IWANN'97 preliminary announce

[JOAN CABESTANY]

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                  Preliminary Announcement and First Call for Papers

                                              IWANN'97

                         INTERNATIONAL WORK-CONFERENCE
                                                   ON
                  ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL NEURAL NETWORKS

      Biological and Artificial Architectures, Technologies and
Applications

                            Lanzarote - Canary Islands, Spain
                                         June 4-6, 1997

Contact URL http://petrus.upc.es/iwann97.html for an on line
information.

ORGANIZED BY
Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), Madrid
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canarias 
Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya
Universidad de Malaga
Universidad de Granada



IWANN'97. The fourth International Workshop on Artificial Neural
Networks, now changed to International Work-Conference on Artificial and
Natural Neural Networks, will take place in Lanzarote, Canary Islands
(Spain) from 4 to 6 of June, 1997. This biennial meeting with focus on
biologically inspired and more realistic models of natural neurons and
neural nets and new hybrid computing paradigms, was first held in
Granada (1991), Sitges (1993) and Torremolinos, Malaga (1995) with a
growing number of participants from more than 20 countries and with high
quality papers published by Springer-Verlag (LNCS 540, 686 and 930).

SCOPE
Neural computation is considered here in the dual perspective of
analysis (as science) and synthesis (as engineering). As a science of
analysis, neural computation seeks to help neurology, brain theory, and
cognitive psychology in the understanding of the functioning of the
Nervous Systems by means of computational models of neurons, neural nets
and subcelular processes, with the possibility of using electronics and
computers as a "laboratory" in which cognitive processes can be
simulated and hypothesis proven without having to act directly upon
living beings.
As a synthesis engineering, neural computation seeks to complement the
symbolic perspective of Artificial Intelligence (AI), using the
biologically inspired models of distributed, self-programming and
self-organizing networks, to solve those non-algorithmic problems of
function approximation and pattern classification having to do with
changing and only partially known environments. Fault tolerance and
dynamic reconfiguration are other basic advantages of neural nets.
In the sea of meetings, congresses and workshops on ANN's, IWANN'97
focus on the three subjects that most worry us:
(1)	The seeking of biologically inspired new models of local computation
architectures and learning along with the organizational principles
behind of the complexity of intelligent behavior.
(2)	The searching for some methodological contributions in the analysis
and design of knowledge-based ANN's, instead of "blind nets", and in the
reduction of the knowledge level to the sub-symbolic implementation
level.
(3)	The cooperation with symbolic AI, with the integration of
connectionist and symbolic processing in hybrid and multi-strategy
approaches for perception, decision and control tasks, as well as for
case-based reasoning, concepts formation and learning.
To contribute in the posing and partially solving of these global
topics, IWANN'97 offer a brain-storming interdisciplinary forum in
advanced Neural Computation for scientists and engineers from biology
neuroanatomy, computational neurophysiology, molecular biology,
biophysics, linguistics, psychology, mathematics and physics, computer
science, artificial intelligence, parallel computing, analog and digital
electronics, advanced computer architectures, reverse engineering,
cognitive sciences and all the concerned applied domains (sensory
systems and signal processing, monitoring, diagnosis, classification and
decision making, intelligent control and supervision, perceptual
robotics and communication systems).
Contributions on the following and related topics are welcome.

