Student Conference Sponsorships

[Student Society Account]

---- THIS NOTE CONTAINS MATERIAL OF INTEREST TO ALL STUDENTS ----
	          (and some non-students)

This message is a brief update of the International Student Society
for Neural Networks (ISSNNet), and also an ANNOUNCEMENT OF AVAILABLE
STUDENT SPONSORSHIP AT UPCOMING NNets CONFERENCES.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE TO ISSNNet MEMBERS: If you have joined the society but did not
receive our second newsletter, or have not heard from us in the recent
past, please send e-mail to <issnnet at park.bu.edu>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) We had a problem with our Post Office Box (in the USA), which was
inadvertently shut down for about one month between Christmas and the
end of January. If you sent us surface mail which was returned to you,
please send it again. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

2) We are about to distribute the third newsletter. This is a special
issue that includes our bylaws, a description of the various officer
positions, and a call for nominations for upcoming elections. In
addition, a complete membership list will be included. ISSNNet
MEMBERS: If you have not sent us a note about your interests in NNets,
you must do so by about the end of next week to insure it appears in
the membership list.  Also, all governors should send us a list of
their members if they have not done so already.

3) STUDENT SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE: We have been in contact with the
IEEE Neural Networks Council. We donated $500 (about half of our
savings to this point) to pay the registration for students who are
presenting articles (posters or oral presentations) at the Helsinki
(ICANN), Seattle (IJCNN), or Singapore (IJCNN) conferences. The IEEE
Neural Networks Council has augmented our donation with an additional
$5,000 to be distributed between the two IJCNN conferences, and we are
currently in contact with the International Neural Networks Society
(INNS) regarding a similar donation.  We are hoping to pay for
registration and proceedings for an approximately equal number of
students at each of the three conferences. Depending on other
donations and on how many people are eligible, only a limited number
of sponsorships may be available.

The details of eligibility will be officially published in our next
newsletter and on other mailing lists, but generally you will need to
be the person presenting the paper (if co-authored), and you must
receive only partial or no support from your department. Forms will be
included with the IJCNN paper acceptance notifications. It is not
necessary to be a member of any of these societies, although we hope
this will encourage future student support and increased society
membership.

IF YOU HAVE SUBMITTED A PAPER TO ONE OF THE IJCNN CONFERENCES, YOU
WILL RECEIVE DETAILS WITH YOUR NOTIFICATION FROM IJCNN. Details on the
ICANN conference will be made available in the near future. For other
questions send us some e-mail <issnnet at park.bu.edu>.

	ISSNNet, Inc.
	PO Box 557, New Town Branch
	Boston, MA 02258 

Sponsors will be officially recognized in our future newsletters, and
will be mentioned by the sponsored student during the presentations
and posters.

6) We are considering the possibility of including abstracts from
papers written by ISSNNet members in future newsletters. Depending on
how many ISSNNet papers are accepted at the three conferences, we may
be able to publish the abstracts in the fourth newsletter, which
should come out before the ICANN conference. This would give the
presenters some additional publicity, and would give ISSNNet members a
sneak preview of what other people are doing.

MORE DETAIL ON THESE TOPICS WILL BE INCLUDED IN OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER,
WHICH WE EXPECT TO PUBLISH AROUND THE END OF THIS MONTH.

For more details on ISSNNet, or to receive a sample newsletter, send
e-mail to <issnnet at park.bu.edu>. You need not be a student to become a
member!