues in Software & System Engineering, Real- world Applications. ICAIS'14 will feature contributed papers as well as world-renowned guest speakers (see webpage), interactive breakout sessions, and instructional workshops. * * * IMPORTANT DATES (extended submission deadline!)* * * - Workshop & Special Session proposal: April 13, 2014 - Full paper submission: June 22, 2014 - Acceptance notification: July 06, 2014 - Final camera ready: July 16, 2014 * * * CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS * * * Proceedings will be published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Series. * * * SPECIAL ISSUES / BOOK * * * A selected number of accepted and personally presented papers will be considered for possible inclusion in one of the following special issues or book: - Special Issue of Evolving Systems (Springer) on Clustering and Classification in Dynamic Environments. - Special Issue of Neurocomputing (Elsevier) on Neurocompting for Dynamically Changing Systems. - Book in the Series of Studies in Computational Intelligence (Springer). * * * MAIN TOPICS (but not limited to) * * * - Track 1: Incremental Learning o Online incremental learning o Self-growing neural networks o Adaptive and life-long learning o Plasticity and stability o Forgetting o Unlearning o Novelty detection o Perception and evolution o Drift handling o Adaptation in changing environments - Track 2: Online Processing o Adaptive rule-based systems o Adaptive identification systems o Adaptive decision systems o Adaptive preference learning o Time series prediction o Online and single-pass data mining o Online classification o Online clustering o Online regression o Online feature selection and reduction o Online information routing - Track 3: Dynamic and Evolving Models in Computational Intelligence o (Dynamic) Neural networks architectures o (Dynamic) Evolutionary computation o (Dynamic) Swarm intelligence o (Dynamic) Immune and bacterial systems o Uncertainty and fuzziness modeling for adaptation o Approximate reasoning and adaptation o Chaotic systems - Track 4: Self-X Systems o Self-adaptation o Self-organization and behavior emergence o Self-managing o Self-healing o Self-monitoring o Multi-agent systems o Self-X software agents o Self-X robots o Self-organizing sensor networks o Evolving systems - Track 5: Software & System Engineering o Autonomic computing o Organic computing o Evolution o Adaptive software architecture o Software change o Software agents o Engineering of complex systems o Adaptive software engineering processes o Component-based development - Track 6: Applications - Adaptivity and Learning o Smart systems o Ambient / ubiquitous environments o Distributed intelligence o Robotics o Industrial applications o Internet applications o Business applications o Supply chain management o etc. * * * SUBMISSION * * * Papers must be in PDF, not exceeding 10 pages and conforming to Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes guidelines. Author instructions and style files can be downloaded at http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html. Papers must be submitted through the submission system ( http://computing.bournemouth.ac.uk/ICAIS/ ). Short papers describing novel research visions, work-in-progress or less mature results are also welcome. All submission will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 qualified reviewers. Selection criteria will include: relevance, significance, impact, originality, technical soundness, and quality of presentation. Preference will be given to submissions that take strong or challenging positions on important emergent topics. At least one author have to attend the conference to present the paper. * * * ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE * * * General Chair: - Abdelhamid Bouchachia, Bournemouth University, UK International Advisory Committee: - Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University, New Zealand - Xin Yao, University of Birmingham, UK - Djamel Ziou, University of Sherbrooke, Canada - Plamen Angelov, University of Lancaster, UK - Witold Pedrycz, University of Edmonton, Canada - Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland Organization Committee: - Hammadi Nait-Charif, Bournemouth University, UK - Emili Balaguer-Ballester, Bournemouth University, UK - Damien Fay, Bournemouth University, UK - Jane McAlpine, Bournemouth University, UK Publicity Chair: - Markus Prossegger, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From p.geurts at ulg.ac.be Fri Jun 13 03:52:04 2014 From: p.geurts at ulg.ac.be (Pierre Geurts) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:52:04 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: MLSB 2014: deadline extension and call for posters Message-ID: <285D0B75-A7B5-4996-8584-CB6D086B850F@ulg.ac.be> [Apologies for cross-posting] UPDATES: - Deadline for submission has been extented to ** JUNE 22 ** - Abstracts for poster presentations can be submitted until ** JULY 13 ** Last Call for Contributions MLSB14, the eighth International Workshop on Machine Learning in Systems Biology http://www.mlsb.cc Organized in conjunction with ECCB 2014 Strasbourg, France, September 6-7, 2014. Submission deadlines: Extended abstracts: June 22 Posters: July 13 WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION MLSB14, the Eighth International Workshop on Machine Learning in Systems Biology, is a workshop of the ECCB 2014 conference. It aims to contribute to the cross-fertilization between the research in machine learning methods and their applications to systems biology by bringing together method developers and experimentalists. We are soliciting submissions bringing forward methods for discovering complex structures (e.g. interaction networks, molecule structures) and methods supporting genome-wide data analysis Please see the workshop website http://www.mlsb.cc for more details. SUBMISSIONS OF EXTENDED ABSTRACTS We invite you to submit an extended abstract of up to 4 pages in PDF format describing new or very recently published results. Each extended abstract must be submitted by *June 22 2014* (extended) electronically via the Easychair submission system: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mlsb2014 Submissions will be reviewed by the scientific programme committee. They will be selected for oral or poster presentation according to their originality and relevance to the workshop topics. SUBMISSIONS OF POSTER PRESENTATIONS We invite you also to apply for poster presentations on topics of relevance to the workshop. Each poster presentation should be described in a 1 page summary and should be submitted by July 13, 2014 via the Easychair submission system: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mlsb2014 KEY DATES - Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: ** June 22, 2014 ** - Deadline for submission of poster presentations: July 13, 2014 - Author notification: July 15, 2014 - Early registration deadline ECCB14: August 2, 2014 - Workshop: September 6-7, 2014 CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS Pierre Baldi, UCI University, California, USA Karsten Borgwardt, Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, Germany CONTACT For further information, please contact chairsmlsb2014 at gmail.com CHAIRS Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Liege, Belgium) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Markus Heinonen (University of Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Liege, Belgium) V?n Anh Huynh-Thu (University of Edinburgh, UK) Nizar Touleimat (Centre National de g?notypage, CEA, Evry, France) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Florence d'Alch?-Buc (University of Evry, France) Chlo?-Agathe Azencott (CBIO, Mines ParisTech, Institut Curie, INSERM, France) Karsten Borgwardt (MPI Tubingen, Germany) Sa?o D?eroski (Jo?ef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) Mohamed Elati (Universite d'Evry, France) Pierre Geurts (University of Li?ge, Belgium) Markus Heinonen (University of Evry, France) Van Anh Huynh-Thu (University of Edinburgh, UK) Ross King (Aberystwyth University, UK) Stefan Kramer (University of Mainz, Germany) Yves Moreau (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) Sach Mukherjee (Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands) Mahesan Niranjan (University of Southampton, UK) Uwe Ohler (Duke University, USA) John Pinney (Imperial College London, UK) Simon Rogers (University of Glasgow, UK) Juho Rousu (University of Helsinki, Finland) Yvan Saeys (University of Ghent, Belgium) Peter Sykacek (BOKU University, Austria) Nizar Touleimat (Centre National de Genotypage, CEA, France) Koji Tsuda (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) Jean-Philippe Vert (Ecole des Mines de Paris, France) Filip Zelezny (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic) From martin.pyka at gmail.com Fri Jun 13 10:42:53 2014 From: martin.pyka at gmail.com (Martin Pyka) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 16:42:53 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: The hippocampal formation: a short overview on Youtube Message-ID: <539B0DED.4050204@gmail.com> Hi everybody, I noted that many people working on the hippocampus have problems to understand how it looks like in 3d. Therefore, I created a short video that shows the hippocampal formation of the mouse and rat in 3d with some of the projections. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY0XWBFcxQA I hope it is useful for anybody who doesn't quite get how the hippocampus looks like. You are free to take, remix or amend this video (with proper reference to the original, CC-license). The 3d models for Blender will be available soon as well. Best, Martin -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Jun 14 13:21:44 2014 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:21:44 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: TPNC 2014: 3rd call for papers Message-ID: <4D0D47331327453583D0B43250124463@Carlos1> *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* **************************************************************************** ************** 3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF NATURAL COMPUTING TPNC 2014 Granada, Spain December 9-11, 2014 Organized by: Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems (SCI2S) University of Granada Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics (GRLMC) Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/tpnc2014/ **************************************************************************** ************** AIMS: TPNC is a conference series intending to cover the wide spectrum of computational principles, models and techniques inspired by information processing in nature. TPNC 2014 will reserve significant room for young scholars at the beginning of their career. It aims at attracting contributions to nature-inspired models of computation, synthesizing nature by means of computation, nature-inspired materials, and information processing in nature. VENUE: TPNC 2014 will take place in Granada, in the region of Andaluc?a, to the south of Spain. The city is the seat of a rich Islamic historical legacy, including the Moorish citadel and palace called Alhambra. SCOPE: Topics of either theoretical, experimental, or applied interest include, but are not limited to: * Nature-inspired models of computation: - amorphous computing - cellular automata - chaos and dynamical systems based computing - evolutionary computing - membrane computing - neural computing - optical computing - swarm intelligence * Synthesizing nature by means of computation: - artificial chemistry - artificial immune systems - artificial life * Nature-inspired materials: - computing with DNA - nanocomputing - physarum computing - quantum computing and quantum information - reaction-diffusion computing * Information processing in nature: - developmental systems - fractal geometry - gene assembly in unicellular organisms - rough/fuzzy computing in nature - synthetic biology - systems biology * Applications of natural computing to: algorithms, bioinformatics, control, cryptography, design, economics, graphics, hardware, learning, logistics, optimization, pattern recognition, programming, robotics, telecommunications etc. A flexible "theory to/from practice" approach would be the perfect focus for the expected contributions. STRUCTURE: TPNC 2014 will consist of: - invited talks - peer-reviewed contributions INVITED SPEAKERS: Kalyanmoy Deb (East Lansing, US), Multi-Criterion Problem Solving: A Niche for Natural Computing Methods Marco Dorigo (Brussels, BE), Swarm Intelligence Francisco Herrera (Granada, ES), Bioinspired Real Parameter Optimization: Where We Are and What?s Next PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Hussein A. Abbass (Canberra, AU) Uwe Aickelin (Nottingham, UK) Thomas B?ck (Leiden, NL) Christian Blum (San Sebasti?n, ES) Jinde Cao (Nanjing, CN) Vladimir Cherkassky (Minneapolis, US) Sung-Bae Cho (Seoul, KR) Andries P. Engelbrecht (Pretoria, ZA) Terence C. Fogarty (London, UK) Fernando Gomide (Campinas, BR) Inman Harvey (Brighton, UK) Francisco Herrera (Granada, ES) Tzung-Pei Hong (Kaohsiung, TW) Thomas Jansen (Aberystwyth, UK) Yaochu Jin (Guildford, UK) Okyay Kaynak (Istanbul, TR) Satoshi Kobayashi (Tokyo, JP) Soo-Young Lee (Daejeon, KR) Derong Liu (Chicago, US) Manuel Lozano (Granada, ES) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (Tarragona, ES, chair) Ujjwal Maulik (Kolkata, IN) Risto Miikkulainen (Austin, US) Frank Neumann (Adelaide, AU) Leandro Nunes de Castro (S?o Paulo, BR) Erkki Oja (Aalto, FI) Lech Polkowski (Warsaw, PL) Brian J. Ross (St. Catharines, CA) Marc Schoenauer (Orsay, FR) Biplab Kumar Sikdar (Shibpur, IN) Dipti Srinivasan (Singapore, SG) Darko Stefanovic (Albuquerque, US) Umberto Straccia (Pisa, IT) Thomas St?tzle (Brussels, BE) Ponnuthurai N. Suganthan (Singapore, SG) Johan Suykens (Leuven, BE) El-Ghazali Talbi (Lille, FR) Jon Timmis (York, UK) Fernando J. Von Zuben (Campinas, BR) Michael N. Vrahatis (Patras, GR) Xin Yao (Birmingham, UK) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Adrian Horia Dediu (Tarragona) Carlos Garc?a-Mart?nez (C?rdoba) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (Tarragona, co-chair) Manuel Lozano (Granada, co-chair) Francisco Javier Rodr?guez (Granada) Florentina Lilica Voicu (Tarragona) SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit non-anonymized papers in English presenting original and unpublished research. Papers should not exceed 12 single-spaced pages (including eventual appendices, references, etc.) and should be prepared according to the standard format for the Springer Verlag's LNCS series (see http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). Submissions have to be uploaded to: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tpnc2014 PUBLICATIONS: A volume of proceedings published by Springer in the LNCS series will be available by the time of the conference. A special issue of the journal Soft Computing (Springer, 2012 JCR impact factor: 1.124) will be later published containing peer-reviewed substantially extended versions of some of the papers contributed to the conference. Submissions to it will be by invitation. REGISTRATION: The period for registration is open from April 5 to December 9, 2014. The registration form can be found at: http://grammars.grlmc.com/tpnc2014/Registration.php DEADLINES: Paper submission: July 17, 2014 (23:59h, CET) Notification of paper acceptance or rejection: August 24, 2014 Final version of the paper for the LNCS proceedings: September 7, 2014 Early registration: September 7, 2014 Late registration: November 25, 2014 Submission to the post-conference journal special issue: March 11, 2015 QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: florentinalilica.voicu at urv.cat POSTAL ADDRESS: TPNC 2014 Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics (GRLMC) Rovira i Virgili University Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona, Spain Phone: +34 977 559 543 Fax: +34 977 558 386 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Universidad de Granada Universitat Rovira i Virgili --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From tmh at eecs.qmul.ac.uk Sat Jun 14 14:30:35 2014 From: tmh at eecs.qmul.ac.uk (Timothy Hospedales) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:30:35 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD and PostDoc positions at QMUL Message-ID: <0C9066D1-8A45-4467-A62F-E47AA69F4F1B@eecs.qmul.ac.uk> Applications are invited for two positions at Queen Mary University of London, School of Electronic Engineering & Computer Science. The positions will be based in the internationally renowned Risk and Information Management and Computer Vision groups. Postdoc Position We are seeking a postdoctoral research assistant with a strong background in computer vision and machine learning. This 13 month post is funded by the UK EPSRC project Transfer Learning for Person Re-Identification and will address cutting edge research at the forefront of transfer learning for vision. A track record of publication at top venues in vision or machine learning is essential. Deadline: 11th July. Start Date: As soon as possible, ideally before 31st August 2014. Details & application: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIY338/postdoctoral-research-assistant/ PhD Position We are searching for a motivated PhD candidate with a background in machine learning to work in any of the active research areas within our lab. These include topics related to life-long machine learning (transfer, multi-task and cross domain learning), deep learning and active learning. Current areas of application include computer vision and multi-media (recognition, person re-identification, attribute learning, weakly supervised learning), sentiment analysis, medical data analysis and internet/web data analytics. Deadline: 16th July. Start Date: October 2014. Details & application: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIY692/phd-studentship-in-machine-intelligence/ International applicants are welcome for both positions. For informal enquiries contact Dr. Timothy Hospedales, t.hospedales at qmul.