TOPICS
1.	Biological  Foundations of Neural Computation: Principles of brain
organization. Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiological of synapses,
dendro-dendritic contacts, neurons and neural nets in peripheral and
central areas. Plasticity, learning and memory in natural neural nets.
Models of development and evolution. The computational perspective in
Neuroscience.
2.	Formal Tools and Computational Models of Neurons and Neural Nets
Architectures: Analytic and logic models. Object oriented formulations.
Hybrid knowledge representation and inference tools (rules and frames
with analytic slots). Probabilistic, bayesian and fuzzy models. Energy
related models.
3.	Plasticity Phenomena (Maturing, Learning and Memory): Biological
mechanisms of learning and memory. Computational formulations using
correlational, reinforcement and minimization strategies. Conditioned
reflex and associative mechanisms. Inductive-deductive and abductive
symbolic-subsymbolic formulations. Generalization.
4.	Complex Systems Dynamics: Self-organization, cooperative processes,
autopoiesis, emergent computation, synergetic, evolutive optimization
and genetic algorithms. Self-reproducing nets. Self-organizing feature
maps. Simulated evolution. Social organization phenomena.
5.	Cognitive Science and IA: Hybrid knowledge based system. Neural
networks for knowledge modeling, acquisition and refinement. Natural
language understanding. Concepts formation. Spatial and temporal
planning and scheduling. Intentionality.
6.	Neural Nets Simulation, Emulation and Implementation: Environments
and languages. Parallelization, modularity and autonomy. New hardware
implementation strategies (FPGA's, VLSI, neurodevices). Evolutive
architectures. Real systems validation and evaluation.
7.	Methodology for Data Analysis, Task Selection and Nets Design.
8.	Neural Networks for Perception: Biologically inspired preprocessing.
Low level processing, source separation, sensor fusion, segmentation,
feature extraction, adaptive filtering, noise reduction, texture, stereo
correspondence, motion analysis, speech recognition, artificial vision,
and hybrid architectures for multisensorial perception.
9.	Neural Networks for Communications Systems: Modems and codecs,
network management, digital communications.
10. 	Neural Networks for Control and Robotics: Systems identification,
motion planning and control, adaptive, predictive and model-based
control systems, navigation, real time applications, visuo-motor
coordination.


LOCATION
BEATRIZ Hotel
Lanzarote - Canary Islands, June 4-6, 1997
Lanzarote, the most northerly and easterly island of the Canarian
archipelago, is at the same time the most unusual one and produces a
strange fascination on those who visit it because the fast succession of
fire, sea and colors contrasts with craters, green valleys and
unforgettable golden and warm beaches.

LANGUAGE
English will be the official language of IWANN'97. Simultaneous
translation will not be provided.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Programme Committee seeks for original papers on the above mentioned
Topics. Authors should pay special attention to explanation of
theoretical and technical choices involved, point out possible
limitations and describe the current state of their work. 
All received papers will be reviewed by the Programme Committee.
Accepted papers may be presented orally or as poster panels, however all
accepted contributions will be published in full length (Springer-Verlag
Proceedings are expected).

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
Five copies (one original and four copies) of the paper must be
submitted. The paper must not exceed 10 pages, including figures, tables
and references. It should be written in English on A4 paper, in a Roman
font, 12 point in size, without page numbers. If possible, please make
use of the latex/plaintex style file available in the WWW page:
http://petrus.upc.es/iwann97.html . In addition, one sheet must be
attached including: Title and authors names, list of five keywords, the
Topic the paper fits best, preferred presentation (oral or poster) and
the corresponding author (name, postal and e-mail address, phone and fax
numbers).

CONTRIBUTIONS MUST BE SENT TO:
Prof. Jose Mira
Dpto. Informatica y Automatica, UNED
Senda del Rey, s/n					Phone: + 34 1 3987155
E- 28040 MADRID, Spain				Fax: + 34 1 3986697

IMPORTANT DATES
Second and Final Call for Papers				September 1996
Final Date for Submission				January 15, 1997
Notification of Acceptance				March 1997
Workshop						June 4-6, 1997

	STEARING COMMITTEE

Prof. Joan Cabestany , Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya (E)
Prof. Jose Mira Mira, UNED (E)
Prof. Alberto Prieto, Universidad de Granada (E)
Prof. Francisco Sandoval, Universidad de Malaga (E)


	TENTATIVE ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

Michael Arbit, University of Southern California (USA)
Senen Barro, Universidad de Santiago (E)
Trevor Clarkson, King's College London (UK)
Ana Delgado, UNED (E)
Dante DelCorso, Politecnico de Torino (I)
Tamas D. Gedeon, University of New South Wales (AUS)
Karl Goser, Universität Dortmund (G)
Jeanny Herault, Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble (F)
Jaap Hoekstra, Delft University of Technology (NL)
Roberto Moreno, Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria (E)
Shunsuke Sato, Osaka University (Jp)
Igor Shevelev, Russian Academy of Science(R)
Cloe Taddei-Ferretti, Istituto di Cibernetica, CNR (I)
Marley Vellasco, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (Br)
Michel Verleysen, Universite Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (B)