Telluride DEADLINE April 24

[Terry Sejnowski]

        FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN  A WORKSHOP ON 
                "NEUROMORPHIC  ENGINEERING"
                  JUNE 25 - JULY 8, 1995
                   TELLURIDE, COLORADO

          DEADLINE for application is April 24, 1995.

Christof Koch (Caltech) and Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute/UCSD)
invite applications for one two-week workshop that will be held in 
Telluride, Colorado in 1995. 

The first Telluride Workshop on Neuromorphic Engineering was held in
July, 1994 and was sponsored by the NSF.  A summary of the 94  workshop
and a list of participants is available over MOSAIC:

http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~timmer/telluride.html   OR
http://www.salk.edu/~bryan/telluride.html

GOALS:

Carver  Mead introduced the  term "Neuromorphic Engineering" for a new
discipline based on the design  and fabrication  of  artificial neural
systems, such as vision systems, head-eye  systems, and roving robots,
whose architecture and   design principles  are   based on  those   of
biological nervous  systems. The  goal of  this  workshop is to  bring
together young  investigators  and more established   researchers from
academia   with   their   counterparts   in  industry    and  national
laboratories,  working on both neurobiological  as well as engineering
aspects of sensory systems and sensory-motor integration. The focus of
the workshop will  be  on ``active" participation, with  demonstration
systems and hands-on-experience for all participants.

Neuromorphic engineering   has  a  wide  range  of   applications from
nonlinear  adaptive control of complex  systems to the design of smart
sensors. Many of the fundamental principles in this field, such as the
use   of learning methods  and the   design  of parallel hardware, are
inspired  by biological  systems.  However,  existing applications are
modest and  the challenge of scaling up   from small artificial neural
networks and   designing completely autonomous   systems at the levels
achieved by biological systems lies  ahead. The assumption  underlying
this two  week workshop is  that the  next  generation of neuromorphic
systems would  benefit from closer attention  to the  principles found
through experimental and theoretical studies of brain systems.

The focus of   the first week  is  on  exploring neuromorphic  systems
through  the  medium of analog  VLSI  and will be organized  by Rodney
Douglas  (Oxford) and Misha  Mahowald  (Oxford).  Sessions will  cover
methods for the   design and  fabrication of multi-chip   neuromorphic
systems.  This framework is  suitable  both  for  creating  analogs of
specific biological systems, which can serve as a modeling environment
for biologists,  and as  a  tool for engineers  to create  cooperative
circuits  based on  biological principles.  The  workshop will provide
the    community   with a   common    formal  language  for describing
neuromorphic systems.

Equipment will  be  available for  participants  to  evaluate existing
neuromorphic  chips   (including  silicon   retina,  silicon  neurons,
oculomotor system).

The  second  week  of  the  course    will  be on  vision   and  human
sensory-motor  coordination and will be  organized by Dana Ballard and
Mary Hayhoe (Rochester).  Sessions will cover issues of  sensory-motor
integration in the mammalian brain. Special emphasis will be placed on
understanding neural  algorithms used by  the brain which  can provide
insights into  constructing  electrical circuits which  can accomplish
similar tasks.  Issues to be covered will include spatial localization
and constancy, attention, motor planning,  eye movements, and the  use
of visual motion   information for motor control.    These researchers
will  also be  asked  to bring  their  own demonstrations,   classroom
experiments, and software for computer models.

Demonstrations   will   include a robot   head   active  vision system
consisting of a three  degree-of-freedom binocular camera  system that
is  fully programmable.  The   vision system  us  based on  a DataCube
videopipe which in turn provides drive signals to  the three motors of
the head.

FORMAT:

Time will be divided between   lectures, practical labs, and  interest
group meetings. There will be three lectures in the morning that cover
issues that are  important to the community  in  general.  In general,
one  lecture  will be neurobiological, one   computational, and one on
analog VLSI.   Because of the  diverse range  of backgrounds among the
participants, the majority of these lectures will be tutorials, rather
than detailed  reports of  current  research.  These  lectures will be
given  by invited speakers.  Participants will  be free to explore and
play with  whatever  they choose  in the  afternoon. Participants  are
encouraged to  bring their own material to  share with  others.  After
dinner,  participants  will  get  together  more  informally  to  hear
lectures and demonstrations.

LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:

The  workshop  will take   place  at  the  "Telluride Summer  Research
Center,"  located in the small  town of Telluride,  9000  feet high in
Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours  away from Denver  (350 miles) and 4
hours  from Aspen. Continental and United  Airlines provide many daily
flights directly into Telluride. Participants will be housed in shared
condominiums,  within walking  distance of  the  Center. Bring  hiking
boots  and a   backpack, since  Telluride is  surrounded  by beautiful
mountains.

The   workshop     is     intended   to   be    very   informal    and
hands-on. Participants  are   not   required  to have    had  previous
experience in analog   VLSI circuit design,  computational or  machine
vision, systems  level neurophysiology or  modeling  the brain at  the
systems level. However, we strongly  encourage active researchers with
relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories
to apply, in particular if they are prepared to  talk about their work
or to   bring   demonstrators   to Telluride  (e.g.   robots,   chips,
software).

Internet access will be provided.   Technical staff present throughout
the workshops will assist with software and hardware problems. We will
have a   network of  SUN  workstations running   UNIX and PCs  running
windows and LINUX.

Up to  $500 will be  reimbursed  for domestic  travel and all  housing
expenses will be  provided. Participants are expected  to pay for food
and incidental expenses  and are expected to  stay for the duration of
this two week workshop. A  limited  number   of  travel  awards   will
be available for international travel.

PARTIAL LIST OF INVITED LECTURERS:

Richard Anderson, Caltech.
Chris Atkeson, Georgia Tech.
Dana Ballard, Rochester.
Kwabena Boahen, Caltech.
Avis Cohen, Maryland.
Tobi Delbruck, Arithmos, Palo Alto.
Steve DeWeerth, Georgia Tech.
Steve Deiss, Applied NeuroDynamics, San Diego.
Chris Dioro, Caltech.
Rodney Douglas, Oxford and Zurich. 
John Elias, Delaware University.
Mary Hayhoe, Rochester.
Christof Koch, Caltech. 
Shih-Chii Liu, Caltech  and Rockwell.
Jack Loomis, UC Santa Barbara.
Jonathan Mills, Indiana University.
Misha Mahowald, Oxford and Zurich. 
Mark Tilden, Los Alamos: Multi-legged Robots.
Terry Sejnowski, Salk Institute and UCSan Diego. 
Mona Zaghoul, George Washington University.

HOW TO APPLY:

The deadline for receipt of applications is April 24, 1995

Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. post-
doctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent
positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage
qualified women and minority candidates to apply.

Application should include:

1. Name, address, telephone, e-mail, FAX, and minority status (optional).
2. Curriculum Vitae.
3. One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop.
4. Description of special equipment needed for demonstrations that could be 
     brought to the workshop. 
5. Two letters of recommendation

Complete applications should be sent to:

Prof. Terrence Sejnowski
The Salk Institute
10010 North Torrey Pines Road
San Diego, CA  92037

email: terry at salk.edu

FAX:  (619) 587 0417

Applicants will be notified druign the week of May 7, 1995.

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