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de Sat Jun 14 13:47:47 2014 From: h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de (Herbert Jaeger) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:47:47 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: A new mechanism for linking some pieces of the cognitive brain puzzle Message-ID: <539C8AC3.1000106@jacobs-university.de> Recipients of this mailing list may be interested to learn about a newly discovered neuro-computational mechanism. This mechanism, which I named "conceptors", suggests a common computational principle underneath phenomena as diverse as - incremental learning of dynamical patterns, - attentional focussing, - neural noise suppression, - morphing and modulating motor patterns, - learning pattern classes from a few prototype examples, - top-down bias control in hierarchical architectures, - Boolean combination of evidence in pattern classification. Conceptor-based algorithms are simple, cheap, and robust against noise and parameter variation. A number of fundamental neuro-computational problems become efficiently solved: - conceptors make it possible in the first place to govern a diversity of processing modes in a single recurrent neural network, - they enable incremental learning of temporal patterns with an option to quantify and monitor claimed neural memory capacity (coping with the catastrophic interference problem), - they lead to an auto-associative memory for dynamical patterns (a generalization of Hopfield networks to temporal patterns), - Boolean concept combinations and conceptual abstraction can be rigorously interpreted and implemented by the dynamics of recurrent neural networks (a robust solution for core parts of the neuro-symbolic integration problem). More information: 1. A video of a complex human motion sequence governed by a single RNN whose modes are governed by conceptors: http://youtu.be/DkS_Yw1ldD4 2. An informal introduction with many pictures (11 pages): http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2671 3. A comprehensive technical report, including a link to Matlab code (195 pages): http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.3369 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Herbert Jaeger Professor for Computational Science Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH Campus Ring 28759 Bremen, Germany Phone (+49) 421 200 3215 Fax (+49) 421 200 49 3215 email h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de http://minds.jacobs-university.de ------------------------------------------------------------------ From feeds at sentic.net Sun Jun 15 10:43:55 2014 From: feeds at sentic.net (SenticNet) Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:43:55 -0500 (EST) Subject: Connectionists: [SenticNet] CFP: IEEE CIM Special Issue on New Trends of Learning in Computational Intelligence Message-ID: <63146292.1489152.1402843435062.open-xchange@bosoxweb03.eigbox.net> Apologies for cross-posting, A special issue of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine will be dedicated to New Trends of Learning in Computational Intelligence. Prospective authors are invited to submit their original unpublished research and application contributions. Comprehensive tutorial and survey papers can also be considered for this special issue. RATIONALE Over the past few decades, conventional computational intelligence techniques faced severe bottlenecks in terms of algorithmic learning. Particularly, in areas of big data computation, brain science, cognition and reasoning, it is almost inevitable that intensive human intervention and time consuming trial and error efforts need to be employed before any meaningful observations can be obtained. The recent development of emerging computational intelligence techniques such as extreme learning machines (ELM) and fast solutions shed some light upon how to effectively deal with these computational bottlenecks. Based on the observations that increasing correlation can be found among apparently different theories from different fields, as well as the increasing evidence of convergence between computational intelligence techniques and biological learning mechanisms, this special issue seeks to promote novel research investigations in computational intelligence bridging among related areas. TOPICS Topics of interest for this special issue include but are not limited to: - Theoretical foundations and algorithms: ? ? ?? Extreme learning machines (ELM), No-Prop algorithms and random kitchen sinks ? ? ?? Real-time learning, reasoning and cognition ? ? ?? Sequential / incremental learning ? ? ?? Clustering and feature extraction / selection ? ? ?? Closed form and non-closed form solutions ? ? ?? Multiple hidden layers solutions and random networks ? ? ?? Parallel and distributed computing / cloud computing ? ? ?? Fast implementation of deep learning - Applications: ? ? ?? Biologically-inspired natural language processing ? ? ?? Big data analytics ? ? ?? Cognitive science / computation ? ? ?? Autonomous systems ? ? ?? Situation / Intention Awareness TIMEFRAME ? 15th August, 2014: Submission of Manuscripts ? 15th October, 2014: Notification of Review Results ? 15th November, 2014: Submission of Revised Manuscripts ? 15th December, 2014: Submission of Final Manuscripts ? May, 2015: Publication PAPER SUBMISSION The maximum length for the manuscript is typically 25 pages in single column format with double-spacing, including figures and references. Authors should specify in the first page of their manuscripts the corresponding author?s contact and up to 5 keywords. Submission should be made via email to any of the guest editors listed below. GUEST EDITORS ? Guang-Bin Huang, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) ? Erik Cambria, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) ? Kar-Ann Toh, Yonsei University (South Korea) ? Bernard Widrow, Stanford University (USA) ? Zongben Xu, Xi'an Jiaotong University (China) From gkreiman at gmail.com Sun Jun 15 16:15:55 2014 From: gkreiman at gmail.com (Gabriel Kreiman) Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:15:55 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Open postdoctoral position Message-ID: We are seeking an exceptional postdoctoral researcher in Computational Neuroscience. The candidate will work on neurophysiological, cognitive, machine learning and computational approaches to understanding human episodic memories. The project will be part of a multidisciplinary effort with application to brain-machine interfaces working with Prof. Suthana, Prof. Mehta, Prof. Kreiman and Prof. Fried. Interested candidates should submit a CV and arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent to gabriel.kreiman at tch.harvard.edu Position will be open until filled; send applications sooner rather than later if interested. For relevant work and publications, see http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~mayank/ http://klab.tch.harvard.edu/ http://www.cnl.ucla.edu/index.htm -- Gabriel Kreiman gkreiman at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ecai2014 at guarant.cz Mon Jun 16 07:20:03 2014 From: ecai2014 at guarant.cz (=?utf-8?q?ECAI_2014?=) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 13:20:03 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?ECAI_2014_-_early_registration_deadline?= =?utf-8?q?_in_2_weeks?= Message-ID: <20140616112003.53D65174260@gds25d.active24.cz> =============================================================== ECAI 2014 Prague, Czech Republic 18-22 August 2014 http://www.ecai2014.org/ =============================================================== REGISTRATION - EARLY RATE till JUNE 30 You can profit from a reduced rate by June 30. ECCAI member 400 EUR ECCAI student 120 EUR Delegate 500 EUR Student 150 EUR PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME Monday, August 18 - Czech Technical University Tutorials, Workshops, STAIRS, RuleML, Angry Birds Tuesday, August 19 - Czech Technical University Tutorials, Workshops, STAIRS, RuleML, Angry Birds Welcome Drink and Opening Ceremony in the Bethlehem Chapel Wednesday, August 20 - Clarion Congress Hotel Keynote Lecture, Parallel Sessions, PAIS, RuleML, Angry Birds Thursday, August 21 - Clarion Congress Hotel Keynote Lecture, Parallel Sessions, PAIS, Angry Birds Conference Dinner in the Monastery Restaurant Friday, August 22 - Clarion Congress Hotel Keynote Lecture, Parallel Sessions, Angry Birds =============================================================== This email is not intended to be spam or to go to anyone who wishes not to receive it. If you do not wish to receive this letter and wish to re?move your email address from our database please reply to this message with ?Unsubscribe? in the subject line From malin.sandstrom at incf.org Mon Jun 16 08:07:28 2014 From: malin.sandstrom at incf.org (=?UTF-8?Q?Malin_Sandstr=C3=B6m?=) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:07:28 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Computational neuroscience at NI2014 in Leiden, Netherlands on August 25-27 Message-ID: Want to learn more about new and exciting tools for neuroscience research, find new collaborators and discuss your latest results with a cross-disciplinary scientific audience? Then join us at NI2014 in Leiden, Netherlands, August 25-27! Our program includes keynote presentations by leading computational neuroscientists and workshops on describing synaptic dynamics, building cortical circuits, and modelling in open source collaborative projects. Keynotes: - Margarita Behrens: The epigenome and brain circuit changes during postnatal development - Mitya Chklovskii: Can connectomics help us understand neural computation? Insights from the fly visual system - Daniel Choquet: A nanoscale view into the dynamic of AMPA receptor organization in synapses - Viktor Jirsa: The Virtual Brain: a simulator of large-scale brain network dynamics - Michael Milham: Emerging models for biomarker identification - Felix Sch?rmann: In silico neuroscience ? an integrative approach Workshops: - The Neuroinformatics of neuroanatomy. Chair: Maryann Martone. Speakers: Trygve Leergard, Jacopo Annese, Douglas Bowden, Mike Hawrylycz - Building the brain. Chair: Paul Tiesinga. Speakers: Geoff Goodhill, Tomomi Shigomori, Rodney Douglas, Nenad Sestan - Synaptic computation workshop. Chair: L. Niels Cornelisse. Speakers: Erik De Schutter, Bert Kappen, Alexander Walter, Michele Giugliano - Open collaboration in computational neuroscience. Chair: Angus Silver. Speakers: Stephen Larson, Padraig Gleeson, Rick Gerkin and Shreejoy Tripathy, Aurel A. Lazar Also including: - Special session on big data. Chair: Sean Hill. Speakers: Yike Guo, Asla Pitkanen. - Symposium on population-based neuroimaging (hosted by the INCF Netherlands Node) - Open community hackathon. See the full program here: http://neuroinformatics2014.org/program The abstracts are now available at http://www.frontiersin.org/events/Neuroinformatics_2014/2231 Early bird registration ends on July 25 (midnight, CET) Register at http://www.neuroinformatics2014.org/registration Watch the NI2014 promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEudq3SOwK0 We're looking forward to seeing you in August! -- Malin Sandstr?m, PhD Community Engagement Officer malin.sandstrom at incf.org International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15 A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden http://www.incf.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From saketn at andrew.cmu.edu Mon Jun 16 11:23:33 2014 From: saketn at andrew.cmu.edu (Saket) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:23:33 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Distributed Algorithms 2014 Message-ID: We have a very exciting program planned for the second workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms! Please see below. ========================================================= The 2nd Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA 2014) October 11-12, 2014, Austin, Texas USA - in conjunction with DISC 2014 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~saketn/BDA2014/ ========================================================= We are excited to announce the second workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA). BDA is focused on the relationships between distributed computing and distributed biological systems and in particular, on analysis and case studies that combine the two. Such research can lead to better understanding of the behavior of the biological systems while at the same time developing novel computational algorithms that can be used to solve basic distributed computing problems. The first BDA workshop, BDA 2013, was collocated with DISC 2013 (the 27th International Symposium on Distributed Computing) in Jerusalem. BDA 2014 will be collocated with DISC 2014 in Austin, Texas. It will take place just before DISC, on Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12, 2014. BDA 2014 will include talks on distributed algorithms related to a variety of biological systems. However, this time we will devote special attention to communication and coordination in insect colonies (e.g. foraging, navigation, task allocation, construction) and networks in the brain (e.g. learning, decision-making, attention). =========== SUBMISSIONS =========== We solicit submissions of extended abstracts describing recent results relevant to biological distributed computing. We especially welcome extended abstracts describing new insights and / or case studies regarding the relationship between distributed computing and biological systems even if these are not fully formed. Since a major goal of the workshop is to explore new directions and approaches, we especially encourage the submission of ongoing work. Selected contributors would be asked to present, discuss and defend their work at the workshop. By default, the submissions will be evaluated for either oral or poster presentation, though authors may indicate in their submission if it should be only considered for one of the presentation types. Submissions should be in PDF and include title, author information, and a 4-page extended abstract. Shorter submissions are also welcome, particularly for poster presentation. Please use the following EasyChair submission link: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bda2014 Note: The workshop will not include published proceedings. In particular, we welcome submissions of extended abstracts describing work that has appeared or is expected to appear in other venues. ================================================== Financial support for student/postdoc participants ================================================== We will cover the registration fee and up to $500 of travel costs for selected participants at the student/postdoc level. Please refer to the workshop's website for further details. =============== IMPORTANT DATES =============== July 18, 2014 - Paper submission deadline August 18, 2014 - Decision notifications October 11-12, 2014 - Workshop ================ INVITED SPEAKERS ================ Dmitri Chklovskii - HHMI Janelia Farm Alex Cornejo - Harvard Iain Couzin - Princeton Anna Dornhaus - University of Arizona Ofer Feinerman - Weizmann Institute Ila Fiete - UT Austin Deborah Gordon - Stanford Amos Korman - CNRS and University of Paris Diderot Nancy Lynch - MIT James Marshall - University of Sheffield Radhika Nagpal - Harvard Stephen Pratt - Arizona