Position available: Kawato Dynamic Brain Project

[Kenji Doya]

	Research Position, Kawato Dynamic Brain Project, JSTC

Postdoctoral research positions will be available April 1997 in Kawato
Dynamic Brain Project, a part of the Exploratory Research for Advanced
Technology (ERATO) program run by Japan Science and Technology
Corporation, a government sponsored agency.

The goal of this five year project (October 1996 - September 2001) is
to understand the brain mechanisms of human cognition and sensory-motor
learning to the extent that we can reproduce them as computer programs
and robotic systems.

Candidates must have strong background in mathematical, computational,
neurobiological, cognitive and/or robotic sciences, and should have
broad interests in one or more of the following research areas:

(1) Computational Neurobiology: models of cerebellum, basal ganglia
and cortical motor areas; dynamic computation in visual processing;
encoding of of hierarchical sequences in the brain (speech and songs);
learning of rhythmic and transient motor patterns (stand up to walk).

(2) Computational Psychology: process of visuo-motor coordinate
transformation and trajectory planning; objective functions for
natural biological motion; functional brain imaging (fMRI, PET, MEG);
human motor psychophysical experiments.

(3) Computational Learning: modular function approximation algorithms;
reinforcement learning in real time; principles of nonlinear dynamics
for perceptual-motor coordination; robot learning from human demonstration; 
building of a humanoid robot with dextrous arms and oculomotor systems; 
motor psychophysical experiments which compare robot and human behavior.

Detailed descriptions of the project is being placed in our Web page:

	http://www.erato.atr.co.jp/

The project is currently located in Advanced Telecommunications
Research Institute International (ATR-I), where a considerably
multi-national, multi-lingual community has selforganized.

Applicants must have Ph.D. or equivalent degree. Appointments will be
made for one or two years with possible extensions.  Salaries are
competitive. Please send a CV, a list of publications, copies of up to
three major publications, names and addresses of up to three
references, and a cover letter describing your research interests to:

	Search Comittee
	Kawato Dynamic Brain Project, JSTC
	2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun
	Kyoto 619-02, Japan

In order to receive full consideration, applications must be received
by January 15, 1997. The search, however, will continue beyond this
date until all positions are filled. Please, feel free to inquire about
the specifics of the positions by sending mail to:

	email: search at erato.atr.co.jp
	fax:   +81-774-95-3001

For general information about ERATO reserach positions, see

	http://www2.jst-c.go.jp/jst/erato/erato-e/NewPositions/


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Kenji Doya
Computational Neurobiology Group
Kawato Dynamic Brain Project, Japan Science and Technology Corp.
2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-02, Japan
tel:+81-774-95-1210	email:doya at erato.atr.co.jp
fax:+81-774-95-3001	http://www.erato.atr.co.jp/~doya