State University Andrea Richa - Arizona State University Nir Shavit - MIT ================= PROGRAM COMMITTEE ================= Ziv Bar-Joseph - CMU (co-chair) Anna Dornhaus - University of Arizona Yuval Emek - Technion (co-chair) Amos Korman - CNRS and University of Paris Diderot (co-chair) Nancy Lynch - MIT Radhika Nagpal - Harvard Saket Navlakha - CMU Nir Shavit - MIT -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From giacomo.cabri at unimore.it Tue Jun 17 09:16:58 2014 From: giacomo.cabri at unimore.it (Giacomo Cabri) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 15:16:58 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CfP: Special Issue on Enabling Technologies for Collaboration Message-ID: <53A03FCA.4070104@unimore.it> Scalable Computing Practice and Experience Special Issue on Enabling Technologies for Collaboration http://www.scpe.org/index.php/scpe/pages/view/Call-issue-2-2015 Collaboration is an important aspect in almost all fields of human life, and today the need for supporting collaboration is increased by the fact that we are always connected by means of different kinds of devices. In particular in the enterprise world, this need has emerged and satisfying it can lead to relevant benefits for companies. In the last years, enabling technologies have evolved to meet new and challenging requirements. The aim of this special issue is to provide a landscape of the state of the art, emerging trends, new technologies and best practices in the field of technologies that enable collaboration. The idea is to cover a broad range of fields that are related to collaboration, including both theoretical and applied perspectives. The special issue will feature articles that concern technologies that enable collaboration considering a wide range of aspects, as specified in the following list of topics. Topics: Areas of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to: ? Adaptive workflows, supply chains, and virtual enterprises ? Agent architectures and infrastructures for dynamic collaboration ? Agent-to-Human service interactions ? Collaboration case studies, tools and applications ? Collaboration engineering in cyber-physical systems ? Collaborative management of autonomic properties ? Collaborative management of NF requirements (quality, security, robustness, availability) ? Collaborative management of virtualized cloud resources ? Collaborative planning and decision making ? Collaborative solutions for the diagnosis and repair of software systems ? Collaborative technologies for ensuring autonomic properties ? Collaborative technologies for QoS management of SOA and cloud architectures ? Collaborative virtual business ecosystems ? Cooperative learning and cooperative data mining algorithms ? Data Mining techniques for collaborative working ? Formal approaches to collaboration ? Knowledge management for collaboration ? Methodologies and environments for collaborative data mining ? Methodologies, languages and tools to support agent collaboration ? Modeling and specification of collaborative cloud services ? Organizational and enterprise systems that leverage Web 2.0 ? Semantic approaches for collaboration ? Semantic interoperability for SOA/BPM/SNs ? Semantic web for collaboration ? Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) for collaboration Important dates: ? Submission: September 15th, 2014 ? Author notification: October 30th 2014 ? Revised papers (for major revisions): November 30th 2014 ? Author notification (for major revisions): January 15th, 2015 ? Camera Ready papers due: February 15th, 2015 ? Publication: June, 2015 Submission: The special issue seeks original, unpublished work on technologies enabling collaboration. The authors of the best papers form WETICE 2014 will be invited to submit an extended version to this special issue. The SCPE journal has a rigorous peer-review process and papers will be sent to at least two independent referees. Papers that do not merit publication (for any reason) can be rejected by the Special Issue Editors without further review. Submitted papers must be formatted according to the journal's instructions, which can be found at: http://www.scpe.org/index.php/scpe/about/submissions#authorGuidelines Special Issue Editors: ? Prof. Marco Aiello. University of Groningen, NL ? Prof. Federico Bergenti. Universit? di Parma, Italy ? Prof. Giacomo Cabri. Universit? di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy ? Prof. Sumitra Reddy. West Virginia University, USA ? Prof. Ramana Reddy. West Virginia University, USA -- |----------------------------------------------------| | Prof. Giacomo Cabri - Ph.D., Associate Professor | Dip. di Scienze Fisiche, Informatiche e Matematiche | Universita' di Modena e Reggio Emilia - Italia | e-mail giacomo.cabri at unimore.it | tel. +39-059-2058320 fax +39-059-2055216 |----------------------------------------------------| From vgoel at yorku.ca Mon Jun 16 02:10:59 2014 From: vgoel at yorku.ca (Vinod Goel) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 02:10:59 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc Position Message-ID: Postdoc Position The Goel Cognitive Neuroscience of Reasoning Lab at York University, Toronto, is seeking a postdoctoral fellow with a strong computational programming background and good English writing skills. For the past 15 years our lab has been collecting MRI data on logical reasoning tasks. We are now looking to develop computational models of reasoning based upon these data. This is a one-year NSERC funded position, with the possibility of a one-year renewal. The start date is negotiable, but ideally should be around September, 2014. The candidate should have a track record of publications demonstrating the ability to complete and write up projects. Please direct queries to Vinod Goel: vgoel at yorku.ca Vinod Goel ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vinod Goel Professor Cognitive Neuroscience Dept. of Psychology York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ont Canada M3J 1P3 Fax:1-416-736-5814 email: vgoel at yorku.ca Homepage: http://www.yorku.ca/vgoel This document was created with a voice recognition system. It may contain phonological errors or odd or missing words in places. Unfortunately, I am often unable to correct these errors with my hands ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pascal.fua at epfl.ch Tue Jun 17 05:23:51 2014 From: pascal.fua at epfl.ch (Pascal Fua) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:23:51 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Post-Doctoral Fellowships in Computer Vision at EPFL Message-ID: <53A00927.3020606@epfl.ch> EPFL's Computer Vision Laboratory ( http://cvlab.epfl.ch/ ) has two openings for post-doctoral fellows in the field of Computer Vision. More specifically, we are looking for people interested in: - Modeling neurons from microscopy images. Since microscopes now routinely produce high-resolution imagery in such large quantities that the need for automated processing and interpretation is becoming critical. We are working on approaches to providing it. See http://cvlab.epfl.ch/page-90578-en.html for more details. - People-tracking from multiple video streams. We have been developing video-based algorithms for tracking multiple players in team sports and we would like to broaden their scope. See http://cvlab.epfl.ch/research/body/surv for more details. Position: They are initially offered for 12 months starting in Febuary 2015 and can be extended. The Computer Vision laboratory offers a creative international environment, a possibility to conduct competitive research on a global scale and involvement in teaching. Within the project, there will be ample opportunities to cooperate with some of the best groups in Europe and elsewhere. EPFL is located next to Lake Geneva in a beautiful setting 60 kilometers away from the city of Geneva. Salaries are in the order of CHF 80000 per year, the precise amount to be determined by EPFL's department of human resources. Education: Applicants are expected to have finished, or be about to finish their Ph.D. degrees, to have a strong background in Computer Science, and to have a track record of publications in top conferences and journals. Strong programming skills (C or C++) are a plus. French language skills are not required, English is mandatory. Application: Applications must be sent by email to Ms. Gisclon (josiane.gisclon at epfl.ch). They must contain a statement of interest, a CV, a list of publications, and the names of three references. From gary.marcus at nyu.edu Tue Jun 17 11:00:51 2014 From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:00:51 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Cracking the Brain's Codes Message-ID: <952731DC-A084-49D3-9C8A-EE0F7990D778@nyu.edu> Some thoughts on where we are in trying to decipher the brain?s codes, co-written with Christof Koch http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528131/cracking-the-brains-codes/ Gary Marcus Professor of Psychology New York University Visiting Cognitive Scientist Allen Institute for Brain Science Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence Author of NYT Bestseller Guitar Zero Editor, The Future of the Brain (2014) http://garymarcus.com/ New Yorker blog -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fmschleif at googlemail.com Wed Jun 18 16:16:51 2014 From: fmschleif at googlemail.com (Frank-Michael Schleif) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 22:16:51 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Call for papers (High dimensional data analysis) - extended deadline 15 July - CIDM 2014 Message-ID: Call for Papers - extended deadline until 15.July Special Session on 'High dimensional data analysis - theoretical advances and applications' 09-12 December 2014, Orlando, Florida, USA http://www.ieee-ssci.org/CIDM.html http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~schleify/CIDM_2014/ AIMS AND SCOPE Modern measurement technology, greatly enhanced storage capabilities and novel data formats have radically increased the amount and dimensionality of electronic data. Due to its high dimensionality, complexity and the curse of dimensionality, these data sets can often not be addressed by classical statistical methods. Prominent examples can be found in the life sciences with microarrays, hyper spectral data in geo-sciences but also in fields like astrophysics, biomedical imaging, finance or web and market basket analysis. Computational intelligence methods have the potential to be used to pre-process, model and to analyze such complex data but new strategies are needed to get efficient and reliable models. Novel data encoding techniques and projection methods, employing concepts of randomization algorithms have opened new ways to obtain compact descriptions of these complex data sets or to identify relevant information. However theoretical foundations and the practical potential of these methods and alternative approaches has still to be explored and improved. New advances and research to address the curse of dimensions, and to uncover and exploit the blessings of high dimensionality in data analysis are of major interest in theory and application. TOPICS This workshop aims to promote new advances and research directions to address the modeling, representation/encoding and reduction of high-dimensional data or approaches and studies adressing challenging problems in the field of high dimensional data analysis. Topics of interest range from theoretical foundations, to algorithms and implementation, to applications and empirical studies of mining high dimensional data, including (but not limited to) the following: o Studies on how the curse of dimensionality affects computational intelligence methods o New computational intelligence techniques that exploit some properties of high dimensional data spaces o Theoretical findings addressing the imbalance between high dimensionality and small sample size o Stability and reliability analyses for data analysis in high dimensions o Adaptive and non-adaptive dimensionality reduction for noisy high dimensional data sets o Methods of random projections, compressed sensing, and random matrix theory applied to high dimensional data mining o Models of low intrinsic dimension, such as sparse representation, manifold models, latent structure models, and studies of their noise tolerance o Classification, regression, clustering of high dimensional complex data sets o Functional data mining o Data presentation and visualisation methods for very high dimensional data sets o Data mining applications to real problems in science, engineering or businesses where the data is high dimensional PAPER SUBMISSION High quality original submissions (upto 8 pages, IEEE style) should follow the guidelines as outlined at the CIDM homepage and should be submitted using the provided IEEE paper submission system. We strongly encourage to use the LaTeX stylesheet and not the word format to ensure high quality typesetting and paper representation also during the review process. Webpage of the special session: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~schleify/CIDM_2014/ IMPORTANT DATES Paper submission deadline : 15 July 2014 Notification of acceptance : 05 September 2014 Deadline for final papers : 05 October 2014 The CIDM 2014 conference : 9-12 December 2014 SPECIAL SESSION ORGANIZERS: Ata Kaban, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK Frank-Michael Schleif, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK Thomas Villmann, University of Appl. Sc. Mittweida, Germany From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Wed Jun 18 10:08:00 2014 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:08:00 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open PhD Position: Computational Modeling and Eye Tracking in Infancy Research Message-ID: <41E2CF47-1EA0-476D-8F08-8CDB24BDB19A@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> An opening is available for an interdisciplinary PhD project in the group of Jochen Triesch at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS, http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/de/) focusing on computational modeling and gaze-contingent eye tracking in infancy research. Gaze-contingent eye tracking techniques, which allow young infants to exert control over the course of the experiment, are currently opening up new ways of studying infant's cognitive development [1], training their cognitive abilities [2], and hold promise for diagnosing and treating developmental disorders. We are seeking an outstanding and highly motivated PhD candidate for an exciting project in collaboration with the developmental psychology group of Prof. Monika Knopf at Goethe University Frankfurt. Additional collaborators of our lab include leading developmental psychology and cognitive science labs in Italy (Prof. Gianluca Baldassarre, Rome), and the US (Prof. Chen Yu, Indiana University, Prof. Gedeon De?k, UC San Diego). Applicants should have a keen interest in cognitive development and hold a Master or equivalent degree in a relevant field such as cognitive science, computer science, psychology, engineering, physics, or mathematics. The candidate should have excellent programming skills (e.g. Matlab, Python, C/C++) and good analytic skills. Experience with eye tracking and knowledge in machine learning (e.g., reinforcement learning, neural networks, Bayesian models), computational neuroscience (attention and reward systems), and data analysis (time series analysis, hypothesis testing) are a plus. The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies is a research institution dedicated to fundamental theoretical research in various areas of science. It is embedded into Frankfurt's recently established natural science research campus. Frankfurt is the center of one of the most vibrant metropolitan areas in Europe. Apart from being an economic and financial hub, it boasts rich cultural assets and repeatedly earns top rankings in worldwide surveys of quality of living. Applications should include a 1-2 page statement of research experience and interests, CV including publications, awards, and relevant course work, academic transcripts, and contact information for two to three references. All documents should be sent in pdf format. Send applications to application at fias.uni-frankfurt.de. We aim to fill the position during Fall 2014. [1] Wang Q, Bolhuis J, Rothkopf CA, Kolling T, Knopf M & Triesch J. (2012) Infants in Control: Rapid Anticipation of Action Outcomes in a Gaze-Contingent Paradigm. PLoS ONE 7(2): e30884. http:dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030884 [2] Wass SV, Porayska-Pomsta K & Johnson MH (2011). Training attentional control in infancy. Current Biology 21 (18), 1543-1547. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.004 -- Prof. Dr. Jochen Triesch Johanna Quandt Research Professor Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~triesch/ Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47531 Fax: +49 (0)69 798-47611 From harnad.stevan at uqam.ca Wed Jun 18 17:27:33 2014 From: harnad.stevan at uqam.ca (Harnad, Stevan) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 17:27:33 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Web Science and the Mind: Montreal 8-18 July Message-ID: WEB SCIENCE AND THE MIND JULY 7 - 18 2014 Universite du Qu?bec ? Montreal Montreal, Canada Registration: http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/inscription.php?lang_id=2 Cognitive Science and Web Science have been converging in the study of cognition: (i) distributed within the brain (ii) distributed between multiple minds (iii) distributed between minds and media The four themes of the Summer Institute are: (1) The Data Web (2) The Social Web (3) The Extended Mind? (4) The Global Brain? SPEAKERS AND TOPICS Schedule Social Web Les CARR U Southampton Web Impact on Society Fabien GANDON INRIA Social and Semantic Web: Adding the Missing Links Lee GILES Pennsylvania State U Scholarly Big Data: Information Extraction and Data Mining Jennifer GOLBECK U Maryland You Can't Hide: Predicting Personal Traits in Social Media Stephen GRIFFIN U Pittsburgh New Models of Scholarly Communication for Digital Scholarship Stevan HARNAD UQAM Memetrics: Monitoring Measuring and Mapping Memes Tony HEY Microsoft Research Connections Open Science and the Web Kayvan KOUSHA U Wolverhampton Web Impact Metrics for Research Assessment Guy LAPALME U Montreal Natural Language Processing on the Web Vincent LARIVIERE U Montreal Transformations in Scholarly Communication in the Digital World Data Web Jean-Daniel FEKETE INRIA Visualizing Dynamic Interactions Benjamin FUNG McGill U Applying Data Mining to Real-Life Crime Investigation Jiawei HAN U Illinois/Urbana Knowledge Mining in Heterogeneous Information Networks Jim HENDLER Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute The Data Web Charles-Antoine JULIEN Mcgill U Visual Tools for Interacting with Large Networks Yang-Yu LIU Northeastern U Controllability and Observability of Complex Systems Adilson MOTTER Northwestern U Bursts, Cascades and Time Allocation Takashi NISHIKAWA Northwestern U Visual Analytics: Network Structure Beyond Communities Filippo RADICCHI Indiana U Analogies between Interconnected and Clustered Networks Petko VALTCHEV UQ?M Semantic Web Data Mining Extended Mind? Simon DeDEO Indiana U Collective Memory in Wikipedia Robert GOLDSTONE Indiana U Learning Along with Others Wendy HALL U Southampton It's All In the Mind Harry HALPIN U Edinburgh Does the Web Extend the Mind - and Semantics? Mark ROWLANDS Miami U Extended Mentality: What It Is and Why It Matters Robert RUPERT U Colorado What is Cognition and How Could it be Extended? Cameron NEYLON PLOS Network Ready Research: The Role of Open Source and Open Thinking Derek RUTHS McGill U Social Informatics Judith SIMON ITAS Socio-Technical Epistemology Global Brain? Katy BORNER Indiana U Humanexus: Envisioning Communication and Collaboration Alan EVANS Montreal Neurological Institute Mapping the Brain Connectome Peter GLOOR MIT Center for Collective Intelligence Collaborative Innovation Networks Francis HEYLIGHEN Vrije U Brussel Global Brain: Web as Self-organizing Distributed Intelligence Bryce HUEBNER Georgetown U Macrocognition: Situated versus Distributed Richard MENARY U Macquarie Enculturated Cognition Thomas MALONE MIT Collective Intelligence: What is it? How to measure it? Increase it? John SUTTON Macquarie U Transactive Memory and Distributed Cognitive Ecologies Georg THEINER Villanova U Domains and Dimensions of Group Cognition Peter TODD Indiana U Foraging in the World Mind and Online -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From demian.battaglia at univ-amu.fr Thu Jun 19 03:28:31 2014 From: demian.battaglia at univ-amu.fr (Demian Battaglia) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 09:28:31 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?ECML_Workshop__-___=93Neural_Con?= =?windows-1252?q?nectomics=3A_From_Imaging_to_Connectivity=94?= Message-ID: ECML Workshop - ?Neural Connectomics: From Imaging to Connectivity? September 15, 2014 - Nancy, France Paper submission deadline EXTENDED: June 30, 2014 Description: Systematic extraction of connectivity information is gaining growing importance for the understanding of the general functioning of the brain and its learning capabilities, as well as for designing biomarkers for diagnosis, prediction and prevention in neuropathologies. At the neural level, recovering the exact wiring of the brain (connectome) including nearly 100 billion neurons, having on average 7000 synaptic connections to other neurons, is a daunting task. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in machine learning and neuroscience to discuss progress and remaining challenges in this exciting and rapidly evolving field. We aim to attract machine learning and computer vision specialists interested in learning about a new problem, as well as computational neuroscientists who may be interested in modeling connectivity data. We will discuss also the results of the First ChaLearn Neural Connectomics Challenge, who attracted over 100 participants, many of them advancing considerably the state-of-the-art. Topics of interest to the workshop include, but are not limited to: ? building connectomes from EM data ? building connectomes from fMRI data ? building connectomes from neurophysiology data ? bridging neuroanatomy and neurophysiology ? connectomics and learning ? neuroimaging technology advances ? network reconstruction algorithms ? causality in time series ? feature selection vs. causal discovery ? generative vs. discriminative modeling ? sharing data ? sharing code ? organizing new challenges ? establishing ground truth, benchmarking ? quantitative metrics of evaluation ? theoretical understanding Important dates: o Paper submission (EXTENDED): June 30, 2014 o Notification of acceptance: July 10, 2014 o Camera-ready: July 25, 2014 o ECML Workshop: September 15, 2014 Important - Submission Guidelines: We encourage contributions in any of these areas. We welcome 2-page short-form submissions and 6-page long-form submissions. Submissions should be formatted using JMLR Workshop and Proceedings format, style files for which are available at: http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/jmlr.html. We also encourage submissions of previously-published material that is closely related to the workshop topic (for presentation only). Everybody can attend the workshop even if he does not participate in the challenge (http://connectomics.chalearn.org/). Challenge participants are encouraged to contribute a paper on their results and also submit papers for presentation on the topics of the workshop. The papers have to be submitted via Easy Chair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ncw2014 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Greg.Stuart at anu.edu.au Wed Jun 18 20:48:38 2014 From: Greg.Stuart at anu.edu.au (Gregory Stuart) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 00:48:38 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral postions in Canberra, Australia Message-ID: Two Postdoctoral Fellow positions are available to join the Neuronal Signalling Laboratory led by Professor Greg Stuart to study the integration of synaptic information in the brain, with a particular focus on how this information is transformed by the dendrites of neurons. The research projects will focus on the integration of information in the binocular visual cortex as well as in the somatosensory cortex. The research will involve experiments both in vitro and in vivo in rats and mice using electrophysiology (patch-clamp) and imaging (two-photon), possibly combined with behaviour and/or optogenetics and will be carried out in new state-of-the-art facilities in The John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia (see attached PDF for more information). Closing Date: 13 July 2014 Salary: $62,511 - $79,294 pa plus 17% superannuation We offer generous remuneration benefits, including four weeks paid vacation per year, assistance with relocation expenses and a collaborative working environment. To apply see: http://jobs.anu.edu.au/PositionDetail.aspx?p=4009 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Postdoc positions.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 36744 bytes Desc: Postdoc positions.pdf URL: From stephengmatthews at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 02:59:03 2014 From: stephengmatthews at gmail.com (Stephen G Matthews) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 07:59:03 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Call_for_Participation=3A_The_2014_IEEE?= =?utf-8?q?_CIS_/_REGIM-Lab=2E_Summer_School_on_Computational_Intel?= =?utf-8?q?ligence_=E2=80=93_Theory_and_Applications?= Message-ID: ** Please accept our apologies if you have received multiple copies. ** ====================================================== 2014 IEEE CIS/REGIM-Lab Summer School on Computational Intelligence ? Theory and Applications (SS-CITA 2014) http://cita.regim.org/ 11-14, August 2014, Ramada Plaza Tunis Hotel, Tunisia ====================================================== Sponsors: IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and REGIM-Lab. Registration: http://cita.regim.org/registration/ The main goal of the summer school is to provide undergraduate students, M.Sc. or PhD students, academics, and engineers from industry with hands-on knowledge on sophisticated Computational Intelligence (CI) algorithms and methods, most recent advances and developments in CI research, and substantial examples of successful CI applications to solving complex real-world problems. The school includes theoretical and practical sessions. The choice of such topic is based on the growing attention paid towards intelligent systems. The school aims also to discuss the challenges and to strengthen the connection between academia and industry in the area of Computational Intelligence. The program of the school includes theoretical and practical talks during four days from 11 to 14 August 2014. It also includes poster session. All students have to present their ideas / works in a poster. A best poster award will be announced in the closing session. Seven well-known speakers: http://cita.regim.org/speakers/ - Cesare Alippi, IEEE Fellow, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Topic: Supervised Learning: from the Basics to Learning in non-stationary Environments - Farouk Cherif, University Sousse, Tunisia. Topic: Basics on Recurrent Neural Network - Robert John, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Topic: Type-2 Fuzzy Logic: Theory and Applications - Fakhri Karray, University of Waterloo, Canada. Topic: SVM , Fundamentals and Advanced Topics - Okyay Kaynak (IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecturer) IEEE Fellow, Bogazici University, Turkey & Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China. Topic: Intelligent Systems: An Assesment of the Past and the Prospects for the Future - Volker M?rgner, Technische Universit?t Braunschweig, Germany. Topic: Historical Document Processing ? An Application of Computational Intelligence - Ahmed Rubaai, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA - IEEE-IAS Publications Department chair. Topic: Computational Intelligence Techniques for Industrial Systems For further information, please don't hesitate to contact the Organizing Committee: http://cita.regim.org/organizing-committee/ ================================= Local information contact: Habib M. Kammoun IEEE CIS Tunisia Chapter E-mail: habib.kammoun at ieee.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurent.perrinet at univ-amu.fr Fri Jun 20 11:51:30 2014 From: laurent.perrinet at univ-amu.fr (Laurent Perrinet) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 17:51:30 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [PhD] An integrated experimental and modeling approach to gaze orientation and learning Message-ID: <10AA5382-5C24-4A2D-A59C-AAA4B2CB5BC1@univ-amu.fr> An opening is available for a PhD project focusing on an integrated experimental and modeling approach to gaze orientation and learning. Please note that candidates should apply before July 15th, 2014. Cheers, Laurent Call for candidates for one PhD fellowship at the Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone CNRS & Aix-Marseille University (AMU) Gaze orientation and learning: an integrated experimental and modeling approach PhD supervisors: Anna Montagnini and Laurent Perrinet (InViBe team) How do we maintain the accuracy of our movements despite changes occurring in our environment or within the organism? Our research project is to shed a new light on this question within a unified theoretical framework centred on reinforcement learning. We will study visually driven, voluntary eye movements as a model for motor learning. Indeed, these provide an ideal experimental preparation to probe sensorimotor decisions across different time-scales, processing levels (from sensory encoding to the final categorical choice) and movement repertoire (e.g. smooth pursuit vs saccades). In addition, a remarkable flexibility of simple oculomotor behaviors has been highlighted, by manipulating the expectancy for sensory features or the outcome associated to particular motor responses. Behavioral experiments on human eye movements will be designed, implemented and used to benchmark new theoretical models based on the probabilistic framework. The main focus will be on the modulation of oculomotor behavior (latency and metric properties, such as amplitude or speed) that is observed in a changing environment, especially in relation to a dynamic reinforcement schedule. The proposed PhD is part of a project (Reinforcement and Eye Movements ? REM, see http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet/TagAnrRem) funded by the French National Research Agency ANR, and it will be conducted in close collaborations with researchers at INT in Marseille (A. Montagnini, L. Perrinet and F. Danion) and at the University of Lille (L. Madelain and J. Jozefowiez). The Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (see http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/?lang=en), brings together a large, young and dynamic community of scientists interested in frontline aspects of the integrative neurosciences. The net salary will be around 1430 euros per month. Applicants should have a keen interest in cognitive science and hold a Master or equivalent degree in a relevant field (computational or cognitive neuroscience, computer science, psychology, engineering, physics, or mathematics). The selection process will strongly favor candidates with excellent programming skills and/or experience with eye tracking and visual psychophysics. Knowledge of French is not mandatory, although willing to learn it will facilitate enjoying life in Marseille and its beautiful surroundings. Applications are now being accepted and until July 15th, 2014. Interested candidates should send a CV, brief summary of research accomplishments and interest, and the contact information for two to three referees familiar with the candidates? backgrounds. Position needs to be filled by September, 1st, 2014. Please, send applications (in a single PDF file) to Anna.montagnini at univ-amu.fr and Laurent.perrinet at univ-amu.fr. Relevant publications Bogadhi A, Montagnini A, Perrinet LU, Mamassian P & Masson GS (2011) Pursuing motion illusions: a realistic oculomotor framework for Bayesian inference. Vision Research 51, 867-880 Khoei MA, Masson GS, Perrinet LU (2013). Motion-based prediction explains the role of tracking in motion extrapolation. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 107(5):409?420 Bogadhi A, Montagnini A & Masson GS (2013) Dynamical interaction between retinal and extra-retinal signals in motion integration for smooth pursuit. Journal of Vision 13(13) : 1-25 Servant M, Montagnini A & Burle B (2014) Conflict tasks and the diffusion framework: Insight in model constraints based on psychological laws Cognitive Psychology, 72(2014):162-195 Simoncini C, Perrinet LU, Montagnini A, Pascal Mamassian, Guillaume S. Masson (2012). More is not always better: dissociation between perception and action explained by adaptive gain control. Nature Neuroscience 15(11):1596-603 Sanz-Leon P, Vanzetta I, Masson GS, Perrinet LU (2012) Motion Clouds: Model-based stimulus synthesis of natural-like random textures for the study of motion perception. Journal of Neurophysiology, 107(11):3217--3226, Montagnini A., Mamassian P., Perrinet L., Castet E. and Masson G. (2007). Bayesian modeling of dynamic motion integration. Journal of Physiology-Paris, Vol 101(1-3):64-77 Perrinet LU, Adams R, Friston K (2014) Active Inference, eye movements and oculomotor delays. Submitted. Adams RA, Perrinet LU, Friston K (2012) Smooth Pursuit and Visual Occlusion: Active Inference and Oculomotor Control in Schizophrenia. PLoS ONE, 7(10):e47502 Spering M, and Montagnini A (2011) Do we track what we see? Common versus independent processing for motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements: A review. Vision Research 51: 836?852 Montagnini A and Chelazzi L (2005) The urgency to look: Prompt saccades for the benefit of perception. Vision Research, 45 (27): p. 3391-3401. Madelain, L., Herman, J. P., & Harwood, M. R. (2013) Saccade adaptation goes for the goal. Journal of Vision, 13(4). Madelain, L., Paeye, C., & Wallman, J. (2011) Modification of saccadic gain by reinforcement. Journal Neurophysiology, 106(1), 219-232. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ASIM.ROY at asu.edu Fri Jun 20 17:27:00 2014 From: ASIM.ROY at asu.edu (Asim Roy) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 21:27:00 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: International Neural Network Society (INNS) announces new Section on Big Data Analytics Message-ID: <4AD8F84F0AA4E1448BD8131BA7E55EB418AE39ED@exmbw02.asurite.ad.asu.edu> I am pleased to announce that the International Neural Network Society (INNS) has formed a new Section on Big Data Analytics (BDA). Please visit the webpage http://www.inns.org/big-data-section for further information. Neural networks have certain distinct advantages over other forms of learning. They include: (1) well-developed methods for online incremental learning that involve simple computations, (2) no scalability issues, (3) they can learn from all of the data instead of samples of data, (4) being able to use massively parallel computations unlike other learning methods, (5) availability of neuromorphic hardware for implementation of neural network learning, and (6) hardware-based real-time learning. Of course some challenges remain, including automation of learning that would avoid human intervention and tweaking of algorithms for every application and high-dimensional data. But we are making progress on these remaining challenges. Neural network based real-time learning should open the door to wider deployment of big data analytics. Fast and efficient learning, using massively parallel computations, is important to the Industrial Internet and streaming big data. So please join us in this exciting adventure by becoming a member of INNS and its Big Data Analytics Section. Visit http://www.inns.org/ for further information about the organization and its membership. We are also looking for industrial sponsors of this Section to do mini-workshops and other activities. We plan to have our first Big Data Analytics Section social gathering and organizational meeting at WCCI 2014 in Beijing. It will be on Monday (July 7) evening in the Peony room at the Continental Grand Hotel (2nd floor) from 6 pm to 10 pm. If you are planning to attend WCCI in Beijing, I invite you to join us at this first meeting. If you are interested in taking a leading role in this Section, please let me know (Asim.Roy at asu.edu). Asim Roy Arizona State University Chair ? Big Data Analytics Section www.lifeboat.com/ex/bios.asim.roy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tatsuno at uleth.ca Fri Jun 20 19:53:10 2014 From: tatsuno at uleth.ca (Tatsuno, Masami) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 23:53:10 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD/MSc Position in Computational Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Canada Message-ID: One PhD/MSc position is available immediately in the lab of Prof. Masami Tatsuno at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Canada ( http://www.uleth.ca ). We investigate memory processes of the awake/sleeping brain experimentally and computationally with the goal of understanding how spontaneous reactivation of memory sequences facilitates performance improvement. We have been performing multi-electrode recordings in freely behaving animals as well as neural data analysis by statistical methods such as information geometry. The successful candidate will work on one or a combination of projects aimed at developing a novel analysis method for neural signals, analyzing neural data, and modeling memory function. The successful candidate will also have an opportunity to participate in electrophysiological recordings. A high degree of interaction with the experimental team in my lab as well as the Brain Dynamics group ( http://lethbridgebraindynamics.com ) will be also expected. Applicants should have a strong programming (e.g., MATLAB) and quantitative background (e.g., BSc/MSc degree in physics, math or computer science etc.). Experience with neuronal modeling is a plus. Candidates should email a short letter of research interest including their skills and experience, CV and the names of three references to Masami Tatsuno ( tatsuno at uleth.ca ) as soon as possible. Please do not have reference letters sent unless requested. Applicants should put "CompNeuro PhD/MSc recruitment" in the subject of their email. Funding is available through our departmental NSERC CREATE grant in Biological Information Processing. Lethbridge is located two hours from Calgary, 90 minutes from the Canadian Rockies and is a safe, family friendly environment. ********************************************* Masami Tatsuno, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Neuroscience The University of Lethbridge Email: tatsuno at uleth.ca http://lethbridgebraindynamics.com/masami_tatsuno ********************************************* From Vittorio.Murino at iit.it Mon Jun 23 09:58:56 2014 From: Vittorio.Murino at iit.it (Vittorio Murino) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 15:58:56 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: 5th PAVIS School on CVPR: Scene Understanding & Object Recognition in Context - A. Torralba, A. Lapedriza Message-ID: <53A832A0.1090205@iit.it> Apologise for multiple posting ==================================================================== Call for Participation - LAST ANNOUNCEMENT !!! 5th PAVIS School on Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, and Image Processing September 29 - October 1, 2014 Sestri Levante (GE), Italy ------------------------------------------------------------------- SCENE UNDERSTANDING AND OBJECT RECOGNITION IN CONTEXT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Invited speakers * Antonio TORRALBA, MIT (USA) * Agata LAPEDRIZA, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain) & MIT (USA) -------------------------------------- REGISTRATION DEADLINE JULY 1, 2014 <<<<< (see below) -------------------------------------- The goal of this school will be to introduce recent advances in scene recognition, multiclass object detection and object recognition in context. The class will cover global features for scene recognition (gist, deep features, etc), databases for scene understanding (e.g., crowdsourcing, image annotation), methods for multiclass object detection (short summary of object detectionapproaches with emphasis on multiclass techniques) and current approaches for object recognition in context and scene understanding. The theoretical sessions will be complemented with guided experiments in MATLAB. The PROGRAM of the school will be published soon on the school website. ********************************************************************* * * REGISTRATION DEADLINE: July 1, 2014 * * Interested applicants are invited to send an expression of interest * at pavisschool2014 at iit.it asking for participation. * For PhD candidates please attach a Curriculum vitae and, possibly, * a letter from your supervisor in support to the request. * * Accepted candidates will receive an email containing the * instructions for the actual registration and payment. * ********************************************************************* Notice that, due to the limited number of places, applications are subject to acceptance, and for this reason, early registrations or expressions of interest are encouraged. The attendees are expected to bring a laptop with a working version of MATLAB since practical experiments will be performed during the school using open source libraries such as VLFeat. --------------------------------------------------------------- Registration Fees - 150 euro for Ph.D. and undergraduate students. - 250 euro for post docs, researchers, and other people working in a university or a research institute. - 300 euro for everybody else. --------------------------------------------------------------- School webpage: http://www.iit.it/en/pavis-schools/schoolpavis2014.html Please, check the website regularly for updated information. ===================================================================== -- Vittorio Murino ******************************************* Prof. Vittorio Murino, Ph.D. PAVIS - Pattern Analysis & Computer Vision IIT Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego 30 16163 Genova, Italy Phone: +39 010 71781 504 Mobile: +39 329 6508554 Fax: +39 010 71781 236 E-mail: vittorio.murino at iit.it Secretary: Sara Curreli email: sara.curreli at iit.it Phone: +39 010 71781 917 http://www.iit.it/pavis ******************************************** From smart at neuralcorrelate.com Mon Jun 23 18:43:07 2014 From: smart at neuralcorrelate.com (Susana Martinez-Conde) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 15:43:07 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: positions available at Martinez-Conde lab in SUNY, New York City In-Reply-To: <00b101cf8f34$2c543060$84fc9120$@neuralcorrelate.com> References: <00b101cf8f34$2c543060$84fc9120$@neuralcorrelate.com> Message-ID: <00c901cf8f34$8129def0$837d9cd0$@neuralcorrelate.com> Dear Colleagues, The Martinez-Conde lab (http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com ) is moving this summer to SUNY's Downstate Medical Center (http://www.downstate.edu ) in Brooklyn, New York City, under SUNY's Empire Innovator Program (https://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/communication/publicationsre portsdata/FacultyExcellence.pdf). The laboratory will be in the Department of Ophthalmology (http://www.downstate.edu/ophthalmology) at SUNY Downstate (a 25-minute subway ride to Times Square) and part of the SUNY Eye Institute (http://www.sunyeye.org ). Predoctoral and postdoctoral positions are available. Interested candidates should email their CVs to smart at neuralcorrelate.com. Experience in psychophysical and/or neurophysiological techniques is required. The preferred candidates will have a strong background in programming (Matlab, C++, Python) and quantitative methods as evidenced by first-author publications. The Martinez-Conde lab's research program is at the interface of visual, oculomotor and cognitive neuroscience. Representative publications can be downloaded from http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com/publications. The State University of New York is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Thank you for your interest, ---------------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience Division of Neurobiology Barrow Neurological Institute 350 W. Thomas Rd Phoenix AZ 85013, USA Phone: +1 (602) 406-3484 Fax: +1 (602) 406-4172 Email: smart at neuralcorrelate.com http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at berndporr.me.uk Tue Jun 24 08:49:15 2014 From: mail at berndporr.me.uk (Bernd Porr) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:49:15 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Paper: Subsystem Formation Driven by Double Contingency Message-ID: <53A973CB.8050301@berndporr.me.uk> I'm please to announce this paper in the interdisciplinary Journal Constructivist Foundations. Purpose: This article investigates the emergence of subsystems in societies as a solution to the double contingency problem. Context: There are two underlying paradigms: one is radical constructivism in the sense that perturbations are at the centre of the self-organising processes; the other is Luhmann?s double contingency problem, where agents learn anticipations from each other. Approach: Central to our investigation is a computer simulation where we place agents into an arena. These agents can learn to (a) collect food and/or (b) steal food from other agents. In order to analyse subsystem formation, we investigate whether agents use both behaviours or just one of these, which is equivalent to determining the number of self-referential loops. This is detected with a novel measure that we call ?prediction utilisation.? Results: During the simulation, symmetry breaking is observed. The system of agents divides itself up into two subsystems: one where agents just collect food and another one where agents just steal food from other agents. The ratio between these two populations is determined by the amount of food available. Key words: Social systems, constructivist paradigm, cybernetics, double contingency, symmetry breaking, emergence. http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/9/2 (you might need to register but the journal is open access) /Bernd Porr -- http://www.berndporr.me.uk http://www.linux-usb-daq.co.uk http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3293421/ +44 (0)7840 340069 From pelillo at dsi.unive.it Wed Jun 25 02:47:04 2014 From: pelillo at dsi.unive.it (Marcello Pelillo) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:47:04 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: Special issue on "Philosophical aspects of pattern recognition" (deadline extension) Message-ID: Dear colleagues, please note that the submission deadline for the Pattern Recognition Letters special issue on "Philosophical aspects of pattern recognition" has been extended to July 15, 2014. Details can be found at the following link: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/pattern-recognition-letters/call-for-papers/philosophical-aspects-of-pattern-recognition/ Best regards -mp --- Marcello Pelillo, FIEEE, FIAPR Professor of Computer Science Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Lab, Director Center for Knowledge, Interaction and Intelligent Systems (KIIS), Director DAIS Ca' Foscari University, Venice Via Torino 155, 30172 Venezia Mestre, Italy Tel: (39) 041 2348.440 Fax: (39) 041 2348.419 E-mail: marcello.pelillo at gmail.com URL: http://www.dsi.unive.it/~pelillo From karthikmaheshv at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 11:48:58 2014 From: karthikmaheshv at gmail.com (Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:48:58 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [meetings] [ECCV2014] CfP: Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis (in conjunction with ECCV 2014) Message-ID: ========================================================================== *Call for Papers- Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis* (in conjunction with ECCV 2014), September 7, 2014, Zurich, Switzerland http://affordances.info/workshops/ECCV.html ========================================================================== The workshop seeks to address key challenges in computer vision and applications such as robotics with regard to functional form descriptions, which are termed as "affordances". Based on the Gibsonian principle of defining objects by their function, "affordances" have been studied extensively by psychologists and visual perception researchers, resulting in the creation of numerous cognitive models. These models are being increasingly revisited and adapted by computer vision researchers to build visual perception and behavioral algorithms in recent years. This workshop attempts to explore this nascent, yet rapidly emerging field of affordance based cognitive vision (recognition of objects, activities, scenes etc.) while integrating the efforts and language of affordance communities not just in computer vision, but also psychophysics and neurobiology by creating an open affordance research forum, feature framework and ontology called AfNet (theaffordances.net). In particular, the workshop will focus on emerging trends in affordances and other human-centered function/action features that can be used to build computer vision algorithms leading to various intelligent applications. The workshop will also feature contributions from researchers involved in traditional theories to affordances, especially from the point of view of psychophysics and neuro-biology. Avenues to aiding research in these fields using techniques from computer vision and cognitive robotics will also be explored. Primary topics addressed by the workshop include the following among others - Affordances in visual perception models - Affordances as visual primitives, common coding features and symbolic cognitive systems - Affordances for object recognition, search, attention modulation, functional scene understanding and classification - Object functionality analysis - Affordances from appearance and touch based cues - Haptic adjectives - Functional-visual categories for transfer learning - Actions and functions in object perception - Human-object interactions and modeling - Motion-capture data analysis for object categorization - Affordances in human and robot grasping - Affordance learning - Affordance ontologies - Knowledge bases for affordances and affordance modeling Understanding various challenges in the field of affordances and building a common language and framework for communication across the varied affordance communities are the key goals of the proposed workshop. Through the course of the workshop, we also envisage the establishment of a working group for AfNet. *Paper Submissions* Paper contributions to the workshop are solicited in four different formats. This departure from the regular format is intended to promote greater contribution and cater to the needs of affordance communities from various disciplines such as Knowledge Representation, Psychology, Psychophysics, Neuroscience, Kinematics, Ontologies besides traditional audience such as from Cognitive/ Computer Vision and Robotics. - *Conceptual papers* (2 pages): Authors are invited to submit original ideas on approaches to address specific problems in the targeted areas of the workshop. While a clear presentation of the proposed approach and the expected results are essential, specifics of implementation and evaluations are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at exchange and evaluation of ideas prior to implementation/ experimental work as well as to open up collaboration avenues. - *Design papers* (6 pages): Authors submitting design papers are required to address key issues regarding the problem considered with detailed algorithms and preliminary or proof-of-concept results. Detailed evaluations and analyses are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at addressing late-breaking and work in progress results as well as fostering collaboration between research and engineering groups. - *Experimental papers* (6 pages): Experimental papers are required to present results of experiments and evaluation of previously published algorithms or design frameworks. Details of implementation and exhaustive test case analyses are key to this format. These papers are geared at benchmarking and standardizing previously known approaches. - *Full papers* (14 pages): Full papers must be self-inclusive contributions with a detailed treatment of the problem statement, related work, design methodology, algorithm, test-bed, evaluation, comparative analysis, results and future scope of work. Submission of original and unpublished work is highly encouraged. Since the goal of this workshop is to bring together the various affordance communities, extended versions/ summary reports of recent research published elsewhere, as adapted to the goals of the workshop, will also be accepted. These papers are required to clearly state the relevance to the workshop and the necessary adaptation. The program will be composed of oral as well as Pecha-Kucha style presentations. Each contribution will be reviewed by three reviewers through a single-blind review process. The paper formatting should follow the ECCV formatting guidelines (Templates: LaTeX ). All contributions are to be submitted via Microsoft Conference Management Tool in PDF. Please adhere to the following strict deadlines. In addition to direct acceptance, early submissions may be conditionally accepted, in which case submission of a revised version of the paper based on reviewer comments, prior to the late submission deadline is necessary. The final decision on acceptance of such conditionally accepted papers will be announced along with the decisions for the late submissions. Hence, while early submissions will have a better chance of acceptance than late submissions, submission to either (or both) rounds is equally encouraged. Also, note that the paper ID to be incorporated into the submission manuscript is available after performing an initial submission. If you still have issues finding your paper ID, it can be left blank for initial submissions, though it will be necessary to use the ID for the final ECCV version, OpenRsrch version, Springer version and ECCV attendance registration. *Important Dates* - Initial submissions (Late): 23:59:59 PDT July 07, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Late submissions): July 17, 2014 - Submission of publication-ready version: July 24, 2014 - Workshop date: September 7, 2014 *Organizers* Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan (varadarajan(at) acin.tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien Alireza Fathi (alireza(at)cs.stanford.edu), Stanford Juergen Gall (gall(at) iai.uni-bonn.de), Univ. Bonn Markus Vincze (vincze(at)tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien *Speakers and Participants* (To be updated) Fei-Fei Li (Affordances in Computer Vision), Stanford University, USA Abhinav Gupta (Affordances in Computer Vision), Carnegie Mellon University, USA Derek Hoiem (Affordance Semantics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Ashutosh Saxena (Affordances in Cognitive Robotics), Cornell University, USA Aaron Bobick (Affordances in Robotics), GeorgiaTech, USA *Program Committee* Irving Biederman (USC) Aude Oliva (MIT) Martha Teghtsoonian (Smith College) Barbara Caputo (Univ. of Rome, IDIAP) Song-Chun Zhu (UCLA) Antonis Argyros (FORTH) Tamim Asfour (KIT) Trevor Darrell (UC. Berkeley) Michael Beetz (TUM) Norbert Krueger (Univ. of Southern Denmark) Sven Dickinson (Univ. of Toronto) Erhan Oztop (Ozegin Univ.) Diane Pecher (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam) Jason Corso (UB New York) Juan Carlos Niebles (Universidad del Norte) Tamara Berg (UNC Chapel Hill) Moritz Tenorth (Univ. Bremen) Dejan Pangercic (Robert Bosch) Roozbeh Mottaghi (Stanford) Xiaofeng Ren (Amazon) David Fouhey (CMU) Tucker Hermans (Georgia Tech) Tian Lan (Stanford) Amir Roshan Zamir (UCF) Hamed Pirsiavash (MIT) Walterio Mayol-Cuevas (Univ. of Bristol) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karthikmaheshv at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 11:46:52 2014 From: karthikmaheshv at gmail.com (Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:46:52 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: [meetings] [ECCV2014] CfP: Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis (in conjunction with ECCV 2014) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ========================================================================== *Call for Papers- Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis* (in conjunction with ECCV 2014), September 7, 2014, Zurich, Switzerland http://affordances.info/workshops/ECCV.html ========================================================================== The workshop seeks to address key challenges in computer vision and applications such as robotics with regard to functional form descriptions, which are termed as "affordances". Based on the Gibsonian principle of defining objects by their function, "affordances" have been studied extensively by psychologists and visual perception researchers, resulting in the creation of numerous cognitive models. These models are being increasingly revisited and adapted by computer vision researchers to build visual perception and behavioral algorithms in recent years. This workshop attempts to explore this nascent, yet rapidly emerging field of affordance based cognitive vision (recognition of objects, activities, scenes etc.) while integrating the efforts and language of affordance communities not just in computer vision, but also psychophysics and neurobiology by creating an open affordance research forum, feature framework and ontology called AfNet (theaffordances.net). In particular, the workshop will focus on emerging trends in affordances and other human-centered function/action features that can be used to build computer vision algorithms leading to various intelligent applications. The workshop will also feature contributions from researchers involved in traditional theories to affordances, especially from the point of view of psychophysics and neuro-biology. Avenues to aiding research in these fields using techniques from computer vision and cognitive robotics will also be explored. Primary topics addressed by the workshop include the following among others - Affordances in visual perception models - Affordances as visual primitives, common coding features and symbolic cognitive systems - Affordances for object recognition, search, attention modulation, functional scene understanding and classification - Object functionality analysis - Affordances from appearance and touch based cues - Haptic adjectives - Functional-visual categories for transfer learning - Actions and functions in object perception - Human-object interactions and modeling - Motion-capture data analysis for object categorization - Affordances in human and robot grasping - Affordance learning - Affordance ontologies - Knowledge bases for affordances and affordance modeling Understanding various challenges in the field of affordances and building a common language and framework for communication across the varied affordance communities are the key goals of the proposed workshop. Through the course of the workshop, we also envisage the establishment of a working group for AfNet. *Paper Submissions* Paper contributions to the workshop are solicited in four different formats. This departure from the regular format is intended to promote greater contribution and cater to the needs of affordance communities from various disciplines such as Knowledge Representation, Psychology, Psychophysics, Neuroscience, Kinematics, Ontologies besides traditional audience such as from Cognitive/ Computer Vision and Robotics. - *Conceptual papers* (2 pages): Authors are invited to submit original ideas on approaches to address specific problems in the targeted areas of the workshop. While a clear presentation of the proposed approach and the expected results are essential, specifics of implementation and evaluations are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at exchange and evaluation of ideas prior to implementation/ experimental work as well as to open up collaboration avenues. - *Design papers* (6 pages): Authors submitting design papers are required to address key issues regarding the problem considered with detailed algorithms and preliminary or proof-of-concept results. Detailed evaluations and analyses are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at addressing late-breaking and work in progress results as well as fostering collaboration between research and engineering groups. - *Experimental papers* (6 pages): Experimental papers are required to present results of experiments and evaluation of previously published algorithms or design frameworks. Details of implementation and exhaustive test case analyses are key to this format. These papers are geared at benchmarking and standardizing previously known approaches. - *Full papers* (14 pages): Full papers must be self-inclusive contributions with a detailed treatment of the problem statement, related work, design methodology, algorithm, test-bed, evaluation, comparative analysis, results and future scope of work. Submission of original and unpublished work is highly encouraged. Since the goal of this workshop is to bring together the various affordance communities, extended versions/ summary reports of recent research published elsewhere, as adapted to the goals of the workshop, will also be accepted. These papers are required to clearly state the relevance to the workshop and the necessary adaptation. The program will be composed of oral as well as Pecha-Kucha style presentations. Each contribution will be reviewed by three reviewers through a single-blind review process. The paper formatting should follow the ECCV formatting guidelines (Templates: LaTeX ). All contributions are to be submitted via Microsoft Conference Management Tool in PDF. Please adhere to the following strict deadlines. In addition to direct acceptance, early submissions may be conditionally accepted, in which case submission of a revised version of the paper based on reviewer comments, prior to the late submission deadline is necessary. The final decision on acceptance of such conditionally accepted papers will be announced along with the decisions for the late submissions. Hence, while early submissions will have a better chance of acceptance than late submissions, submission to either (or both) rounds is equally encouraged. Also, note that the paper ID to be incorporated into the submission manuscript is available after performing an initial submission. If you still have issues finding your paper ID, it can be left blank for initial submissions, though it will be necessary to use the ID for the final ECCV version, OpenRsrch version, Springer version and ECCV attendance registration. *Important Dates* - Initial submissions (Late): 23:59:59 PDT July 07, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Late submissions): July 17, 2014 - Submission of publication-ready version: July 24, 2014 - Workshop date: September 7, 2014 *Organizers* Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan (varadarajan(at) acin.tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien Alireza Fathi (alireza(at)cs.stanford.edu), Stanford Juergen Gall (gall(at) iai.uni-bonn.de), Univ. Bonn Markus Vincze (vincze(at)tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien *Speakers and Participants* (To be updated) Fei-Fei Li (Affordances in Computer Vision), Stanford University, USA Abhinav Gupta (Affordances in Computer Vision), Carnegie Mellon University, USA Derek Hoiem (Affordance Semantics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Ashutosh Saxena (Affordances in Cognitive Robotics), Cornell University, USA Aaron Bobick (Affordances in Robotics), GeorgiaTech, USA *Program Committee* Irving Biederman (USC) Aude Oliva (MIT) Martha Teghtsoonian (Smith College) Barbara Caputo (Univ. of Rome, IDIAP) Song-Chun Zhu (UCLA) Antonis Argyros (FORTH) Tamim Asfour (KIT) Trevor Darrell (UC. Berkeley) Michael Beetz (TUM) Norbert Krueger (Univ. of Southern Denmark) Sven Dickinson (Univ. of Toronto) Erhan Oztop (Ozegin Univ.) Diane Pecher (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam) Jason Corso (UB New York) Juan Carlos Niebles (Universidad del Norte) Tamara Berg (UNC Chapel Hill) Moritz Tenorth (Univ. Bremen) Dejan Pangercic (Robert Bosch) Roozbeh Mottaghi (Stanford) Xiaofeng Ren (Amazon) David Fouhey (CMU) Tucker Hermans (Georgia Tech) Tian Lan (Stanford) Amir Roshan Zamir (UCF) Hamed Pirsiavash (MIT) Walterio Mayol-Cuevas (Univ. of Bristol) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From psajda at columbia.edu Thu Jun 26 12:02:26 2014 From: psajda at columbia.edu (Paul Sajda) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 12:02:26 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Positions in BCI for enabling shared human-machine autonomy Message-ID: The Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing (LIINC) at Columbia University has immediate openings for two Postdoctoral Research Scientists interested in investigating the use of brain computer interfaces (BCI) for enabling shared human-machine autonomy. This research effort is a joint project with the Army Research Lab (ARL) and will focus specifically on measuring cognitive state of individuals engaged in an image search task in cooperation with a semi-autonomous computer vision system. Successful applicants will have a background in machine learning, exemplar based computer vision systems and brain computer interfaces. An interest and/or background in building mobile systems, Android programming and experimenting with Google Glass is also a plus. A Ph.D. in Engineering, Computer Science or Neuroscience is preferred. One position will be full time at Columbia University and the other will be a shared position which will be half time at Columbia and half time at ARL/Aberdeen MD. The shared postdoctoral position requires US Citizenship. LIINC (liinc.bme.columbia.edu) is in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University and interacts closely with other departments at Columbia, including Electrical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Computer Science and Neuroscience. We are also a member lab of the newly formed Center for Neural Engineering and Computation (CNEC) at Columbia University (cnec.columbia.edu) as well as the Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering (idse.columbia.edu). Additionally, we are a member of the Cognition and Neuroergonomics Collaborative Technology Alliance (CaN CTA) which a collaborative research effort between the Army Research Labs, Academia and Industry. Postdoctoral Research Scientists will thus have the opportunity to broadly collaborate will other scientists in academia, industry and government, being part of one of the largest collaborative programs in real-world neuroimaging and brain computer interfaces. Interested candidates should send via email their CV, three representative papers, the names of three references, and cover letter to Prof. Paul Sajda (psajda at columbia.edu). Applications will be considered until the positions are filled. The position is for one year, with the option to renew for 2-3 years, given satisfactory performance and available funding. Paul Sajda, Ph.D. Professor Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Radiology Columbia University 351 Engineering Terrace Building, Mail Code 8904 1210 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027 tel: (212) 854-5279 fax: (212) 854-8725 email: ps629 at columbia.edu http://liinc.bme.columbia.edu Editor-in-Chief IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering email: editortnsre at gmail.com http://tnsre.bme.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weijima at nyu.edu Wed Jun 25 11:54:26 2014 From: weijima at nyu.edu (Weiji Ma) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:54:26 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position at NYU Message-ID: *Postdoc position: decision-making and learning in combinatorial games* Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in my laboratory in the Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology at New York University (www.cns.nyu.edu/malab). The position is for two years, with the possibility of extension. The long-range goal of the lab is to understand decision-making under uncertainty. The specific project is an NSF-funded one on how humans think ahead, decide, and learn in two-player, full-information games (such as chess, go, or tic-tac-toe). We will use human behavioral experiments, machine learning, eye tracking, and potentially fMRI to dissect the roles of heuristics, pruning strategy, and cognitive constraints in human play in a simplified, tractable game environment. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in machine learning, artificial intelligence, game theory, computational neuroscience, or mathematical, perceptual, or cognitive psychology, and be familiar with at least one other of these fields. Experience with probabilistic models is required. To apply, please send your CV, a description of why you are interested, and the contact information of two references to me at weijima at nyu.edu. Do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions about. Consideration of applications will begin immediately and will end when the position is filled. Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications. -- Wei Ji Ma, Ph.D. Associate Professor Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology New York University http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jxs at cs.umb.edu Thu Jun 26 16:55:09 2014 From: jxs at cs.umb.edu (Jun Suzuki) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:55:09 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: BICT 2014 Message-ID: <53AC88AD.2010608@cs.umb.edu> CFP: 8th International Conference on Bio-inspired Information and Communications Technologies (BICT 2014, formerly BIONETICS) http://www.bionetics.org/ December 1 (Mon) - December 3, 2014 (Wed) Boston, MA, USA In-corporation with ACM BICT 2014 aims to provide a world-leading and multidisciplinary venue for researchers and practitioners in diverse disciplines that seek the understanding of key principles, processes and mechanisms in biological systems and leverage those understandings to develop novel information and communications technologies (ICT). BICT 2014 targets two thrusts: THRUST 1: Indirect/Weak Bioinspiration (ICT designed after biological principles, processes and mechanisms). Examples include evolutionary computation, artificial gene regulatory networks, neural computation, swarm intelligence, cellular automata, artificial immune systems, artificial life, artificial chemistry, reaction-diffusion computing, simulated annealing, self-organization and network science. THRUST 2: Direct/Strong Bioinspiration (ICT utilizing biological materials and systems). Examples include cellular computing, molecular computing/communication, membrane computing, DNA computing and memory, bacterial computing, Physarum computing and quantum computing. Expected, but not exclusive, topics are: * Signal/information processing and communication for bio-inspired ICT * Algorithms and their applications for bio-inspired ICT * Formal models and methods for bio-inspired ICT * Bio-inspired software and hardware systems * Modeling, simulations and empirical experiments of bio-inspired ICT * Self-* and stability properties in bio-inspired ICT * Security, robustness and resilience in bio-inspired ICT * Design, configuration and management issues in bio-inspired ICT * Software engineering and performance engineering in bio-inspired ICT * Tools, testbeds and deployment aspects in bio-inspired ICT * Applications, experiences and standardization of bio-inspired ICT * Socially-aware, game theoretic and other metaphor-assisted interdisciplinary research Application domains include, but not limited to, autonomic computing, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, computer networks, computer vision, data mining, e-health, green computing and networking, grid/cloud computing, intelligent agents, mechanical engineering, molecular communication, nano-scale computing and networking, optimization, pervasive computing, robotics, security, social networks, software engineering and systems engineering. IMPORTANT DATES: Regular paper submission due: August 4 Short and poster/demo paper submission due: September 22 Notification for regular papers: September 15 Notification for short and poster/demo papers: October 6 Camera ready due: October 13 SPECIAL TRACKS: In addition to the regular track that covers general/mainstream topics, BICT 2014 features the following special tracks that focus on specific, emerging or underrepresented topics. * Artificial, Biological and Bio-Inspired Intelligence (ABBII) * Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering (AISE) * Body Area Soft Computing (BASC) * Biologically-Inspired Process Calculi (BIPC) * Bio-Inspired Machine Vision (BIMV) * Bio-inspired/Biomimetic Microsystems & Microdevices (BMM) * Bio-inspired Wireless Network Security (BWNS) * Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) * Engineering Applications from Molecular and Gene Regulatory Networks (EMNET) * Molecular Communication and Networking (MCN) * Morphogenetic Collective Systems (MCS) * Modularization for Practical Software Engineering (MPSE) * Resilient Networks (RN) * Swarm and Modular Robotics (SAMR) * Smart Body Area Networks (SBAN) * Security and Privacy in Bio-inspired Networks (SPBN) PAPER SUBMISSION: Authors are invited to submit regular papers (up to 8 pages each), short papers (up to 4 pages each) or poster/demo papers (up to 2 pages each) in ACM's paper template. Up to two extra pages are allowed for each paper with extra page charges. See http://bionetics.org/2014/show/initial-submission for more details. PUBLICATION: All accepted paper will be published through ACM Digital Library and submitted for indexing by SI, EI Compendex, Scopus, ACM Library, Google Scholar and many more. Selected papers will be considered for publication in leading journals including: * ACM/Springer Mobile Networks and Applications * Elsevier Information Sciences * Elsevier Nano Communication Networks Journal * Int'l Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering * Cloud-integrated Cyber-Physical Systems (Springer book) KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: * Andrew Adamatzky, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK * Gabriel Ciobanu, Romanian Academy, ICS, Iasi, Romania * Andrew Eckford, York University, Canada * Valeriy Perminov, BioTeckFarm, Ltd., Russia * Hiroki Sayama, SUNY Binghamton, USA * Theresa Schubert, Bauhaus-Universit?t Weimar, Germany * Jon Timmis, University of York, UK * Honggang Wang, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA * Justin Werfel, Harvard University, USA GENERAL CHAIR: Jun Suzuki, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA PC CHAIR: Tadashi Nakano, Osaka University, Japan PC VICE CHAIRS: Andrew Adamatzky, University of the West of England, UK Gabriel Ciobanu, Romanian Academy, Institute of Computer Science, Romania Douglas Dow, Wentworth Institute of Technology, USA Hiroaki Fukuda, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan Tyler Garaas, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, USA Preetam Ghosh, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA Isao Hayashi, Kansai University, Japan Yu-Hsiang Hsu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Saori Iwanaga, Japan Coast Guard Academy, Japan Masao Kubo, National Defense Academy, Japan Paul Leger, Universidad Cat?lica del Norte, Chile Shih-Hsi "Alex" Liu, California State University, Fresno, USA Michael L. Mayo, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, USA Parisa Memarmoshrefi, University of Goettingen, Germany Marjan Mernik, University of Maribor, Slovenia Alan Millard, University of York, UK Michael Moore, Marc Pomplun, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA Florian Raudies, Boston University, USA Hiroshi Sato, National Defense Academy, Japan Hiroki Sayama, SUNY Binghamton, USA Tomohiro Shirakawa, National Defense Academy of Japan, Japan Jon Timmis, University of York, UK Athanasios Vasilakos, University of Western Macedonia, Greece Honggang Wang, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA Jun Zhou, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China -- Jun Suzuki Associate Professor of Computer Science University of Massachusetts, Boston jxs at cs.umb.edu http://www.cs.umb.edu/~jxs/ http://dssg.cs.umb.edu/ @JunSuzukiBoston From mlsp at NEURO.KULEUVEN.BE Thu Jun 26 04:37:27 2014 From: mlsp at NEURO.KULEUVEN.BE (2014 IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning fo Signal Processing) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 10:37:27 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Call for participation: 6th World Congress AIAS, special session on Trends in Biomedical Signal Processing Message-ID: <53ABDBC7.3090707@neuro.kuleuven.be> ** Please accept our sincerest apologies if you receive multiple copies. ** ================================================================== 6th World Congress AIAS http://aias2014.conwiz.dk including special session "Trends in Biomedical Signal Processing" 23-25 October 2014, King Solomon Hotel, Jerusalem, Israel ================================================================== The Ararat International Academy of Sciences (AIAS) http://www.ararat-academy.org/ is proud to launch the call for participation in its 6th World Congress, a tradition that started in 1999 in Budapest (Hungary) under the auspices of UNESCO. The Congress boasts a balanced program of socio-cultural and scientific topics brought by speakers from around the globe. The organizers have compiled a scientific program that includes a special session on Trends in Biomedical Signal Processing with plenary sessions by Prof. Danilo Mandic (Imperial College, London, UK), Prof. Jose Principe (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA), and Prof. Pablo Estevez (Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile). Other speakers of the special session include (alphabetically): Prof. Andrzej Cichocki (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan) Dr. Jose Luis Sebastian Franco (Complutense University, Madrid, Spain) Prof. Lars K. Hansen (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark) Drs. Anna Ivanova (KU Leuven, Belgium) Prof. Shigeru Katagiri (Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan) Dr. Elvira Khachatryan (Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan, Armenia) Prof. Erkki Oja (Aalto University, Finland) Prof. Grigory Osipov (Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia) Prof. Bartolome Ribas-Ozona (Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain) Prof. Marc Van Hulle (KU Leuven, Belgium) Prior registration to the Congress is required. A limited number of rooms at a special rate have been reserved at the King Solomon Hotel for our congressists (deadline 5 August). After the Congress, a unique guided tour of Jerusalem and the Holy Land is foreseen (seperate payment). For the program and registration, please visit the website http://aias2014.conwiz.dk or contact the Organizing Committee ararat-academy at reso.net For local arrangements, please contact Mr. Thierry Nodarian tnodys at gmail.com From fjaekel at uos.de Fri Jun 27 03:35:07 2014 From: fjaekel at uos.de (Frank =?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=E4kel?=) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:35:07 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Special Issue on Quantitative Approaches in Gestalt Perception Message-ID: <1403854507.8162.15.camel@birke.ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de> Vision Research will publish a special issue on "Quantitative Approaches in Gestalt Perception". Submissions are already possible. The deadline for manuscript submission is November 30. ----- Gestalt Perception has been the topic of research for more than 100 years since Wertheimer?s seminal publication in 1912. Recently, quantitative approaches to study Gestalt phenomena helped to specify and clarify some of the early Gestalt notions, generating testable quantitative predictions lacking from much of the original Gestalt writings. This special issue aims to bring together the many diverse quantitative approaches to the study of Gestalt Perception. Contributions are sought from visual psychophysics, computer vision, cognitive psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, computational neuroscience as well as machine learning and theory. Papers are invited on all aspects of Gestalt Perception; given the aim of this Special Issue we have a preference for quantitative approaches, but may exceptionally consider purely experimental work as well as historical treatments and reviews if they specifically provide groundwork for future formal developments. Examples of specific topics include (but are not limited to): Attention and Top-Down Effects on Gestalt Perception Configural Superiority Environmental and Image Statistics and Gestalts Figure-Ground Segmentation History and Review of Gestalt Perception Learning and Development of Gestalt Perception Models of Gestalt Phenomena Neuronal Basis of Gestalt Effects Object Formation Object Recognition and Gestalt Perceptual Grouping Perceptual Organization of Motion, Form or Scenes Shape Perception Structural Representations To prepare their manuscript, authors are asked to follow the ?Guide for Authors?. All papers should be submitted via the EES online system http://ees.elsevier.com/vr/default.asp Select the Article Type as ?SI: Gestalt Perception? in the submission process. Publication Schedule EES open for manuscript submissions: June 1 - November 30, 2014 Expected publication date: July 2015 Special Issue Guest Editors Michael Herzog, Frank J?kel, Manish Singh, Felix Wichmann ----- http://www.journals.elsevier.com/vision-research/call-for-papers/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 6293 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kerstin at nld.ds.mpg.de Fri Jun 27 06:42:33 2014 From: kerstin at nld.ds.mpg.de (Kerstin Mosch) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 12:42:33 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Bernstein Conference 2014 - Early registration ends July 7 In-Reply-To: <53AC30BE.3070508@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> References: <53AC30BE.3070508@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Message-ID: <53AD4A99.90403@nld.ds.mpg.de> *BERNSTEIN CONFERENCE 2014 in G?ttingen* Reminder: Early registration deadline: *July 7, 2014* Please register here . We encourage timely booking of accommodation. A list of hotels can be found here . **************************************************************************** Satellite Workshops September 02-03, 2014 Main Conference September 03-05, 2014 **************************************************************************** The Bernstein Conference has become the largest annual Computational Neuroscience Conference in Europe and now regularly attracts more than 500 international participants. This year, the Conference is organized by the Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Goettingen and will take place September 03-05, 2014. In addition, there will be a series of pre-conference satellite workshops on September 02-03, 2014. The Bernstein Conference is a single-track conference, covering all aspects of Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, and sessions for poster presentations are an integral part of the conference. The Bernstein conference will also feature a series of satellite workshops on September 02-03, 2014. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of timely research questions and challenges. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://www.bernstein-conference.de CONFERENCE DATE AND VENUE: Satellite Workshops September 02-03, 2014 Main Conference September 03-05, 2014 Venue: Central Lecture Hall (ZHG), Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073 G?ttingen, Germany PUBLIC PHD STUDENT EVENT: September 02, 2014 PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Ilka Diester, Daniel Durstewitz, Thomas Euler, Alexander Gail, Matthias Kaschube, Jason Kerr, Roland Schaette, Fred Wolf, Florentin W?rg?tter, ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Florentin W?rg?tter, Kerstin Mosch, Yvonne Reimann Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS): Andrea Huber Broesamle, Mareike Kardinal, Kerstin Schwarzwaelder We look forward to seeing you in Goettingen in September! -- Dr. Kerstin Mosch Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Goettingen Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology (BFNT) Goettingen Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Am Fassberg 17 D-37077 Goettingen Germany T: +49 (0) 551 5176 - 425 E:kerstin at nld.ds.mpg.de I:www.bccn-goettingen.de I:www.bfnt-goettingen.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From stefano.panzeri at gmail.com Fri Jun 27 15:26:39 2014 From: stefano.panzeri at gmail.com (Stefano Panzeri) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 21:26:39 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: New Postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience at IIT - Laboratory of Neural Computation, Rovereto, Italy Message-ID: Dear all I have the opportunity to open a new postdoctoral position in my laboratory (The ?Neural Computation? laboratory) at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems in Trento (Italy). The postdoc will work to develop a set of novel information theoretic algorithms for the analysis of simultaneous recordings from large populations of retinal ganglion cells under dynamic natural visual stimulation. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the laboratory of Prof Tim Gollisch (University of Gottingen). Interested applicants should contact Stefano Panzeri ( stefano.panzeri @iit.it ) by email, emailing their CV with the inquiry. The position can be opened very rapidly. Therefore interested candidates are warmly suggested to inquire as soon as possible. For recent reviews about the work carried out by the laboratory of Neural Computation, prospective applicants are invited to consult the following articles: G.T. Einevoll, C. Kayser, N.K. Logothetis and S. Panzeri (2013) Modelling and analysis of local field potential for studying the function of cortical circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14:770-785; Panzeri S, Brunel N, Logothetis NK, Kayser C (2010) Neural codes at multiple temporal scales in sensory cortex.Trends in Neuroscience 33: 111-120 Quian Quiroga R, Panzeri S (2009) Extracting information from neuronal populations: information theory and decoding approaches. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10: 173-185. Regards Stefano Panzeri -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cookie at ucsd.edu Fri Jun 27 15:34:24 2014 From: cookie at ucsd.edu (Santamaria, Cookie) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 19:34:24 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE Message-ID: POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE The BioCircuits Institute (BCI) and Departments of Physics, Chemistry/Biochemistry, Bioengineering, and Psychology and Neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego invite applications for a postdoctoral position in systems neuroscience, for experiments leading to the neuromorphic engineering of cognitive abilities. The ideal candidate will have experience with in vivo electrophysiology, in awake behaving animals, and desire to apply biologically inspired algorithms to VLSI circuits and systems. Close interaction with other project researchers in computational and theoretical neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems, and neuromorphic engineering is involved. We will accept applications immediately and will begin making selections on 1 September 2014, until the position is filled. Appointments are for two years (in one-year increments) with the possibility of a third. Send your statement of qualifications and interest with curriculum vitae, your two most significant publications and three letters of reference to Tim Gentner, Henry Abarbanel, Gert Cauwenberghs, Katja Lindenberg, Mikhail Rabinovich, and Terrence Sejnowski via email to: postdoc.muri[at]gmail.com. A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree is required prior to the appointment. UCSD is an EO/AA employer. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Jun 28 10:42:14 2014 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:42:14 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: SSTiC 2014: last-minute half-price registration Message-ID: *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* ********************************************************************* 2014 TARRAGONA INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON TRENDS IN COMPUTING SSTiC 2014 Tarragona, Spain July 7-11, 2014 Organized by Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/sstic2014/ ********************************************************************* --- Last-minute registration at half price! --- ********************************************************************* AIM: SSTiC 2014 is the second edition in a series started in 2013. For the previous event, see http://grammars.grlmc.com/SSTiC2013/ SSTiC 2014 will be a research training event mainly addressed to PhD students and PhD holders in the first steps of their academic career. It intends to update them about the most recent developments in the diverse branches of computer science and its neighbouring areas. To that purpose, renowned scholars will lecture and will be available for interaction with the audience. SSTiC 2014 will cover the whole spectrum of computer science through 6 keynote lectures and 21 six-hour courses dealing with some of the most lively topics in the field. The organizers share the idea that outstanding speakers will really attract the brightest students. ADDRESSED TO: Graduate students from around the world. There are no formal pre-requisites in terms of the academic degree the attendee must hold. However, since there will be several levels among the courses, reference may be made to specific knowledge background in the description of some of them. SSTiC 2014 is also appropriate for more senior people who want to keep themselves updated on developments in their own field or in other branches of computer science. They will surely find it fruitful to listen and discuss with scholars who are main references in computing nowadays. REGIME: In addition to keynotes, 3 parallel sessions will be held during the whole event. Participants will be able to freely choose the courses they will be willing to attend as well as to move from one to another. VENUE: SSTiC 2014 will take place in Tarragona, located 90 kms. to the south of Barcelona. The venue will be: Campus Catalunya Universitat Rovira i Virgili Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Larry S. Davis (U Maryland, College Park), A Historical Perspective of Computer Vision Models for Object Recognition and Scene Analysis David S. Johnson (Columbia U, New York), Open and Closed Problems in NP-Completeness George Karypis (U Minnesota, Twin Cities), Top-N Recommender Systems: Revisiting Item Neighborhood Methods Steffen Staab (U Koblenz), Explicit and Implicit Semantics: Two Sides of One Coin Philip Wadler (U Edinburgh), You and Your Research and The Elements of Style Ronald R. Yager (Iona C, New Rochelle), Social Modeling COURSES AND PROFESSORS: Divyakant Agrawal (Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha), [intermediate] Scalable Data Management in Enterprise and Cloud Computing Infrastructures Pierre Baldi (U California, Irvine), [intermediate] Big Data Informatics Challenges and Opportunities in the Life Sciences Rajkumar Buyya (U Melbourne), [intermediate] Cloud Computing John M. Carroll (Pennsylvania State U, University Park), [introductory] Usability Engineering and Scenario-based Design Kwang-Ting (Tim) Cheng (U California, Santa Barbara), [introductory/intermediate] Smartphones: Hardware Platform, Software Development, and Emerging Apps Amr El Abbadi (U California, Santa Barbara), [introductory] The Distributed Foundations of Data Management in the Cloud Richard M. Fujimoto (Georgia Tech, Atlanta), [introductory] Parallel and Distributed Simulation Mark Guzdial (Georgia Tech, Atlanta), [introductory] Computing Education Research: What We Know about Learning and Teaching Computer Science David S. Johnson (Columbia U, New York), [introductory] The Traveling Salesman Problem in Theory and Practice George Karypis (U Minnesota, Twin Cities), [intermediate] Programming Models/Frameworks for Parallel & Distributed Computing Aggelos K. Katsaggelos (Northwestern U, Evanston), [intermediate] Optimization Techniques for Sparse/Low-rank Recovery Problems in Image Processing and Machine Learning Arie E. Kaufman (U Stony Brook), [intermediate/advanced] Visualization Carl Lagoze (U Michigan, Ann Arbor), [introductory] Curation of Big Data Dinesh Manocha (U North Carolina, Chapel Hill), [introductory/intermediate] Robot Motion Planning Bijan Parsia (U Manchester), [introductory] The Empirical Mindset in Computer Science Robert Sargent (Syracuse U), [introductory] Validation of Models Steffen Staab (U Koblenz), [intermediate] Programming the Semantic Web Mike Thelwall (U Wolverhampton), [introductory] Sentiment Strength Detection for Twitter and the Social Web Jeffrey D. Ullman (Stanford U), [introductory] MapReduce Algorithms Nitin Vaidya (U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), [introductory/intermediate] Distributed Consensus: Theory and Applications Philip Wadler (U Edinburgh), [intermediate] Topics in Lambda Calculus and Life ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Adrian Horia Dediu (Tarragona) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (Tarragona, chair) Florentina Lilica Voicu (Tarragona) REGISTRATION: It has to be done at http://grammars.grlmc.com/sstic2014/registration.php The selection of up to 8 courses requested in the registration template is only tentative and non-binding. For the sake of organization, it will be helpful to have an approximation of the respective demand for each course. Since the capacity of the venue is limited, registration requests will be processed on a first come first served basis. The registration period will be closed when the capacity of the venue will be complete. It is very convenient to register prior to the event. DEADLINES AND FEES: As far as possible, participants are expected to attend for the whole (or most of the) week (full-time). Fees are a flat rate allowing one to participate to all courses. They vary depending on the registration deadline: Last-minute registration: July 5, 2014 --- 250 Euro On-site registration: July 11, 2014 --- 530 Euro ACCOMMODATION: Information about accommodation is available on the website of the School. CERTIFICATE: Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance. QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: florentinalilica.voicu at urv.cat POSTAL ADDRESS: SSTiC 2014 Lilica Voicu Rovira i Virgili University Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona, Spain Phone: +34 977 559 543 Fax: +34 977 558 386 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Universitat Rovira i Virgili --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From jason.sherwin at columbia.edu Mon Jun 30 16:18:41 2014 From: jason.sherwin at columbia.edu (Jason Sherwin) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:18:41 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Real-world unisensory and multisensory processing: Abstract Deadline Extension Message-ID: <5D1C6602-9738-4652-A2A8-FFFF54D6CD34@columbia.edu> Dear Colleagues, We have received requests to extend the abstract submission deadline and so we have done so until July 25, 2014. Previously sent out details of the Call for Participation are below: In collaboration with Frontiers in Psychology, section Perception Science, we are organizing a Research Topic titled "Real-world unisensory and multisensory processing: Perceptual and neural mechanisms in complex natural scene processing?, hosted by Jason Sherwin, Jeremy Gaston, Kelvin Oie. As host editor, I would like to encourage you to contribute to this topic. Frontiers, a Swiss open-access publisher, recently partnered with Nature Publishing Group to expand its researcher-driven Open Science platform. Frontiers articles are rigorously peer-reviewed, can be disseminated freely and are widely read by your colleagues and by the broader scientific and medical research communities. The idea behind a research topic is to create an organized, comprehensive collection of several contributions, as well as a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be articles describing original research, methods, hypothesis & theory, opinions, etc. We have created a homepage on the Frontiers website (Frontiers in Psychology, section Perception Science) where all articles will appear after peer-review and where participants in the topic will be able to hold relevant discussions: http://www.frontiersin.org/Perception_Science/researchtopics/Real-world_unisensory_and_mult/2911. Frontiers will also compile an e-book, as soon as all contributing articles are published, that can be used in classes, be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, or to any number of other organizations. Among others, we have contacted the following authors: Bruno Lucio Giordano David C Jangraw : author Edward A Vessel : author Daniel P Ferris : author Bill Geisler Peter Gerhardstein Giulio Tononi : author Uri Hasson : author Jacek Dmochowski : author Joel Snyder Jordan Muraskin : author Tzyy-Ping Jung : author Klaus Gramman : author Linbi Hong : author Andreas Lozano : author As such, a manuscript accepted for publication incurs a publishing fee, which varies depending on the article type. Research Topic manuscripts receive a significant discount on publishing fees. Please take a look at this fee table: http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. Once published, your articles will remain free to access for all readers, and will be indexed in PubMed and other academic archives. As an author in Frontiers, you retain the copyright to your own papers and figures. I would be delighted if you considered participating in this Research Topic. Should you choose to participate, please confirm by sending me a quick email and then your abstract no later than July 25, 2014 using the following link: http://www.frontiersin.org/submissioninfo Please note that the deadline for manuscript submission is on: Dec 19, 2014 Since I am using the Frontiers system to manage this topic, I would really appreciate if you could also please indicate your decision by clicking on one of the links below. AGREE to Participate http://www.frontiersin.org/AcceptContributor.aspx?activationkey=8c7388de-dd75-46cd-b6fe-3e3ba358e9cc DECLINE to Participate http://www.frontiersin.org/DeclineContributor.aspx?activationkey=8c7388de-dd75-46cd-b6fe-3e3ba358e9cc With best regards, Jason Sherwin, Ph.D. Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Perception Science www.frontiersin.org U.S. Army Research Laboratory Post-Doctoral Fellow Post-Doctoral Research Scientist Columbia University Department of Biomedical Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing 530 West 120th Street, Mail Code: 8904 New York, NY 10027 Phone: +1 - 212 - 854 - 8997 Email: jason.sherwin at columbia.edu Managing Editor, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering Email: managertnsre at gmail.com http://tnsre.bme.columbia.edu Email: managertnsre at gmail.com http://tnsre.bme.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: